When attempting to create real change to better environmental and social equality, the Sierra Club tackles every level of the issue. The biggest priority of the Lonestar Chapter is shutting down fossil fuels in the state, and there has been (perhaps surprisingly) a great deal of progress and success here. The Sierra Club has been enforcing clean energy building codes and consistently shutting down coal plants over the past several years, each one providing a major win for the fight to obtain cleaner air for all. Many of the environmental goals of the organization are motivated by the public’s health and well being, which is harmed by the countless pollutants companies spew into our air and water everyday. These actions hurt wildlife, the ecosystem, our atmosphere, and the climate that future generations to come will have to deal with. Many if not all of the Sierra Club’s actions align with the 17 sustainable development goals that the United Nations released in 2015, with the goal of achieving them by 2030.
When examining how progress is achieved, the Sierra Club’s small steps always start at the grassroots level. This mostly includes local outreach, education, and protesting. One current hot topic for our organization is the campaign “Save Rio Grande Valley from Liquified Natural Gas” or Save RGV from LNG for short. There is a prospective pipeline for liquified natural gas (which needless to say is extremely harmful for the environment if there were any leaks or accidents) in Southeast Texas, and the Sierra Club has been pushing to stop it in its tracks.
This issue isn’t solely environmental, however. The pipeline would run through the lands of many indigenous groups who have lived there for generations. They have been some of the most active in voicing their unease about the project. Thanks to the momentum of this grassroots campaign, the issue has been getting more and more public attention in the media. The next step is to go for the “bad players” involved, which in this particular case would be those funding the pipeline. Societe Generale is a French company supplying money for this as well as other pipelines in South Texas, and the Sierra Club has been directly calling them out in an attempt to continue to increase awareness.
Big steps in general to achieve environmental justice are rooted in either corporate players who could be swayed to view the environmental aspects with more care, or more often legislators who can pass bills to enforce real change. These legislative changes are usually difficult to accomplish at the state level here in Texas, but the Sierra Club lobbies nonetheless and has a PAC fund.
On a more broad scale, the Sierra Club has been trying to change the demographic makeup of its organization and members. The organization historically has been primarily white, middle to upper class members and the current staff is trying to diversify the communities involved so that all marginalized communities’ voices can be heard. After all, the earth belongs to all of us, so we all have to protect it.