From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pollution disproportionately affects communities of color.
Environmental racism is a concept in the environmental justice
movement, which developed in the United States throughout the 1970s and
1980s. The term is used to describe environmental injustice that occurs
within a racialized context both in practice and policy. In the United States, environmental racism criticizes inequalities between urban and exurban areas after white flight. Internationally, environmental racism can refer to the effects of the global waste trade, like the negative health impact of the export of electronic waste to China from developed countries.
Examples by region
North America
Native American reservations
The
United States Army encouraged
massive hunts of
American bison
(a pile of skulls pictured above) to force Native Americans off their
traditional lands and into reservations further west. This is considered
an early example of environmental racism.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Trail of Tears may be considered early examples of environmental racism in the United States. As a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, by 1850, all tribes east of the Mississippi
had been removed to western lands, essentially confining them to "lands
that were too dry, remote, or barren to attract the attention of
settlers and corporations." During World War II, military facilities were often located conterminous to reservations,
leading to a situation in which "a disproportionate number of the most
dangerous military facilities are located near Native American lands."
A study analyzing the approximately 3,100 counties in the continental
United States found that Native American lands are positively associated
with the count of sites with unexploded ordnance deemed extremely
dangerous. The study also found that the risk assessment code (RAC) used
to measure dangerousness of sites with unexploded ordnance can
sometimes conceal how much of a threat these sites are to Native
Americans. The hazard probability, or probability that a hazard will
harm people or ecosystems, is sensitive to the proximity of public
buildings such as schools and hospitals. These parameters neglect
elements of tribal life such as subsistence consumption, ceremonial use
of plants and animals, and low population densities. Because these
tribal-unique factors are not considered, Native American lands can
often receive low-risk scores, despite threat to their way of life. The
hazard probability does not take Native Americans into account when
considering the people or ecosystems that could be harmed. Locating
military facilities coterminous to reservations lead to a situation in
which “a disproportionate number of the most dangerous military
facilities are located near Native American lands.”
More recently, Native American lands have been used for waste
disposal and illegal dumping by the US and multinational corporations.
The International Tribunal of Indigenous People and Oppressed Nations,
convened in 1992 to examine the history of criminal activity against
indigenous groups in the United States,
and published a Significant Bill of Particulars outlining grievances
indigenous peoples had with the US. This included allegations that the
US "deliberately and systematically permitted, aided, and abetted,
solicited and conspired to commit the dumping, transportation, and
location of nuclear, toxic, medical, and otherwise hazardous waste
materials on Native American territories in North America and has thus
created a clear and present danger to the health, safety, and physical
and mental well-being of Native American People."
An ongoing issue for Native Americans activists is the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The pipeline was proposed to start in North Dakota and travel to
Illinois. Although it does not cross directly on a reservation, the
pipeline is under scrutiny because it passes under a section of the
Missouri river which is the main drinking water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Pipelines are known to break, with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) reporting more than 3,300 leak and rupture incidents for oil and gas pipelines since 2010. The pipeline also traverses a sacred burial ground for the Standing Rock Sioux.
The Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Standing Rock Sioux
tribe voiced concerns related to sacred sites and archaeological
materials. These concerns were ignored. President Barack Obama revoked the permit for the project in December 2016 and ordered a study on rerouting the pipeline. President Donald Trump reversed this order and authorized the completion of the pipeline. In 2017, Judge James Boasberg sided with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, citing the US Army Corps of Engineers failure to complete a study on the environmental impact of an oil spill in Lake Oahe
when it first approved construction. A new environmental study was
ordered and released in October 2018, but the pipeline remained
operational.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe rejected the study, believing it fails to
address many of their concerns. There are still ongoing litigation
efforts by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposing the Dakota Access
Pipeline in an effort to shut it down permanently.
United States of America
In
the United States, the first report to draw a relationship between
race, income, and risk of exposure to pollutants was the Council of
Environmental Quality's "Annual Report to the President" in 1971, in
response to toxic waste dumping in an African American community in
Warren County, NC. After protests in Warren County, North Carolina, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report on the case in 1983, and the United Church of Christ
(UCC) commissioned a report exploring the concept in 1987 drawing a
connection between race and the placement of the hazardous waste
facilities. The outcry in Warren County was an important event in spurring minority, grassroots involvement in the environmental justice movement by addressing cases of environmental racism.
The US Government Accountability Office
study in response to the 1982 protests against the PCB landfill in
Warren County was among the first groundbreaking studies that drew
correlations between the racial and economic background of communities
and the location of hazardous waste facilities. However, the study was
limited in scope by only focusing on off-site hazardous waste landfills
in the Southeastern United States.
In response to this limitation the United Church of Christ Commission
for Racial Justice (CRJ) directed a comprehensive national study on
demographic patterns associated with the location of hazardous waste
sites.
The CRJ national study conducted two examinations of areas
surrounding commercial hazardous waste facilities and the location of
uncontrolled toxic waste sites.
The first study examined the association between race and
socio-economic status and the location of commercial hazardous waste
treatment, storage, and disposal facilities.
After statistical analysis, the first study concluded that "the
percentage of community residents that belonged to a racial or ethnic
group was a stronger predictor of the level of commercial hazardous
waste activity than was household income, the value of the homes, the
number of uncontrolled waste sites, or the estimated amount of hazardous
wastes generated by industry".
The second study examined the presence of uncontrolled toxic waste
sites in ethnic and racial minority communities, and found that 3 out of
every 5 African and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with
uncontrolled waste sites. Other studies found race to be the most influential variable in predicting where waste facilities were located.
From the reports on environmental racism in Warren County, NC,
the accumulation of studies and reports on cases of environmental racism
and injustices garnered increased public attention in the US.
