FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, June 11, 2021
Contacts: Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org, (602) 999-5790
Rev. Doug Bland, Arizona Interfaith Power & Light, doug.bland@azipl.org, 602) 312-0324
Ulisses Correa, Mi Familia Vota, d.ulissesj@mifamiliavota.org (602)473-6360
Arizona Environmental Organizations Release Interview Series on Civilian Climate Corps
Phoenix, AZ - This week, Arizona Interfaith Power and Light, Mi Familia Vota, and Sierra Club released a series of interviews focusing on a key component of President Biden's American Jobs Plan, the Civilian Climate Corps. They spoke to teachers, civil rights leaders, park rangers, organizers, and historians about how our communities have benefited from past infrastructure investments, including via the Works Project Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps, and how these new investments can help revitalize Arizona’s economy – and build back better. A Civilian Climate Corps can help parks and communities and engage a new and diverse generation of youth in making these investments in our future.
While the investments in clean infrastructure, including transit, energy efficiency, and clean renewable solar and wind energy, are critically important, a key investment in our future is the Civilian Climate Corps, which will put a new generation to “work conserving our public lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, and advancing environmental justice.”
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The Civilian Conservation Corps built hiking trails and ramadas in South Mountain Park and Preserve in the 1930s. South Mountain is a special place and sacred to the Akimel O'odham and Pee Posh. Masavi Perea shares a vision for a Civilian Climate Corps at South Mountain to benefit future generations in an interview with Sandy Bahr with Sierra Club - Grand Canyon Chapter. Watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/climate_corps
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In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps camped and worked at Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Sylvia Lee, the Arboretum historian, shares a vision for a Civilian Climate Corps to care for and restore desert ecosystems for this and future generations in her conversation with Doug Bland with Arizona Interfaith Power and Light. Watch the video here: Civilian Climate Corp: Boyce Thompson Arboretum Sylvia Lee - YouTube
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Ulisses Correa with Mi Familia Vota interviews Ricardo Palomera, a North High school teacher, who shares a vision about a Civilian Climate Corps. Watch it on fb.watch/5-HiX4h5lb
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Connie Rudd, retired National Parks Superintendent, speaks with Doug Bland of AZ Interfaith Power & Light about how the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps made National Parks even better and her vision for ways that a Civilian Climate Corps could serve our National Parks and our country. View the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqEKUXAGi9A&ab_channel=DougBland
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Dr. Warren Stewart reflects on the history of Eastlake Park and the role it played in the civil rights movement in Arizona in a conversation with Doug Bland with Arizona Interfaith Power and Light. In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corp worked on the physical infrastructure of this historic place. Today, a diverse #CivilianClimateCorps could do even more: building bridges across the racial and cultural divides in our nation. View the video and conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keZ4prbJk-E