5 National Analysis Of Environmental Justice
What is Environmental Justice?
Healthy People 2030 identifies the neighborhood and built environment as a social determinant of health. This means that an individual’s environment influences their overall health, wellbeing, and quality of life. This also means that the environment can contribute to health disparities and inequities (Social Determinants of Health n.d.). The federal government and community-based organizations address these inequities via environmental justice. Environmental justice means that everyone, regardless of race, color, national origin, disability, or income has the right to meaningful involvement in decision making processes and are fully and equally protected from disproportionate and adverse human health and environmental effects, risks, and hazards (Environmental justice index 2024). Environmental justice strives to ensure equitable access to a healthy, safe, and stable environment for all. The environmental justice movement was built on the efforts of communities of color- the communities most disproportionately burdened with environmental hazards. An unfortunate pattern that led to the adoption of the term ‘environmental racism.’
Specifically, environmental racism is the intentional, disproportionate placement of environmental hazards, such as waste processing facilities, landfills, and pollution, in communities of color. It is a result of the systemic racism in the United States and harmful policies and programs that favor the positive health outcomes of white communities over communities of color (Miller & Skelton, 2023).
Environmental justice and environmental racism are closely intertwined in the United States and their relationship will be examined in this section of the text. Other topics of discussion will include foundational literature, public policy, prominent cases, and future implications of the environmental justice movement.
Foundation of Environmental Justice in the United States.
Environmental justice and racism have a long, sordid history in the United States. This section aims to highlight only few key foundational studies and cases that helped shape environmental justice and racism as we know them today.
In 1983, Solid Waste Sites and Houston Black Community was a study conducted by Dr. Robert Bullard- an environmental scientist that is known as the ‘father’ of the environmental justice movement- that documented waste site locations in Houston, Texas. Dr. Bullard found that over 75% of all of Houston’s garbage dumps, landfills, and incinerators- both publicly and/or privately owned- were sited in predominately black neighborhoods (Environmental Justice Timeline 2024). This was the first cumulative report of environmental racism in the United States.
Also in 1983, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) conducted a study, Siting of Hazardous Waste Landfills and Their Correlation with Racial and Economic Status of Surrounding Communities, that found that 75% of hazardous waste landfills in the study were hosted by low-income communities of color (Environmental Justice Timeline 2024).
A more comprehensive analysis, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, was conducted by The United Church of Christ Commission of Racial Justice in 1987. The United Church of Christ (UCC) examined the “statistical relationship between hazardous waste sites and the racial and socioeconomic composition of host communities nationwide” (Environmental Justice Timeline 2024). The study found that race was the top factor associated with toxic waste facility locations. Because of this, this study is often credited with coining the term ‘environmental racism.’
