Environmental Justice

Watch

• Endocrine disruption, environmental justice, and the ivory tower | Tyrone Hayes | TEDxBerkeley ↗TEDx Talks
• Toward Environmental Justice ↗Young, Gifted & Green
• Could 'degrowth' save the world? | BBC News ↗BBC News
• This is just how unfair climate change is ↗DW Planet A
• The Environmental Injustice of Lead Poisoning | Earth Focus ↗PBS SoCal
• We’re all contaminated: The toxin inside us — PFAS | People & Power Documentary ↗Al Jazeera English

Read

• Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality ↗This seminal work meticulously documents how racial and socioeconomic factors dictate the geography of pollution, laying the intellectual groundwork for the environmental justice movement.Robert D. Bullard
• From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement ↗A critical examination of the movement's legal and political evolution, this book provides essential insights into community-led struggles against environmental inequality and their broader implications for policy.Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster
• A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind ↗This compelling investigation reveals the devastating, often hidden, cognitive and developmental impacts of environmental racism on marginalized communities, highlighting a profound societal cost.Harriet A. Washington
• Defining Environmental JusticeThis concise yet comprehensive article offers a foundational understanding of environmental justice, delineating its core principles, historical trajectory, and evolving theoretical frameworks.David Schlosberg
• Environmental Justice in the 21st Century: Race, Class, and the EnvironmentBullard, a pioneer in the field, updates his analysis, examining the enduring challenges and future directions of the environmental justice movement amidst new global and domestic complexities.Robert D. Bullard

Voices to follow

• Robert Bullard ↗Widely considered the 'father of environmental justice', his pioneering research meticulously documented the racial disparities in environmental burden, fundamentally shaping the field.Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy, Texas Southern University
• Mary Robinson ↗A global stateswoman, she tirelessly advocates for climate justice, framing environmental challenges as fundamental human rights issues for the world's most vulnerable.Former President of Ireland; Chair, The Elders
• Van Jones ↗A prominent voice for 'green jobs' and inclusive environmentalism, he champions solutions that address both ecological crises and economic inequality in disadvantaged communities.Environmental advocate; Co-founder, Dream Corps
• Heather McTeer Toney ↗Her extensive experience in environmental policy and community advocacy offers practical insights into advancing equitable climate solutions and empowering frontline communities.Former Regional Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Senior Advisor, Moms Clean Air Force

Glossary

• AdvocacyAdvocacy means actively supporting or arguing for a cause, idea, or policy, often on behalf of a group or community. For example, a student group advocating for better recycling programs at their school is practicing advocacy.
• Climate JusticeClimate Justice recognizes that the impacts of climate change, like extreme weather or rising sea levels, affect different people unfairly, especially those who contributed least to the problem but are most vulnerable. For example, small island nations that produce very little carbon emissions but are losing land to rising oceans are experiencing climate injustice.
• Community EngagementCommunity Engagement is the process of working with groups of people in a local area to address issues, make decisions, and create positive change together. For example, when a city council holds public meetings to get feedback from residents about a new park design, that's community engagement.
• Disproportionate ImpactDisproportionate Impact means that a certain group of people experiences much more harm or negative effects from something than other groups. For example, if a new highway causes much more noise and air pollution for one specific neighborhood than for others, that neighborhood is experiencing a disproportionate impact.
• Environmental JusticeEnvironmental Justice means that everyone, no matter their background, race, or income, deserves to live in a clean and healthy environment and have a say in decisions that affect their surroundings. For example, it means a neighborhood with many low-income families shouldn't have more polluting factories than a wealthy neighborhood.
• Environmental RacismEnvironmental Racism is when harmful environmental problems, like pollution or toxic waste sites, are unfairly placed in areas where people of color or minority groups live. For example, if a new landfill is always built near a predominantly Black or Indigenous community, but rarely near a predominantly white community, that's environmental racism.
• EquityEquity means giving everyone what they need to succeed and thrive, recognizing that different people might need different kinds of support to reach the same outcome. For example, if some students need extra tutoring or special learning tools to do well in a subject, providing those resources is about equity, not just giving everyone the same textbook.
• Pollution BurdenPollution Burden refers to the total amount of pollution and environmental hazards that a specific community or area has to deal with. For example, a neighborhood located near a chemical plant, a busy highway, and a waste treatment facility would have a high pollution burden.
• Vulnerable CommunitiesVulnerable Communities are groups of people who are more likely to be harmed by environmental problems because of things like their income, health, age, or where they live. For example, a community located in a flood zone with limited resources to evacuate or rebuild after a storm is a vulnerable community.

Threads 5

Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Natural Hazards and Disaster Geography Geography

  The same size earthquake can kill dozens in a rich country and thousands in a poor one right next door. The ground shook the same; what differed was who could afford safe buildings and fast rescue. So a 'natural disaster' death toll actually measures human choices and inequality, not just geology.

• International Trade & Global Finance Economics

  Toxic waste and dirty factories tend to flow toward poor countries, and that's not a glitch, it's the math working as designed. Because harm is 'priced' cheaper where wages are low, the cold cost-benefit calculation quietly decides the poor should absorb the world's poison. Trade doing exactly what it was built to do can still be deeply unfair.

• Ethics and Moral Philosophy Philosophy

  A philosopher named Rawls had a test: design society without knowing who you'll be born as, rich or poor, before you're allowed in. Nobody playing fair like that would ever choose the pollution setup we actually have, where the poor breathe the worst air. Environmental unfairness is basically what happens when we forget to run that test.

• Slavery, Race & Rights History

  In the 1930s, officials drew maps marking Black neighborhoods as 'hazardous' so banks would refuse them loans. Those exact areas got fewer trees and more hot asphalt, and today they literally run hotter, by real degrees, on a summer day. A racist map from 90 years ago is now something you can measure with a thermometer.

• Electric Vehicles Technology

  An electric car has no tailpipe, but it doesn't erase pollution so much as move it. The dirty part shifts to the mines where its battery metals are dug up. Clean air on a rich city street, poisoned ground near a poor mining town.