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Essay on environmental justice
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Although pollution is a global issue affects all people, poor minority communities experience a disproportionate exposure to environmental risks and contaminations.
After two decades of fighting to draw attention to the glaring inequalities prevalent in the placement of toxic waste sites and environmental health hazards, the environmental justice movement finally gained governmental recognition. A 1968 study conducted by Reverend Martin Luther King directed attention to the egregious environmental racism prevalent in America (“Environmental Justice”). After decades of protests by civil rights activists, the United States General Accounting office inspected environmental racism claims in 1983, using data from the 1980 census, and finding that,
“three out of four hazardous waste landfills were located in communities where African Americans made up at least twenty-six percent of the population, and whose family incomes were below the poverty level” (“Environmental Justice”). In 1990, the EPA finally addressed their findings, and met with the Congressional Black Caucus, recognizing the necessity of solving the blatant injustices of hazardous waste sites’ placements. However, discriminatory placement of hazardous waste sites continued, apparent in analyses of census data from 1990 in Los Angeles (Flores) and a 2000 analysis of trash sites Washington, D.C. (Ewall). Although environmental justice is an enduring cause that must be confronted, some critics feel that the movement is no longer necessary. According to Paul Driessen, “environmental justice is little more than a meaningless, malleable, phony concoction whose primary purpose is promoting progressive programs” (Driessen). However, “the EPA’s environmental justice program… was established in 1992 following the release of a series of damning reports that found that industry polluters like toxic waste sites were disproportionately located in low-income communities of color when compared to wealthier, white neighborhoods” (Erbentraut). Additionally, government-sponsored EPA studies have continually found that “communities of color… low income… face disproportionate vulnerability due to a vide variety of factors” (“Climate Impacts on Human Health”). Obviously, the environmental justice movement is rooted in valid claims and research, and recent events show that the problem still remains and must be acknowledged.
Many people are unknowingly exposed to air pollution and have no idea. Some common causes of air pollution are automobiles, factories, landfills and toxic materials. Air pollution destroys the environment; it causes climate change because it greatly affects the greenhouse effect and it causes acid rain. Acid rain contaminates water and destroys animal’s homes. Air pollution has many effects on people it causes coughing, elevates your risk of asthma, wheezing, it can cause diseases and birth defects. It’s estimated “that seven million people died prematurely in 2012 from exposure to air pollution and that air pollution can cause cardiovascular diseases. The use of incinerators has caused protest movements from the Chinese citizens because they are becoming aware of the air pollution that is being given off from the burning of their trash and the effects it has on their health. There have been many reports of premature births and stillbirths of pregnant women that live near garbage incinerators”( Professional Safety, 2014, p.
“Terms such as environmental racism and environmental justice are used to express the interconnectedness of environmental health, socio-economic conditions and racialized discrimination (OSCE, 2011). This concept originates from the early 1980’s when community concerns about toxic
In his article entitled The "environmental racism" Hoax, white male, David Friedman explains his disbelief in the existence of environmental racism. He argues that the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to prevent environmental injustice make it too difficult to push business projects through in urban areas. Therefore business efforts, “shift operations to white, politically conservative, less-developed locations,” to avoid complications with EPA requirements (Friedman). Moving industrial facilities to predominantly white areas creates jobs and economic growth in these areas rather than in areas with larger colored populations. Therefore, it could be seen that the EPA’s efforts ironically counteract their purpose of protecting colored communities. This view attributes for lack of industrial plants in urban areas, but fails to consider the relationship between environmental horrors such as Hurricanes Katrina, Irma, and Jose, DAPL, and the Flint Water Crisis. Effort is not actively put into protecting communities of color in our country. Citizens fail to recognize the weight of this issue because our leaders themselves don’t prioritize
Native Americans have suffered from one of America’s most profound ironies. The American Indians that held the lands of the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years have fallen victim to some of the worst environmental pollution. The degradation of their surrounding lands has either pushed them out of their homes, made their people sick, or more susceptible to disease. If toxic waste is being strategically placed near homes of Native Americans and other minority groups, then the government industry and military are committing a direct offense against environmental justice. Productions of capitalism and militarism are deteriorating the lands of American Indians and this ultimately is environmental racism.
The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.
Environmental racism has been an ongoing issue in the United States. This issue mainly affects communities of color, immigrants, and poor folks who live in urban areas and around public squalors. This creates an unsafe environment for low-income communities and there are hardly any resource to address these environmental destructions. Most poor communities are more than likely to experience pollution than anywhere else because of their social and class status. Due to this, it can determine their breathing and living condition. This builds the connection between race and environmental destruction because of the stigma of space that is attached to low-income areas. Even though environmental racism is more than the unloading of waste in poor areas, this paper focus more on this factor than other elements that correlate with environmental racism. In order to make space for toxic waste, society risks the safety and health of poor communities of color to ensure a capacity for industry to perpetuate environmental racism.
Pollution is affecting many individuals and life, as we know it. We need to do something about how it’s affecting our world. That’s why I urge the issue that more people should realize that pollution is an issue that needs to be prevented because of its negative consequences. Which are health affects, the total destruction of environments, and the death of animals and plants. More awareness must be brought up amongst the people and they must realize the long-term benefits it has for the world.
