Environmental Justice

Environmental Racism and Justice:

According to Robert D. Bullard in “Overcoming Racism in Environmental Decision Making,” “If a community is poor or inhabited largely by people of color, there is a good chance that it receives less protection than a community that is affluent or white… [because] the country [will] … ‘distribute the costs in a regressive pattern while providing disproportionate benefits for the educated and wealthy’” (240). He then says that “the current environmental protection paradigm has institutionalized unequal enforcement, traded human health for profit, placed the burden of proof on the ‘victims’ rather than on the polluting polluting industry, legitimated human exposure to harmful substances, promoted ‘risky technologies…” (240). This is what environmental justice and environmental racism is all about.

In another article called “Environmental Justice: Grassroots Activism and Its Impact on Public Policy Decision Making”, Robert D. Bullard and Glenn S. Johnson write that “a growing body of evidence reveals that people of color and low-income persons have borne greater environmental and health risks than the society at large in their neighborhoods, workplace and playgrounds.”

In “Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California,” Laura Pulido defines the term environmental racism as “the idea that nonwhites are disproportionately exposed to pollution” (12).

“Principles of Environmental Justice” [http://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html]

There are 17 principles of Environmental Justice as proposed by the delegates to the “First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit” on October 24-27, 1991, in Washington DC. These are meant to ensure that justice will replace environmental racism. Some principles include:

Environmental Justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.

Environmental Justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and provided fair access for all to the full range of resources.

Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.

Environmental Justice calls for the education of present and future generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.

Environmental Justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth’s resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and re-prioritize our lifestyles to ensure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.

Sources:

Bullard, Robert D. “Overcoming Racism in Environmental Decision Making.” : 240-57. Web. <http://ww2.valdosta.edu/~asantas/Texts/Environment/Bullard.pdf>.

Bullard, Robert D., and Glenn S. Johnson. “Environmental Justice: Grassroots Activism and Its Impact on Public Policy Decision Making.” Web. <Http://www.unc.edu/courses/2005spring/epid/278/001/Bullard2000JSocIssues.pdf.>

“Principles of Environmental Justice.” Principles of Environmental Justice. First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. Web. May 2013.

Pulido, Laura. “Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90.1 (2000): 12-40. Web.