Eventually this led to President Bill Clinton's 1994 Executive Order 12898
which directed agencies to develop a strategy that manages
environmental justice, but not every federal agency has fulfilled this
order to date.
This was a historical step in addressing environmental injustice on a
policy level, especially within a predominantly white-dominated
environmentalism movement; however, the effectiveness of the Order is
noted mainly in its influence on states as Congress never passed a bill
making Clinton's Executive Order law.
The issuance of the Order propelled states into action as many states
began to require relevant agencies to develop strategies and programs
that would identify and address environmental injustices being
perpetrated at the state or local level.
In 2005, during George W. Bush's administration, there was an
attempt to remove the premise of racism from the Order. EPA's
Administrator Stephen Johnson
wanted to redefine the Order's purpose to shift from protecting low
income and minority communities that may be disadvantaged by government
policies to all people. President Barack Obama's appointment of Lisa Jackson
as EPA Administrator and the issuance of Memorandum of Understanding on
Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898 established a
recommitment to environmental justice.
The fight against environmental racism faced some setbacks with the
election of President Trump. Under Trump's administration, there was a
mandated decrease of EPA funding accompanied by a rollback on
regulations which has left many underrepresented communities vulnerable.
As a result of the placement of hazardous waste facilities,
minority populations experience greater exposure to harmful chemicals
and suffer from health outcomes that affect their ability at work and in
schools. A comprehensive study of particulate emissions across the
United States, published in 2018, found that Blacks were exposed to 54%
more particulate matter emissions (soot) than the average American.
Faber and Krieg found a correlation between higher air pollution
exposure and low performance in schools and found that 92% of children
at five Los Angeles public schools with the poorest air quality were of a
minority background.
School systems for communities heavily populated with minority families
tend to provide "unequal educational opportunities" in comparison to
school systems in predominantly white neighborhoods.
Pollution consequently presents itself in these communities due to
societal factors such as "underfunded schools, income inequality, and
myriad egregious denials of institutional support" within the African
American community.
In a study supporting the term of environmental racism, it was shown in
the American Mid-Atlantic and American North-East that African
Americans were exposed to 61% of particulate matter, while Latinos were
exposed to 75%, and Asians were exposed to 73%. Overall, these
populations experience 66% more pollution exposure from particulate
matter than the white population.
When environmental racism became acknowledged in the US society, it
stimulated the environmental justice social movement that gained wave
throughout the 1970s and 1980s in the US. Historically, the term
environmental racism is tied to environmental justice movement. However,
this has changed with time to the extent it is believed to lack any
associations with the movement. Grassroots organizations and campaigns
have sprung up in response to this environmental racism with these
groups mainly demanding the inclusion of minorities when it comes to
policy making involving the environment. It is also worth noting that
this concept is international despite being coined in the US. A perfect
example is when the United States exported its hazardous wastes to the
poor nations in the Global South because they knew that these countries
had lax environmental regulations and safety practices. Marginalized
communities are usually at risk of environmental racism because they
resource and means to oppose the large companies that dump these
dangerous wastes.
People on the roofs of their houses avoiding the flood after Hurricane Katrina.
There
are specific examples of environmental racism across the US, and
perpetuates of environmental racism are often engrained in day to day
work and living conditions. The city of Chicago, Illinois,
has had difficulties around industry and its impacts on minority
populations, especially the African American community. Several coal
plants in the region have been implicated in the poor health of their
local communities, a correlation exacerbated by the fact that 34% of
adults in those communities do not have health care coverage.
The state of Louisiana has also faced several issues striking balance
between industry presence, natural disaster relief, and community
health. Pre-existing racial disparities in wealth within New Orleans
worsened the outcome of Hurricane Katrina for minority populations.
Institutionalized racial segregation of neighborhoods meant minority members were more likely to live in low-lying areas vulnerable to flooding.
Additionally, hurricane evacuation plans relied heavily on the use of
cars and did not prepare for people who relied on public transportation.
Because minority populations are less likely to own cars, some people
had no choice but to stay behind, while white majority communities
escaped. Additionally, Cancer Alley, a row of chemical plants in
Louisiana, has been cited as one of the causes of disproportionate
health impacts in the city.
Flint, Michigan, a city that is 57% black and notably impoverished, was
found in April 2014 to be drinking water that contained enough lead to
meet the Environmental Protection Agency.
2017 Climate March protester holds up sign on the Flint water crisis
Overall, the US has worked to reduce environmental racism with municipality changes.
These policies help develop further change. Some cities and counties
have taken advantage of environmental justice policies and applied it to
the public health sector.
Mexico
On November 19, 1984, the San Juanico disaster caused thousands of deaths and roughly a million injuries in poor surrounding neighborhoods. The disaster occurred at the PEMEX liquid propane gas plant in a densely populated area of Mexico City. The close proximity of illegally built houses that did not meet regulations worsened the effects of the explosion.
The Cucapá are a group of indigenous people that live near the U.S.-Mexico border, mainly in Mexico but some in Arizona as well. For many generations, fishing on the Colorado River was the Cucapá's main means of subsistence.
In 1944, the United States and Mexico signed a treaty that effectively
awarded the United States rights to about 90% of the water in the
Colorado River, leaving Mexico with the remaining 10%.
Over the last few decades the Colorado River has mostly dried up south
of the border, presenting many challenges for people such as the Cucapá.
Shaylih Meuhlmann, author of the ethnography Where the River Ends: Contested Indigeneity in the Mexican Colorado Delta,
gives a first-hand account of the situation from Meuhlmann's point of
view as well as many accounts from the Cucapá themselves. In addition to
the Mexican portion of the Colorado River being left with a small
fraction of the overall available water, the Cucapá are stripped of the
right to fish on the river, the act being made illegal by the Mexican
government in the interest of preserving the river's ecological health.
