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The Global Dynamics ofEnvironmental Change 2:

Race, Class and the Politicsof Environmental Justice

Alf Gunvald NilsenSOS110/Autumn 2011

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ORIENTATIONS

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Summer 1978: Robert Burns and his sons drivetanker trucks along rural roads in 13 counties in

North Carolina, discharging liquidscontaminated with PCBs that had been removed

from Ward Transformer Agency, Raleigh

240 miles of road shoulder were contaminated

over the course of 2 weeks As the state of NCwas responsible for the clean-up, it was decidedto build a landfill for the soil in Warren County, a

rural area in NC with a majority population(62.5%) of poor African Americans

This was not a random choice rather, thechoice is symptomatic of a structural pattern inwhich racial minorities and low-income groups

are systematically more exposed to

environmental hazards than white majoritycommunities and well-off groups

In the US context, this means that poor andworking class African Americans, Latinos and

Native Americans are more exposed toenvironmental risk than the rest of society

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UCC-CRJ: Toxic

Wastes and Race(1987):

60% of AAs live incommunities with at

least one abandonedtoxic waste site

Out of the 5 largesthazardous wastelandfills in the US, 3 are

placed inpredominantlyAA/Latino communities

AAs are

overrepresented in thepopulations of thosecities with the largestnumber of abandonedwaste-sites

Greenpeace/Playing with Fire (1990):

The minority portion of the population in

communities with existing incinerators is 89% higherthan the national average

Communities where incinerators are proposedhave minority populations 60% higher then the

national average Average income in communities with existingincinerators is 15% below the national average

Communities of color have been systematically

targeted for the siting of noxious facilities such assewer treatment plants, garbage dumps, landfills,incinerators, hazardous waste disposal sites, lead

smelters, and other risky technologies, therebyexacerbating existing inequities

Robert Bullard

The community was politically and economicallyunempowered; that was the reason for the siting.

They took advantage of poor people and people of

colorWC Activist

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The announcement of the toxic wastesite triggered resistance from the

affected WC communities, who wereconcerned about the health andeconomic impacts of the site

Three years of unsuccessful legal

struggle ended in 1982, when the stateobtained permission to build the site the Concerned Citizens turned tonon-violent direct action

Ultimately, the waste site was notstopped, but in 1994 it was declared afailure, and community activists wereable to influence and control thedetoxification process from 1994 to

2004The WC struggle signalled the onset ofthe environmental justice movement an environmentalism that joins issues ofsocial justice and ecological concerns

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CONCEPTUALIZING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM

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Unfortunately, scholars of environmental racism have notseriously problematized racism, opting instead for a de facto

conception based on malicious, individual actsLaura Pulido Rethinking Environmental Racism

Why is this a problem?

The focus on anindividual act lead usto miss the role ofstructural/hegemonicforms of racism

Racism is notconceptualized as thedynamic socio-spatial

process that it is

Political limitations racialinequality can only beattributed directly to

individual, hostile act, notsocial structures

A narrow/restricted understanding of environmental racism

Focus on individualfacility siting

Focus on intentionalityand indivual acts

An uncriticalunderstanding of scale

Environmental racism is only conceded if malicious intenton the part of the decision-maker can be proven

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Given the pervasive nature of race, the belief that racism can bereduced to hostile, discriminatory acts strains logic

There is a need to understand racial formations

the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created,inhabited, transformed and destroyed

Omi/Winant Racial Formation in the United States

Racial formation A process of historically situated projects in whichhuman bodies and social structures are represented and organized

Structures Representations

A racial project is simultaneously an interpretation, representation, orexplanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and

redistribute resources along particular racial lines

Racial projects connect what race means in a particular discursivepractice and the ways in which both social structures and everyday

experiences are racially organized, based upon that meaning

Omi/Winant Racial Formation in the United States

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All places are racialized and race informs all places This is reflected in thesocial organization of white privilege the privileges and benefits that

accrue to white people by virtue of their whitenessLaura Pulido Rethinking Environmental Racism

Why are white people not burdened with pollution and environmental

hazards to the same extent as communities of colour?

