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Here’s a look at some of the ways in which the Sierra Club works to address urban concerns and improve the dominant human environment – the city. Transportation | Sprawl | Environmental Justice | Toxics
America’s love affair with the automobile has had drastic consequences for our cities. Many of us now live with arduous commutes that add stress to our lives and pollute our air. According to EPA reports, twenty percent of the U.S. population lives in places where the air is unsafe to breathe. The Sierra Club is engaged in trying to change that. Whether it’s rapid transit, car sharing, dedicated bus lanes or bicycle paths, there are better, healthier ways to travel.
The Sierra Club is calling attention to the problem of sprawl with yearly reports, providing resources for activists across the country, and exploring how transportation patterns can be improved to make our neighborhoods safer and more convenient. A local and national issue, the Sierra Club lets you examine how sprawl affects your own city. Too often, the effects of pollution and environmental degradation are felt most acutely by poor and disenfranchised communities. The Sierra Club recognizes that environmental solutions require the inclusion of all members of society and that human rights concerns are paramount if we are to achieve a sustainable future for the planet. Every year, polluters dump toxic wastes that endanger our health and the health of our families. The Sierra Club endeavors to educate the public and arm activists with information on myriad subjects related to issues surrounding toxic waste, including Superfund legislation, brownfields redevelopment, hazardous substances, and public health issues. The Sierra Club believes that our lives are enriched by wilderness experience. Unfortunately, too many inner city youths never get the chance to see the natural environment for themselves. Through the Youth in Wilderness Project, the Sierra Club seeks to expand opportunities for low-income youth to experience the wilderness and nature first-hand.
E-Files is a standard feature of the Sierra Club website where visitors can learn about everything from compact fluorescent lightbulbs to the right way to recycle batteries. While not exclusively urban in emphasis, E-Files does cover many topics aimed at leading a fuller, more environmentally responsible life in the city. Up to Top |
The Sierra Club takes as part of its mission "to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the natural and human environment." That concern for the human environment includes many fundamentally urban issues – things like sprawling cities and highway gridlock, environmental injustice and toxic waste.
Stopping urban sprawl is a priority campaign for the Sierra Club. In communities across America, scattered development is increasing traffic, taxing local resources and destroying open space at alarming rates. It’s not inevitable, however. Many communities are choosing to manage their development with smart growth solutions.
Inner City Outings (ICO) is a community outreach program of the Sierra Club that provides low-income, inner city youth with trips to wilderness. Volunteer leaders, certified and specially trained in recreational, outdoor, and safety skills as well as environmental education conduct wilderness adventures for youth of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, hearing or visually impaired individuals, and the physically disabled. From backpacking trips to neighborhood cleanups to naturalist-led hikes through local marshes and meadows, ICO volunteers introduce all people to the natural world and teach them how important it is to protect and restore wild places.