Module 5: Environment and Human Rights

When discussing environmental issues nowadays, it is common for discussions to be centered on global warming, carbon dioxide emissions, nitrogen pollution and similar issues. However it is essential for society to also realize how environmental problems are also related to human rights issues, and how individuals living in the lower strata of society usually are on the receiving end of environmental pollution.

First and foremost it would be essential to define what environment really means. The most common notion of environment one tends to have is that of the natural world and the “green-ness” of planet Earth. This is just one type of conception of environment (though a very important one), when really, the environment is generally defined as being “where we live, work, play, worship, and go to school as well as the physical and the natural world” (Bullard, 2). Health is closely related to this general concept of environment, and Bullard lays out a definition in his introduction from the WHO as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of the disease or infirmity” (Ibid). An interesting relationship is seen between the two, as it is very clear in our world that lower-income groups especially those of color, usually experience the worst of both due to reasons related to each other. Environmental pollution caused by industrial waste pose environmental and thus health threats to a portion of the society that one finds is also racially segregated by this event. My first impulse is to express concern over such a matter, as in today’s society racism is a taboo topic and is looked down upon, however how much we try to stomp it down, we can’t deny the fact that it still exists. Surprisingly, the environment is one such factor that highlights racism in society and Bullard illustrates this fact by coining the term “environmental racism”.

One can’t deny that racial segregation exists and lower income groups tend to be those of color as well. The first issue to address is why is this the case? This may be a result of a continuing disparity that has existed over the years without any change. The other problem lies in the fact that governmental institutions fail to recognize such disparities connected to the environment, and changes to infrastructure must be made. However Bullard comments that “waiting for the government to act is a recipe for disaster” (Bullard, 41). The solution would be, perhaps, to protests against disparities such as environmental racism and forming groups and actions such as NIMBY (Not In My Backyard). An example of a case of opposition would be the Houston case Bean vs. Southwestern Waste Management Corp. which was the first case in U.S. history in which environmental racism was challenged using civil rights law (Bullard, 61).

People have to realize that just because they are on lower levels of the social strata doesn’t mean that their neighborhood can become a dumping ground and because they are relatively less well off, it is fine for their situation to get worst. No person should live with environmental racism as it is definitely a type of Human Rights violation according to me, not only because it further enhances disparities in society, but it also causes damage to health.

