Ep. 103: Environmental Justice Warriors: Little Manila Rising's Matt Holmes

Emil Amok's Takeout from Emil Guillermo Media

Note: See Index below for quick access

Little Manila Rising, a community non-profit in Stockton, Calif., is taking an aggressive stand to protect its Filipino American community from environmental racism. Matt Holmes heads up the environmental effort and talks about a new project with UC Merced to make sure the air in Stockton and the valley is monitored. He also talks about the ways the pollution from the freeways and port is being mitigated. The situation is dire, Stockton has one of the worst air pollution profiles in the state, and not coincidentally, the worst asthma rates in California, as well. This is Part 4 of an ongoing look at how Little Manila Rising is evolving to serve its community and to not give up on Stockton.

This is the podcast of Emil Amok's Takeout. See the Daily Livestream at 2p Pacific on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter@emilamok. See replays at www.amok.com

INDEX

0.58: Little Manila Rising intro

3:30: Crosstown Freeway/Pollution

4:23: Matt Holmes intro

5:20: Interview begins (Starts with Dawn)

6:38: First project NPS

7:56: Launching historical park/Richmond

9:12: Air quality work

12:36: Hired by Little Manila Rising

14:43: Environmental racism

15:29: Environmental violence (Transportation planning)

17:17: Public health outcomes

18:00: Warehouse for the Bay Area/impact of trucks

21:30: Racism and advocacy

22:22: Projects

24:32: Who is responsible?

27:30: Bureaucratic Hurdles

29:00: Funding from AG’s office to monitor air pollution

29:32: Seachange in technology

30:09: Regulatory Framework only intervenes on permitting, not community harm.

31:02: Update on community air monitors

32:14: Pollution causes genetic damage

32:43: Volkswagen Settlement

34:25: Bringing science and medicine to the people with the people

37:00: The tradition of air monitoring (50 km grids, historical data)

37:44: The promise of community monitoring, granular actionable information

39:00: Inland port burns the dirtiest fuel

39:55: We know a lot when it benefits powerful people

41:10: The Port is the most amenable actor to partnering to solve the problem

42:13: CARB - California Air Resources Board

43:18: Healthy communities are designed

44:14: 85% of biomass being burned comes from Vineyards

44:41: Drive for short term profits has led to global climate instability and hyper local public health outcomes

45:27: Global climate instability is especially threatening to low income communities of color

45:44: White environmentalist movement

46:50: The importance of Dawn

49:14: Architects of CA freeways(Environmental Racism)

50:09: Problems of wealth and power

51:49: Dawn program

52:55: Sky Watch

53:25: Transformative climate communities work, Urban greening

56:18: The power of trees and nature based solutions