ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE |
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NATIONAL EDUCATION SCIENCE STANDARD ADDRESSED (5-8th grade): Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Content Standard F
PURPOSE:
OBJECTIVES:
OVERVIEW: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines environmental justice as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. According to EPA, fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies. Meaningful involvement means that: (1) people have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may affect their environment and/or health; (2) the public’s contribution can influence the regulatory agency's decision; (3) their concerns will be considered in the decision making process; and (4) the decision makers seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected. The environmental justice movement began in the United States in 1982 in Warren County, North Carolina. The Afton community in Warren County was the location of a PCB landfill that was permitted to be created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Toxic Substances Control Act. The site selected was not scientifically the most suitable location for the landfill due to the very shallow water table that supplies all of the drinking water to the community. However, its construction was still allowed. In addition to the location of the landfill not being scientifically sound, other careless mistakes occurred. For example, the landfill was technically designed to be a “dry-tomb” landfill, but was capped with a million gallons of water. Residents of the Afton community organized themselves and began protesting
the landfill posing their community. The protests prompted the Congressional
Black Caucus to request that the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO)
investigate hazardous waste landfill siting and the racial composition
of the host communities. The 1983 GAO study, In 1987, the Commission for Racial Justice produced the first national study to correlate waste facility sites and demographic characteristics. Race was found to be the most potent variable in predicting where these facilities were located. In 1991, The First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit was held in Washington, DC. At this summit, the environmental justice movement was broadened to include issues of public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, housing, resource allocation, and community empowerment. Delegates came from all fifty states, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and the Marshall Islands. On October 27, 1991, delegates adopted 17 “Principles of Environmental Justice.” Since then, The Principles have served as a defining document for the growing grassroots movement for environmental justice. In 1992, The U.S. EPA investigated environmental risks to communities of color and published the final report, Reducing Risks for All Communities. On February 11, 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898 "Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations“ CLASSROOM ACTIVITES: The University of Michigan provides a website where several dozen environmental justice case studies are documented. This site was constructed by college-level students in an environmental justice class and descriptions of domestic and international case studies are available. Each case study includes a description and background on the problem, the demographics of the region where the case occurred, strategies that citizens took along with their successes and failures, how the case was resolved, and recommendations for future courses of action.
Domestic and International Environmental Justice Case Studies involving
aquatic environments:
International
Have students take on the role of actual players in the environmental justice scenarios presented in the case studies. Conduct classroom discussions in the format of a courtroom drama or a meeting between involved parties seeking mediation with the intent of seeking a resolution to the problem presented in the case studies. The important roles taken by members of the media, politicians, researchers, and private and public agencies and how each of these groups interacted with the affected citizens are highlighted in the cases Activity 2 Have students develop their own environmental justice case study based on information obtained from the Scorecard website (www.scorecard.org). “Appendix: Principles of Environmental Justice." In Toxic Struggles: The Theory and Practice of Environmental Racism, edited by Richard Hofrichter, 235-239. Philadelphia, PA.: New Society Publishers 1993. Bullard, Robert. “Anatomy of Environmental Racism." In Toxic Struggles: The Theory and Practice of Environmental Racism, edited by Richard Hofrichter, 25-35. Philadelphia, PA.: New Society Publishers 1993. Bullard R., (2004, January). Environmental Racism PCB Landfill Finally Remedied But No Reparations for Residents. Retrieved July 15, 2005, from Clark Atlanta University, Environmental Justice Resource Center: http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/warren%20county%20rdb.htm Bullard R., Poverty, Pollution and Environmental Racism: Strategies for Building Health and Sustainable Communities. Retrieved July 15, 2005, from Clark Atlanta University, Environmental Justice Resource Center: http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/PovpolEj.html U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice website: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/index.html |