This document discusses environmental justice and some of the key issues and principles around it. It provides definitions of environmental justice from the EPA and others that emphasize the disproportionate negative environmental impacts faced by communities of color and low-income groups. It also lists several heavily polluted areas and gives examples of organizations and policies working towards environmental justice, including the Principles of Environmental Justice and efforts by the EPA and state agencies. The document stresses that environmental justice seeks solutions by empowering disenfranchised groups and addressing problems before they occur.

1. Environmental Justice
Critical Urbanism
Montgomery Norton
May 19, 2009

2. Poisoned
Communities
• Institute of Medicine of the National Academies
– Toward Environmental Justice: Research,
Education, and Health Policy Needs (1999)
• Center for Health, Environment, & Justice
– Poisoned Schools: Invisible threats, visible action
(2001)
Communities for a Better Environment: Toxic Tour

3. Environmental
Justice
• “No group of people, including racial, ethnic, or
socioeconomic groups, should bear a
disproportionate share of the negative
environmental consequences resulting from
industrial, municipal, and commercial operations
or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal
programs and policies” - EPA

4. Police Power:
The purpose of local government
• The authority conferred upon the
states by the Tenth Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution and which
the states delegate to their
political subdivisions to enact
measures to preserve and protect
the safety, health, welfare, and
morals of the community.

5. People of Color and Toxic Release Facilities:
LA County

6. Environmental
Justice
• “Environmental Racism:
denial of human rights,
environmental
protection, and
economic opportunities”
to communities of color
(p.1).
• “Environmental justice is
a civil rights and a
human rights issue” (p.
2).
• Health is the main focus
of the environmental
justice movement in the
U.S.
Environmental Justice in the Philippines

7. Why?
• Social and Environmental externalities
• Disenfranchised voices can’t speak
• CEQA/NEPA - enforced through litigation
• No other comparable state environmental
regulations

8. San Francisco Bay:
Pollution and race

9. Where?
• Cancer Alley - Louisiana’s
petrochemical corridor
• Texas’ Gulf Coast
Communities
• North Richmond, CA
• Los Angeles/Long Beach
Ports, CA
• West Dallas, TX
• South Bronx, NY
• South Central LA, CA

11. Principles of Environmental Justice
(Oct 27,1991)
• Preamble: “We the People of Color...
fight(ing) the destruction and taking of our
lands and communities, do hereby re-
establish our spiritual interdependence to the
sacredness of our Mother Earth; to respect
and celebrate each of our cultures, languages
and beliefs about the natural world and our
roles in healing ourselves...”

12. Environmental Justice
• U.S. EPA (1992)
– Office of Environmental Equity (renamed Office of
Environmental Justice)
• Executive Order 12898 (1994)
– Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice
in Minority Populations and Low-Income
Populations
• CA Office of Planning and Research:
– General Plan Guidelines (2003) - Sustainable
Development and Environmental Justice
– Env Just in CA State Government (2003)
• Cal/EPA (2004)
– Environmental Justice Action Plan; Inter-Agency
Environmental Justice Strategy

13. Solutions
• Environmental Justice framework seeks to
prevent environmental threats before they
occur - “Precautionary Principle”
• Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management
Corp. (1979)
• Activation & mobilization of the
disenfranchised (impoverished, indigenous,
minorities, women, and children)
• Join forces: Environmental & Social Justice
activists into the Environmental Justice
Movement (Sustainability)

14. Green Collar
Jobs
• Green-collar jobs address two crucial concerns facing
our survival—restoring the environment and making a
living.
• Work within the growing industries that are helping us
kick the oil habit, curb greenhouse-gas emissions,
eliminate toxins, and protect natural systems.
Focus the Nation, 2008