Recently, a handful of our longtime members have written to us expressing concern about the cover of the Spring Yodeler newsletter, which features a photograph of Bay Chapter director Minda Berbeco holding a sign that reads “Sierra Club Stands With Immigrants.” Some have wondered whether our stand on this issue will dilute the environmental advocacy for which we are well known and respected. A few others have stated that they disagree with our support for certain kinds of immigrants. These are legitimate questions, and we are more than happy to address them.
The mission of the Sierra Club has expanded since John Muir founded the organization in 1892. Although preserving wilderness is still a huge part of the work we do as a Club, we also know that protecting our planet for future generations requires taking a broader view of how humans use the Earth’s resources. We engage in housing and transportation issues in order to promote sustainable, resilient communities. We support LGBT and reproductive rights because the effects of climate disruption aren’t gender- or sex-neutral.[i] We promote clean energy solutions because that’s how we’ll prevent the worst impacts of climate change — impacts that disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities.[ii] And we collaborate with unions to develop a shared vision for workers and the environment in the clean energy economy of the future.
To succeed in this important work, we need as many voices as we can get on our side. That requires building relationships with communities outside the “environmental movement” as it has been traditionally defined.
As we grow our coalition, we have an interest in ensuring that the democratic systems that translate our voices into concrete policy solutions are strong and healthy. Unfortunately, fossil fuel interests and others see a financial incentive in weakening our democratic institutions and suppressing our voices.
If you believe, as we do, that clean air and clean water are human rights, then you’ll agree we have a responsibility to fight for, and alongside, all citizens of Planet Earth — regardless of their immigration status. This is not just our position as a chapter, but the policy of the national Sierra Club.
Consider that immigrants are more likely than native-born Americans to live in poverty.[iii] Studies also show that immigrants are disproportionately likely to breathe dirty air (with harmful health effects)[iv], reside in areas with less access to public transportation (though they rely more on transit)[v], and spend long days toiling in some of the least desirable, most dangerous jobs, for poverty wages.[vi] Immigrants are our natural allies in the fight for a clean and safe environment precisely because of the threats they face.
The value of alliances is not a new notion for the environmental movement; it was John Muir, after all, who pointed out that “[w]hen we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." Muir himself was an immigrant from Scotland. As the Sierra Club’s national executive director Michael Brune recently wrote, “Immigrants — and refugees — helped build this nation. They also helped build the Sierra Club. Of the 182 people who signed up as charter members of the Sierra Club in 1892, at least 29 were immigrants, coming from seven different countries.” We are proud to continue this great, fundamentally American tradition today.
Immigrants have always had to do more than their share of fighting for acceptance, equity, and opportunity. We will not back away from today’s fights, whether they’re in defense of a safe and clean environment for every person, or in defense of the democratic values and systems that protect our very right to be heard. In the fights ahead, we will take strength from the knowledge that we are working alongside of each of you: the 35,000 members of the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Bay Chapter.
About the authors:
This open letter to members of the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Bay Chapter was penned by the following elected chapter leaders: Igor Tregub is chapter chair; Jennifer Ong is vice chair; Becky Evans is the immediate past chair; Luis Amezcua is Northern Alameda County (NAC) Group chair; Olga Bolotina is NAC Group conservation chair; and Gabe Quinto is West Contra Costa Group chair.
The authors are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants, with home countries ranging from Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Ukraine, Scotland, and Ireland. Each of them has been fortunate to call the United States, and the Bay Area, their home. Despite the ever-present scourge of racism and our society’s unequal distribution of privilege, they have benefited from opportunities that — for a variety of geopolitical, ethno-cultural, and/or class reasons — would have been denied to them had they, or their ancestors, not made the leap to immigrate to America. Recognizing the earnest responsibility to give back and help create a better world for this and future generations, they joined the Sierra Club, where they serve in volunteer leadership positions.
Photo: Courtesy the Sierra Club Twitter account.
Sources:
[i] United Nations WomenWatch, “Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change,” 2009.
[ii] Douglas Fischer, Scientific American, “Climate Change Hits Poor Hardest in U.S.,” May 2009.
[iii] U.S. Census Bureau, Characteristics of the Foreign-Born Population by Nativity and U.S. Citizenship Status: “Poverty Status of Population by Sex, Age, Nativity, and U.S. Citizenship Status: 2012.”
[iv] Natural Resources Defense Council, “U.S. Latinos and Air Pollution: A Call to Action,” September 2011.
[v] Evelyn Blumenberg, “Planning for Demographic Diversity: The Case of Immigrants and Public Transit,” Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2010.
[vi] Eric Zuehlke, Population Reference Bureau, “Immigrants Work in Riskier and More Dangerous Jobs in the United States,” November 2009.