Environmental racism
Encyclopedia
Environmental racism is a sociological term referring to policies and regulations that disproportionately burden minority communities
with negative environmental impacts.
The phenomenon can be either intentional or unintentional, and the term is often used to describe specific events in which minority communities are targeted for the siting of polluting industries and factories. The term also describes the segregation of minority communities into regions where they are exposed to health hazards because property in polluted areas is inexpensive. It can also encompass the exclusion of minority groups from the decision-making process in their communities.
Since the coining of the term environmental racism, researchers have investigated why minority communities are more likely to reside in environmentally degraded areas, and whether it constitutes intentional or unintentional discrimination.
The environmental justice
movement aims in part to combat environmental racism; environmental justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies."
, the United Church of Christ
commissioned a report exploring the concept. Subsequent advocacy and policy efforts aiming to combat environmental racism are often referred to collectively as the environmental justice
movement.
facilities and the ethnic background of an area's residents. In predominantly minority areas, voter registration and education are often lower than average, and citizens are less likely to challenge proposals or seek financial compensation for environmental and health damages. Further, controversial projects are less likely to be sited in areas expected to pursue collective action
. Some studies also suggest that the lack of protest
could be due to fear of losing area jobs. Non-minority communities are more likely to succeed when opposing the siting of hazardous waste and sewage treatment facilities, incinerators, and freeways in their areas.
While some social scientists see the siting of hazardous facilities in minority communities as a demonstration of intentional racism, others see the causes as structural and institutional. Processes such as suburbanization
, gentrification
, and decentralization lead to patterns of environmental racism even absent intentionally discriminatory policies. For example, the process of suburbanization (or white flight
) consists of non-minorities leaving industrial zones for safer, cleaner, and less expensive suburban locales. Meanwhile, minority communities are left in the inner cities and in close proximity to polluted industrial zones. In these areas, unemployment is high and businesses are less likely to invest in area improvement, creating poor economic conditions for residents and reinforcing a social formation that reproduces racial inequality.
The terms environmental racism, environmental civil rights, and environmental justice
emerged from the 1982 citizen opposition to a proposed PCB landfill
in Warren County, North Carolina
. For six weeks, citizens protested the landfill as 10,000 truckloads of PCB-contaminated soil were buried in their county. During the protests, more than 550 people were arrested. Ken Ferruccio, a Warren County resident, led the protests. An English instructor at a nearby community college, Ferrucio believed that discrimination was perpetuated by the Environmental Protection Agency's built-in waiver system, which allowed state agencies to site toxic waste facilities according to political, not scientific feasibility. According to Johns Hopkins University
Environmental Studies Professor Dr. Eileen McGurty, through their opposition, Warren County citizens "transformed environmentalism".
Despite protests from residents, political leaders, civil rights and environmental activists, and scientific findings that the plan would likely cause drinking water contamination, the Warren County PCB Landfill
was built and the toxic waste was placed in the landfill.
veterans. Surrounded by 53 toxic facilities and 90% of the city's landfills, the Altgeld Gardens area became known as a "toxic doughnut." With 90% of its population African-American, and 65% below the poverty level, Altgeld Gardens is considered a classic example of environmental racism. The known toxins and pollutants affecting the Altgeld Gardens area include mercury, ammonia gas, lead, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, and xylene.
, provides an example of "social, political, and economic forces that shape the disproportionate distribution of environmental hazards in poor communities of color". Chester is located in Delaware County
, an area with a population of 500,000 that, excluding Chester, is 91% white
. Chester, however, is 65% African American, with the highest minority population and poverty rate in Delaware County, and recipient of a disproportionate amount of environmental risks and hazards.
Chester has five large waste facilities including a trash incinerator, a medical waste incinerator, and a sewage treatment plant. These waste sites in Chester have a total permitted capacity of 2 million tons of waste per year while the rest of Delaware County has a capacity of merely 1,400 tons per year. One of the waste sites located in Chester is the Westinghouse incinerator, which burns all of the municipal waste from the entire county. These numerous waste facilities have posed negative health risks to the citizens of Chester, as the cancer rate in this area is 2.5 times higher than it is anywhere else in Pennsylvania. The clustering of all of these polluting facilities in Chester points to environmental racism.
