En Vironment and Environmental Justice Volume IV,Number 2 $5.00 Summer 1993
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I * Race, Poverty & the A newsletter for social En vironment and environmental justice Volume IV,Number 2 $5.00 Summer 1993 THIS M@DbBu w@BLm by TOM TOMORROW ...L EAUING CITIZENS IN THIS COUNTRY FREE TO LIVE IN THE MRNNERTo WHKH THEY ARE Ac~usTrbMEb... Special Issue: POPULATION & IMMIGRATION Population Control: Environmentalism or Preservation of Inequality? INSIDE: Family Planning, Immigrant Rights, Rights of Indigenous Peoples, The Sierra Club.Immigration Policy Wars, Economic Causes of Migration and more. " ' Paae Two Summer 1993 Race. PoverN 6 tho Envlmnment social justice advocates for immigrants' Editor's Notes and women's rights do not take seri- Race, Poverty & the No argument is more likely to ously the global population explosion Environment seriously injure the fragile alliance and its inevitable damage to the earth between environmentalistsand commu- and aN its inhabitants. Guest Editor nities of color -and the growing This topic is especially hard for our Hannah Creighton environmental justice movement which budding movement because it leads us Editors so many have worked so hard to build back to the existential values that Carl Anthony Luke Cole - than the debate over U.S. immigra- motivate our work and thus becomes tion policy. Already on the defensive personal. For example, while research- Contributors about the white, upper-class male ing this special issue of Race. Poverty character of their leadership and their Anil Agarwal Ruth Conniff and the Environment, we've noticed a Gretchen Daily Angela Davis behind-the-scenes role in negotiating stark, and we think class-based, Edith Eddy Anne Ehrlich policies with which low-income difference in the language that people Paul Ehrlich Frances Moore Lappe communities must live, environmental- use to discuss population and immigra- Penn Loh Sunita Narain ists are now accused of legitimizing a tion. Those who want to restrict Saskia Sassen Rachel Schurman racist anti-immigrant movement. Their immigration and those who are in- Cathi Tactaquin • Tom Tomorrow response is that people of color and ++ sae EDITORS' NOTES, page 43 Hazel Wolf Linda Wong Race. Powrty & the Emhnment Is published four times a year. Articles In This Issue... are 01992 by their authors; please reproduce RPE by every means, and give Why Communities of Color Fear the Population Debate, authors credit for their work. by Linda Wong.. ..3 Subscriptions are $1 5/four issues, $30 ............................................................................... for institutions, or free for low-income Environmentalists and the Anti-Immigrant Agenda, persons and community groups. Articles. stories, reportbacks. re- by Cathi Tactaquin............................................................................ -6 sources and general information are d accepted with appreciation. Send Optimum Human Population Size, by Gretchen Daily, submissions and subscription checks to Anne Ehrlich & Paul Ehrlich ............................................................... 9 RPE. C/O ~arthIsland. 300 Broadway. Suite 28. San Francisco. CA 94133. Population Paradigms and Perception, by Mith Eddy ......................... 12 RPE is ajoint project of the California Rural Legal Asdstance Why Migration? by Saskia Sassen....................................................... 15 Foundation and the Earth bland Institute Urban Habitnt Program. Racism, Birth Control and Reproductive Rights, by Angela Davis ........21 Editorial policy Not Thinking Globally: The Sierra Club Immigration Policy Wars, hce.Poverty & the Environment is a quanerly newsleaer dedicated to publishing by Hannah Creighton...................................................................... -24 material exploring the intersection of race. poverty and the environmcnL The views The Right Calls the Shots, by Ruth Conniff ..........................................26 dlccted in Race, Poverty & tkEnvironment are not necessarily those of the editors, Lessons from Seven Successful Societies, ~omiaRural Legal ~ssictanceFoundation, by Frances Moore Lappe & Rachel Schurman................................ 30 or Earth Island Institute. A Proposal for Global Environmental Democracy, Mlssion Statement by Anil Agarwal& Sunita Narain 36 'he mission of Race, Poverty & the ..................................................... Environment is to provide an authentic voice for cnvimnmcntal justice. WEaims to S~M- iu Demand for a Chapter on Indigenous Peoples ..................................... 37 -den with news. articles. bod mviews. theory. reuwrces and notices htaamine and Women's Declaration on Population Policies ........................................ 