Opening Keynote & Breakfast: The Geography of Environmental Inequity: Richmond and Beyond

You can tell a lot about a person just from knowing their zip code: their household income, their educational attainment, the amount of tree canopy in their neighborhood, whether they own a car or not, and even have a pretty good guess at their life expectancy. But why? In this talk, I will examine how global environmental changes can be either exacerbated or ameliorated by the design and form of our neighborhoods, towns, and cities, and how those designs are rooted in systems of oppression that span generations of governmental decision-making. Using Richmond and its recent history as the backdrop for exploring topics related to extreme heat, flooding, and air pollution, I'll seek to illuminate how decisions made in the past echo in the present and how our decisions today are of critical importance to promoting a liveable and equitable future.