Social change and environmental change go hand in hand. When you bike to work instead of driving, or when you repair your computer instead of buying a new one, you not only contribute to the health of our environment, but also to the well being of people both near and far. The production and disposal of dirty products (like cars and ) can make life miserable for many poor communities that too often carry the brunt of the consequences of the middle and upper class lifestyles. The leftovers of dirty practices just aren’t spread evenly over communities.
Environmental justice is the basic right to a clean and healthy environment. Justice will be attained when everyone has the right to participate in environmental decision making and when poor or marginalized communities get a fair share of the earth’s resources and don’t suffer disproportionately from negative environmental impacts. The concept of environmental justice emerged in the United States in the 1980s. Some say that the movement began in Warren County, North Carolina in 1982, when county residents lay in front of 10,000 truckloads of contaminated PCB soil that was headed for a newly constructed landfill in their neighborhood.1 At the time, 69% of local residents were non-Caucasian in race and 20% were below the federal poverty level.2 In the editorial “Dumping on the Poor,” the Washington Post described the nonviolent protest as “the marriage of environmentalism and civil rights.” After six weeks of protests, about 550 people were arrested. Governor Jim Hunt promised to detoxify the landfill when technology became available. Two decades and $18 million later, the landfill was finally detoxified.3
In other parts of the country, environmental injustice continues to this day. The 100-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana is home to 138 petrochemical companies (Texaco, Dow, Dupont, to name a few).4 The locals call it “Cancer Alley.” In 2002 Louisiana had the second-highest death rate from cancer in the United States. According to a 1987 report “in the tiny community of St. Gabriel, Louisiana… there were fifteen cancer victims in a two-block stretch. Half a mile away, there were seven cancer victims living on one block.”5 St. Gabriel is 72% African American, and almost a quarter of the population is below the poverty line.6 This trend of environmental racism prevails nationwide. Majora Carter, an environmental justice advocate, says that, as a black person, she is five times more likely than a white person to live within walking distance of a power plant or chemical facility. And she does in fact live within walking distance.7 Carter adds, “If power plants, waste handling, chemical plants and transport systems were located in wealthy areas as quickly and easily as in poor areas, we would have had a clean, green economy decades ago.”8
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The issue of environmental justice extends far beyond the borders of the United States. In fact, much of what goes on in the U.S. contributes to injustice outside the country. In China, men, women, and children are picking through that is illegally shipped more than 7,000 miles from the U.S. According to a 60 Minutes report from the small town of Guiyu, “[w]omen were heating circuit boards over a coal fire, pulling out chips and pouring off the lead solder. …Pollution has ruined the town. Drinking water is trucked in. Scientists have studied the area and discovered that Guiyu has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. They found pregnancies are six times more likely to end in miscarriage, and that seven out of ten kids have too much lead in their blood.”10 The people of Guiyu likely won’t run of waste to sort through anytime soon. We Americans throw out 130,000 computers every day.11
In North America, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia, people consume resources (like oil and metals) and produce waste (like greenhouse gases and plastics) at a rate about 32 times higher than in the developing world.12 These high levels of consumption accelerate global environmental problems such as , which most affects those that contribute the least to global emissions. The average Kenyan, for example, confronts the effects of climate change every day. Kenya is parched; Leina Mpoke, a climate change adviser with the charity Concern Worldwide says:
In the past we used to have regular 10-year climatic cycles which were always followed by a major drought. In the 1970s we started having droughts every seven years; in the 1980s they came about every five years and in the 1990s we were getting droughts and dry spells almost every two or three years. Since 2000 we have had three major droughts and several dry spells. Now they are coming almost every year, right across the country.13
Public reservoirs have dried up. Food prices have doubled. Some families haven’t had crops in nearly seven years. Because of hunger, violence has increased. The Gaurdian writes that some nomads, who have watched their cattle die of starvation, now live in temporary “shelters made from branches covered with plastic sheeting. They look like survivors from an earthquake or a flood, but in fact these are some of the world’s first climate-change refugees.”14
Fortunately, where there is environmental injustice, there are activists that are spearheading a change. Majora Carter recently convinced New York City to construct the South Bronx Greenway in The Bronx, where Carter grew up and where nearly a third of residents are below the poverty line. The Greenway will be home to nearly 12 acres of new waterfront open space and will gradually restore shoreline ecosystems. It will foster community, economic development, and outdoor enjoyment.16
You, too, can create change. By resisting a new gadget, you won’t contribute to lead poisoning or contaminated drinking water. By riding a bicycle to work, you’ll fork out less bucks to petrochemical giants in Cancer Alley. By reducing, reusing, and recycling, you really will improve your life, the health of the planet, and the lives of others.
