environmental justice
-
Slow Katrina evacuation fits pattern of injustice during crises
Much of the world — including white America — has been shocked by the devastation in New Orleans, and by the ongoing failures it has exposed at every possible level of government. Even normally unflappable TV news anchors and politicians have been moved to outrage, asking why those left behind were mostly black, poor, disabled, […]
-
Why aren’t conservationists fighting poverty?
It’s a shame. Conservationists are sitting on the sidelines while the Big Game unfolds before our eyes. A major campaign is under way to change the terms of development, alleviate crushing debt, and help poor people around the world live better lives. Successes are being racked up. And conservation and environmental groups are nowhere to […]
-
Task force takes aim at NEPA, freaks out environmentalists
Rep. Richard Pombo meets the press in April. Photo: U.S. House of Representatives. You have to want to get to Nacogdoches, a Texas town that’s not on the way to anywhere. This eastern outpost, nearly 150 miles from Houston, is the oldest town in the state, with enough lore to fill volumes. It’s the site […]
-
EPA says race, income shouldn’t be environmental-justice factors
It may surprise some people to hear that the Bush administration’s EPA just drafted a strategic plan on environmental justice. Insidiously, and perhaps less surprisingly, advocates say, the move threatens to redefine that term into irrelevance. The agency’s new plan defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of […]
-
![]()
![]()
Diamond chronicles how a small southern town made environmental history
When Margie Eugene-Richard won the Goldman Prize last year, it was a stunning public recognition of decades of struggle. Richard -- the first African-American to win the award, which some refer to as environmentalism's Nobel Prize -- had waged a 30-year campaign against Shell Chemicals with fellow residents of Diamond, La. Like the proverbial David, the African-American, working-class neighborhood took on a Goliath -- and won.
-
An interview with activists at the Prison Moratorium Project
Khaleaph Luis (left) and Prince S. Say “criminal justice” and very few people think of the environment. But in reality, there’s a complicated relationship between the work of environmentalists, who are trying to encourage a more responsible attitude toward our planet and everything on it, and those moving in and out of the prison-industrial complex, […]
-
Facts and figures on air quality and Latino health in the U.S.
92 — percentage of the U.S. Latino population living in urban areas in 20002, 3 80 — percentage of Latinos living in counties that violated at least one federal air-pollution standard in 20022 57 — percentage of non-Latino whites living in counties that violate at least one federal air-pollution standard in 20022 50 — percentage […]
-
![]()
![]()
Are corporations hog-tying conservation groups in CAFTA fight?
Macaws and effect in Central America. A year ago, President Bush signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Since then, the controversial plan has inspired protests across the U.S. and in Central America. And while past trade agreements have been ratified by Congress in less than two months, the Bush administration has delayed the vote […]
-
![]()
![]()
An environmental-justice advocate insists he’s not dead yet
Ludovic Blain. “The Death of Environmentalism” should be called “The Death of Elite, White, American Environmentalism.” A critique of the environmental movement that draws on neither the perspectives nor achievements of the environmental-justice (EJ) movement is, at very best, incomplete. That the DOE interviews and recommendations only focused on white, American male-led environmentalism meant that […]