The Cucapá are, thus, living without access to sufficient natural
sources of freshwater as well as without their usual means of
subsistence. The conclusion drawn in many such cases is that the
negotiated water rights under the US-Mexican treaty that lead to the
massive disparity in water allotments between the two countries boils
down to environmental racism.
1,900 maquiladoras are found near the US-Mexico border.
Maquiladoras are companies that are usually owned by foreign entities
and import raw materials, pay workers in Mexico to assemble them, and
ship the finish products overseas to be sold.
While Maquiladoras provide jobs, they often pay very little. These
plants also bring pollution to rural Mexican towns, creating health
impacts for the poor families that live nearby.
In Mexico, industrial extraction of oil, mining, and gas, as well
as the mass removal of slowly renewable resources such as aquatic life,
forests, and crops.
Legally, the state owns natural resources, but is able to grant
concessions to industry through the form of taxes paid. In recent
decades, a shift towards refocusing these tax dollars accumulated on the
communities most impacted by the health, social, and economic impacts
of extractivism has taken place. However, many indiginous and rural
community leaders argue that they ought to consent to companies
extracting and polluting their resources, rather than be paid
reparations after the fact.
Canada
In Canada, progress is being made to address environmental racism (especially in Nova Scotia's Africville community) with the passing of Bill 111, An Act to Address Environmental Racism in the Nova Scotia Legislature.
Still, however, indigenous communities such as the Aamjiwnaang First
Nation continue to be harmed by pollution from the Canadian chemical
industry centered in Southeast Ontario.
Forty percent of Canada’s petrochemical industry is packed into a 15-square mile radius of Sarnia, Ontario.
The population is predominantly indiginous, where the Aamjiwnaang
reservation houses around 850 First Nation individuals. Since 2002,
coalitions of indiginous individuals have fought the disproportionate
concentration of pollution in their neighborhood.
Europe
France
Exporting
toxic wastes to countries in the Global South is one form of
environmental racism that occurs on an international basis. In one
alleged instance, the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau was prohibited from entering Alang, an Indian ship-breaking yard, due to a lack of clear documentation about its toxic contents. French President Jacques Chirac ultimately ordered the carrier, which contained tons of hazardous materials including asbestos and PCBs, to return to France.
United Kingdom
In the UK environmental racism (or also climate racism) has been
called out by multiple action groups such as the Wretched of the Earth
call out letter in 2015 and Black Lives Matter in 2016.
Romani people, Eastern Europe
Flag of the Romani people.
Predominantly living in Central and Eastern Europe, with pockets of communities in the Americas and Middle East, the ethnic Romani people
have been subjected to environmental exclusion. Often referred to as
gypsies or the gypsy threat, the Romani people of Eastern Europe mostly
live under the poverty line in shanty towns or slums.
Facing issues such as long term exposure to harmful toxins given their
locations to waste dumps and industrial plants, along with being refused
environmental assistance like clean water and sanitation, the Romani
people have been facing racism via environmental means. Many countries
such has Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary
have tried to implement environmental protection initiatives across
their respected countries, however most have failed due to "addressing
the conditions of Roma communities have been framed through an ethnic
lens as “Roma issues."
Only recently has some form of environmental justice for the Romani
people come to light. Seeking environmental justice in Europe, the
Environmental Justice Program is now working with human rights
organizations to help fight environmental racism.
It is important to note that in the "Discrimination in the EU in
2009" report, conducted by the European Commission, "64% of citizens
with Roma friends believe discrimination is widespread, compared to 61%
of citizens without Roma friends."
Oceania
Australia
The
Australian Environmental Justice (AEJ) is a multidisciplinary
organization which is closely partnered with Friends of the Earth
Australia (FoEA). The AEJ focuses on recording and remedying the effects
of environmental injustice throughout Australia.
The AEJ has addressed issues which include "production and spread of
toxic wastes, pollution of water, soil and air, erosion and ecological
damage of landscapes, water systems, plants and animals".
The project looks for environmental injustices that disproportionately
affect a group of people or impact them in a way they did not agree to.
The Western Oil Refinery started operating in Bellevue, Western Australia in 1954. It was permitted rights to operate in Bellevue by the Australian government
in order to refine cheap and localized oil. In the decades following,
many residents of Bellevue claimed they felt respiratory burning due to
the inhalation of toxic chemicals and nauseating fumes. Lee Bell from
Curtin University and Mariann Lloyd-Smith from the National Toxic
Network in Australia stated in their article, "Toxic Disputes and the
Rise of Environmental Justice in Australia" that "residents living close
to the site discovered chemical contamination in the ground- water
surfacing in their back yards".
Under immense civilian pressure, the Western Oil Refinery (now named
Omex) stopped refining oil in 1979. Years later, citizens of Bellevue
formed the Bellevue Action Group (BAG) and called for the government to
give aid towards the remediation of the site. The government agreed and
$6.9 million was allocated to clean up the site. Remediation of site
began in April 2000.
Papua New Guinea
Panguna copper mine under construction, 1971
Starting production in 1972, the Panguna mine in Papua New Guinea has been a source of environmental racism. Although closed since 1989 due to conflict on the island, the indigenous peoples (Bougainvillean) have suffered both economically and environmentally from the creation of the mine. Terrance Wesley-Smith and Eugene Ogan, University of Hawaii and University of Minnesota
respectively, stated that the Bougainvillean's "were grossly
disadvantaged from the beginning and no subsequent renegotiation has
been able to remedy the situation".
