The Root talks to performing artist and educator Marc Bamuthi Joseph, who takes a different, more inclusive approach to promoting the environment in urban communities.

Though the president prefaced things by saying he intended to "lay out ... our battle plan," actually, aside from a few minor details most everyone already knew, the speech was vague and defensive at best, ill-informed at worst.

A black woman is running for president of the southern hemisphere's most populous country. As the international debate on climate change heats up, Marina Silva's advocacy for the environment and against the deforestation of Brazil's immense natural rainforests stands out as much as her unusual rise to power.

For blacks, the green movement has been primarily about bad things dumped in our neighborhoods. But health-based activism isn't enough. Today’s black and green movement must be about jobs and economic sustainability.