. . .Themed “Looking Back to Move Forward: Building aClimate Resilient Future with Vulnerable Communities,” the conference addressed the need to provide space for reflection and evaluation of where we are now and what paths we should take moving forward in our quest to fight climate change and to build climate-resilient communities. . .
This year’s conference theme was, “Fifty Years Is Enough.” When we look back 50 years to the enactment of the Clean Air Act and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, as well as the enactment of the Clean Water Act in 1972, we see the failure of a regulatory system whose legacy is one of sickness and death resulting from chemical exposure within a landscape filled with majority people of color communities disproportionately exposed to environmental pollution across the country.