Environmental Justice Matters
We are seeing rising temperatures, and bizarre weather (think: Dubai had its heaviest rainfall in 75 years earlier this week). The climate crisis is becoming more serious every day.
Monday, April 22 is Earth Day. Since 1970, the U.S. has recognized this annual event which seeks to bring together the world in support of the environment and our collective need to save Mother Earth.
Yes, Earth Day is significant but we would be remiss not to reflect on the global need to ensure that everyone has environmental protections. Historically, communities comprised of marginalized racial/ethnic groups, low socioeconomics, rural, immigrant/refugee, and indigenous populations have been affected by environmental racism and injustices. These groups often live in areas disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards, unhealthy land uses, and systemic racism. All these issues also drive environmental health disparities.
Environmental racism has plagued American communities for centuries! While environmental racism has been present for a long time in our country, below are stark more recent examples that show the gravity of this devastating issue:
In the 60s, sanitation workers in Memphis, TN took action against unfair treatment and environmental justice concerns. The strike advocated for fair pay and better working conditions for workers and was the first time that Black Americans mobilized a national, broad-based group to oppose environmental injustices. Also, United Farm Workers demonstrations in California in 1962 connected worker illness to pesticides.
Residents of a majority-Black neighborhood in Houston fought to block landfill construction on civil rights grounds. Additionally, a toxic waste dump was built in a majority-Black neighborhood in Warren County, N.C. despite numerous protests against the dumps installation.
Residents living in Cancer Alley – an 85-mile stretch of land along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge that has numerous oil refineries and petrol plants – are fifty times more likely to develop cancer than the average American.
In Pahokee, Florida, residents were plagued with “black snow” which is thick levels of soot that has polluted the land due to sugar burning by sugar cane farmers and has resulted in significant amounts of pollution harming poor Black communities. These residents suffer from respiratory distress, asthma, and other illnesses.
The installation of oil and gas pipelines that run through Indigenous land despite nationwide opposition and protests.
These are only a few examples of how communities have been damaged by environmental racism. No one should live or work in a place that causes them harm. We can eradicate environmental racism through the environmental justice movement, which stands on the principle that “all communities have the right to equal environmental protections under the law, and have the right to live, work, and play in communities that are safe, healthy, and free from life-threatening conditions”. During your celebration of Earth Day, please consider ways you can get involved in the environmental justice movement to help change harmful environmental policies and tactics that have historically and consistently harmed marginalized groups.