Lorna Salzman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lorna Jackson 1935 (age 90–91) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | Cornell University (BA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Political party | Green |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingEva |
Lorna Salzman (néeLorna Jackson, born 1935)[1][2] is an American environmental activist, writer, lecturer, and community organizer. She was a candidate for the2004 presidential nomination of theGreen Party of the United States.
Salzman was born in 1935 inNew York City and raised in Manhattan and Queens.[2][3]: 28 She completed a BA atCornell University in 1956.[2][4]
In the early 1960s, Salzman began community organizing with her husbandEric Salzman againstgentrification inBrooklyn Heights as a founder of the North Brooklyn Heights Community Group,[5] and in the late 1960s, as a founder of the group Citizens for Local Democracy.[3]: 28 [6] In 1970, she attended the first public meeting ofFriends of the Earth U.S., became a volunteer in 1972, and in 1975 became employed as the first representative for the Mid-Atlantic region.[3]: 28 During this time, she began to focus on issues related tonuclear power, and in 1975, participated in a campaign that successfully stopped the transportation of radioactive waste through New York City in 1976.[3]: 28 She worked with FOE staffer Pamela Lippe on local campaigns opposing nuclear power inNew Hampshire,Long Island[7] andMontague, Massachusetts, corresponded with scientists in the nuclear physics field, and wrote to theBulletin of the Atomic Scientists[3]: 25, 28–29 andThe New York Times.[8]
After Friends of the Earth, Salzman worked for theNew York City Department of Environmental Protection as a natural resource specialist,[9] and became involved ingreen politics in New York.[10] In 1989, as a member of the10 Key Values Green movement, Salzman wrote the essay "Is theLeft Green Network really Green?", which critiques several positions of the LGN and is considered by professorGreta Gaard to have "crystallized the first step in a debate between Left Greens and 10KV Greens over who would be allowed to determine the defining characteristics of "Green.""[11] Salzman was a founder of the New York Greens, a predecessor of theGreen Party of New York, and unsuccessfully ran as aGreen Party candidate for political office several times, including for theU.S. House of Representatives and theU.S. Senate.[12][13] In 2004, she unsuccessfully ran for the Green Party presidential nomination.[14]
She is a member of theNew York Academy of Sciences.
In 2000 she received the internationalEarth Day Award from theEarth Society Foundation for her committed environmental work.
She was married toEric Salzman until his death in 2017. Their two daughters are poetEva Salzman and composer/songwriter Stephanie Salzman.[15]
Mid-Atlantic Representative, Friends of the Earth, New York, Oct. 20, 1980