, has been cited as an example of potential and past environmental racism. At the time of Hurricane Katrina
, 60.5% of New Orleans residents were African American—nearly 50% higher than the rest of the United States—and hurricane evacuation plans relied heavily on the use of cars and personal vehicles. However, because minority populations are less likely to own cars, some people had no choice but to stay behind, while majority communities were able to escape. A report commissioned by the U.S. House of Representatives found that political leaders failed to consider the fact that "100,000 city residents had no cars and relied on public transit", and the city's failure to complete its mandatory evacuation led to hundreds of deaths.
In the months following the disaster, political, religious, and civil rights groups, celebrities, and New Orleans residents spoke out against what they believed was racism on the part of the United States government. After the hurricane, in a meeting held between the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Urban League, the Black Leadership Forum, the National Council of Negro Women, and the NAACP, Black leaders criticized the response of the federal government and discussed the role of race in this response.
featured a class action lawsuit filed by Sheila Holt-Orsted of Dickson, Tennessee, against local waste treatment agencies. An investigation found that authorities did not notify the African American Holt family about trichloroethylene
contamination until years after their white neighbors had been notified. Some of Holt-Orsted's neighbors were notified within 48 hours of the discovery, while officials continued to tell the Holt family that there was no problem. Nearly a decade later, the Holt family was finally informed that the water they had been drinking, showering in, and cooking with for 20 years was contaminated with cancer-causing agents.
may be considered early examples of environmental racism in the United States. By 1850, all tribes east of the Mississippi had been removed to western lands, essentially confining them to "lands that were too dry, remote, or barren to attract the attention of settlers and corporations". During World War II, military facilities were often located conterminous to reservations, leading to a situation in which "a disproportionate number of the most dangerous military facilities are located near Native American lands".
Native American lands have also been used for waste disposal by the United States and multinational corporations, but illegal dumping poses a greater threat. The International Tribunal of Indigenous People and Oppressed Nations, convened in 1992, established to examine the history of criminal activity against indigenous groups in the United States, published a Significant Bill of Particulars outlining grievances indigenous peoples had with the U.S., including allegations that the United States “deliberately and systematically permitted, aided, and abetted, solicited and conspired to commit the dumping, transportation, and location of nuclear, toxic, medical, and otherwise hazardous waste materials on Native American territories in North America and has thus created a clear and present danger to the health, safety, and physical and mental well-being of Native American People”.
According to the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development, one possible solution is the precautionary principle
, which states that "where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation". Under this principle, the initiator of the potentially hazardous activity is charged with demonstrating the activity's safety. Environmental justice activists also emphasize the need for waste reduction in general, which would act to reduce the overall burden.
Concentrations of ethnic or racial minorities may also foster solidarity, lending support in spite of challenges and providing the concentration of social capital
necessary for grassroots activism. Citizens who are tired of being subjected to the dangers of pollution in their communities have been confronting the power structures through organized protest, legal actions, marches, civil disobedience, and other activities.
Other strategies in battling against large companies include public hearings, the elections of supporters to state and local offices, meetings with company representatives, and other efforts to bring about public awareness and accountability. In general, political participation in African American communities is correlated with the reduction of health risks and mortality.
corporations often produce dangerous chemicals banned in the United States and export them to developing countries, or send waste materials to countries with relaxed environmental laws.
In one instance, the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau
was prohibited from entering Alang, an India
n ship-breaking yard, due to a lack of clear documentation about its toxic contents. French President Jacques Chirac
ultimately ordered the carrier, which contained tons of hazardous materials including asbestos
and PCB
s, to return to France
.
E-waste disposal sites, such as one in Giuyu, China
, are also subjects of controversy. In Giuyu, laborers with no protective clothing regularly burn plastics and circuit boards from old computers. They pour acid on electronic parts to extract silver
and gold
, and crush cathode ray tubes from computer monitors to remove other valuable metals, such as lead
. Nearly 80 percent of children in the E-waste hub of Giuyu, China
, suffer from lead poisoning
, according to recent reports.
