A consortium of historically black colleges and universities, led by Dillard University's Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and Texas Southern University Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, will host the Third Annual HBCU Student Climate Change Conference March 26-29,2015 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Dillard University's Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in collaboration with the Texas Southern University Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs will host the Third Annual HBCU Student Climate Change Conference March 26-29 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The conference is designed to strengthen the partnerships between students and faculty at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and organization leaders from climate-impacted communities. It is a response to the call for HBCUs to step up and lead on climate justice since many of the schools are located in communities that are on the frontline of climate assault. The Third Annual HBCU Student Climate Change Conference theme is "Bridging the Gap between Theory and Experience."

More than 80 percent of the 104 HBCUs are located in the Southern United States. Forty-three HBCUs are located in the Gulf Coast States: TX (9), LA (7), AL (15), MS (8), and FL (4)--in cities like New Orleans and Houston that are at ground zero in the fight for climate justice. Nearly a decade ago, flooding from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans drowned that city's three HBCUs (Dillard University, Xavier University and Southern University at New Orleans) in 2005. Three years later, Hurricane Ike caused major property damage to Texas Southern University in Houston--the nation's fourth largest HBCU.

Since the vast majority of HBCUs are located in the climate-vulnerable South, a region of the country known for intense hurricanes, drought, heatwaves, flooding, and other climate-sensitive hazards, conference participants will work on building a southern initiative on climate justice. Climate-related disasters in the southern U.S. have outnumbered those in other regions of the country annually in both scale and magnitude by a ratio of almost 4:1 during the past decade. The Southeast U.S. for the period 1980-2012 had more billion-dollar disasters than the rest of the country combined.

And because of the racial climate gap, in April 2013, a consortium of HBCUs, led by Dillard University and Texas Southern University, convened the First Annual HBCU Student Climate Change Conference in New Orleans. That same year, Texas Southern University with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation launched the Climate Education Community University Partnership (CECUP), a collaboration of HBCUs and community based organizations in ten Gulf Coast and South Atlantic states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Island. The mission of the CECUP is to train the next generation of leaders, address climate vulnerability and build community resilience. In April 2014, the consortium convened the Second Annual HBCU Student Climate Change Conference in New Orleans.

Conference conveners this year will conduct workshops, teach-ins and hands-on training in preparation for an HBCU-led delegation to participate in the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP21) Paris climate summit set for November and December. It is important that youth, students and leaders from climate-vulnerable communities participate in conferences and policy summits and speak for themselves.

The New Orleans conference will be webcast by Texas Southern University via UStream. Conference location: Dillard University, Professional School Building 2601 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70122, USA. For more information, click HERE.

Selected Links on African Americans and Climate Change

Yes, Black People Talk About Climate Change (Grist, Mock 2014).

African American Physicians Already Seeing Health Impacts of Climate Change (National Medical Association, Sarfaty et al. 2014).

Climate Resilience in Vulnerable Communities: Strengthening the Experience of Communities of Color and Low-Income Communities in the Face of Climate Change (Green for All, 2014).

Why HBCUs Must Lead on Climate Justice (DrRobertBullard.com, Bullard 2014).

Why We Need A Southern Initiative on Climate Justice (OpEdNews, Bullard 2014).

Welcome to West Port Arthur, Texas, Ground Zero in the Fight for Climate Justice (The Nation, Stephenson 2014).

People of Color Are Already Getting Hit Hard by Climate Change (The Nation, Hsieh 2014).

Minorities More Likely to Live in Urban Heat Islands, Study Finds (Los Angeles Time, Barbosa 2014).

Are African Americans Hurt More by Global Warming? (The Skanner Newspaper, Loving 2013).

Are African Americans More Vulnerable to Climate Change? (EBONY, Shepherd 2013).

Does Climate Change Disproportionately Harm African Americans? (The Grio, Tinuoye 2013).

Environmental Racism: Blacks Should Care More about Climate Change (The Root, Ellis-Lamkins 2013).

Why Minorities Care More About Climate Change (Thinkprogress, Fang 2013).

Climate Change Will Affect Non-White Americans Disproportionately (Popular Science, Diep 2013).

The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African Americans (NYU Press, Bullard and Wright 2012).

Pollution, Poverty, People of Color: Falling into the "Climate Gap" (Environmental Health News, Struck 2012).

Climate of Change: African Americans, Global Warming, and Just Climate Policy for the U.S. (Redefining Progress, Hoerner and Robinson 2008).

The Racial Climate Gap: Inequalities in How Climate Change Hurts Americans & How to Close the Gap (Morella-Frosch et al. 2009).

In the Wake of the Storm: Environment, Disaster and Race After Katrina (Pastor, Bullard, Boyce, Fothergill, Morello-Frosch, and Wright, 2006).

African Americans and Climate Change: An Unequal Burden (Redefining Progress 2004)

(Article changed on March 2, 2015 at 08:28)

Authors Website: http://www.drrobertbullard.com

Authors Bio:

Robert D. Bullard is Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University in Houston. His most recent book is entitled "The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities" (NYU Press 2012).