Ecology and Climate Policy
CLEANR faculty and staff share substantial expertise in areas such as climate policy, natural resources law, endangered species protection, ecological health, and Indigenous planning and knowledge. Most recently, CLEANR Director Dr. Gregg Macey helped design a new program to make it easier for communities and Tribal interests to partner with universities and land managers to address threats from climate change such as drought, wildfire, and extreme weather… Read more
Land Use Planning
and Climate Action
CLEANR faculty and staff share decades of experience in the areas of land use planning, mediation, and local and regional climate action. With a generous grant of $1.2 million dollars from the State of California, CLEANR Director Dr. Gregg Macey and Faculty Director Alejandro Camacho lead a new program to leverage that experience and expertise… Read more
Community Environmental Research Accelerator (CERA)
CLEANR works closely with researchers, agency officials, and community leaders to address dynamics that contribute to health disparities among underserved communities, in California and across the country. Our community partners work on diverse issues such as pesticide use and exposure, infrastructure equity, land use planning, air quality, and climate resilience. Inevitably, they face a common challenge: scientific research that is underfunded, incomplete, or ignored yet critical to their health and wellbeing…. Read more
Pesticide Reform
and Farmworker Health
Consider the context in which the agricultural industry operates. Each year, among over 1.4 million farmworkers nationwide, hundreds of thousands are poisoned by pesticides, when we account for unreported and misdiagnosed cases. Farmworkers have the highest rate of chemical-related occupational illness in the country. Farmworkers and the people who live, work, or attend school near agriculture face a constant risk of exposure to pesticides… Read more
Air Quality, Goods Movement, and Just Transition
The goods movement industry experienced substantial growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Freight and logistics are formidable sources of carbon emissions, nitrogen oxide, diesel particulate matter, and other ozone precursors in low-income and minority communities. CLEANR considers the expansion of warehousing and distribution centers as an environmental justice issue. We work to understand how industry dynamics – logistics sprawl, transportation decision-making, access, and patterns, and broader changes in supply chain management contribute to this issue… Read more
Transportation and Infrastructure Equity
For decades, social scientists focused on environmental justice, critical geography, and transportation and regional planning noted infrastructure’s ability to shape historically underserved and socially vulnerable communities. Infrastructure and equity are intrinsically linked, yet the engineering and scientific community has not engaged with the dynamic interactions that exist between them. This has begun to change. Climate-driven crises fuel critiques of systemic inequities perpetuated by aging infrastructure… Read more
Environmental Data and Community Science
For over a quarter century, community-based organizations in Central and Southern California have collected environmental data. For example, a large repository of these data is associated with IVAN networks, reporting platforms where California residents can “Identify Violations Affecting Neighborhoods.” The data include environmental reports – such as reports of leaking oil infrastructure or contaminated water – that are communicated to appropriate regulatory authorities. Reports lead to enforcement and clean-up actions… Read more
State and Federal Civil Rights Enforcement
Why has civil rights law, after half a century, failed to address racial disparities in access to clean air, water, and land? Answers to this question are well-known. The current administration’s whole-of-government approach to environmental justice revisits plans from 1994.[i] Interest in performance measures recalls planning documents from 1996.[ii] Attempts to conduct meaningful equity analysis pick up where a 1988 Science Advisory Board report ends.[iii] EPA’s attention to affirmative, “proactive” enforcement by states revives the mission of a 1998 Federal Advisory Committee.[iv] … Read more
Coastal Justice Lab
30 years ago, high-profile attempts to manage California’s coastal ecosystems broke down in dramatic fashion; they did not properly engage Black, Indigenous, people of color, or low-income communities. 20 years ago, agencies that manage coastal and connected resources, such as California’s State Lands Commission and Coastal Commission, were among the first to develop environmental justice policies… Read more