How does your waste impact our planet, our living environment, others? What happens in rural communities in other parts of the country?

Join us at the Cathedral for a conversation with Karenna Gore, director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, and Catherine Flowers, an activist from Lowndes County, Alabama, about the intersection of morality, climate, environmental and social justice.

In 2011, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation issued a report about poor sanitation about concerns throughout the U.S. The report highlighted communities in California's San Joaquin Valley, in Appalachia, and Alabama's Black Belt. These are regions that have been historically poverty-stricken with little access to higher education or steady employment, and where life and infrastructure have barely improved in decades. It is estimated in Alabama alone that 40 to 90 percent of households have either inadequate or no septic system and of the systems that have been installed, half are failing. This is a violation of human rights that greatly affects the lives of people living in those conditions.

Expanding on the meaning of "waste," Flowers will use real life stories to define it and how it impacts our waters and health. She will help members understand how this issue relates to their individual lives, the spiritual matters at stake in how we understand and process our waste, and our moral obligation to insure a healthier planet.

This event is part of the public programming for The Value of Food: Sustaining a Green Planet, on view until April 3, 2016. This event is free and open to the public; however, we ask that you please RSVP.

ABOUT CATHERINE FLOWERS
Catherine Coleman Flowers is the founder of the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise Community Development Corporation (ACRE), which seeks to address the root causes of poverty by seeking sustainable solutions. She also serves as the Rural Development Manager for the Equal Justice Initiative and a Senior Fellow of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. Serving the citizens of Lowndes County, one of the 10 poorest counties in Alabama’s Black Belt, Flowers has been able to bring significant resources to the County to address its many infrastructure and social problems, Third World conditions that she has characterized as "America's Dirty Secret." Specifically, her work addresses the lack of sewage disposal infrastructure in Alabama's rural Black Belt, the legacy of racism and neglect stretching back to the time of slavery.