The free, online, eleven-week series is open to the community and will cover air pollution in Louisville and the work that is done to control it. The series begins on Thursday, January 30, 2025, at 6 p.m. and will continue weekly through April 24.
Subjects covered will include air pollution basics, Louisville’s air pollution laws, regulations, and history, and related subjects like environmental justice, climate change, and land use with presentations by APCD staff, environmental officials, researchers, experts, and community activists.
Air pollution has long been a concern for the Louisville community, especially in west Louisville near heavily industrialized areas like Rubbertown. These areas are also more likely to feel the impacts of other environmental issues like extreme heat, odors, and climate change.
These concerns, along with community advocacy and a landmark study on local air pollution, resulted in the passing of APCD’s STAR Program in 2005, one of the nation’s most protective programs to reduce toxic air emissions from industrial sources. Since the passage of STAR emissions of toxic air pollution in Louisville have decreased by around 80%.
For more information about the symposia series, which is sponsored by Environmental Justice Studies, Martin Luther King Legacy Studies, Public Policy & Social Change, Interdisciplinary Studies, Climate Racial Justice Project, and the Jesse L. Jackson Sr. Center for Racial Justice contact Dr. Stewart Burns, director of Environmental Justice Studies at Simmons College at sburns@simmonscollegeky.edu or call 413-663-4885.
Simmons students and community members can register for the course online at the link below.
