Environmental Inequality and Environmental Justice Flashcards
What was the significance of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring?
Drew public attention to widespread chemical contamination of both our environments and bodies.
“For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death,” Carson wrote.
What is the environmental justice framework?
A theoretical and methodological approach to examining the uneven ways in which pollution and other environmental hazards are distributed among particular social groups, communities, and regions
What three features define neoliberalism?
- Free trade
- Free markets
- Expansion of private property
What are the two claims regarding the relationship between environmental pollution and race and class that are part of the environmental justice framework?
- Racial and ethnic minorities, low-income people, and indigenous peoples are more likely to live close to hazardous environmental facilities and that their communities continue to be the targets for the siting and growth of “dirty industries.”
- With an increased awareness regarding the relationship between environmental pollution and health problems, it has become increasingly difficult to site hazardous or dirty industries in middle-class white communities.
Who found that race continues to be an independent predictor of where hazardous wastes are located, strong than income, education, and other socioeconomic indicators? What was the “first” study?
Robert Bullard and colleagues, using 2000 Census data; Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States report by the United Church of Christ Commission on Racial Justice
Who wrote that a nuclear landscape encompasses most of the Southwest?
Valerie Kuletz
What is part of the nuclear landscape in the Southwest, and how does it relate to environmental justice?
Large land masses for uranium mining and milling, the testing of high-tech weaponry, and waste repositories that include weapons stockpiles and nuclear production facilities. This region is home to the majority of land-based Native Americans today.
What is environmental inequality defined as?
A situation in which a specific group is disproportionately affected by negative environmental conditions brought on by unequal laws, regulations, and policies.
In what three ways is environmental racism demonstrated?
- Deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities
- The official sanctioning of poisons and pollutants in minority communities
- The systematic exclusion of people of color from leadership roles in decisions regarding the production of environmental conditions that affect their lives and livelihoods
What happened in 1982?
A major protest staged in Warren County, North Carolina over a PCB landfill in a majority African American town. Several hundred protestors (many high-profile civil rights activists) were arrested. Put environmental justice on the political agenda.
What happened in 1983, one year after the events of Warren County?
The US General Accounting Office conducted a study of several Southern states and found that a disproportionate amount of landfills were located near predominantly minority communities. Race was the most significant factor in determining where waste facilities were located.