In another example of foreign environmental racism, in 1984, both the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, and the PEMEX liquid propane gas plant in Mexico City
, where minorities reside, blew up, killing thousands and injuring roughly a million nearby residents. The images of the victims in India
and Mexico
spread knowledge of environmental racism around the globe. In the other hand, some countries have small "eco laws" and are more prone to accept dangerous industries.
have been subjected to environmental pollution, sometimes causing health problems, loss of agriculture, and poverty. In 1993, 30,000 Ecuadorians, which included Cofan
, Siona, Huaorani
, and Quichua indigenous people, filed a lawsuit against Texaco oil company
for the environmental damages. After handing control of the oil fields to an Ecuadorian oil company, Texaco did not properly dispose of its waste, causing great damages to the ecosystem and crippling communities.
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
with negative environmental impacts.
The phenomenon can be either intentional or unintentional, and the term is often used to describe specific events in which minority communities are targeted for the siting of polluting industries and factories. The term also describes the segregation of minority communities into regions where they are exposed to health hazards because property in polluted areas is inexpensive. It can also encompass the exclusion of minority groups from the decision-making process in their communities.
Since the coining of the term environmental racism, researchers have investigated why minority communities are more likely to reside in environmentally degraded areas, and whether it constitutes intentional or unintentional discrimination.
The environmental justice
Environmental justice
Environmental justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." In the words of Bunyan Bryant,...
movement aims in part to combat environmental racism; environmental justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies."
Background
The first report to draw a relationship between race, income, and risk of exposure to pollutants was the Council of Environmental Quality’s "Annual Report to the President" in 1971. After protests in Warren County, North CarolinaWarren County, North Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 19,972 people, 7,708 households, and 5,449 families residing in the county. The population density was 47 people per square mile . There were 10,548 housing units at an average density of 25 per square mile...
, the United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
commissioned a report exploring the concept. Subsequent advocacy and policy efforts aiming to combat environmental racism are often referred to collectively as the environmental justice
Environmental justice
Environmental justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." In the words of Bunyan Bryant,...
movement.
United States
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), in the U.S., there is a correlation between the location of hazardous wasteHazardous waste
A hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. According to the U.S. environmental laws hazardous wastes fall into two major categories: characteristic wastes and listed wastes.Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known...
facilities and the ethnic background of an area's residents. In predominantly minority areas, voter registration and education are often lower than average, and citizens are less likely to challenge proposals or seek financial compensation for environmental and health damages. Further, controversial projects are less likely to be sited in areas expected to pursue collective action
Collective action
Collective action is the pursuit of a goal or set of goals by more than one person. It is a term which has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences.-In sociology:...
. Some studies also suggest that the lack of protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
could be due to fear of losing area jobs. Non-minority communities are more likely to succeed when opposing the siting of hazardous waste and sewage treatment facilities, incinerators, and freeways in their areas.
While some social scientists see the siting of hazardous facilities in minority communities as a demonstration of intentional racism, others see the causes as structural and institutional. Processes such as suburbanization
Suburbanization
Suburbanization a term used to describe the growth of areas on the fringes of major cities. It is one of the many causes of the increase in urban sprawl. Many residents of metropolitan regions work within the central urban area, choosing instead to live in satellite communities called suburbs...
, gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
, and decentralization lead to patterns of environmental racism even absent intentionally discriminatory policies. For example, the process of suburbanization (or white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
) consists of non-minorities leaving industrial zones for safer, cleaner, and less expensive suburban locales. Meanwhile, minority communities are left in the inner cities and in close proximity to polluted industrial zones. In these areas, unemployment is high and businesses are less likely to invest in area improvement, creating poor economic conditions for residents and reinforcing a social formation that reproduces racial inequality.
