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Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: the Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement

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Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: the Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement Sandler_pb.qxd 12/13/06 7:43 AM Page 1 ENVIRONMENT/SOCIOLOGY/PHILOSOPHY Environmental Justice and Environmentalism The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement edited by RONALD SANDLER and PHAEDRA C. PEZZULLO Envir Although the environmental movement and the environmental justice movement would seem to be natural allies, their relationship over the years has often been characterized by conflict onmental Justice and Envir and division. The environmental justice movement has charged the mainstream environmental movement with racism and elitism and has criticized its activist agenda on the grounds that it values wilderness over people. Environmental justice advocates have called upon environ- Environmental Justice mental organizations to act on environmental injustice and address racism and classism in their own hiring and organizational practices, lobbying agenda, and political platforms. This book examines the current relationship between the two movements in both conceptual and and Environmentalism practical terms and explores the possibilities for future collaboration. In ten original essays, contributors from a variety of disciplines consider such topics as the The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement relationship between the two movements’ ethical commitments and activist goals, instances of successful cooperation in U.S. contexts, and the challenges posed to both movements by globalization and climate change. They examine the possibility and desirability of one unified movement as opposed to two complementary ones by means of analyses and case studies; these include a story of asbestos hazards that begins in a Montana mine and ends with the release of asbestos insulation into the air of Manhattan after the collapse of the World Trade edited by Center. This book, part of a necessary rethinking of the relationship between the two move- onmentalism ments, shows that effective, mutually beneficial alliances can advance the missions of both. RONALD SANDLER AND PHAEDRA C. PEZZULLO RONALD SANDLER is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University. PHAEDRA C. PEZZULLO is Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Public Culture at Indiana University. Urban and Industrial Environments series “If the goals of both the environmental justice movement and the environmental movement SANDLER are urgent and worth advancing, why aren’t we campaigning on them together? Sandler and Pezzullo’s timely exploration, with its well chosen chapters, pulls no punches in advocating for better ways to work together, while recognizing the crucial need to also work apart.” and JULIAN AGYEMAN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, URBAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND PLANNING, TUFTS UNIVERSITY PEZZULLO, “I found this book to be provocative, well thought out, and very much worth the read. As an academic study it should spark a good deal of debate.” editors PENNY NEWMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR COMMUNITY ACTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA 0-262-69340-2 978-0-262-69340-0 The MIT Press Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 http://mitpress.mit.edu Environmental Justice and Environmentalism Urban and Industrial Environments Series editor: Robert Gottlieb, Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College For a complete list of books published in this series, please see the back of the book. Environmental Justice and Environmentalism The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement edited by Ronald Sandler and Phaedra C. Pezzullo The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in sabon by SPi and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Printed on recycled paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Environmental justice and environmentalism : the social justice challenge to the environmental movement / edited by Ronald Sandler and Phaedra C. Pezzullo. p. cm.—(Urban and industrial environments) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN-13: 978-0-262-19552-2 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-262-19552-6 (alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-262-69340-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-262-69340-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Environmental justice. 2. Environmentalism. I. Sandler, Ronald D. II. Pezzullo, Phaedra C. GE220.E578 2007 363.7—dc22 2006046648 10987654321 This book is dedicated to all those who are struggling, whatever their self-identification, to realize a more environmentally sustainable and socially just world. Contents Acknowledgments ix Contributors xi Introduction: Revisiting the Environmental Justice Challenge to Environmentalism 1 Phaedra C. Pezzullo and Ronald Sandler I Conceptual Issues 25 1 A Wilderness Environmentalism Manifesto: Contesting the Infinite Self-Absorption of Humans 27 Kevin DeLuca 2 Does Environmentalism Promote Injustice for the Poor? 57 Peter Wenz 3 Justice: The Heart of Environmentalism 85 Dale Jamieson II United States Environments 103 4 Becoming an Environmental Justice Activist 105 Kim Allen, Vinci Daro, and Dorothy C. Holland 5 A More “Productive” Environmental Justice Politics: Movement Alliances in Massachusetts for Clean Production and Regional Equity 135 Daniel Faber 6 The Silences and Possibilities of Asbestos Activism: Stories from Libby and Beyond 165 Steve Schwarze viii Contents 7 Moving toward Sustainability: Integrating Social Practice and Material Process 189 M. Nils Peterson, Markus J. Peterson, and Tarla Rai Peterson III International Environments 223 8 Golden Tropes and Democratic Betrayals: Prospects for the Environment and Environmental Justice in Neoliberal “Free Trade” Agreements 225 J. Robert Cox 9 Indigenous Peoples and Biocolonialism: Defining the “Science of Environmental Justice” in the Century of the Gene 251 Giovanna Di Chiro 10 Globalizing Environmental Justice 285 J. Timmons Roberts Conclusion: Working Together and Working Apart 309 Phaedra C. Pezzullo and Ronald Sandler Appendix A: Principles of Environmental Justice 321 Appendix B: Sierra Club Guidelines of Environmental Justice Grassroots Organizing 325 Appendix C: Principles of Working Together 327 Index 333 Acknowledgments We would not have met each other if Robbie Cox and Kirstin Replogle had not actively persuaded us to try to find a way to work within the environmental movement to help achieve environmental justice. This volume was born out of our volunteer experiences, both inspiring and frustrating, by their sides. We hope this volume helps illuminate the lim- itations and possibilities of such attempts. In addition to the contributors, we would like to thank Clay Morgan at The MIT Press and series editor Robert Gottlieb for their support of this project. We also thank the anonymous MIT Press reviewers for their many helpful comments and suggestions. We thank John Basl, William Currie, and Benjamin Miller for their research assistance and help in preparing the manuscript. Ron is fortu- nate to work with such enthusiastic and capable undergraduates. Above all we thank our families, including our partners Ted Striphas and Emily Mann, for their support. Contributors Kim Allen is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on racial for- mations in the United States, environmental activism, and regimes of nature. J. Robert Cox is a professor of rhetoric and social theory in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He has served twice as the president of the national Sierra Club (1994–1996, 2000–2001) and currently serves on its board of directors. His published work includes critical studies of the rhetoric of civil rights, antiwar protest, labor, and the environmental movement. His recent work has included studies of the chal- lenges to transparency and the participation of civil society in neoliberal free- trade agreements, as well as a textbook on public environmental discourse in the United States, Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere (Sage, 2006). Vinci Daro is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Her research is on globalization and transnational activist networks, discourses of democracy, and edge effects within and around social movements. Kevin DeLuca is an associate professor in the Department of Speech Communication and the Institute of Ecology at the University of Georgia. He is the author of Image Politics: The New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism (Guilford Press, 1999) and numerous essays on visual rhetoric, critical theory, environmental activism, and the virtues of violence. His research concentrations include rhetorical theory and criticism, media theory and criticism, environmen- tal discourse, visual studies, and critical cultural studies. Giovanna Di Chiro teaches in the Environmental Studies and Gender Studies programs at Mount Holyoke College. She is a coeditor of the anthology Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social
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