Climate change is the defining global environmental justice, human rights and public health issue of the 21st century, and the most vulnerable populations will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks. Texas Southern University Professor Robert D. Bullard, often described as the father of environmental justice, will address the need for empowering these communities, identifying environmental justice and climate change "hot-spot" zones, and designing fair, just and effective adaptation, mitigation, emergency management and community resilience and disaster recovery strategies.