Warren County, North Carolina
- See also Warren County PCB LandfillWarren County PCB LandfillWarren County PCB Landfill was a PCB landfill located in Warren County, North Carolina near the community of Afton south of Warrenton. The landfill was created in 1982 by the State of North Carolina as a place to dump contaminated soil as result of an illegal PCB dumping incident...
The terms environmental racism, environmental civil rights, and environmental justice
Environmental justice
Environmental justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." In the words of Bunyan Bryant,...
emerged from the 1982 citizen opposition to a proposed PCB landfill
Warren County PCB Landfill
Warren County PCB Landfill was a PCB landfill located in Warren County, North Carolina near the community of Afton south of Warrenton. The landfill was created in 1982 by the State of North Carolina as a place to dump contaminated soil as result of an illegal PCB dumping incident...
in Warren County, North Carolina
Warren County, North Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 19,972 people, 7,708 households, and 5,449 families residing in the county. The population density was 47 people per square mile . There were 10,548 housing units at an average density of 25 per square mile...
. For six weeks, citizens protested the landfill as 10,000 truckloads of PCB-contaminated soil were buried in their county. During the protests, more than 550 people were arrested. Ken Ferruccio, a Warren County resident, led the protests. An English instructor at a nearby community college, Ferrucio believed that discrimination was perpetuated by the Environmental Protection Agency's built-in waiver system, which allowed state agencies to site toxic waste facilities according to political, not scientific feasibility. According to Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
Environmental Studies Professor Dr. Eileen McGurty, through their opposition, Warren County citizens "transformed environmentalism".
Despite protests from residents, political leaders, civil rights and environmental activists, and scientific findings that the plan would likely cause drinking water contamination, the Warren County PCB Landfill
Warren County PCB Landfill
Warren County PCB Landfill was a PCB landfill located in Warren County, North Carolina near the community of Afton south of Warrenton. The landfill was created in 1982 by the State of North Carolina as a place to dump contaminated soil as result of an illegal PCB dumping incident...
was built and the toxic waste was placed in the landfill.
Chicago, Illinois
Altgeld Gardens is a housing community located in south Chicago that was built in 1945 on an abandoned landfill to accommodate returning African-American World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veterans. Surrounded by 53 toxic facilities and 90% of the city's landfills, the Altgeld Gardens area became known as a "toxic doughnut." With 90% of its population African-American, and 65% below the poverty level, Altgeld Gardens is considered a classic example of environmental racism. The known toxins and pollutants affecting the Altgeld Gardens area include mercury, ammonia gas, lead, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, and xylene.
Chester, Pennsylvania
Chester, PennsylvaniaChester, Pennsylvania
Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a population of 33,972 at the 2010 census. Chester is situated on the Delaware River, between the cities of Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware.- History :...
, provides an example of "social, political, and economic forces that shape the disproportionate distribution of environmental hazards in poor communities of color". Chester is located in Delaware County
Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Delaware County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, the population was 558,979, making it Pennsylvania's fifth most populous county, behind Philadelphia, Allegheny, Montgomery, and Bucks counties....
, an area with a population of 500,000 that, excluding Chester, is 91% white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
. Chester, however, is 65% African American, with the highest minority population and poverty rate in Delaware County, and recipient of a disproportionate amount of environmental risks and hazards.
Chester has five large waste facilities including a trash incinerator, a medical waste incinerator, and a sewage treatment plant. These waste sites in Chester have a total permitted capacity of 2 million tons of waste per year while the rest of Delaware County has a capacity of merely 1,400 tons per year. One of the waste sites located in Chester is the Westinghouse incinerator, which burns all of the municipal waste from the entire county. These numerous waste facilities have posed negative health risks to the citizens of Chester, as the cancer rate in this area is 2.5 times higher than it is anywhere else in Pennsylvania. The clustering of all of these polluting facilities in Chester points to environmental racism.
