The NY Times ran a fantastic profile last month of Majora Carter from The Bronx, and boy is it inspiring!
On this late September afternoon, after a month of traveling, delivering speeches, serving as host of a Sundance Channel program and a Science Channel pilot, Ms. Carter was noticeably flagging. Yet her signature feistiness was much in evidence when the producer of the documentary for which Ms. Carter was being interviewed asked her to explain why global warming affects not just polar bears but people around the globe.Ms. Carter responded by describing air pollution in troubled urban areas like Hunts Point, the South Bronx neighborhood where she was raised and currently works.
The producer rephrased her question, in response to which Ms. Carter snapped, "I don't do that."
She's a force!
If the producer had a specific response in mind, Ms. Carter added with an edge to her usually warm voice, she should feed her a line, which the producer did not. Then she elaborated on her argument, which is that if richer communities suffered from air pollution as much as poorer neighborhoods do, affluent citizens would long ago have fought for alternatives to fossil fuels.
She's gone from zero to sixty in 10 years, basically coming up on the streets to become a big star in the Green Movement:
In just over a decade, Ms. Carter, 42, has vaulted from working as a volunteer for what was a nascent organization called the Point Community Development Corporation and knowing almost nothing about environmental issues to becoming a nationally known advocate for environmental justice.Her reputation was burnished in 2005 when she won a MacArthur Foundation award for her work at the Point and at Sustainable South Bronx, a nonprofit organization she founded after leaving the Point in 2001.
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Tags: environment, Green Movement, Majora Carter
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