In this perspective, white racism is understood as thosepractices and ideologies carried out by structures, institutionsand individuals, that reproduce inequality and undermine the

well-being of racially subordinate populations

The question of scale: Racismcan exist at individual, group,

institutional, societal and globalscales in distinct butinterrelated ways.

The question of intention: WP bothunderlies/is distinct from

institutional/overt racism refers tohegemonic structures, practices andideologies that reproduce the privileged

status of white groups

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Extant research on environmental racism

Siting:

1) Reproduces flawedunderstanding of urbandynamics as it separates

environmental inequalities fromlarger socio-spatial processes

2) Makes siting the only mechanismconsidered in terms of racial

discrimination

Intentionality:

1) Reduces likelihood of viewingcollective actions as racist

2) Allows for continual contractionof the definition of racism

3) Exonerates large social arenasfrom contributing to racial

inequality

In this perspective, racism is seen as anaberration, rather than a structural feature

of a social formation

NB! The issue of scale and racism: The social relations that are relevant tounderstanding racism do not solely reside within the spatial unit under

consideration A specific place is constructed through their links to otherplaces and the scale where racist outcomes are observed may not

coincide with the scale where these outcomes are produced

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ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM:

THE CASE OF LOS ANGELES

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In Los Angeles, non-whites in particular working class Latinosand African Americans are disproportionately exposed to (i)

uncontrolled toxic waste sites, (ii) TSDFs, and (iii) air toxins

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Environmental racism in LA has to be understood in terms of theproduction of a historical geography of white privilege

1848-1920s

1) Early suburbanizationreflected WMC refusalto live near immigrants

communities of colour a choice based on WP

2) WWC provided withsuburban housing

developments toprevent social unrest

1920s zoning lawsconcentrated industry innon-white areas

Created anindustrial/residentialgeography whereindustry developed innon-white spaces

WWII Era

GD/WWII intensifiedsuburbanization, on thebasis of state subsidies

New white arrivals wentto suburbs; AAs/Latinos

to ghettos/barrios incentral/eastern LA

Residential segregationentrenched throughred-lining/targeting of

public funds

1960: Av. Income in C/ELA = $5916 Suburban

LA = $8575

Well-paid jobs to thesuburban areas

Contemporary LA

Persistence ofresidential segregation:

ImmigrationResidential mobility

Economicrestructuring

Increase of Asian andLatino population

C/S/E LA

Industrial/land use

associated withenvironmental hazars

C LA AAs/Latinosmore exposed to

hazards

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THE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT

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Initial opposition in Warren County:

NIMBY residents concerned with pulbic

health issues and economic impact of thewaste site Concerned Citizens opposedthe site through counter-expertise andsuggested alternative waste sites

WC took NC/EPA to court This created asituation where the argument against thesite had to be made on technical grounds The court approved design changes andallowed the project to proceed (S-82)

CC enlists support of civil rights activists withsubstantial activist skills and experience Turn to disruptive collective action The keyissue came to be the lack of transparency

and participation in decision makingprocess

This was linked to the AA communitys effortsto mobilize voter registration campaignssince 1965 Landfill opposition linked to

black political power

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September October 1982: Direct action at the project site Non-violent collective action that was familiar to an AA

community that had participated in the civil rights struggle

This signalled the emergence of the environmental justicemovement as a form of subaltern environmentalism

At the heart of this movement has been a concern with public health andenvironmental threats to the places where people live, work, and play

E.g. WC the concept of contamination by synthetic materials enabled civilrights activist to extend their criticism of the ways in which state policies and

public decision-making discriminates against African AmericansNot only was Warren County predominantly black and

predominantly poor, but it was politically impotent. And thatwas just the recipe for dumping

