Addressing Environmental Racism: The Complex Battle for Climate Justice
Addressing Environmental Racism: The Complex Battle for Climate Justice
Environmental racism might sound like a hard concept to understand but in reality, it’s an urgent issue affecting millions of people around the world. Whether due to historical marginalization or the spread of differing climates, global warming and other phenomena can hugely play into the environmental discrimination of communities.
We’ve put together this blog to break down the concept of environmental or climate racism in more detail, shedding some light on its history, exploring notable examples, and expanding on the fight for environmental justice.
Understanding Environmental Racism
Environmental racism can be hard to grasp, but the basics of it refer to the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color, lower-income communities, and any other marginalized groups. It’s important to note that it encompasses the influence of polluting industries, waste sites, and other hazardous facilities on these communities. It’s also notable that the term “racism” doesn’t mean that this topic is entirely based on color divides, this just happens to be the case in many areas.
Historical Context
The term "environmental racism" first came into the lexicon in the 1960s during the rise of the environmental justice movement. Activists highlighted the reality that communities of color were more likely to live near harmful industrial activities and waste disposal sites, whether by conscious design or institutional neglect. It’s important to note that the issues seemed to be mostly impacting urban ghettos, rural “poverty pockets”, and Native-American reservations.
Notable Events in the Environmental Justice Movement
1982 Warren County, North Carolina: This rural, predominantly African American community became a landmark in the environmental justice movement when residents protested against the siting of a PCB landfill. The protests, though unsuccessful in preventing the construction of the landfill, brought national attention to the issue of environmental racism.
1991 First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit: This summit was another pivotal moment, bringing together activists from across the United States to discuss environmental justice, helping to catalyze further awareness. The summit also resulted in the drafting of the Principles of Environmental Justice – 17 concepts that continue to guide the movement today.
Key Issues and Impacts of Environmental Racism
So what are the consequences of environmental racism? The relationship between racism and the environment inspires a range of issues that need to be considered in the pursuit of equality and justice.
Health Impacts: Communities affected by environmental racism often suffer from higher rates of chronic health conditions. For example, children in these areas are more likely to develop asthma due to poor air quality caused by nearby industrial activities. Additionally, prolonged exposure to pollutants can lead to various types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
Economic Consequences: Properties in areas with high pollution levels often have lower values, with businesses being less likely to invest in these zones, limiting the wealth accumulation potential for residents. Furthermore, the aforementioned health issues from environmental hazards can lead to increased medical expenses and lost income due to illness, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
Lack of Representation: Marginalized communities frequently lack representation in environmental policy-making processes, meaning their voices and concerns are often overlooked in decisions about industrial siting, waste disposal, and pollution regulation. As a result, policies that protect these communities from environmental hazards are generally either weak or non-existent.
Increased Vulnerability to Disasters: Communities suffering from climate racism are more vulnerable to disasters. This can be due to factors such as low-income areas having less resilient infrastructure. It can also be due to the increased post-disaster pollution of industrial waste, lower-income areas being more disaster-prone zones (coastal, etc), and recovery efforts being less comprehensive.
It’s clear to see that climate and racial justice are more intrinsically tied than might seem obvious, with marginalized communities often taking the brunt of poor environmental care.
Factors that Contribute to Environmental Racism
So how does a phenomenon like environmental racism come around? Racism is generally associated with despicable individuals with worldviews informed by prejudice – however, environmental racism is a slightly more abstract yet engrained concept. Environmental discrimination can come as a result of actively segregating practices or from the broader consequences of industrial capitalism.
Segregation and Redlining: Historical policies, such as segregation and redlining, play a significant role in environmental racism. Redlining, a discriminatory practice where banking, insurance, and access to jobs were denied to people based on racial or ethnic composition, forced them into less desirable and more industrially zoned neighborhoods. These areas were often chosen for the siting of hazardous industries and waste facilities, exposing residents to higher levels of environmental toxins.
Industrial Zoning: Industrial zoning practices have historically favored the placement of polluting industries in or near low-income and minority neighborhoods. This strategic siting is often justified on the basis of economic efficiency or availability of cheap land. However, it disproportionately exposes marginalized communities to environmental hazards.
Political Power: Another critical factor is the lack of political influence in marginalized communities. These communities have historically had less capacity to resist or negotiate against the placement of harmful industries in their neighborhoods. Limited political clout means they struggle to advocate for stricter environmental regulations or to enforce laws that could protect them from injustices.
Climate Racism: Similar to the impacts of Industrial Zoning, the impacts of climate change are having more of an impact on less developed countries. The statistic, as delivered by the World Economic Forum is “The lowest income countries produce one-tenth of emissions, but are the most heavily impacted by climate change”, showing just how problematic the discrepancy is.
By understanding these contributing factors, we can better grasp the overarching nature of environmental racism and the challenges faced by affected communities.
Real-World Examples of Environmental Racism
It’s all well and good understanding the link between civil rights and environmental justice in theory but to properly grasp the concept, it’s important to recognize core historic examples. These concrete occurrences show just how diverse and significant the impacts of eco-discrimination can be.
