Module 5

When we think of human rights, usually one thinks of issues such as government corruption, oppression, genocide, extreme poverty and other situations that tend to plague developing nations. It is only recently, that environmental issues have been added to this list of human rights violations. As we progress into an age where we are running out of landfills, water supplies in over urbanized areas are drying up, aquifers are deteriorating, nuclear waste is abundant, we need to stop a really think about how the ways in which we deal with these problems affect different people.
The main problems seem to boil down to the fact that as a society we chose to hide issues instead of taking the time to really deal with them. We turn to hiding our waste in areas where we can’t see it, in the hopes that it will just disappear. Seeing as our government is run by an elite group of rich white men, this usually means that the poor suffer when it comes to the environment. A perfect example of this is the city of Houston where a “NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) [policy] was replaced with a PIMBY (Place in Blacks’ Back Yards) policy”. (Quest for Environmental Justice, 44) Because African Americans at the time did not have the rights to speak up about this injustice, let alone the money to fight, they were affected emotionally and physically by the influx of waste packed into any free space of their neighborhoods. In the eyes of the government, the problem was fixed essentially via the idea of “out of sight, out of mind”.
Louisiana is another example of how the human rights of many Americans were infringed upon by hidden environmental issues. Being one of the major centers for chemical plants, areas along the Mississippi have been renamed the “chemical corridor… [where] homes are built on top of landfills, and residents must battle frequent attempts by companies to build yet more toxic spewing facilities in their communities.” (The Quest for Environmental Justice, 95) It is not only absurd that the government would allow people to live in such dangerous situations, but inhumane to place people in areas where chemical waste is essentially slowly killing its residents. However, like the situation that plagued Houston, if that’s where the mess fits, then the government is more than willing to turn a blind eye.
While there are obvious human rights infractions committed by environment policies, we are now living in a time where the environment cannot be a bipartisan issue. Unlike third rail issues such as social security, abortion, and gay rights, politicians cannot pass legislation that will immediately fix the environment. Both parties need to come together to realize that the environment acts on its own agenda, it does not live and die by elections. The environment will continue to deteriorate and be degraded regardless of whether or not we as a society wish to accept it as fact or a left wing theory. Many poke fun at Al Gore and other environmentalists for being dramatic, or spewing propaganda. The fact of the matter is that the government needs to allocate more funds to create programs to fix the damage we’ve created, comply with the Kyoto Accords and figure out ways to use our resources in a more sustainable manner. If we can’t do this then, human rights won’t be an issue any more because there won’t be any humans to worry about.