38 pmvide evidence of the relationship among race, Freeways, Communities and Environmental Justice: An Interview poverty. and the cnvimnment. Further. we must anhueto build the bridges that have bem with Eco-Justice Hero Chappell Hayes, by Penn Loh...................... 41 tentativelyconstructed in the past few yean bawem main- enviraunenralic~and Environmental Justice Coalition-building in Seattle, by Hazel Wolf. ..... 44 grassrow enviromncntaIists. in a way which preserves the autonomy of -unity groups. Urban Habitat Program Update ............................................................ 45 RPE presents the voices and experiences of a rector of society in a manner htis accessible to Resources .............................................................................................46 grassroots organizers and acuvisu. envirmm- tal professionals. concerned atizenr. and policy Kettleman City Wins the Big One .......................................................... 48 maken aWte Race, Poverty 6 the Environment Summer 1993 Page Three Proceedings from the EDGE Conference In January of 1993, EDGUhe Alliance of Ethnic and Environmental Organizations-held a twoiday, statewide conference on environmental justice issues in California. The theme of the conference was "Redefining the California Dream: Growth, Justice and Sustainability." Over 200 people attended the event, more than half of whom were people of color and bringing together a wide range of perspectives from public advocacy, ethnic and environmental groups and public institutions. Part of the conference was devoted to the issues of population and immigration. The four papers that follow were presentations that sparked such controversy and discussion that the organizers of EDGE will hold a special conference on the issues of population, immigration and consumption in the spring of 1994. For information, contact Carlos Melendrez, care of the Urban Habitat Program. Why Communities of Color Fear the Population European counterparts, any serious effort to reestablish a balance in the environmental matrix will inevitably target Deba developing nations as the source of the problem. And the most commonly proposed solution will be to "fix" people of by Linda Wong color, usually through family planning programs. It is therefore not surprising that communities of color feel Whenever I have worked with mainstieam environmental so much fear and anger every time this question arises. There groups in the past, I have often been asked to address the issue are legitimate reasons for these fears - reasons based on of population control. The reason for these requests is pretty historical experience. In the 1960s. American agronomists obvious: If mainstream white environmentalists were to deal and biologists working for the U.S. government in Latin with the issue, they would run the risk of being labeled America realized that population growth could seriously "racist." On the other hand, if a person of color addressed the deplete the natural resources in this region. Their proposed question, the reaction would not be so controversial or solutions, however, were extreme. People like William extreme. Knowing that, I turned down these requests because Paddock and Garrett Hardin advocated a radical form of I didn't believe that environaentalists were genuinely open to an examination of this issue from a different perspective. However, with recent efforts to organize disenfranchised communities around environmental health hazards. I believe Since birth rates tend to be the time is right to begin the dialogue and, more importantly. higher in de veloping countries to redefine the debate. All of us are aware that population stabilization is one of than in industrialized nations, the most divisive and polarizing issues in the environmental the most commonly proposed movement. It has driven a wedge between communities of ' solution will be to "fix"peop1e color and those who are engaged in legitimate efforts to preserve and protect our natural resources. Too often, the of color, usually through family issue has been framed in the context of a sum zero game: that planning programs. is, as the population increases, there is an accompanying increase in the consumption of natural resources used to support that growth. Since birth rates tend to be higher in environmental protection -a medical triage strategy that developing countries than in indusuialized nations, and since would allow sick people to die. Paddock found this approach people of color are growing in larger numbers than their to be the most expedient means to facilitate the "quick Page Four Summer 1993 Race, Poverty & the Environment elimination" of excess population. And power to determine their future. Garrett Hardin frequently testified in Until the 1980s, many Latina women Economic and political empowerment Congress against American