Environmental Justice for All

6/26/13 Environmental Justice For All

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Environment Mind & Body Politics Arts & Culture Media Science & Technology Literature Environmental Justice For All MY COMMUNITY How to save our cities, revive the economy, and green the planet—all at the same time Everyone Friends Me Alt Wire by Leyla Kokmen Recent user activity on w w w .utne.com: Music Sampler Mar.-Apr. 2008 TERRY MOCK : Like 4 4 0 0 0 0 Commented on: Have You Given Up? Realizing the Vision 3 hours ago Change Our Story SUSAN ANNE LEE : Image Gallery Mind the Gap Commented on: How to Find That Book You' ve Spent Years Looking For 4 hours ago image by Jeremy Traum Miranda Gardner : Commented on: How to Find That Book You' ve Spent Years Looking For 4 hours ago Susan : Commented on: How to Find That

ARTICLE TOOLS This article is part of a package on the new green justice movement. For more, read Global Warming Is Color-Blind and The Temperature Transcends Race. Im a ge Ga ller y

Manuel Pastor ran bus tours of Los Pr in t RELATED CONTENT Angeles a few y ears back. These The Race-Based Drug Race E-m a il weren’t the ty pical sojourns to Some ethnic groups suffer particular Com m en ts ailments at higher rates—think of Tay- Disney land or the MGM studios, Sachs disease among Ashk... though; they were expeditions to RSS Reviving the Draft: New Proposal some of the city ’s most Includes Fortunate Ones and env ironmentally blighted Senators’ Sons neighborhoods—where railway s, truck traffic, and refineries conv erge, Reviving the Draft: New Proposal and where people liv e 200 feet from the freeway . Includes Fortunate Ones and Senators’ Sons January 10, 2003 Bill B... The goal of the “toxic tours,” explains Pastor, a professor of geography

and of American studies and ethnicity at the Univ ersity of Southern Criminals Target Hispanic MOST POPULAR Immigrants California (USC), was to let public officials, policy makers, and donors Thieves and violent criminals frequently talk to residents in low-income neighborhoods about the env ironmental E-MAILED target Hispanic immigrants in U.S. READ hazards they liv ed with ev ery day and to literally see, smell, and feel cities, zeroing in on a... 1. Have You Given Up? the effects. Welfare Reform and Immigrants 2. Why You Should Try Zero-Waste Living Welfare Reform and Immigrants March “It’s a pretty effectiv e forum,” say s Pastor, who directs USC’s Program 3. The Dark Side of Soy 11, 2002 Kate Garsombke Welfare Reform and Immigrants... for Env ironmental and Regional Equity , noting that a lot of the 4. How to Find That Book You've Spent Years “tourists” were eager to get back on the bus in a hurry . “When y ou’re in Looking For Arsenic Contamination in Graveyards: How the Dead Are these neighborhoods, y our lungs hurt.” 5. The Forbiddenness of Grow ing Up During the Hurting the Environment Cold War Arsenic contamination in the ground Like the tours, Pastor’s research into the economic and social issues and w ater around cemeteries is just facing low-income urban communities highlights the env ironmental one spark of the green buri... disparities that endure in California and across the United States. As stories about global warming, sustainable energy , and climate change make headlines, the fact that some neighborhoods, particularly low-income and minority communities, are disproportionately toxic and poorly regulated has, until recently , been all but ignored.

A new breed of activ ists and social scientists are starting to capitalize on the moment. In principle they hav e much in common with the env ironmental justice mov ement, which came of age in the late 1 97 0s and early 1 980s, when grassroots groups across the country began protesting the presence of landfills and other env ironmentally hazardous facilities in predominantly poor and minority neighborhoods.

In practice, though, the new leadership is taking a broader-based, more inclusiv e approach. Instead of fighting a proposed refinery here or an expanded freeway there, all along try ing to establish that sy stematic racism is at work in corporate America, today ’s env ironmental justice mov ement is focusing on proactiv e responses to the social ills and economic roadblocks that if remov ed would clear the way to a greener planet.

The new mov ement assumes that society as a whole benefits by guaranteeing safe jobs, both blue-collar and white-collar, that pay a liv ing wage. That univ ersal health care would both decrease disease and increase www.utne.com/2008-03-01/Environment/Environmental-Justice-For-All.aspx#axzz2XA8MOsor 1/2 6/26/13 Environmental Justice For All white-collar, that pay a liv ing wage. That univ ersal health care would both decrease disease and increase awareness about the quality of ev ery one’s air and water. That better public education and easier access to job training, especially in industries that are emerging to address the global energy crisis, could reduce crime, boost self-esteem, and lead to a homegrown economic boon.

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