These indigenous people faced issues such as losing land which could
have been used for agricultural practices for the Dapera and Moroni
villages, undervalued payment for the land, poor relocation housing for
displaced villagers and significant environmental degradation in the
surrounding areas.
Asia
China
From
the mid-1990s until about 2001, it is estimated that some 50 to 80
percent of the electronics collected for recycling in the western half
of the United States was being exported for dismantling overseas,
predominantly to China and Southeast Asia. This scrap processing is quite profitable and preferred due to an abundant workforce, cheap labour, and lax environmental laws.
Guiyu, China is one of the largest recycling sites for e-waste, where heaps of discarded computer parts rise near the riverbanks and compounds, such as cadmium, copper, lead, PBDEs, contaminate the local water supply. Water samples taken by the Basel Action Network in 2001 from the Lianjiang River contained lead levels 190 times higher than WHO safety standards.
Despite contaminated drinking water, residents continue to use
contaminated water over expensive trucked-in supplies of drinking water. Nearly 80 percent of children in the e-waste hub of Guiyu, China, suffer from lead poisoning, according to recent reports.
Before being used as the destination of electronic waste, most of Guiyu
was composed of small farmers who made their living in the agriculture
business. However, farming has been abandoned for more lucrative work in scrap electronics.
"According to the Western press and both Chinese university and NGO
researchers, conditions in these workers' rural villages are so poor
that even the primitive electronic scrap industry in Guiyu offers an
improvement in income".
Researchers have found that as rates of hazardous air pollution
increase in China, the public has mobilized to implement measures to
curb detrimental impacts. Areas with ethnic minorities and western
regions of the country tend to carry disproportionate environmental
burdens.
India
Union Carbide Corporation, is the parent company of Union Carbide India Limited which outsources its production to an outside country. Located in Bhopal, India, Union Carbide India Limited primarily produced the chemical methyl isocyanate used for pesticide manufacture.
On December 3, 1984, a cloud of methyl isocyanate leaked as a result of
the toxic chemical mixing with water in the plant in Bhopal. Approximately 520,000 people were exposed to the toxic chemical immediately after the leak.
Within the first 3 days after the leak an estimated 8,000 people living
within the vicinity of the plant died from exposure to the methyl
isocyanate. Some people survived the initial leak from the factory, but due to improper care and improper diagnoses many have died.
As a consequence of improper diagnoses, treatment may have been
ineffective and this was precipitated by Union Carbide refusing to
release all the details regarding the leaked gases and lying about
certain important information. The delay in supplying medical aid to the victims of the chemical leak made the situation for the survivors even worse.
Many today are still experiencing the negative health impacts of the
methyl isocyanate leak, such as lung fibrosis, impaired vision, tuberculosis, neurological disorders, and severe body pains.
The operations and maintenance of the factory in Bhopal
contributed to the hazardous chemical leak. The storage of huge volumes
of methyl isocyanate in a densely inhabited area, was in contravention
with company policies strictly practiced in other plants.
The company ignored protests that they were holding too much of the
dangerous chemical for one plant and built large tanks to hold it in a
crowded community.
Methyl isocyanate must be stored at extremely low temperatures, but the
company cut expenses to the air conditioning system leading to less
than optimal conditions for the chemical.
Additionally, Union Carbide India Limited never created disaster
management plans for the surrounding community around the factory in the
event of a leak or spill.
State authorities were in the pocket of the company and therefore did
not pay attention to company practices or implementation of the law. The company also cut down on preventive maintenance staff to save money.
South America
Ecuador
Aftermath of Lago Agrio oil field
Due to their lack of environmental laws, emerging countries like Ecuador
have been subjected to environmental pollution, sometimes causing
health problems, loss of agriculture, and poverty. In 1993, 30,000
Ecuadorians, which included Cofan, Siona, Huaorani, and Quichua indigenous people, filed a lawsuit against Texaco oil company for the environmental damages caused by oil extraction activities in the Lago Agrio oil field.
After handing control of the oil fields to an Ecuadorian oil company,
Texaco did not properly dispose of its hazardous waste, causing great
damages to the ecosystem and crippling communities.
Additionally, UN experts have said that Afro-Ecuadorians and other
people of African descent in Ecuador have faced greater challenges than
other groups in accessing clean water, with minimal response from the
State.
Chile
Beginning
in the late 15th century when European explorers began sailing to the
New World, the violence towards and oppression of indigenous populations
have had lasting effects to this day. The Mapuche-Chilean land conflict
has roots dating back several centuries. When the Spanish went to
conquer parts of South America, the Mapuche were one of the only
indigenous groups to successfully resist Spanish domination and maintain
their sovereignty. Moving forward, relations between the Mapuche and
the Chilean state declined into a condition of malice and resentment.
Chile won its independence from Spain in 1818 and, wanting the Mapuche
to assimilate into the Chilean state, began crafting harmful legislation
that targeted the Mapuche. The Mapuche have based their economy, both
historically and presently, on agriculture. By the mid-19th century, the
state resorted to outright seizure of Mapuche lands, forcefully
appropriating all but 5% of Mapuche lineal lands. An agrarian economy
without land essentially meant that the Mapuche no longer had their
means of production and subsistence. While some land has since been
ceded back to the Mapuche, it is still a fraction of what the Mapuche
once owned. Further, as the Chilean state has attempted to rebuild its
relationship with the Mapuche community, the connection between the two
is still strained by the legacy of the aforementioned history.
Today, the Mapuche people are the largest population of
indigenous people in Chile, with 1.5 million people accounting for over
90% of the country's indigenous population.
The Andes
Extracitivism,
or the process of humans removing natural, raw resources from land to
be used in product manufacturing, can have detrimental environmental and
social repercussions. Research analyzing environmental conflicts in
four Andean countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia) found that
conflicts tend to disproportionately affect indigenous populations and
those with Afro-descent, and peasant communities.