The Global South of the United States: Corporate Terrorism of the Poor

What is the Global South? The Global South is a group of countries that are poor dangerous, and underdeveloped. These countries are located mainly in Africa, Latin America, South America, and Southeast Asia. Due to many reasons, scarcity of water and food to name a few, the Global South is a difficult and dangerous place to live. In these areas, basic human rights are violated constantly, where people live in poverty and despair. Many residents have little education, little money, and little healthcare. These problems seem distant, but many would be surprised to find that there are similar problems here in the United States. Can areas in the southern United States be classified as a Global South? “The South has always been regarded as backward because of its social, economic, political, and environmental policies. By default, the region became an environmental sacrifice zone, a dump for the rest of the nation’s toxic waste”(Bullard 88). Due to these problems, along with the living conditions of the citizens and the constant violation of their basic human rights, areas in the south such as in Mississippi and Louisiana can be identified as part of the Global South.
High rates of poverty, low rates of education, scarcity of resources, and multiple health hazards are all present in the Global South, it is no surprise that they are present in the south of the United States as well. These problems are highlighted in areas like Sumter County, Alabama and many other areas in the south. The corporations that place landfills and factories that release toxic pollutants that are detrimental to their health oppress the people in these regions. One of the most corrupt states is Louisiana, where the government and industry seemingly work together to the misery of the people. Louisiana has the fourth highest poverty rate and second highest percentage of children living in poverty in the United States (Bullard 89). Alternatively, Louisiana is the second largest producer of refined oil in the United States (Bullard 90). With so many people living in poverty who have little political power, the region is easily exploited by these big industries and businesses that wish to profit off the land.
So why do chemical companies target these poorer towns with a high makeup of minorities? Due to the large oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico and the strategic importance of the Mississippi River, the petrochemical industry has targeted Louisiana. “The builders of garbage landfills, incinerators, and transfer stations have generally followed the path of least resistance, which has led to placement of their facilities in economically poor and politically powerless communities”(Bullard 60). These communities have little organization and usually cannot form effective resistance. Therefore, companies choose these towns essentially because they can get away with creating and dumping hazardous materials in these areas
How are chemical companies able to harm the surrounding citizens by polluting the air, water and ground? One of the major reasons is the government’s inability or lack of desire to regulate the industries. In many cases, the corruption in the political offices leads to the big tax breaks that the companies receive. These companies with deep pockets can afford to buy out politicians, local leaders, and residents. “The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry is arguably the most powerful lobby in the state”(Bullard 90). Lobbyist groups like the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry have groomed potential political candidates and allied with other “industry specific political coalitions, such as the powerful Louisiana Chemical Association…augments its efforts to influence and promote a pro-industry economic development mode that supports the industry’s expansion”(Bullard 91). Small African American communities such as Convent and Morrisonville
Shintech Corporation planned to build the world’s largest polyvinyl chloride plastics facility in the town of Convent, Louisiana (Bullard 100). This factory would have dumped over 8 million gallons of wastewater into the Mississippi River daily and emitted dioxin. Dioxin is a known health threat and has been proven to increase the chances of cancer and other serious illnesses (Bullard 100). Coincidently, this heavily polluting plant would have been placed next to a town with a make up of 82 percent African Americans. In a three-mile radius around this town, there are six working plants. This example of environmental injustice lacks any sort of subtlety and yet the government did not step in to protect its own citizens.
There are examples of communities being essentially bought out and moved by these large corporations. Morrisonville, Louisiana was town founded in 1870 by freed slaves (Bullard 103). In 1959, the town allowed Dow Chemical Company to purchase some land within their town, which the company then began to expand upon. In 1989 Dow began to buy the residents from their land, a process that was completed in only 2 years. Only a church and two graveyards remain of what was once Morrisonville (Bullard 104).
The oppression of the poor in the south may not seem as serious as the conflicts faced everyday by citizens of Honduras or Somalia, or other Third World countries, but nevertheless, they are serious problems. The rights of the citizens are being violated by corrupt local governments and by toxic spewing factories. Is the south a Global South? Corporations target poor African American communities to plant their poisonous factories. Citizens in the community suffer higher risks for numerous health diseases due to these companies. Poverty is rampant, education is down, and the average income is at its lowest. Perhaps it is due to the entrenched memory of slavery and the lasting remnants of the Jim Crow laws that environmental racism is still permitted in the south. Sadly, the trend does not seem to be reversing, and the south is stagnating in toxic fumes and poisonous water. Regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and others are members of the Global South, as long as large businesses and corporations continue to run the government instead of the people who live there.

Environmental Justice

Environmental Rights

Human Rights Violations as a Result of Unequal Environmental Protection

There is extensive debate over carbon emissions and their effect on global climate change. Many see global warming as the greatest environmental challenge facing the twenty-first century. It becomes easy to forget the more immediate and direct threats of environmental hazards on normal citizens with the issues of global warming circulating through the news media. Thousands have suffered and died from the lack of environmental consciousness on the part of the government. These examples of environmental abuses also represent violations of human rights.

Although human rights violations are viewed to occur on many different scales, the underlying and consistent themes tend to be inequality and unequal protection under the law. Whether this occurs in Tibet, or in the heart of Guantanamo Bay, the severity remains the same. Discrimination and class differentiation can lead to political, social and economic inequality, but also unequal environmental protection. The term “environmental protect” not only refers to environmental rights, but also human rights. “The environmental justice framework attempts to uncover the underlying assumptions that may contribute to and produce unequal protection. This framework brings to the surface the ethical and political questions of who gets what, why, and how much” (Bullard 25). Environmental injustice is a result of unequal environmental protection. Communities that are affected by environmental hazards are a result of either corporate or political environmental injustice.