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, LouisianaLouisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, has been cited as an example of potential and past environmental racism. At the time of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, 60.5% of New Orleans residents were African American—nearly 50% higher than the rest of the United States—and hurricane evacuation plans relied heavily on the use of cars and personal vehicles. However, because minority populations are less likely to own cars, some people had no choice but to stay behind, while majority communities were able to escape. A report commissioned by the U.S. House of Representatives found that political leaders failed to consider the fact that "100,000 city residents had no cars and relied on public transit", and the city's failure to complete its mandatory evacuation led to hundreds of deaths.
In the months following the disaster, political, religious, and civil rights groups, celebrities, and New Orleans residents spoke out against what they believed was racism on the part of the United States government. After the hurricane, in a meeting held between the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Urban League, the Black Leadership Forum, the National Council of Negro Women, and the NAACP, Black leaders criticized the response of the federal government and discussed the role of race in this response.
Dickson, Tennessee
In 2007, NPRNPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
featured a class action lawsuit filed by Sheila Holt-Orsted of Dickson, Tennessee, against local waste treatment agencies. An investigation found that authorities did not notify the African American Holt family about trichloroethylene
Trichloroethylene
The chemical compound trichloroethylene is a chlorinated hydrocarbon commonly used as an industrial solvent. It is a clear non-flammable liquid with a sweet smell. It should not be confused with the similar 1,1,1-trichloroethane, which is commonly known as chlorothene.The IUPAC name is...
contamination until years after their white neighbors had been notified. Some of Holt-Orsted's neighbors were notified within 48 hours of the discovery, while officials continued to tell the Holt family that there was no problem. Nearly a decade later, the Holt family was finally informed that the water they had been drinking, showering in, and cooking with for 20 years was contaminated with cancer-causing agents.
Effects on Native American Nations
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Trail of TearsTrail of Tears
The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...
may be considered early examples of environmental racism in the United States. By 1850, all tribes east of the Mississippi had been removed to western lands, essentially confining them to "lands that were too dry, remote, or barren to attract the attention of settlers and corporations". During World War II, military facilities were often located conterminous to reservations, leading to a situation in which "a disproportionate number of the most dangerous military facilities are located near Native American lands".
Native American lands have also been used for waste disposal by the United States and multinational corporations, but illegal dumping poses a greater threat. The International Tribunal of Indigenous People and Oppressed Nations, convened in 1992, established to examine the history of criminal activity against indigenous groups in the United States, published a Significant Bill of Particulars outlining grievances indigenous peoples had with the U.S., including allegations that the United States “deliberately and systematically permitted, aided, and abetted, solicited and conspired to commit the dumping, transportation, and location of nuclear, toxic, medical, and otherwise hazardous waste materials on Native American territories in North America and has thus created a clear and present danger to the health, safety, and physical and mental well-being of Native American People”.
Responses to Environmental Racism
There are many proposed solutions to the problem of environmental racism. Activists have called for "more participatory and citizen-centered conceptions of justice".According to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Conference on Environment and Development, one possible solution is the precautionary principle
Precautionary principle
The precautionary principle or precautionary approach states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those...
, which states that "where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation". Under this principle, the initiator of the potentially hazardous activity is charged with demonstrating the activity's safety. Environmental justice activists also emphasize the need for waste reduction in general, which would act to reduce the overall burden.
Concentrations of ethnic or racial minorities may also foster solidarity, lending support in spite of challenges and providing the concentration of social capital
Social capital
Social capital is a sociological concept, which refers to connections within and between social networks. The concept of social capital highlights the value of social relations and the role of cooperation and confidence to get collective or economic results. The term social capital is frequently...
necessary for grassroots activism. Citizens who are tired of being subjected to the dangers of pollution in their communities have been confronting the power structures through organized protest, legal actions, marches, civil disobedience, and other activities.
Other strategies in battling against large companies include public hearings, the elections of supporters to state and local offices, meetings with company representatives, and other efforts to bring about public awareness and accountability. In general, political participation in African American communities is correlated with the reduction of health risks and mortality.
International
Environmental racism also exists on an international scale. First worldFirst World
The concept of the First World first originated during the Cold War, where it was used to describe countries that were aligned with the United States. These countries were democratic and capitalistic. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term "First World" took on a...
corporations often produce dangerous chemicals banned in the United States and export them to developing countries, or send waste materials to countries with relaxed environmental laws.
