Essay #1: PCB Contamination on Warren County
Had I had the strength to do something, I would have tremored every part of my body as I witnessed the atrocity committed by the “midnight dumpers". As burns and the Ward Transformer Company laid waste to me and my body, I saw how the people that reside on me were harmed by the contamination of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). Though Burns and his business men were arrested soon after, they still had managed to get the last laugh. Since the late 1970s I became a toxic landfill full of contaminated byproducts where legislation and government failed to manage my wellbeing as well as protect the health of nearby residents. State officials were slow to react and I had to succumb to this contamination until finally, someone spoke up for me. With the unjust actions that happened against me, came a strong and empowering movement that would force government to stop
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By 1990, he wrote a book titled “Dumping in Dixie” as well as “Overcoming Racism in Environmental Decision Making”, where he proposed a framework for environmental justice. Bullard's work ultimately led to the convergence of social justice and environmental movements into what is called the environmental justice movement. From this movement, The 1991 First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit was created. The Summit aimed to broaden the environmental justice movement to further include issues of public health, worker safety, resource allocation and community empowerment ( Muller 2009). Since my incident, people finally began paying more attention to how they manage their built environment. People have rights to environmental protection and any sign of harmful impact should be prevented at all cost. Government eventually responded to this movement and created laws that would strengthen this
One of the first influences on the deliberation on Environmental Justice was The Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. fought hard to ensure that social transformation and power be established for African Americans, especially those in the southern states as well as those in the northern inner-city parts. Activists like King altered the philosophy on Environmental Justice arguing that there was a lopsided effect that proved that environmental hazards were not accidental. What environmentalists advocated instead was that environmental dangers resulted from racial segregation that placed power plants, nuclear plants, and other potential ecological hazards in areas with a high concentration of minority and low income groups. Several activists defined this as “environmental racism.”
By this time I had obtained courage to speak out against topics of that were controversial or even at the least uncomfortable for me. The class was structured around climate change and sustainable energy. There was harmonious agreement that water bottles were inefficient and not needed at the university. The opinion further spread to doing away with all water bottles because they were contributing to the decline of the environment. While I agreed water bottles were bad for the planet, I thought about times they were useful in third world countries,not only in third world countries but even in the United States. I was slightly upset because this was after the water crisis in Flint, Michigan had occurred. There was no mention of the importance of water bottles for those in crisis. I was also sensitive because I could recall a time where segregation forced people to drink from two separate fountains. Packages of water bottles were donated were being sent to families affected, I watched this story on the news. I watched this story because Flint, Michigan had a very high population of african-americans affected by this water contamination. Race in my mind, plays a valuable factor when it comes to climate change. The environmental justice movement had gone hand in hand with the civil rights movement. The environmental justice movement sought to stop the minority from paying the consequence of poor
In the book, Sacrifice Zones, Steve Lerner takes readers through twelve separate stories of communities in the United States that have been unwillingly exposed to high levels of environmental toxicity. In each of these cases, citizens of those communities reacted to and pushed back against being exposed to toxic chemicals, sometimes successfully and sometimes less so. In every case, the people most heavily exposed to these health hazards were minorities and low-income citizens, which, Lerner argues, is why government officials and corporate decision-makers chose knowingly to risk exposing them. This paper will outline Lerner’s book and argue that despite a long history of protests, lawsuits, media attention and nationwide outrage, willing exposure of low-income and minority Americans to toxic chemicals in the pursuit of government and corporate interests is still a major problem today.
Here the authors address an important solution; allow residents to hire their own experts from the community who are well versed in delivering the proponents message to the residents in a manner that does not exclude anyone from the process. The landfill began operating in 2006, as the proponents deemed there was not any substantive opposition to the project through official Environmental Impact Assessment (Deacon & Baxter, 2013). Deacon and Baxter in this case set out to understand the role and relation between power and participation as it relates to procedural environmental justice in order to challenge understanding of environmental justice and cease production and reproduction of environmental injustice. The residents protested as they felt they were being sacrificed for economic growth, “the landfill has become a symbol of the slow decline of the community of Lincolnville” (Race and Waste in Nova Scotia, 2006). They call this environmental racism, which is the racial discrimination in the enforcement of environmental rules and regulations, targeting minority communities for the siting of polluting industries or the exclusion of people of color from public and private boards, commissions and regulatory bodies (Race and Waste in Nova Scotia,
Environmental justice links a number of social movements—anti-racism, Aboriginals rights, and the mainstream environmental movement—and addresses the problem of environmental racism (Gosine & Teelucksignh, 2008, p. 11). The concept of environmental justice in the U.S was associated with the struggles over toxic waste sites and the call for equal treatment of all communities, radicalized or not (p. 9). It was about looking at human health rather than preserving areas deemed as “playgrounds for the rich.”
