June 8, 2020

The International Society for Environmental Ethics recognizes and condemns systemic racism. We are outraged by the ongoing pattern of racialized police violence in the United States, and we are saddened and angered by the killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others. Such cases are only the latest in a long history of unjust violence and dehumanization based on race. We support and encourage protests that demand justice in response to these killings and seek to dismantle systemic racism. We stand with those who fight for justice and so condemn the violent and egregious use of force against protestors who are exercising both political rights as citizens and moral rights as persons.

We recognize Black Lives Matter as a human rights campaign aimed at dismantling the pervasive social norms that support and protect systems of white supremacy. The injustices that such systems generate in the United States are evidenced, for example, by the disproportionate impacts of the novel coronavirus on Black and Brown communities, as well as environmental injustices that include racial disparities in access to healthy foods, safe working conditions, clean air and water, climate adaptation resources, and parks and open spaces.

As officers of the Society, we recognize our privilege and our responsibility to listen to and and be led by voices from marginalized and under-represented members of our community. We actively seek to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in our academic discipline and in our professional organization, but we recognize that we must do more to advance the work and career opportunities of Black scholars, as well as scholars from all under-represented groups, and to further support scholarship that addresses the intersections between environmental justice and institutionalized systems of racism and oppression. We must also encourage our members of privilege to make their own work more inclusive and to be actively anti-racist.

In sum, we commit the International Society for Environmental Ethics to much work that still needs to be done in the active pursuit of ending white supremacy, police brutality, and widespread racial and environmental injustices.

In solidarity,

Allen Thompson, President 

Marion Hourdequin, Vice President 

Megs Gendreau, Treasurer

Alex Lee, Secretary