Dollie Burwell, WC Activist

They use black people as guinea pigs. Anytime there issomething that is going to kill, well put it in the black areato find out if it kills and how many. They dont care. They

dont value a black persons life

M. G. Harris, WC Activist

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Subaltern environmentalism Grassroots environmental activismconducted by marginalized groups that are faced with both social

inequalities and environmental inequalities The latter is evident in thedisproportional exposure of minorities and poor people toenvironmental hazards and/or the inequitable distribution of natural

resources The aim of subaltern environmentalism is to empowermarginalized groups and to challenge their exclusion from

environmental decision-making

Summer 1982: Local chapter of NAACP brought lawsuit againstNC state, on the grounds that the high percentage of minority

residents was one factor influencing the siting decision

Court ruling: There is not a single shred of evidence that racehas at any time been a motivating factor for any decision

taken by any official State, federal or local in this long saga

This raises the issue of conceptualizing environmental racism interms of intentionality as a problem for activism

EJ mobilization often starts as a reaction to a specific siting

decision or increasing numbers of waste facilities in an area

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This strategic focus links activism to a distributional paradigm of justice:

Is there a morally proper distribution of social benefits and burdens

among societys members?

An analysis of agency andcausation in institutional and

social processes that lead toobservable distributive outcomes

A monolithic focus on outcomesobscures the way in which

environmental injustice manifestsitself for different groups

This is problematic given that distributional inequalities are symptoms of a

wider matrix of social structures and power relations

The role of social structures and power relations is obscured when the focus ison the relationship between (i) an identifiable responsible agent and (ii) an

observed undesirable outcome

An alternative strategic focus would be (i) the structural forces that influencediscriminatory outcomes and (ii) the aspects of environmental decision-

making that compound structural injustice through environmental inequality

A shift from critique of outcome of siting decisions to a critique of the

legitimacy of decision-making WC detoxification

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GLOBALIZING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

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The ideas of environmental racism and environmental justicecan also be used to understand and to challenge unequal

environmental exposures on a global scaleTwo levels of inequality can be cited

Extraction-based corporations

are expanding their operationsinto eco-systems across theglobal South, often dispossessingpopulations in the process

Environmental exposure triple threat:

From TNCs in the global South

From global toxics trade

From global emissions

The restructuring of the world economy in the current phaseof increasingly global production is leading to an

increasingly global pattern of environmental injustice

J. Timmons Roberts Globalizing Environmental Justice

Climate debt Climate Justice

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At a globalenvironmental level

ecological imperialismhas resulted in theappropriation of theglobal commons (i.e.the atmosphere and

oceans, which are usedas sinks for waste) andthe carbon absorptioncapacity of thebiosphere, primarily to

the benefit of a smallnumber of countries atthe centre of thecapitalist economy. Thecore nations rose to

wealth and power in partthrough high fossil fuelconsumption andexploitation of the globalSouth.

B. Clark/R. York

The richest 20% of the worlds populationcontribute 60% of current GHG emissions if

past contributions are taken into account: 80%

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However, theconsequences of

carbon emissions areglobal in scale Changes that ultimatelyflow from local patternsof resource use are

global in terms to thedegradation of theatmosphere and thealteration of thebiosphere The global

South is far morevulnerable to theadverse impacts ofclimate change This isso both in terms of (i)

large-scale naturaldisasters and (ii) gradualprocesses ofenvironmentaldegradation

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Climate debt

Poor countries, communities andpeople have contributed least tothe causes of climate change, yetare its first and worst victims.

Developed countries haveconsumed more than their fair share

of the earths atmospheric space

Adaptation debt:

The global North should financethe cost of adaptation to climate

change in the global South

Emissions debt:

a) The global North must reduceits levels of carbon emission

b) The global North must providethe finance and technology

needed for the global South tomeet energy needs without

using fossil fuels

Together the sum of these debts

emissions debt and adaptation debt constitutes their climate debt, which ispart of a larger ecological, social and

economic debt owed by the richindustrialised world to the poor

majority

The Other Debt Bolivia andthe Climate Justice

Movement