Environmental Justice: some history and theory

Tamara StegerDept of Environmental Sciences and PolicyCentral European UniversityBudapest, Hungary

Environmental Justice in the US Anti-toxics movement and Love Canal:

primarily women who had no previous activism experience.

Warren County protests Civil rights movement Focus on health

Love Canal

Originally a planned industrial model community by William T. Love.

Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation bought it in 1942 and dumped 22000 tons of mixed chemical waste into Love Canal.

Land sold to Niagara Falls school board in 1953 for one dollar.School erected in 1955, and suburban blue collar families moved into housing complex.

Love Canal Disaster

Heavy rain and snowfall in 1975 Hooker landfill subsides 421 different kinds of chemicals identified in

water, soil, and air. 1978 the New York Department of Health

Commissioner, Robert Whalen declares the area a health hazard and babies and pregnant mothers should immediately leave.

Love Canal: public meeting in 1978 See www.library.buffalo.edu

Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management, 1979 First application of civil rights law to siting of

waste facility. Protest involving middle income African

American community in Houston.

North Carolina 1978: illegal dumpingWarren County 1982: PCB landfill siting protest Contractor for Ward Transformer Company

didnt want to pay for EPA approved recycling. Secretly dumped approximately 12,850 gallons

of PCB-laden oil at night along rural highways. State planned to bury 400,000 cubic yards of

soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Warren County.

500 arrests

Warren County

Residents Block PCB Landfill Delivery Trucks, 1982. Photo by Jenny Labalme.

Waste, Race and Class

3 of 4 hazardous waste landfills in Southern states in predominantly African American communities (U.S. General Accounting Office (1983) study, Siting of Hazardous Waste Landfills and Their Correlation With Racial

and Economic Status of Surrounding Communities.) Race --NOT poverty, land values, or home

ownership-- strongly correlated with location of facilities. (Commission for Racial Justice (1987) to produce Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States)

Poorer people are exposed to greater health hazards in their homes, and where they work and play than more affluent members of society (Bryant & Mohai, 1992; Bullard, 1994a)

Community coalition for environmental justice, Seattle, WA

Connecticut: www.environmental-justice.org

Factories in UK more likely located in poorer communities 662 factories are found in areas with average

household income of less than £15,000. 5 factories are found in areas with average

household income above £30,000 In London, over 90% of polluting factories are in

areas with below average income In the North East, over 80% of polluting factories are

in areas with below average income. More factories, higher poverty. (See Friends of the Earth UK)

Environmental Justice in CEE

Workshops bringing together human rights and environmental activists, academics, and lawyers.

Coalition for Environmental Justice Case study report: access to water and waste

treatment, flood risk, exposure to hazards. Transatlantic Initiative for Environmental

Justice: Coalition for EJ and US EJ activists Collaborative, small-scale projects

Struggles for environmental justice all over the world Struggles against dam issues in India and

China Mining issues in South America Climate change justice issues in Africa

Evolution of Environmental Movement

Social justice, civil rights, and environmental movements

Anti-globalization Just Sustainability (see J. Agyeman’s work):

white middle class environmental movement and environmental justice movement

Death of environmentalism? Need for coalition forming