These conflicts can arise as a result of shifting economic patterns,
land use policies, and social practices due to extractivist industries.
Haiti
Legacies of
racism exist in Haiti, and affect the way that food grown by peasants
domestically is viewed compared to foreign food.
Racially coded hierarchies are associated with food that differs in
origin - survey respondents reported that food such as millet and root
crops are associated with negative connotations, while foreign-made food
such as corn flakes and spaghetti are associated with positive
connotations. This reliance on imports over domestic products reveals
how racism ties to commercial tendencies - a reliance on imports can
increase costs, fossil fuel emissions, and further social inequality as
local farmers loose business.
Africa
Nigeria
In Nigeria, near the Niger Delta, cases of oil spills, burning of toxic waste, and urban air pollution are problems in more developed areas. In the early 1990s, Nigeria was among the 50 nations with the world's highest levels of carbon dioxide emissions,
which totaled 96,500 kilotons, a per capita level of 0.84 metric tons.
The UN reported in 2008 that carbon dioxide emissions in Nigeria totaled
95,194 kilotons.
Numerous webpages were created in support of the Ogoni people,
who are indigenous to Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region. Sites were used
to protest the disastrous environmental and economic effects of Shell Oil drilling, to urge the boycotting of Shell Oil, and to denounce human rights abuses
by the Nigerian government and by Shell. The use of the Internet in
formulating an international appeal intensified dramatically after the
Nigerian government's November 1995 execution of nine Ogoni activists,
including Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was one of the founders of the nonviolent Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP).
South Africa
The
linkages between the mining industry and the negative impacts it has on
community and individual health has been studied and well-documented by
a number of organizations worldwide. Health implications of living in
proximity to mining operations include effects such as pregnancy
complications, mental health issues, various forms of cancer, and many
more. During the Apartheid
period in South Africa, the mining industry grew quite rapidly as a
result of the lack of environmental regulation. Communities in which
mining corporations operate are usually those with high rates of poverty
and unemployment. Further, within these communities, there is typically
a divide among the citizens on the issue of whether the pros of mining
in terms of economic opportunity outweigh the cons in terms of the
health of the people in the community. Mining companies often try to use
these disagreements to their advantage by magnifying this conflict.
Additionally, mining companies in South Africa have close ties with the
national government, skewing the balance of power in their favor while
simultaneously excluding local people from many decision-making
processes.
This legacy of exclusion has had lasting effects in the form of
impoverished South Africans bearing the brunt of ecological impacts
resulting from the actions of, for example, mining companies. Some argue
that to effectively fight environmental racism and achieve some
semblance of justice, there must also be a reckoning with the factors
that form situations of environmental racism such as rooted and
institutionalized mechanisms of power, social relations, and cultural
elements.
The term “energy poverty” is used to refer to “a lack of access
to adequate, reliable, affordable and clean energy carriers and
technologies for meeting energy service needs for cooking and those
activities enabled by electricity to support economic and human
development”. Numerous communities in South Africa face some sort of
energy poverty.
South African women are typically in charge of taking care of both the
home and the community as a whole. Those in economically impoverished
areas not only have to take on this responsibility, but there are
numerous other challenges they face. Discrimination on the basis of
gender, race, and class are all still present in South African culture.
Because of this, women, who are the primary users of public resources in
their work at home and for the community, are often excluded from any
decision-making about control and access to public resources. The
resulting energy poverty forces women to use sources of energy that are
expensive and may be harmful both to their own health and that of the
environment. Consequently, several renewable energy initiatives have
emerged in South Africa specifically targeting these communities and
women to correct this situation.
Background
"Environmental Racism" was coined in 1982 by Benjamin Chavis, previous executive director of the United Church of Christ (UCC) Commission for Racial Justice. Chavis's speech addressed hazardous polychlorinated biphenyl waste in the Warren County PCB Landfill, North Carolina. Chavis defined the term as:
racial
discrimination in environmental policy making, the enforcement of
regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color
for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the
life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities,
and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the
ecology movements.
The Environmental Justice Movement, began around the same time as the Civil Rights Movement.
The Civil Rights Movement influenced the mobilization of people
concerned about their neighborhoods and health by echoing the
empowerment and concern associated with political action. Here, the
civil rights agenda and the environmental agenda met. The
acknowledgement of environmental racism prompted the environmental justice
social movement that began in the 1970s and 1980s in the United States.
While environmental racism has been historically tied to the
environmental justice movement, throughout the years the term has been
increasingly disassociated. In response to cases of environmental
racism, grassroots organizations and campaigns have brought more
attention to environmental racism in policy making and emphasize the
importance of having input from minorities in policymaking. Although the
term was coined in the US, environmental racism also occurs on the
international level. Examples include the exportation of hazardous
wastes to poor countries in the Global South with lax environmental policies and safety practices (pollution havens).
Marginalized communities that do not have the socioeconomic and
political means to oppose large corporations - this puts them at risk to
environmentally racist practices that are detrimental to their health.
Economic statuses and political positions are crucial factors when
looking at environmental problems because they determine where a person
lives and their access to resources that could mitigate the impact of
environmental hazards. The UCC and US General Accounting Office
reports on this case in North Carolina associated locations of
hazardous waste sites with poor minority neighborhoods. Chavis and Dr. Robert D. Bullard
pointed out institutionalized racism stemming from government and
corporate policies that led to environmental racism. Practices included redlining,
zoning, and colorblind adaptation planning. Residents experienced
environmental racism due to their low socioeconomic status, and lack of
political representation and mobility. Expanding the definition in "The
Legacy of American Apartheid and Environmental Racism," Dr. Bullard said that environmental racism
"refers
to any policy, practice, or directive that differentially affects or
disadvantages (whether intended or unintended) individuals, groups, or
communities based on race or color."