In many circumstances, there are racial disparities in environmental protection. Black communities are subject to significantly more environmental hazards than non-black or white Americans. A study published by the Environmental Justice and Health Union states “blacks are much more likely to be exposed to dioxins and PCBs and to be exposed at higher levels” than white Americans (27). The study also showed “ Non-Hispanic blacks are exposed to the greatest number of chemicals” (27). This is an example of unequal exposure to environmental hazards specific to race. “Environmental racism refers to any policy, practice, or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages individuals, groups, or communities because of their race or color” (32). Corporations take advantage of poorer, uneducated communities to prevent investigation and cut costs. For example in Houston Texas “the all-white, all-male city government and private industry targeted Houston’s black neighborhoods for landfills, incinerators, garbage dumps, and garbage transfer stations” (44). Black communities end up paying the price for the conveniences enjoyed by the rest of the country. This is not dissimilar to taking advantage of slave labor, or paying black workers less to cut costs and increase profit. All are examples of discrimination, and thus are human rights violations. The abuse of African American rights is not only a result of racial discrimination, but also the class differentiation and lack of political influence as a result of poverty.

Black communities are often exposed to more environmental hazards because they lack the resources or money to fight waste management companies. For example in 1982, the North Carolina state government selected Afton to be the home of a new state-owned PCB landfill. Toxins began to leak into the Warren County drinking water and environment even though the waste dump was said to be safe. The community wound up suffering for nearly 25 years before their voices were heard. Warren County is not only home to a majority black population, but also the poorest North Carolina citizens in the state. In 1982 “[Warren County] residents earned about 75 percent of the state’s per capita income” (40). Fighting for environmental justice is a tedious and extensive process, not to mention expensive. Environmental rights tend to slip through the cracks without the financial support present in more developed (and more white) communities. As a society, we have determined human beings have a right to survive. This fundamental and natural right is clearly violated when generations of civilians are exposed to hazardous materials without the resources to protect themselves.

Human rights tend to be dealt with on an individual basis. The truth about civil, social, economic, and even environmental rights is they are all connected. Similarly, their solution must be connected. The fact that the toxic waste dump in Warren County is no longer in existence does not deal with the fact that the county doesn’t have the money to make sure the left over soil is safe and habitable. Society has a habit of placing burdens like waste and underdevelopment on a select group of people. It’s unfortunate the same issues, but in different contexts, continue to appear from decade to decade. In regards to the Warren County controversy, Dr. Mildred McClain of the Citizens for Environmental Justice stated, “Two decades is a long time to wait for justice. And it is no surprise that compensation to impacted residents was left off the table. We are still fighting for reparations for the injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and legalized discrimination in the United States from 1619 to the present day.” Hopefully we will find a solution to prevent continued injustice 