Flint Water Crisis
The Flint water crisis unfolded when the city of Flint, Michigan, switched its water source to the Flint River in 2014. Due to inadequate water treatment, lead leached from old pipes into the water supply, exposing residents—predominantly African American and low-income—to dangerously high levels of lead, leading to widespread health issues, including neurological damage in children. The crisis highlighted systemic failures in regulation and disproportionately impacted a vulnerable community.
Cancer Alley
Cancer Alley refers to an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, home to numerous petrochemical plants and refineries. The predominantly African American communities living here face heightened risks of cancer and respiratory diseases due to exposure to toxic emissions and pollutants from these industries. Despite community protests and health concerns, regulatory oversight remains inadequate, perpetuating environmental injustices.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe:
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests gained international attention in 2016 when the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their allies opposed the construction of an oil pipeline near their reservation in North Dakota. The tribe argued that the pipeline threatened their water supply and sacred lands, underscoring broader issues of tribal sovereignty and the disproportionate burden of environmental risks on Indigenous communities. Despite these objections – the pipeline was completed.
The Zambian Drought
The general environmental state of Zambia clearly demonstrates the racial and international injustice of climate change. The average carbon footprint of a Zambian is very low, coming in at just 0.36 tonnes per person per year – less than one-tenth of the average UK citizen. Nevertheless, the country is facing a long-term environmental disaster brought around by global warming, including a prolonged drought which left over a million people in need of food assistance in 2021.
These varied impacts only scratch the surface of how environmental issues can disproportionately impact marginalized communities. They also demonstrate that the impacts can be more direct as a result of oversight or more cumulative after years of industrial development.
The Principles of Environmental Justice
So how can the global community combat environmental racism? There are some principles that lead the environmental justice movement, which can be applied in a variety of contexts and initiatives.
- Equity: Environmental justice demands fair and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, in environmental policies and decision-making.
- Prevention: To effectively address environmental racism, it is essential to focus on preventing environmental hazards before they occur – identifying and mitigating the root causes of pollution and environmental degradation.
- Community Involvement: Central to environmental justice is the call for meaningful community involvement, ensuring that those directly impacted by environmental hazards have a voice in shaping policies and decisions that affect their lives.
The formal Principles of Environmental Justice – 17 points layed out at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit – touch on all these elements with more specific focuses, such as forms of pollution.
Policy and Legal Framework
Despite all the issues described in this piece, there are pieces of policy and legislative bodies in place to protect marginalized communities from enviromental harm.
EPA and Environmental Justice
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plays a crucial role through its Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. This office works to ensure that all communities, particularly those facing disproportionate environmental burdens, have access to information, resources, and opportunities to participate in environmental decision-making processes.
Executive Orders
Executive Order 12898, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, directs federal agencies to consider environmental justice in their policies, programs, and activities, identifying and addressing the impacts of their actions on vulnerable communities. This landmark order aims to prevent minority and low-income populations from bearing a disproportionate share of environmental risks and harms. This Executive Order was revitalized in 2023 by Joe Biden in E.O. 14096.
Civil Rights Legislation
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. While not innately connected to the environment, this provision has been instrumental in addressing environmental racism by allowing communities to challenge discriminatory environmental practices and policies that disproportionately harm marginalized groups.
These legislative elements show that there is a framework in which environmental justice can be pursued at an official level, however, there are still significant challenges that stand in the way of widespread change.
Challenges and Barriers to Environmental Justice
The obstacles in the way of environmental justice include:
- Economic Interests: Industries will almost always prioritize profit over environmental and social concerns. Powerful industries lobby policymakers, influence regulatory decisions, and perpetuate injustices by siting hazardous facilities in marginalized communities.
- Political Resistance: Gaining political support for environmental justice is challenging due to competing interests, ideological divides, and industry influence. Policymakers often resist regulations that threaten economic growth or corporate interests.
- Resource Limitations: Marginalized communities often face resource constraints, such as limited access to legal expertise, technology for environmental monitoring, and funding for community organizing all of which can weaken efforts to address inequalities.
Even with the presence of legislation to protect marginalized communities, the barriers towards wider spread justice are so engrained into Western culture that the pursuit for positivity will take the mobilization of more than just government bodies. In reality, the global community needs better access to education, advocacy programs, and data collection technology, so the fight against environmental racism can be better organized.
The Need to Engage with the Environmental Community
Environmental racism remains a persistent and pervasive issue that disproportionately impacts marginalized communities worldwide. It’s clear from the stateside examples and global impacts of climate change that the world requires widespread mobilization if it wants to truly do away with this unfortunate phenomenon.
One way that we can all improve is by engaging with the global environmental community, such as at Disasters Expo USA. This event is focused on platforming environmental specialists from across the world, focusing primarily on preparation, response, and recovery in the instance of man-made disasters and extreme weather events. As we know, these events tend to impact at-risk, marginalized communities more intensely, showing just how important it is for people at various levels to engage in these sorts of gatherings.
The expo will feature an extensive Exhibition Hall, showcasing the latest in disaster response technology and service-offering, along with an impressive lineup of Guest Speakers, touching on a wide range of environmental issues. It’s truly an essential event for anyone looking to engage with the environmental community in a meaningful way.