Environmental
justice combats barriers preventing equal access to work, recreation,
education, religion, and safe neighborhoods. In “Environmentalism of the
Poor,” Joan Martinez-Allier writes that environmental justice “points
out that economic growth-unfortunately means increased environmental
impacts, and it emphasizes geographical displacement of sources and
sinks.”
Environmental racism is a specific form of environmental injustice with
which the underlying cause of said injustice is believed to be
race-based.
Causes
There
are four factors which lead to environmental racism: lack of affordable
land, lack of political power, lack of mobility, and poverty.
Cheap land is sought by corporations and governmental bodies. As a
result, communities which cannot effectively resist these corporations
and governmental bodies and cannot access political power cannot
negotiate just costs.
Communities with minimized socio-economic mobility cannot relocate.
Lack of financial contributions also reduces the communities' ability to
act both physically and politically. Chavis defined environmental
racism in five categories: racial discrimination in defining
environmental policies, discriminatory enforcement of regulations and
laws, deliberate targeting of minority communities as hazardous waste
dumping sites, official sanctioning of dangerous pollutants in minority
communities, and the exclusion of people of color from environmental
leadership positions.
Minority communities often do not have the financial means,
resources, and political representation to oppose hazardous waste sites.
Known as locally unwanted land uses or LULU's, these facilities that
benefit the whole community often reduce the quality of life of minority
communities.
These neighborhoods also may depend on the economic opportunities the
site brings and are reluctant to oppose its location at the risk of
their health. Additionally, controversial projects are less likely to be
sited in non-minority areas that are expected to pursue collective action and succeed in opposing the siting the projects in their area.
Processes such as suburbanization, gentrification, and decentralization lead to patterns of environmental racism. For example, the process of suburbanization (or white flight) consists of non-minorities leaving industrial zones for safer, cleaner, and less expensive suburban locales.
Meanwhile, minority communities are left in the inner cities and in
close proximity to polluted industrial zones. In these areas,
unemployment is high and businesses are less likely to invest in area
improvement, creating poor economic conditions for residents and
reinforcing a social formation that reproduces racial inequality.
Furthermore, the poverty of property owners and residents in a
municipality may be taken into consideration by hazardous waste facility
developers since areas with depressed real estate values will cut
expenses.
Environmental racism has many factors that contribute towards
it's discrimination. Green Action references the "cultural norms and
values, rules, regulations, behaviors, policies, and decisions" that support the concept of sustainability and wherein environmental racism lies.
Climate change
As
the climate has changed progressively over the past several decades,
there has been a collision between environmental racism and global climate change.
The overlap of these two phenomena, many argue, has disproportionately
affected different communities and populations throughout the world due
to disparities in socio-economic status. This is especially true in the
Global South where, for example, byproducts of global climate change
such as increasingly frequent and severe landslides resulting from more
heavy rainfall events in Quito, Ecuador
force people to also deal with profound socio-economic ramifications
like the destruction of their homes or even death. Countries such as
Ecuador often contribute relatively little to climate change in terms of
metrics like carbon dioxide emissions but have far fewer resources to
ward off the negative localized impacts of climate change. This issue
occurs globally, where nations in the global south bear the burden of
natural disasters and weather extremes despite contributing little to
the global carbon footprint.
While people living in the Global South have typically been
impacted most by the effects of climate change, people of color in the
Global North also face similar situations in several areas. The
southeastern part of the United States has experienced a large amount of
pollution and minority populations have been hit with the brunt of
those impacts. The issues of climate change and communities that are in a
danger zone are not limited to North America or the United States
either. There are several communities around the world that face the
same concern of industry and people who are dealing with its negative
impacts in their areas. For example, the work of Desmond D’Sa focused on
communities in south Durban where high pollution industries impact people forcibly relocated during the Apartheid.
Environmental racism and climate change coincide with one another. Rising seas affect poor areas such as Kivalina, Alaska, and Thibodaux, Louisiana,
and countless other places around the globe. There are many cases of
people who have died or are chronically ill from coal plants in Detroit, Memphis, and Kansas City, as well as numerous other areas. Tennessee and West Virginia residents are frequently subject to breathing toxic ash due to blasting
in the mountains for mining. Drought, flooding, the constant depletion
of land and air quality determine the health and safety of the residents
surrounding these areas. Communities of color and low-income status
most often feel the brunt of these issues firsthand.
Socioeconomic aspects
Cost benefit analysis
Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is a process that places a monetary value on costs and benefits to evaluate issues.
Environmental CBA aims to provide policy solutions for intangible
products such as clean air and water by measuring a consumer's
willingness to pay for these goods. CBA contributes to environmental
racism through the valuing of environmental resources based on their
utility to society. When someone is willing and able to pay more for
clean water or air, their society financially benefits society more than
when people cannot pay for these goods. This creates a burden on poor
communities. Relocating toxic wastes is justified since poor communities
are not able to pay as much as a wealthier area for a clean
environment. The placement of toxic waste near poor people lowers the
property value of already cheap land. Since the decrease in property
value is less than that of a cleaner and wealthier area, the monetary
benefits to society are greater by dumping the toxic waste in a
"low-value" area.
Impacts on health
Environmental
racism impacts the health of the communities affected by poor
environments. Various factors that can cause health problems include
exposure to hazardous chemical toxins in landfills and rivers.
