Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice

Environmental Health

Chapter 8

“...the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of

all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or

income with respect to the development,

implementation, and enforcement of environmental

laws, regulations, and policies.”

“The term has two distinct uses.

The first and more common usage describes a social movement

in the United States whose focus is on the fair distribution of

environmental benefits and burdens.

Second, it is an interdisciplinary body of social science literature

that includes (but is not limited to) theories of the environment,

theories of justice, environmental law and governance,

environmental policy and planning, development, sustainability,

and political ecology.”

Civil Rights + Environmentalism

Social Justice

Disproportionate Impacts

Environmental Discrimination

Environmental Racism

Economic Resources

Social Capital

FIGURE 8.1 Ecosocial Framework of Disproportionate Exposure to Environmental Hazards and Stressors

Source : Morello - Frosch and Lopez, 2006 . Reprinted with permission of Elsevier.

Sources Emissions/Contamination Exposure Internal

DoseHealthEffect

Industrial Facility/Transportation

Corridor

ChemicalsEmitted

Indoor/OutdoorPollution Levels

ChemicalBody Burden

Birth Outcome

Community-level Measures Individual-level Measures

Community-levelBuilt EnvironmentLand Use/Zoning

Traffic DensityHousing Quality

Social EnvironmentCivic Engagement

Poverty ConcentrationAccess to Services

Food SecurityRegulatory Enforcement Activities

Neighborhood Quality

Individual-levelSocial Support

IncomePoverty

Working ConditionsEducational Status

Marital StatusDiet/Nutritional Status

Psycho-social StressHealth Behaviors

Response &Resilience

DetoxificationCapacity

Structural Mechanisms of DiscriminationPolitical DisenfranchisementEconomic/Financial System

Legal SystemSocial Inequality

Government & Industrial Investment Patterns

Ability toRecover

Co-Morbidity/Mortality

Residential Segregation &Uneven Regional Development

c08.indd 241c08.indd 241

10/6/09 4:43:09 PM

10/6/09 4:43:09 PM

8/30/12 8:46 PMSick From Fracking? Doctors, Patients Seek Answers : NPR

Page 1 of 5http://www.npr.org/2012/05/15/152268475/sick-from-fracking-doctors-patients-seek-answers

text size A A A

Sick From Fracking? Doctors, Patients SeekAnswersby ROB STEIN

May 15, 2012

Kay Allen had just started work, and everything seemed quiet at the Cornerstone Carecommunity health clinic in Burgettstown, Pa. But things didn't stay quiet for long.

"All the girls, they were yelling at me in the back, 'You gotta come out here quick. You gottacome out here quick,' " said Allen, 59, a nurse from Weirton, W.Va.

Allen rushed out front and knew right away what all the yelling was about. The whole placereeked — like someone had spilled a giant bottle of nail polish remover.

"I told everybody to get outside and get fresh air. So we went outside. And Aggie said, 'Kay,I'm going to be sick.' But before I get in, to get something for her to throw up in, she had to go

1 OF 10 i

Maggie Starbard/NPR Maggie Starbard/NPR

9/4/12 10:05 PMAs Temps Rise, Cities Combat 'Heat Island' Effect : NPR

Page 1 of 5http://www.npr.org/2012/09/04/160393303/as-temps-rise-cities-combat-heat-island-effect

text size A A A

As Temps Rise, Cities Combat 'Heat Island' Effectby RICHARD HARRIS

Correction Sept. 4, 2012A previous Web version of this story, as does the audio, incorrectly said that Ebenezer Baptist Church leases outspace for a community garden. While the land is adjacent to Ebenezer, it is actually leased out by Wheat StreetBaptist Church.

September 4, 2012

More than 20,000 high-temperature records have been broken so far this year in the United States.And the heat is especially bad in cities, which are heating up about twice as fast as the rest of theplanet.

High temperatures increase the risk of everything from asthma to allergies, and can even be deadly.But a researcher in Atlanta also sees this urban heat wave as an opportunity to do something aboutour warming planet.

The story starts at Ebenezer Baptist Church, arguably the most famous place in Atlanta; it wasMartin Luther King Jr.'s church and the heart of the civil rights movement.

It's now playing an unexpected role in a new movement: the struggle against rapidly rising urbantemperatures. Cities are literally global hot spots.

Richard Harris/NPRBrian Stone Jr., director of the Urban Climate Lab at Georgia Tech, says that pavement stores heat during the day and makescities hotter at night. Cities, he says, tend to be heating up at double the rate of the rest of the planet.

Nausicäa

of the Valley of the Wind

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Breasts, a natural

and unnatural history

Florence Williams

The Story of Stuff

Annie Leonard

Your Brain on Nature

Eva Selhub and Alan Logan