Clean Air For The Long Haul: Dare to Breathe

Dare to Breathe is a national campaign focusing on our right to clean air! This work carried forward through the advocacy of the Clean Air for the Long Haul cohort, as a part of the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum (hosted by WE ACT).

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Local environmental justice organizations are holding all levels of government accountable and supporting their communities, while also doing incredible projects to monitor air quality and more. Learn more and get involved today! #DaretoBreathe

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WE ACT , through the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum, helps facilitate Clean Air for the Long Haul, a coalition of environmental justice advocates working together to win major federal emissions reductions from the power and transportation sectors. The Dare to Breathe campaign was part of this effort, raising awareness about the inequitable impact of air pollution on communities of color and lobbying federal agencies to improve regulations so that our communities can breathe.

Since 2022, we have mobilized by sharing letters, testimonials, and public comments urging the EPA to adopt the strongest health-protective clean air standards. Through powerful videos and social media explainers, we spotlighted urgent realities and community-driven solutions, making clear this is a matter of life and death. Clean air isn’t a privilege, it’s a human right.

From across the country people joined us to #DaretoBreathe, fueling a movement that helped secure stronger federal clean air and climate protections that reinforce the vital work happening on the ground, improve our health, and save thousands of lives.

 

Now, we face the greatest environmental and health rollbacks of the last 50 years, including to NOx NSPS, MATS, Carbon Power Plant Rule, the Endangerment Finding and vehicles emissions standards, Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program and delay of the Methane Rule. We are pushing back to protect what we fought for and to hold the line to keep our communities – and all neighborhoods across the country – healthy and safe. We will clean our air, and we need your help to make it happen.

Coalition member organizations include:

Duwamish River Community Coalition, Green Door Initiative, GreenLatinos, PODER Austin, RiSE for Environmental Justice, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, West End Revitalization Association, and Wisconsin Green Muslims.

OUR WORK

OUR PRINCIPLES

Frontlines to the Front
Our communities are centers of power, knowledge, stories and solutions. Far too many of our environmental justice communities have their lungs damaged or their lives cut short, so they must be first in line to benefit from pollution reductions. Enhancing our communities’ health will unlock more leadership, joy, culture, and creativity into the world. 

The Audacity of the Facts
The silent killer of toxic air is worse than most people think – especially considering the inequities of who breathes the most polluted air in America: primarily communities of color and low-income. We are highlighting the most shameful and shocking ways that air quality segregation is experienced across the United States, educating to spark awareness and action – and demanding swift, aggressive action from the EPA.

Clean Air to Thrive, Not Just Survive
Clean air isn’t a privilege, it’s a human right. Our friends and family members lose years of their lives and live with debilitating illnesses caused or amplified by bad air. Justice demands more than just mitigating the worst pollution — it demands that people, especially those who’ve experienced the worst air pollution, are made whole.