Minority populations are exposed to greater environmental health risks than white people, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As stated by Greenlining, an advocacy organization based out of Oakland, CA,
“[t]he EPA’s National Center for Environmental Assessment found that
when it comes to air pollutants that contribute to issues like heart and
lung disease, Blacks are exposed to 1.5 times more of the pollutant
than whites, while Hispanics were exposed to about 1.2 times the amount
of non-Hispanic whites. People in poverty had 1.3 times the exposure of
those not in poverty.”
In Defense of Animals
claims intensive agriculture affects the health of the communities they
are near through pollution and environmental injustice. They claim such
areas have waste lagoons that produce hydrogen sulfide,
higher levels of miscarriages, birth defects, and disease outbreaks
from viral and bacterial contamination of drinking water. These farms
are disproportionately placed and largely affect low-income areas and
communities of color. Because of the socioeconomic status and location
of many of these areas, the people affected cannot easily escape these
conditions. This includes exposure to pesticides in agriculture and
poorly-managed toxic waste dumping to nearby homes and communities from
factories disposing of toxic animal waste.
Intensive agriculture also poses a hazard to its workers through
high demand velocities, low pay, poor cleanliness in facilities, and
other health risks. The workers employed in intensive agriculture are
largely composed of minority races, and these facilities are often near
minority communities. Areas that are near factories of this sort are
also subjected to contaminated drinking water, toxic fumes, chemical
run-off, pollutant particulate matter in the air, and other various
harmful risks leading to lessened quality of life and potential disease
outbreak.
Reducing environmental racism
Activists have called for "more participatory and citizen-centered conceptions of justice." The environmental justice (EJ) movement and climate justice
(CJ) movement address environmental racism in bringing attention and
enacting change so that marginalized populations are not
disproportionately vulnerable to climate change and pollution. According to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, one possible solution is the precautionary principle,
which states that "where there are threats of serious or irreversible
damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason
for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental
degradation."
Under this principle, the initiator of the potentially hazardous
activity is charged with demonstrating the activity's safety.
Environmental justice activists also emphasize the need for waste
reduction in general, which would act to reduce the overall burden.
Concentrations of ethnic or racial minorities may also foster
solidarity, lending support in spite of challenges and providing the
concentration of social capital
necessary for grassroots activism. Citizens who are tired of being
subjected to the dangers of pollution in their communities have been
confronting the power structures through organized protest, legal
actions, marches, civil disobedience, and other activities.
Racial minorities are often excluded from politics and urban planning (such as sea level rise
adaptation planning) so various perspectives of an issue are not
included in policy making that may affect these excluded groups in the
future.
In general, political participation in African American communities is
correlated with the reduction of health risks and mortality.
Other strategies in battling against large companies include public
hearings, the elections of supporters to state and local offices,
meetings with company representatives, and other efforts to bring about
public awareness and accountability.
In addressing this global issue, activists take to various social
media platforms to both raise awareness and call to action. The
mobilization and communication between the intersectional grassroots
movements where race and environmental imbalance meet has proven to be
effective. The movement gained traction with the help of Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat among other platforms. Celebrities
such as Shailene Woodley, who advocated against the Keystone XL Pipeline,
have shared their experiences including that of being arrested for
protesting. Social media has allowed for a facilitated conversation
between peers and the rest of the world when it comes to social justice
issues not only online but in face-to-face interactions correspondingly.
Studies
Studies
have been important in drawing associations and public attention by
exposing practices that cause marginalized communities to be more
vulnerable to environmental health hazards. Deserting the
Perpetrator-Victim Model of studying environmental justice issues, the
Economic/Environmental Justice Model utilized a sharper lens to study
the many complex factors, accompanied to race, that contributes to the
act of environmental racism and injustice.
For example, Lerner not only revealed the role of race in the division
of Diamond and Norco residents, but he also revealed the historical
roles of the Shell Oil Company,
the slave ancestry of Diamond residents, and of the history of white
workers and families that were dependent upon the rewards of Shell. Involvement of outside organizations, such as the Bucket Brigade and Greenpeace, was also considered in the power that the Diamond community had when battling for environmental justice.
In wartimes, environmental racism occurs in ways that the public
later learn about through reports. For example, Friends of the Earth
International's Environmental Nakba report brings attention to
environmental racism that has occurred in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Some Israeli practices include cutting off three days of water supply to refugee Palestinians and destroying farms.
Besides studies that point out cases of environmental racism,
studies have also provided information on how to go about changing
regulations and preventing environmental racism from happening. In a
study by Daum, Stoler and Grant on e-waste management in Accra, Ghana,
the importance of engaging with different fields and organizations such
as recycling firms, communities, and scrap metal traders are emphasized
over adaptation strategies such as bans on burning and buy-back schemes
that have not caused much effect on changing practices.
Studies have also shown that since environmental laws have become
prominent in developed countries, companies have moved their waste
towards the Global South. Less developed countries have fewer
environmental policies and therefore are susceptible to more
discriminatory practices. Although this has not stopped activism, it has
limited the effects activism has on political restrictions.
Procedural Justice
Current
political ideologies surrounding how to make right issues of
environmental racism and environmental justice are shifting towards the
idea of employing procedural justice.
Procedural justice is a concept that dictates the use of fairness in
the process of making decisions, especially when said decisions are
being made in diplomatic situations such as the allocation of resources
or the settling of disagreements. Procedural justice calls for a fair, transparent, impartial decision-making process with equal opportunity for all parties to voice their positions, opinions, and concerns.
Rather than just focusing on the outcomes of agreements and the effects
those outcomes have on affected populations and interest groups,
procedural justice looks to involve all stakeholders throughout the
process from planning through implementation. In terms of combating
environmental racism, procedural justice helps to reduce the
opportunities for powerful actors such as often-corrupt states or
private entities to dictate the entire decision-making process and puts
some power back into the hands of those who will be directly affected by
the decisions being made.
