The document discusses environmental justice and examples of environmental injustices. It provides two case studies, the first being a toxic waste landfill in Kettleman City that negatively impacted the predominantly Latino population's health. The second case study describes an economic zone in the Philippines that displaced communities and damaged the environment and people's livelihoods and health. The document then outlines the history of the environmental justice movement in the United States and various emerging themes such as climate, indigenous, energy, and food justice. It concludes by listing Philippine agencies and organizations working on environmental issues.

1. Group 4:
QUIDES, Geriel
MOLINA, Kyle
ROSARIO, Jamaica
PARAS, Satur
Environmental Justice
 The right of every individual to live in healthy environment regardless of race, gender,
age, or nationality. Basically, it means that no one’s health or quality of life should suffer
because of the environment they live in.
 The health of a community suffers when people don’t have access to healthy homes and
foods, transportation, fresh air, and safe neighborhoods.
 Environmental Justice is a human right that’s why it is important.
Environmental Racism
 A racial discrimination in environmental policy-making and enforcement of regulations
and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities, the
official sanctioning of the presence of life threatening poisons and pollutants for
communities of color, and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the
environmental movement.
Example of Environmental Injustices Issues

2. 1. Toxic Waste Landfill in Kettleman City, USA
Kings County is a county in California’s San Joaquin Valley whose population is
about sixty-five percent white that mostly lives around the county seat of Hanford.
Kettleman City is a little farmworker community of 1,100 residents, where ninety-five
percent of them are Latino, located in the southwest side of the county, 32 miles from
Hanford.
Chemical waste disposal and treatment site with a capacity of 5.7 million cubic
yards (and it's full), expanding an extra million cubic yards.
Environmental Impacts
Potential: Air pollution, Groundwater pollution or depletion, Loss of
landscape/aesthetic degradation, Noise pollution
Health Impacts
Visible: Accidents, Exposure to unknown or uncertain complex risks (radiation,
etc…), Deaths
Other Health impacts
Birth malformations and leukemia
2. APECO Special Economic Zone on ancestral lands and fishing grounds, Aurora,
Philippines
The APECO (Aurora Pacific Ecozone and Freeport) zone, located in Casiguran,
Aurora Island, was established by the Philippine government in 2007, through the
creation of a tailored law, known as the APECO Act of 2007, with the aim to establish a
special economic zone based on public-private partnerships and to attract vast foreign
investment thanks to tax incentives. As the law states, “the Aurora Ecozone shall be
developed into and operated as a decentralized, self-reliant and self-sustaining industrial,
commercial/trading, agro-industrial, tourist, banking, financial and investment center
with suitable residential areas.”
Environmental Impacts
Visible: Food insecurity (crop damage)
Potential: Air pollution, Biodiversity loss (wildlife, agro-diversity), Loss of
landscape/aesthetic degradation, Noise pollution, Deforestation and loss of vegetation
cover, Surface water pollution / Decreasing water (physico-chemical, biological) quality,
Soil contamination, Groundwater pollution or depletion
Health Impacts
Visible: Mental problems including stress, depression and suicide
Potential: Health problems related to alcoholism, prostitution

3. Socio-economic Impacts
Visible: Increase in Corruption/Co-optation of different actors, Displacement,
Loss of livelihood, Violations of human rights, Land dispossession, Loss of
landscape/sense of place
Potential: Increase in violence and crime, Lack of work security, labour absenteeism,
firings, unemployment, Loss of traditional knowledge/practices/cultures, Militarization
and increased police presence, Social problems (alcoholism, prostitution, etc..)
History of Environmental Justice
 1982- The Fight of Environmental Justice took
When residents of Warren County, North Carolina, mounted mass demonstrations against
a plan to dump contaminated soil in landfill in their community. The EPA investigated four
similar landfills in southern states and found that they were all located in black or low-income
neighborhood.
It would be several years before the term “environmental racism” would offer a
succinct label for the injustice they fought and before the term “environmental justice” would
lend a name to the movement.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Established in December 1970 by an executive order of President Richard Nixon. It is an
agency of the United States federal government whose mission is to protect human and
environmental health. EPA is responsible for creating standards and laws promoting the health of
individuals and the environment.
 1987- The United Church of Racial Justice Commission
The United Church of Racial Justice Commission found that around the country,
communities of color and low-income people were disproportionately exposed to environmental
toxics through the siting of hazardous and toxic waste facilities in and near their communities.
 1992- The Federal Government was Force to Act
President George H.W. Bush founded the Office of Environmental Justice (formerly
known as the Office of Environmental Equity) inside the EPA.
 1994- President Bill Clinton Signed an Executive Order 12898 of February 11, 1994
The executive order requiring federal agencies to consider environmental justice in all of
their policies, as well as extending civil rights protection to environmental discrimination. But
the Congress never passed a bill to make Clinton’s executive order law.