In one instance, the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau
Clemenceau (R 98)
Clemenceau , often affectionately called "le Clem'", was the lead ship of her class, and the 6th aircraft carrier of the French Navy, serving from 1961 to 1997. She was the second French warship to be named after Georges Clemenceau, the first one being a battleship of the Richelieu class, laid...
was prohibited from entering Alang, an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n ship-breaking yard, due to a lack of clear documentation about its toxic contents. French President Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
ultimately ordered the carrier, which contained tons of hazardous materials including asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
and PCB
Polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...
s, to return to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
E-waste disposal sites, such as one in Giuyu, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, are also subjects of controversy. In Giuyu, laborers with no protective clothing regularly burn plastics and circuit boards from old computers. They pour acid on electronic parts to extract silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
and gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, and crush cathode ray tubes from computer monitors to remove other valuable metals, such as lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
. Nearly 80 percent of children in the E-waste hub of Giuyu, China
Electronic waste in Guiyu
Guiyu, China, in Guangdong Province is made up of four small villages. It is the location of the largest electronic waste site on earth,. China is believed to be the predominant recipient of the world's electronic waste, with a roughly estimated one million tons being shipped there per year,...
, suffer from lead poisoning
Lead poisoning
Lead poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems...
, according to recent reports.
In another example of foreign environmental racism, in 1984, both the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, and the PEMEX liquid propane gas plant in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, where minorities reside, blew up, killing thousands and injuring roughly a million nearby residents. The images of the victims in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
spread knowledge of environmental racism around the globe. In the other hand, some countries have small "eco laws" and are more prone to accept dangerous industries.
Chevron/Texaco in Ecuador
Due to their lack of environmental laws, emerging countries like EcuadorEcuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
have been subjected to environmental pollution, sometimes causing health problems, loss of agriculture, and poverty. In 1993, 30,000 Ecuadorians, which included Cofan
Cofán
The Cofán people are an indigenous people native to Napo Province northeast Ecuador and to southern Colombia, between the Guamués River and the Aguaricó River...
, Siona, Huaorani
Huaorani
The Huaorani, Waorani or Waodani, also known as the Waos, are native Amerindians from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador who have marked differences from other ethnic groups from Ecuador. The alternate name Auca is a pejorative exonym used by the neighboring Quechua Indians, and commonly adopted by...
, and Quichua indigenous people, filed a lawsuit against Texaco oil company
Texaco
Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand....
for the environmental damages. After handing control of the oil fields to an Ecuadorian oil company, Texaco did not properly dispose of its waste, causing great damages to the ecosystem and crippling communities.
Environmental hazards
According to the United States EPA, the six most prominent examples of environmental hazards include the following:- Lead—There is a particularly high concentration of lead problems in low-income communities where the public housing units were built before 1970.
- Waste sites—Low income and minority populations are more likely than other groups to live near landfills, incinerators, and hazardous wasteHazardous wasteA hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. According to the U.S. environmental laws hazardous wastes fall into two major categories: characteristic wastes and listed wastes.Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known...
treatment facilities. - Air pollution—57% of all European Americans, 65% of African Americans, and 80% of Hispanic Americans live in communities that have failed to meet at least one of EPA's ambient air quality standardsNational Ambient Air Quality StandardsThe National Ambient Air Quality Standards are standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under authority of the Clean Air Act that apply for outdoor air throughout the country...
. - Pesticides—Approximately 90% of the 2 million hired farm workers in the United States are people of color, including Chicano, Puerto Ricans, Caribbean blacks, and African Americans. Through direct exposure to pesticides, farm workers and their families may face serious health risks.
- Wastewater (city sewers)—Many inner cities still have sewer systems that divert overflow into local rivers and streams during storms.
- Wastewater (agricultural run-off)—Widespread use of commercial fertilizers and concentrations of animal wastes can lead to the degradation of streams and rivers in rural areas.