Right after the pollution happened, the State of Carolina decided to erect large warming signs telling people to have cautions on the PCBs. From public’s point of view, the PCBs had become a serious threat to health and soil condition. Consequently, State of Carolina found it really hard to deal with the polluted soil. A legal, long, and regulatory preparation had to be made. Finally, the state decided to landfill all the soil in the Warren County. As we can imagine people in the county would not
Bullard – 5 principles towards environmental justice: “guaranteeing the right to environmental protection, preventing harm before it occurs, shifting the burden of proof to the polluters, obviating proof of intent to discriminate, and redressing existing
The definition of “environmental racism” is laid out in Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer’s “Race in America” as, “any environmental policy, practice, or directive, that disproportionately disadvantages (intentionally or unintentionally) nonwhite communities” (Desmond and Emirbayer 196). These communities are often in close proximity to environmental hazards, are targets for waste dumps, and are at higher risk for harmful air and water pollution (196). Environmental racism has been formed over the decades, through the processes of redlining, blockbusting, and other housing discrimination practices, in efforts to keep people of
Robert Bullard defines environmental racism as “any policy, practice, or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages individuals, groups, or communities based on race or color” (Bullard 98). Racism basically creates differences in environmental quality in white and black communities. Governmental policies and industry practices often provide benefits to the white communities while shifting environmental costs onto people of color.
When one discusses acts of racism, slander or the stereotyping of a group of people may come to mind. However, the concept of environmental racism is rarely considered. This form of racism positions dominant environmental framing as racially driven, in which people of color (i.e. minorities) are affected disproportionately by poor environmental practices. Communities of color throughout the United States have become the dumping grounds for our nation’s waste disposal, as well as home to agricultural and/or manufacturing industries that pollute the land. Government regulations and cultural practices have all contributed to environmental racism. The government’s policies have also negatively impacted low income groups as well as people of
In the beginning of this essay I would like to present some facts and figures related to our topic. On December 3, 1984, at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India there was a deadly leak of methyl isocyanate. It caused thousands of people to die and affected generations to come. The leak happened due to a series of human and mechanical failures. The local health officials were neither knowledgeable about the deadly chemical that was being stored there nor were they equipped to handle the tragedy. Another incident happened at the Union Carbide plant in West Virginia. A toxic cloud of the same chemical was leaked into the atmosphere and it was a shocking reminder that such accidents could happen in the both developed and developing countries. The statistics prove that chemical spills occur on a regular basis in different parts of the world. In 1976 there were
The quality of life for these divided humans is hazardous. They can’t drink their own tap water because of harmful chemicals that are wondering around inside of it. Nor do they have a say as to petitioning these fracking companies from leaving their property. Even if these poverty-struck, colored people took this to the government. The government doesn’t and won’t get involved for certain unknown reasons so we rely on people like Jill Johnston and her crew to paint the picture for us who reveal the unimaginable information that they have collected in their
Environmental sociology began to emerge in conjunction with the environmental justice movement. Environmental sociology can be defined as the study of how human societies interact with their environment. One important individual, Dr. Robert Bullard, acted as a key person throughout the environmental justice movement. He served as a technical advisor on civil right lawsuits and is now a professor at Texas Southern University. Because of his research dedicated to environmental issues pertaining the African American community, he is known as the father of environmental justice. Under the umbrella of environmental sociology it discusses concepts such as environmental justice and environmental inequalities. When racial and socially marginalized
PCBs were once used in electrical gear, paints and flame retardants, but were banned from the 1970s because of their toxic effect in humans and animals. It impacts on human and animal health by causing cancer, suppressing immune system and causing reproductive problems. "Europe is a big big hotspot” scientists said and some populations of killer whales are facing extinction because of it. They also added that the global policymakers should act quickly and decisively to tackel the toxic legacy of PCBs, before it’s too late for the important marine predators to be extincted.
One of these aspects that results in the exclusion of people of color in the environmental movement is the lack of Black thought in environmental discourse. As a social construct, the terms nature and environment is able to take on definitions that can be changed and applied in a way that can apply to anyone who is in charge. Which is why, in part, the omission of Black bodies from discourse in environmental justice is sad, but not shocking. The exclusion of Black thought from environmental discourse is caused by the intentional exclusion of Black bodies by white environmentalist groups that do not define the “environment” in a way that is inclusive to Black people . One way they do this is by viewing the environment as something that is tangible or relating to non-human things such as air pollution, or saving trees and other things similar to that nature. Considering that these issues, while important, do not pervade Black life to the extent that living in clean houses, raising children, and ensuring safety for their family in toxic environments, the blanket definition of white environmentalism does not, and cannot, apply here . Yet, white environmentalists want to include Black people (predominantly women because of what they bring to the table ) in their movement, but they refuse to acknowledge the terms of Black environmentalism as an environmental movement. One reason that they refute these ideas could stem directly from the disproportionate socioeconomic status between Blacks and whites. This is evidenced in that many environmental activists are predominantly white upper class with above average income, while Blacks not only make considerably less money, but also live in housing shaped largely by federal housing politics, institutional and individual discrimination .