Module 5: Environmental Justice and Human Rights

“When you look at the neighborhoods that are where you have a lot of different waste facilities... the people who live closest are oftentimes the most vulnerable people who have the fewest resources to escape neighborhoods because of residential segregation, housing discrimination, and limited incomes," said Bullard, author of The Quest of Environmental Justice (30). Race is the potent factor for predicting where Locally Unwanted Land Uses (LULUs) go. A lot of people say its class, but race and class are intertwined. Because the society is so racist and because racism touches every institution--employment, housing, education, facility siting, land use decisions, you can't really extract race out of decisions that are being made by persons who are in power and the power arrangements are unequal (Bullard 13).
Many occurrences in history prove this argument to be true. For example, the Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management case originated in a town in Houston, Texas. The town was predominately black and poor. A sanitary landfill was put in the middle of the community. It was within a 1 mile radius of 7 schools. The landfill leaked and contaminated the under ground water. It took 21 years and 18 million dollars to clean up the mess. It was economic hell and the county still does not have a hospital and cannot attract any industry. The lack of immediate response from the government was due to the fact that the victims were of a vulnerable or lesser community. Therefore, they were not a top on the priority list. Another prime example of this behavior occurred during the 2001 anthrax attack in Washington, D.C. During the attack officials acted quickly to aid people in political power. These people were predominately white. This same efficiency was not implemented in the post offices. These workers were predominately black. Sadly, two African American, post office workers died.
In response to injustices such as these, the environmental justice movement has been put into effect. The environmental justice movement basically redefines what environmentalism is all about. It basically says that the environment is everything: where we live, work, play, go to school, as well as the physical and natural world (Bullard 30). And so we can't separate the physical environment from the cultural environment. We have to talk about making sure that justice is integrated throughout all of the stuff that we do. What the environmental justice movement is about is trying to address all of the inequities that result from human settlement, industrial facility siting and industrial development. What it has tried to do over the last twenty years is educate and assist groups in organizing and mobilizing, empowering themselves to take charge of their lives, their community and their surroundings. It's more of a concept of trying to address power imbalances, lack of political enfranchisement, and to redirect resources so that we as a society can create some healthy, livable and sustainable types of models.
The organization of the groups within the environmental justice movement is fairly simple. For the most part, a lot of the small grassroots groups operate from a bottom up model. They don't have boards of directors and large budgets and large staff. They do operate with the idea that everyone has a role and they are all equal in this together. The environmental justice groups are more egalitarian. It brings out the idea that power rests in all of us and when we operate as a collective, that's when we are most powerful and we move forward as a unit, as a body and not necessarily with a hierarchy. It is the idea that is something open and encouraged for society as a whole to partake in. I think a lot of it is when you can have an issue that can mobilize, organize and create the catalyst that gets thousands of people at a meeting, saying this is what we want and we're not going to back up till we get it. That's where the environmental justice movement is more of a grassroots movement of ordinary people who may not see themselves as traditional environmentalists, but are just as much concerned about the environment as someone who may be a member of the Sierra Club or the Audubon Society (Ewall).
It is difficult to pose education and reconstructive issues to people when organizing in low income and politically disenfranchised communities, especially communities with very little open space or access to natural areas. The first line is to start early. We have to educate young people that it is their right to have access to open space, green space, parks, outdoors, as opposed to people thinking that their supposed to be living in an area where the only park is a basketball court with no net. We have to give people this idea that it's their right to have access to open space and green space and we have to provide funds to make sure that we get them early on and take them on field trips, take them to a wilderness area, a refuge, a reserve, to a park-a real park and to integrate this information into our curriculum (Bullard 130).
Environmental justice is not a social program, it's not affirmative actions, it’s about justice. Until we get justice in environmental protection, justice in terms of enforcement of regulations, we should not even talk about achieving sustainable development or sustainability issues until we talk about justice. A lot of the groups that are trying to address these issues in the absence of dealing with race may be fooling themselves. We need to start getting a lot of people to think about how we can start to address the disparities and the inequities and the privileged position that some people have only because of the skin color that they were born in. And that's where the justice issues come into account.

Environmental Hazards

Environmental Hazards

Protecting our environment is not just something we can do; it's something we must do. Having a clean, healthy environment is a human right, and we must do all we can to protect our rights.  This does not just mean those who can afford it should have a clean and safe environment.  This means everyone should have and clean and safe environment.  We must all join together to make our planet healthy, because what affects one area of the globe easily affects another.  We are all connected in one way or another, so we must all do our part to help each other out by saving our planet.  Failing to do so would not just be unwise, but possibly deadly as well.

Failing to clean up our environment can have some very deadly results.  Louisiana, for example, has had the most toxic environmental releases and waste generation every year since 1989 (Bullard 93).  It has been constantly pumped full of dangerous chemicals and hazardous materials until, in 2005, the world looked in horror at what happens when the environment just can't take any more.  Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans with a great and terrible force.  It created winds that went as fast as 145 mph and a path of destruction 125 miles long.  It was a single storm that took the lives of at least 55 people, and destroyed too many homes to count (Whoriskey A01).  The environment can only take so much damage, until one day, it will strike back twice as hard as it was hit.  We must do all that we can to protect our planet so that nothing like Hurricane Katrina ever comes along again.

The problem, however, is that most well off people do not think about any of this; they let those in poorer living conditions deal with it instead.  Those with influence in this country get the lakeside homes with clean, fresh air, while other choke on polluted air in big cities.  Even if any of the richer neighborhoods did become polluted, those who could afford it could easily make sure their environment was cleaned up.  However, this is not at all the case for those in lower-income areas.  They must struggle with the environment they live in, even as it gets worse and worse.  "Poverty and pollution are intricately linked" (Bullard 4).  There is only one way to solve this problem, and that is for those in clean-air environments to start helping out those in polluted environments in whatever way they can.  If we all work together to solve this problem, it can be solved very easily.  Otherwise, we are all doomed to face the wrath our planet has in store for each and every one of us.

Outside sources

Whoriskey, Peter, Guy Gugliotta. "Storm Thrashes Gulf Coast." Washington Post August 30 (2005): A01