Environmental crusader to speak

At home, she’s a genial grandmother. On the job, she’s what one chemical industry spokesman calls “a top gun for the environmental movement.” Wilma Subra defies the stereotypes of environmental crusaders, and that makes her all the more effective.

The Louisiana activist will give a free public lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 7, in the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St. Her topic: “Success Stories: How Environmental Justice Communities Can Change Government Environmental Policies.”

Over the past 20 years, Subra has helped hundreds of communities challenge powerful polluters. Much of her work has been in poor towns along an 85-mile-long stretch of the Lower Mississippi River often called “Cancer Alley” because of its proliferation of chemical and fertilizer plants and refineries.

She has helped defeat landfill proposals in several states and force the cleanup of hundreds of dumps and oil field waste areas. She was instrumental in compelling industry to provide more detailed reports on what it releases into the Mississippi. She also has lectured at Harvard, testified before Congress, helped draft environmental laws, and consulted on cancer clusters and toxic spills.

Subra’s training as a chemist and her 1999 selection for a prestigious “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation command respect from allies and adversaries alike. Her soft-spoken manner lets her be forthright without making enemies.

She never leads a community’s fight, but provides facts, savvy, and, at times, backbone for those who do. Most of this she does for free. She pays her bills by running a small chemical-testing firm.

Subra’s lecture at UW–Madison is sponsored by the Institute for Environmental Studies and made possible by the Holstrom Environmental Endowment. For more information, contact Herb Wang, (608) 262-5932, wang@geology.wisc.edu.