Environmental justice

From Envirowiki

Imagine discovering that a nuclear waste site had been built 3 miles from your home without your knowledge. Your community was targeted as the most reasonable place to host a toxic waste site due to the fact that the population was less than 25,000, and where residents are old, poor, politically conservative and Roman Catholic. That is the conclusion of a study commissioned by the California state Waste Management Board, which found people most likely to oppose such facilities are young or middle-aged, college-educated, liberal and Protestant. The proportion of nuclear waste facilities, power plants, or storage sites is much larger within low income communities of color. More often than not, several waste sites exist in one small community, causing negative health effects among community members as well as a higher risk for accidental contamination.

This is a form of environmental injustice touching on racism and classism, and is being addressed through the environmental justice movement. According to Keith Warner and David Decosse, both ?environmental studies and theology? professors at Santa Clara University, environmental justice is the environmental dimension of social justice. Environmental justice deals with the intersection of racism, sexism, class-ism and environmentalism, as well as the fundamental right to a clean living environment. Environmental Justice is the right to a decent, safe quality of life for people of all races, incomes and cultures in the environments where we live, work, play, and learn. Environmental justice concerns itself with prioritizing public good over profit, cooperation over competition, community and collective action over individualism, and precautionary approaches over unacceptable risks. Emerging in the 1980s, this movement utilized values taken from civil rights, labor, and community organizing efforts. Contrary to environmentalism, its focus is the intersection between environmental protection, and social and racial justice. Mostly focusing on the unequal distribution of environmental risks, environmental justice gives a voice to many citizens who have been victimized by injustice.

Environmental Justice has been most successful through community-level, or grassroots, organizations. Working in sync with scientists and university researchers, community organizations can extend their knowledge of scientific, analytical, and legal issues. As locals, however, they have the upper hand on familiarity of neighborhood environmental issues. So, scientists and researchers are able to explain technicalities, while community members are able to work together and take action. For example, scientific researchers have found that in several areas of California’s Central Valley, airborne toxins from hazardous waste incinerators can cause detrimental health effects to the community. In Grayson County, several women became involved with a project to test the air quality by using drift catchers to gauge pesticide drift. This is just one example of how community and science have worked together to fight for environmental justice.

Beginning from the ground up, the environmental justice movement is gaining momentum in many cities across the US. There is still more progress to be had, however. If you would like more information on the environmental justice movement, how to get involved, or a list of hazardous waste sites near you, please visit www.invisible5.org/index.php?page=ej_resources for more information, and www.scu.edu/fevp under Environmental Justice.

[edit] SOURCES

• Hazardous Waste News. http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn081b.htm. 13, June 1988.
• Keith Warner, David Decosse. Virtue Ethics for Environmental Justice.
• Invisible5. http://www.invisible5.org/index.php?page=FAQ