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Despite significant improvements in environmental protection over the past several decades, 1.3 billion individuals worldwide live in unsafe and unhealthy physical environments. Hazardous waste generation and international movement of hazardous waste and toxic products pose some important health, environmental, legal, political and ethical dilemmas.
The systematic destruction of indigenous peoples' land and sacred sites, the poisoning of Native Americans on reservations, Africans in the Niger Delta, African Americans in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley", Mexicans in the border towns and Puerto Ricans on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, all have their roots in economic exploitation, racial oppression, the devaluation of human life and the natural environment, and corporate greed.
Unequal interests and unequal power arrangements have allowed poisons of the rich to be offered as short-term remedies for poverty of the poor. The last decade has seen numerous developing nations challenge the "unwritten policy" of countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to ship hazardous wastes into their borders. Most people-of-colour communities in the United States and poor nations around the world want jobs and economic development - but not at the expense of public health and the environment.
Why do some communities get dumped on while others escape? Why are environmental regulations vigorously enforced in some communities and not in others? Why are some workers protected from environmental and health threats while other workers (such as migrant farm workers) are allowed to be poisoned? How can environmental justice be incorporated into environmental protection? What institutional changes are needed in order to achieve a just and sustainable society? What community organising strategies and public policies are effective tools against environmental racism?
This paper analyses the causes and consequences of environmental racism and the strategies environmental justice groups, community-based organisations and government can use to improve the quality of life for their constituents.
What Is Environmental Racism?
The United States is the dominant economic and military force in the world today. The American economic engine has generated massive wealth, a high standard of living, and consumerism. This growth machine has also generated waste, pollution and ecological destruction. The United States has some of the best environmental laws in the world. However, in the real world, all communities are not created equal. Some...