Letter: Climate change is an issue of social justice

TO THE EDITOR:

I am in UNC’s School of Social Work master’s program, and my internship is with an interfaith environmental organization, NC Interfaith Power & Light. Weird, huh?! Let me explain.

This past winter was brutal by North Carolina standards and got me thinking a lot about climate change, as day after day was so “unusually” cold. While I had not worked on environmental issues before, having majored in women’s studies and psychology in undergrad and worked at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center before graduate school, I started feeling like I had to enlarge my focus to include climate change. It’s a big change.

I’m not giving up on the other things that I care about, though. For example, a tragedy of sea level rise is that small island nations are literally being forced to evacuate their homes. This is more than environmental; this is social justice.

Another example: this weekend, I took part in the People’s Climate March in New York City. It was the biggest environmental event in history. And it was more than that. Veterans, farmworkers, public health advocates, faith groups, LGBT folks and even beekeepers all took part.

One of my favorite things about UNC is its incredibly passionate, involved and diverse community. I walked through campus last week and could barely make it through the Pit, it was so crammed with tables about volunteering and local farms selling produce.

UNC (yes, all of you) — let’s heed this challenge of climate change and face it together. I know we can do something about it.

Please contact me at reub@unc.edu if you’d like to work together.

Reuben Gelblum

Graduate Student

School of Social Work