4.  2001- George W. Bush
His administration shifted the focus of the Office of Environmental Justice from
protecting law-income and minority communities to all people. Leaving vulnerable populations
without federal environmental advocate.
 2005- Environmental Civil Rights Claims were Rejected
Under the leadership of Bush, many environmental civil rights claims were rejected or
delayed for years.
 2009- Obama’s Action on Environment Angers Congress
Obama’s administration recommitted to environmental justice. During the 2 years
Democrats controlled the House, Senate, White House they didn’t file a single bill focused on
strengthening environmental justice protections.
 2010- Republicans Took Control of Congress
Passing major environmental legislation faded further when Republicans took control of
the Congress in 2010 midterm elections.
 2017- Weakening of EPA
President Donald J. Trump is making good on his vow to weaken the EPA,
“Environmental protection, what they do is a disgrace, every week they come out with a new
regulations.”. Who’s going to protect the environment? “We’ll be fine with the environment, we
can leave a little bit.”. Trump cut 2.6 billon away from the budget of EPA.
As the EPA loses funding and the regulations rolled back, vulnerable communities may
very likely fall through the cracks.
Emerging Themes in Environmental Justice
Given the conceptual, spatial, and international expansion of the EJ discourse,
movements labelled with a justice appellation have proliferated.
1. Climate Justice
It is the understanding that the urgent action needed to prevent climate change
must be based on community-led solutions and the well-being of local communities,
indigenous people and the global poor, as well as the biodiversity and intact ecosystems.
2. Indigenous Justice

5. Supports Indigenous community-based justice programs that offer alternatives to
mainstream justice processes in appropriate circumstances.
3. Energy Justice
Explores the intersection of energy and equity issues related to a variety of
domestic and global energy dynamics, to include ways for rectifying persistent unequal
distributions of energy resources to ensure reliable, clean, and affordable energy access.
4. Food Justice
Examines inequities and injustices along the entirety of the food supply chain.
Key areas of inquiry include food access, food security, and food sovereignty, which
connect to “health, globalization, worker rights and working conditions, disparities
regarding access to environmental (or food) goods, land use and respect for the land, and,
ultimately, how our production, transportation, distribution, and consumptions systems
are organized”.
Agency and Organizations that Takes Care of the Environment In Philippines
 The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
The primary government agency responsible for the conservation, management,
protection, proper use and sustainable development of the country’s environment and
natural resources.
 World Wide Fund for Nature- their projects don’t only focus on food, water,
and climate, but on wildlife as well especially on the survival of rarest and
endangered species in the country.
 Waves for Water- works with leaders and partners to provide clean and portable
water.
 Greenpeace Philippines- protects natural landscapes, species and more from
environmental threats such as perilous waste imports, coal projects, and illegal
logging.
 Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation- works to restore natural
habitats and aims to educate the public on how to protect wildlife from feasible
harms.
 Save Philippine Seas- they promote community empowerment, environmental
education, and shark conservation.
 Mother Earth Foundation- campaigns zero-waste advocacy to local authorities.

6.  Haribon Foundation- their widely known platform to save different bird species
and to conserve their habitats as they empower and educate people