Activism
Activism
takes many forms. One form is collective demonstrations or protests,
which can take place on a number of different levels from local to
international. Additionally, in places where activists feel as though
governmental solutions will work, organizations and individuals alike
can pursue direct political action. In many cases, activists and
organizations will form partnerships both regionally and internationally
to gain more clout in pursuit of their goals.
Before the 1970s, communities of color recognized the reality of
environmental racism and organized against it. For example, the Black Panther Party organized survival programs that confronted the inequitable distribution of trash in predominantly black neighborhoods. Similarly, the Young Lords,
a Puerto Rican revolutionary nationalist organization based in Chicago
and New York City, protested pollution and toxic refuse present in their
community via the Garbage Offensive program. These and other
organizations also worked to confront the unequal distribution of open
spaces, toxic lead paint, and healthy food options. They also offered health programs to those affected by preventable, environmentally induced diseases such as tuberculosis. In this way, these organizations serve as precursors to more pointed movements against environmental racism.
Latino ranch laborers composed by Cesar Chavez
battled for working environment rights, including insurance from
harmful pesticides in the homestead fields of California's San Joaquin
Valley. In 1967, African-American understudies rioted in the streets of
Houston to battle a city trash dump in their locale which had killed two
kids. In 1968, occupants of West Harlem, in New York City, battled
unsuccessfully against the siting of a sewage treatment plant in their
neighborhood.
Efforts of activism have also been heavily influenced by women
and the injustices they face from environmental racism. Women of
different races, ethnicities, economic status, age, and gender are
disproportionately affected by issues of environmental injustice.
Additionally, the efforts made by women have historically been
overlooked or challenged by efforts made by men, as the problems women
face have been often avoided or ignored. Winona LaDuke
is one of many female activists working on environmental issues, in
which she fights against injustices faced by indigenous communities.
LaDuke was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2007 for her continuous leadership towards justice.
Artistic Expression
Several
artists explore the relationship between environment, power, and
culture through creative expression. Art can be used to bring awareness
to social issues, including environmental racism.
Be Dammed by Carolina Caycedo utilizes video elements,
photographs, paint, and mixed fabrics and papers in order to
contextualize the relationship between water and power in Latin America.
Her pieces comment on the indigenous view of water signifying
connection to nature and to each other, and how the privatization of
water impacts communities and ecosystems.
The series of works was born following a 2014 “Master Plan” for
expansion of extraction from the Magdelena river in Colombia - the plan
detailed the construction of 15 hydroelectric dams, and caused a surge
of foreign reliance on Colombian resources. Caycedo emphasizes the
interconnectedness of processes of colonialism, nature, extraction, and
indigeneity in her art.
Allison Janae Hamilton is an artist from the United States who
focuses her work on examining the social and political ideas and uses of
land and space, particularly in US Southern states.
Her work looks at who is affected by a changing climate, as well as the
unique vulnerability that certain populations have. Her work relies on
videos and photographs to show who is affected by global warming, and
how their different lived experiences lend different perspectives to
climate issues.
Environmental Reparations
Some scientists and economists have looked into the prospect of
Environmental Reparations, or forms of payment made to individuals who
are affected by industry presence in some way. Potential groups to be
impacted include individuals living in close proximity to industry,
victims of natural disasters, and climate refugees who flee hazardous
living conditions in their own country. Reparations can take many forms,
from direct payouts to individuals, to money set aside for waste-site
cleanups, to purchasing air monitors for low income residential
neighborhoods, to investing in public transportation, which reduces
green house gas emissions. As Dr. Robert Bullard writes,
"Environmental
Reparations represent a bridge to sustainability and equity...
Reparations are both spiritual and environmental medicine for healing
and reconciliation."
Policies and international agreements
The export of hazardous waste
to third world countries is another growing concern. Between 1989 and
1994, an estimated 2,611 metric tons of hazardous waste was exported
from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
countries to non-OECD countries. Two international agreements were
passed in response to the growing exportation of hazardous waste into
their borders. The Organization of African Unity (OAU)
was concerned that the Basel Convention adopted in March 1989 did not
include a total ban on the trans-boundary movement on hazardous waste.
In response to their concerns, on January 30, 1991, the Pan-African
Conference on Environmental and Sustainable Development adopted the
Bamako Convention banning the import of all hazardous waste into Africa
and limiting their movement within the continent. In September 1995, the
G-77 nations
helped amend the Basel Convention to ban the export of all hazardous
waste from industrial countries (mainly OECD countries and Lichtenstein) to other countries.
A resolution was signed in 1988 by the OA) which declared toxic waste
dumping to be a “crime against Africa and the African people”. Soon after, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) passed a resolution that allowed for penalties, such as life imprisonment, to those who were caught dumping toxic wastes.
Globalization and the increase in transnational agreements introduce possibilities for cases of environmental racism. For example, the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) attracted US-owned factories to Mexico, where toxic waste was abandoned in the Colonia Chilpancingo community and was not cleaned up until activists called for the Mexican government to clean up the waste.
Environmental justice movements have grown to become an important
part of world summits. This issue is gathering attention and features a
wide array of people, workers, and levels of society that are working
together. Concerns about globalization can bring together a wide range
of stakeholders including workers, academics, and community leaders for
whom increased industrial development is a common denominator”.
Many policies can be expounded based on the state of human
welfare. This occurs because environmental justice is obviously aimed at
creating safe, fair, and equal opportunity for communities and to
ensure things like redlining do not occur.
With all of these unique elements in mind, there are serious
ramifications for policy makers to consider when they make decisions.
.jpg)
.svg)
