What is Environmental Justice?
photo by Josh Grice/UW-Madison
Environmental Justice: The fair treatment for people of all races, cultures, and incomes, regarding the development of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. (As defined by the EPA).
Principles of
Environmental Justice
(Adopted at the People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit)
History of the
Environmental Justice Movement in the United States
The concept of Environmental Justice is relevant to industries and all levels of government. It encompasses the pursuit of justice and protection under the law without discriminations based on race, ethnicity, or income level. The environmental justice movement stresses community participation in the decision-making process and equal access to relief mechanisms regarding pollution.
In order to
understand environmental justice, we need to recognize environmental
injustice. Environmental injustice, or "environmental racism," is defined as
the disproportionate impact that pollution and toxins have on people of
color, indigenous peoples and poor people.
Studies have confirmed that a toxic or dangerous facility is more likely to
be located in a community of color (African American, American Indian/Alaska
Native, Latino or Asian and Pacific Islander) than in a white community.
These same communities that serve as dumping grounds for society’s waste are
also chronically denied a fair share of society’s goods, such as school
dollars, decent jobs, and public parks. Such inequalities are compounded by
the new rules of the global economy, which increasingly give more freedom to
large corporations but make it more difficult for communities to defend
themselves against negative environmental and economic consequences.
The good news is that there is now a movement of people across North America
working to change this. In addition to protecting our land, air and water,
this movement works to implement preventative public health programs and
provide urban and rural communities more control over their own resources by
encouraging them to speak for themselves.
The environmental justice movement prioritizes the protection of the
environment "where we live, work, play, go to school and pray." What we all
have in common is a commitment to build healthy communities.
The success of the movement means overall improvements for our environment
and better health and safety for everyone.
Brief History of the Environmental Justice Movement in the United States
The environmental justice movement has emerged over the last two decades as a result of increased awareness of the disproportionately high impacts of environmental pollution on economically and politically disadvantaged communities. It was the product of the intersection between the civil rights and environmental movements. The movement brought together issues of social, economic, and political marginalization of minorities and low-income communities, and concerns over pollution hazards in neighborhoods and in the workplace.
As numerous studies have proven, communities of color and low-income communities in the United States host an inordinate number of environmental hazards and bear a disproportionate impact of environmental irresponsibility. This is the essence of environmental injustice, which the movement for environmental justice seeks to eradicate from environmental policy, industry tactics and cultural practices.
It is historically recognized that the environmental justice movement took off in Warren County, N.C., when residents demonstrated against another landfill in their county. In a moving show of civil disobedience, activists from both the civil rights and environmental movements laid down in front of trucks carrying PCB-contaminated soil into the largely African-American Warren County - already inundated with more industry than any of the other counties in North Carolina. The Warren County demonstrations did not stop the new landfill, but they thrust the issue of environmental racism into the national spotlight and onto the political agenda.
In 1983, the United States General Accounting Office conducted a study of several Southern states that found three out of every four landfills were located near predominantly minority communities. In 1987, a Commission on Racial Justice report showed that the most significant factor in determining hazardous waste facility sites, nationwide, was race. The study also found that three out of every five African-Americans and Hispanics live in a community buttressing unregulated toxic waste sites.
In 1992, a National Law Journal report alleged EPA discrimination in enforcement, pointing out that federal fines were not as strict for industries operating in communities of color, and that clean-up of environmental disasters in these communities were slower than in wealthier, white communities and that standards for clean-up in communities of color were not as high. In response to these revelations, actions were taken toward a remedy of the reality of environmental racism in the United States. In 1991, the First National People of Color Leadership Summit met in Washington, D.C., and forged the Principles of Environmental Justice. The EPA established its Office of Environmental Justice in 1992. President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 in 1994, designating that 11 agencies are accountable for environmental justice. Shortly thereafter, the Interagency Group on Environmental Justice was established.
While strides have been made, environmental racism and inequity has not been accepted by many as a living truth. A University of Chicago study released in 1997 alleged that African-Americans were less, not more, likely to live near dumps, factories and waste sites than were whites. Studies such as this have inferred the notion of environmental racism is fabricated and poorly supported by studies and surveys. The intention, wrote Edward Rush, "is to bog down the proponents of environmental justice with a need to defend their existence, and convince those who are on the fence about this issue that it is an imaginary problem" ("Fact or Friction," 1997).
Those who work within the environmental justice movement know environmental inequity is not imagined. And those innumerable American residents of color and low-income, who live the reality of environmental racism every day, know it even better.