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Providing a culturally relevant understanding of the impacts of climate on human systems -- and awareness of the environmental issues that disproportionately impact the health, well-being, and quality of life for people living in urban communities.

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“Gary has been disproportionately affected by a hundred plus years of environmental abuse and neglect and lack of regulation and enforcement. Its disproportionate impact is on people like us, people in urban communities, poor communities, poor cities, and people of color. We’re underrepresented and less likely to be protected from these disproportionate impacts and environmental hazards from industrial and waste facilities because of the lack of enforcement and regulation within the environmental laws."

As communities celebrated National Parks Week this year, local attention naturally turned to nearby treasures like Indiana Dunes National Park. Yet, beneath the celebrations lies a troubling reality: our public lands remain deeply fractured by a widening "nature gap," with Black and brown visitors accounting for as little as 1 to 2 percent of total park attendance nationwide.

Brown Faces Green Spaces founder, Kimmie Gordon has written an op-ed published in the Chicago Tribune, "Why National Parks Week Arrives Amidst a Widening Nature Gap," -- the editorial explores how historical Jim Crow-era exclusion and recent federal policy rollbacks continue to keep marginalized communities on the periphery of the outdoors.

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Gary, a majority-Black city, grapples with an intersecting crisis of environmental, social, and economic issues. Home to the largest integrated steel mill in North America, the city’s industrial legacy pollutes the air, soil, and water. This, alongside inadequate health care infrastructure, and widespread food insecurity, has created a perfect storm for Black mothers, who face some of the most severe health disparities in the nation — and among the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.

“I’m the Black mother of a child who’s born into a health disparity with no other option and no other reason than because his mom, who he didn’t choose, incubated him in the city of Gary,” Gordon said. "The toxic dust, the trucks, the trains — what are we really doing to protect the women and babies here, already breathing 150 years of contamination in our Gary air?”

Gordon began by laying out the Region's long history of contamination and environmental racism. Gary's very origins are intertwined with heavy industry. U.S. Steel began construction on its first midwestern mill in 1906. Today, Gary Works is U.S. Steel's largest plant.

“What are we best known for? Producing steel ... but what are we paying for it?” Gordon asked the crowd. "When we think about 100 plus years of pollution, that takes its toll on the residents of this city."

"It's important for them (the EPA and IDEM) to engage with the people for whom they make the decisions," Gordon said. "They're the decision makers, they make the policies and we the people, ask the questions."

“The EPA could have done better because we’re in a crisis,” said Gordon, who serves as the director of Brown Faces Green Spaces, a local environmental organization.

Predominantly Black, low-income neighbors of the northwest Indiana mills would continue to be disproportionately at risk from pollution that can irreparably damage the brains of young children, cause cancer and trigger other diseases. “This 15 percent reduction means nothing to the people of Gary. Our needle is all the way past the red. They aren’t doing anything close to what they should be doing to protect our communities.”

"While Gary and the Region have been notorious for welcoming industry," said Gordon, "residents can start to shift this narrative by coming together and demanding tighter controls."

“We deserve clean air, water and soil. We do not deserve another violation of our community’s health and well-being by greenwashing companies pretending they are concerned about the environment while asking the IDEM for permits allowing them to legally release additional toxic emissions in the name of economic development,” Gordon said.

"Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race and other factors of identity by bodies and programs receiving federal funds. IDEM should take Gary’s status into account in evaluating permit renewals," said Gordon.