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  Reading Assignment

»  Chapter 13: Pages 312

»  Chapter 15: Pages 354-359

What is Environmental Justice?

  justice n. 1) fairness. 2) moral rightness. 3) a scheme or system of law in which every person receives his/her/its due from the system, including all rights, both natural and legal.

"   environment n.

"   1. The circumstances or conditions that surround one; surroundings.

"   2. The totality of circumstances surrounding an organism or group of organisms, especially:

-  a. The combination of external physical conditions that affect and influence the growth, development, and survival of organisms.

-  b. The complex of social and cultural conditions affecting the nature of an individual or community.

  The EPA defines environmental justice as

“ the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws regulations, and policies”.

  What is Environemtal Justice (EJ)?

»  Benjamin J. Chavis defined Environmental racism as “Racial discrimination in environmental policy making and the unequal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. It is the deliberate targeting of people of color communities for toxic waste facilities and the official sanctioning of a life-threatening

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presence of poisons and pollutants in people of color communities. It is also manifested in the history of excluding people of color from the leadership of the environmental movement.”

1.  Distributive justice calls for the fair allocation of the benefits and burdens of natural resource exploitation among and within nations.

2.  Procedural justice requires open, informed and inclusive decision-making processes.

3.  Corrective justice imposes an obligation to provide compensation for historic inequities and to refrain from repeating the conduct that caused the harm.

4.  Social justice recognizes that environmental struggles are inextricably intertwined with struggles for social and economic justice.

  3 Branches of U.S. Government:

»  1. Legislative (Congress)- Makes Laws

»  2. Executive (President)- Enforces the Law

»  3. Judiciary (Courts)- Interprets the law

  Agencies are under the Executive Branch and write regulations which are used to enforce the laws.

  Every regulation has to be base on the law.

  In writing regulations, agencies engage in Quasi Legislative Activities, i.e. they act as if they are writing laws.

  1. Proposed regulation written by agency based on the Law (ACT) e.g. regulations for

the Clean Water Act are based on the Act which is passed by Congress.

  2. Publics Hearing or Comment requested.

  3. Modification made from public hearing

  4. Final Rule published in the Federal Register.

  Some Facts

»  1. The largest commercial hazardous waste land fill in the United States is located in Emelle, AL

»  2. Ketlleman, CA, was chosen as the site for the state’s first commercial hazardous- waste incinerator

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»  3. A Chocktaw reservation in Philadelphia, MS, was chosen to become the home of a

466-acre hazardous–waste landfill

  What do these place have in common?

  What do these place have in common?

»  1. They are considered to be appropriate locations for hazardous waste disposal

»  2. They are predominantly populated by people of color.

»  African Americans make up 90% of Emelle’s population

»  Hispanic make up 95% of Kettleman’s population.

»  The Chocktaw nation is entirely native American

  1979: Houston group sues over landfill.

  1982: More than 500 people were arrested in Warren County, NC when they protested over a landfill intended to hold PCB-contaminated soil. Those arrested included the Washington, D.C. delegate to Congress

  1983: Government report finds hazardous waste bias: Analysis of GAO found three of the four largest hazardous waste site in black communities.

  1987: Church of Christ Study finds “environmental racism” a national problem.

-  Study showed that minorities represents the major groups in communities with hazardous waste sites

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  1990: EPA takes up Environmental Justice:

EPA administration in Bush administration

establishes the Environmental Equity Workgroup.

  1991: The first National people of Color Environmental Leadership Summit was held in Washington, D.C.

»  Attracts more than 650 grass-roots and national workers representing about 300 groups

  1993: EPA accepts first civil rights complaint. Case in Louisiana filed by Tulane University Law Clinic.

  EPA forms the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. This a group of activists, local officials, and industry experts intended to serve as advisers.

  1994: President Clinton signs environmental justice executive order 12898.

  1998: EPA releases Environmental Justice “Guidance”

»  The executive order 12898 directed 17 federal agencies develop environmental justice strategies to aid federal agencies identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of their programs, policies or activities on minority and low income populations.

  Some recommendations by Activists :

»  Learn culture of each special stakeholder group.

»  Use local-community based leadership for entry into affected communities

»  Resist temptation to do business as usual

»  Create real partnerships with people in affected area

  1. Citizens for Environmental Justice

»  Mainly African American

»  CFEJ educates , organizes and mobilizes community

»  Serves as an information clearinghouse

  2. Southern Committee for Environmental Justice

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"   The global economy is currently exceeding ecological limits, producing a variety of destructive impacts

"   i.e.-climate change, desertification, deforestation, degradation of arable land, freshwater shortages, depletion of fish stocks, unprecedented species extinction, and widespread chemical contamination of air, land, and water.

"   The United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment human economic activity has produced more rapid and severe ecosystem degradation than in any comparable era.

"   The loss of ecosystem services intensifies poverty and exacerbates inequality. Ecosystem degradation will also impact future generations’ use of natural resources.

"   Global North vs. Global South

"   20 percent of the world’s population consumes approximately:

"   85% of the planet’s timber, 70% of its energy, and 60% of its food, > 90 percent of the world’s annual production of hazardous waste, some of which is exported to Southern countries

"   Who foots the bill?

"   Environmental Justice: North and South

"   We utilize a four-part conception of environmental justice consisting of:

"   distributive justice, procedural justice, corrective justice, and social justice.

-  Distributive justice calls for the fair allocation of the benefits and burdens of natural resource exploitation among and within nations.

"   Procedural justice requires open, informed and inclusive decision-making processes.

"   The North dominates decision-making in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and multilateral environmental treaty for as a consequence of its greater economic and political clout.

"   Corrective justice imposes an obligation to provide compensation for historic inequities and to refrain from repeating the conduct that caused the harm.

-  Corrective injustice is evident in the plight of small island states whose very existence is threatened by climate change, but who possess no legal mechanism to obtain compensation or cessation of the harmful conduct.

"   Social justice recognizes that environmental struggles are inextricably intertwined with struggles for social and economic justice.

"   In addition, North-South environmental conflicts reflect broader social injustice because they are inextricably intertwined with colonial and post-colonial economic policies that impoverished the global South and facilitated the North’s appropriation of its natural resources.

"   Environmental injustice is intricately tied to the ideas of economic inequality, race and gender subordination, as well as colonial and post-colonial oppression of the global South

"  Mining in South Africa, Burkina Faso, Ghana…

"  Disappearing Islands-Carterel (Sun Come Up-HBO Documentary)

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  Greening the economy refers to the process of reconfiguring businesses and infrastructure to deliver better returns on natural, human and economic capital investments, while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions, extracting and using less natural resources, creating less waste and reducing social disparities.1

1. Green Economy Initiative of the United Nations Environmental Progamme. http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/

  Renewable Energy

-  solar, wind, geothermal, marine and fuel cell

  Green Jobs

-  Renewable energy, water management, clean transportation, green building land management, and waste management