Racism is commonly thought of as an act that is synonymous with violence; however, one common form of racism, environmental racism, often takes place without people being aware the events are happening before detrimental activities have been put into action. In Melissa Checker’s book Polluted Promises, she relates that Reverend Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. coined the term environmental racism while stating that there is “deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and the siting of polluting industries” (Checker 14). This problem is important to discuss, as many groups of people around the United States continue to be impacted by these events every day. Such people include
In the United States and internationally, there is a multitude of indicators that the racial environment is changing. Environmental pollution and racism are connected in more ways than one. The world is unconsciously aware of environmental intolerances, yet continues to expose the poor and minorities to physical hazards. Furthermore, sociologist continue to study “whether racial disparities are largely a function of socioeconomic disparities or whether other factors associated with race are also related to the distribution of environmental hazards” (Mohai and Saha 2007: 345). Many of these factors include economic positions, health disparities, social and political affairs, as well as racial inequalities.
It wasn’t until a study called Toxic Waste and Race done by the Church of Christ in 1987 showed that the most significant factor is deciding a location of a hazardous waste facility was racial did the movement gain momentum. While there are many debate on what environmental justice is, most would say the first significant documentation of it was when the Principles of Environmental Justice was written, signed, and sent to DC to be reviewed in the 1990’s. Various community leaders from churches to council members to school teachers came together at the National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit and made a point in showing that the citizens are not happy with how their environment has been handled and the ideals that legislation has come to fruition under. Ideals such as fairness when making policy, responsible use of renewable resources, balanced relations with native americans, use of military force on peoples, and mitigation for victims domestically and abroad are only a few controversial topics they
Environmental racism is starting to get attention in the Florida legislature. Low-income; minority ; Blacks ; Hispanics / Latinos ; Asians ; Philippines ; Latin American ; factory owners ; people with money. Environmental racism is something that affects black minority and low-income people around the world. “The state of Florida needs to take at the factors that have caused this”. What this is is that the toxic waste the polluted Florida needs to be checked out.
Lisa Arkin, the Executive Director of Beyond Toxics, stated that environmental inequalities are not uncommon among people of color and/or the poor, and that it is not surprising that factories that contribute to pollution are often placed in areas with higher concentrations of the poor and/or people of color. This is true among areas in Eugene, such as the Bethel neighborhood, and Train Song. Although this is a reality for many poor and/or people of color, communities, and neighborhoods do not have to accept this as a permanent reality. Affected communities and neighborhoods can often find allies within local environmental agencies. As with Beyond Toxics, these agencies will work at local levels to address the environmental issues affecting an area. This is essential because a one-for-everything plan will not work in every situation, and local agencies are better equipped to understand the issues that need to be dealt with, environmental concerns, and what the people in the area need to have executed to achieve greater environmental justice. Local environmental agencies also have a much better ability to interact with local citizens, to learn what their concerns and needs are, because often those living in the area are the ones who best understand those environmental
Coneʻs article, “Whose Earth is it Anyway,” he references the phrase “environmental racism,” which Benjamin Chavis created to describe how government and corporate actions intentionally exploit marginalized communities and the environment that surrounds them to further their own interests (Cone, 40). This aspect of environmental racism is present within the actions and statements of the Maui county government because they continue to drain the ʻIao stream for their own corporate gain despite the adverse effects it has on the Native Hawaiian community. Another component that environmental racism entails is the denial of communities of color to contribute to policies and regulations that have negative impacts on them (Cone, 40). Before deciding to remove rocks from ʻIao Stream and dispose of the landfill, Mayor Arakawa did not consider the negative implications that this process would create for the Native Hawaiian community and ignorantly dismissed their concerns. According to Robert D. Bullard in his article, “Environmental Justice in the 21st Century,” governments and individuals in positions of authority are able to designate public spaces that receive protection, which becomes exploitative because these decisions are influenced by their own interests and values (Bullard, 76).
...ffects on human health. These have high negative effects on low income areas, as a result of pollution, visual, oral and air, as well as high levels of overcrowding. The World Health Organisation predicts that in the next 30years most of the world’s population growth will occur in cities and towns of poor countries. This rapid, unplanned and unsustainable pattern of urbanisation, is creating cities into focal points for environmental and health hazards (World Medical Association, 2010).
Are you aware of the detrimental impacts that we have had on our environment? Every second, the Earth is being polluted by poisonous gases, waste products and due to human activities, the world’s climate is dramatically changing. In other words, these impacts do not only harm our environment but also our health. It has been scientifically proven that air pollution causes respiratory diseases and cancer, due to the inhalation of all the harmful chemicals. Water pollution can also lead to typhoid, diarrheal diseases and other waterborne disease, due to the intake of bacteria and parasites. Many people have died due to these health-related illnesses. So why are we still living in this awful condition? Air sustains us and water is a basic necessity, so we should do what we can to prevent pollution. In short, we should protect our environment to ensure a healthy life a...