“This isn’t happenstance,” remarked Gloria Walton, former TIME Earth Award honoree, on the environmental justice movement being recognized as a powerful force.

“It is a reality created by the energy and love of frontline communities and grassroots organizations who have worked for decades,” Walton said, as she presented an Earth Award to the man known as the “Father of Environmental Justice,” Robert Bullard.

Bullard, who was appointed to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council in 2021, spoke of the long fight he’s waged for environmental justice in his acceptance speech. He discussed the challenges that he faced in 1979, when he conducted a study in support of the landmark case Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management Corps.— the first lawsuit to challenge environmental racism in the United States.

“I am a sociologist and my sociology has taught me that it is not enough to gather the data, do the science and write the books,” he said. “In order for us to solve this kind of crisis, we must do our science, we must gather our data, we must collect our facts, and we must marry those facts with action.”

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