From This Week In Texas
Are there organizations that specifically address the environmental challenges faced by poor and minority communities?
May 14, 2007
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| Poor minority communities, usually in urban areas, are disproportionately exposed to the brunt of industrial pollution. A number of local, regional and national environmental groups are working to change that. (Photo by Getty Images) |
Dear
EarthTalk: Are there organizations that specifically address the
environmental challenges faced by poor and minority communities?
–Bill Macomber, Ann Arbor, MI
When sociologist Robert Bullard began uncovering the proximity of
hazardous waste sites to minority neighborhoods across the American
South during the course of his graduate research in the 1980s, the
“environmental justice” movement was born. In the intervening two
decades, environmental and human rights advocates around the U.S. and
the world have launched thousands of nonprofit community groups to
battle so-called “environmental racism”—whereby otherwise distressed
and poor minority communities are disproportionately exposed to the
brunt of industrial pollution in their own backyards.
Environmental justice is fundamentally a local issue, but several
national groups have devoted considerable resources to righting wrongs
and helping communities defend their rights to clean air and water.
Perhaps the best known is the Center for Health, Environment and
Justice (CHEJ), founded by Lois Gibbs, the mom-turned-activist who in
the early 1980s got authorities to shut down and remediate the Love
Canal district of Niagara, New York, where buried industrial waste was
causing serious health problems. CHEJ has since fought alongside
thousands of communities to get toxic sites cleaned up and obtain
restitution.
In other ongoing efforts, Environmental Defense’s “Living Cities”
program pairs teams of scientists, lawyers and economists with local
groups working to resolve environmental health issues in minority
population centers. And the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
conducts studies, produces reports and policy analyses and mounts
campaigns and lawsuits on various environmental justice issues, with a
recent focus on helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Another big
player is the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit public
interest law firm that has championed several high-profile
environmental justice cases since it began as the Sierra Club Legal
Defense Fund in 1971. Protecting farm worker communities from dangerous
pesticides is a current focus area.
Those with environmental justice issues needing attention can contact
one of these groups or a regional one that can help size up potential
toxic threats and provide assistance on what to do. The Southwest
Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, the New York City
Environmental Justice Alliance, the Environmental Law and Policy Center
of the Midwest and the San Francisco Urban Institute are all great
resources, as are Robert Bullard’s Environmental Justice Resource
Center, based at Clark Atlanta University, and the Environmental
Research Foundation, located in New Jersey.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also begun to take
these issues seriously and in 1992 created its Office of Environmental
Justice to integrate environmental justice into EPA policies and
programs. Community groups can apply for EPA grants, and an EPA
internship program places students directly into communities to assist
local groups in addressing local environmental and public health issues.
CONTACTS: CHEJ, www.chej.org; Earthjustice, www.earthjustice.org;
Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice,
www.sneej.org; San Francisco Urban Institute, www.sfsu.edu/~urbins/;
Environmental Law and Policy Center, www.elpc.org; New York City
Environmental Justice Alliance, www.cobbmedia.com/garden; Environmental
Justice Resource Center, www.ejrc.cau.edu; Environmental Research
Foundation, www.rachel.org.
© This Week In Texas
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