Download or read book Toward Environmental Justice written by Committee on Environmental Justice and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1999-03-11 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Driven by community-based organizations and supported by a growing body of literature, the environmental justice movement contends that poor and minority populations are burdened with more than their share of toxic waste, pesticide runoff, and other hazardous byproducts of our modern economic life. Is environmental degradation worse in poor and minority communities? Do these communities suffer more adverse health effects as a result? The committee addresses these questions and explores how current fragmentation in health policy could be replaced with greater coordination among federal, state, and local parties. The book is highlighted with case studies from five locations where the committee traveled to hear citizen and researcher testimony. It offers detailed examinations in these areas: Identifying environmental hazards and assessing risk for populations of varying ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds, and the need for methodologies that uniquely suit the populations at risk. Identifying basic, clinical, and occupational research needs and meeting challenges to research on minorities. Expanding environmental education from an ecological focus to a public health focus for all levels of health professionals. Legal and ethical aspects of environmental health issues. The book makes recommendations to decisionmakers in the areas of public health, research, and education of health professionals and outlines health policy considerations.
Download or read book Environmental Justice And Public Health written by Rafeal Mechlore and published by Rose Publishing (CA). This book was released on 2023-09-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Environmental Justice and Public Health" is a compelling and intertwined field that addresses the intersection of environmental concerns and their profound impact on human well-being. It recognizes that environmental issues are not evenly distributed across society and that marginalized communities often bear a disproportionate burden of environmental hazards. This dynamic field of study and advocacy seeks to rectify these disparities, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their socio-economic background or demographic, have equal access to a clean and healthy environment. At its core, environmental justice and public health are intimately connected, as the environment in which people live, work, and play has a profound influence on their health outcomes. Here's a closer look at the key aspects of this critical intersection: Environmental Hazards: Many communities, particularly those marginalized or disadvantaged, face a higher prevalence of environmental hazards such as air and water pollution, toxic waste sites, and industrial facilities. These hazards can lead to a range of health issues, including respiratory diseases, cancer, and developmental problems, affecting the overall well-being of individuals in these areas. Health Disparities: Environmental injustice often leads to health disparities, where certain populations experience higher rates of illness and shorter life expectancies due to their exposure to environmental hazards. This exacerbates existing inequalities in healthcare access and outcomes. Access to Resources: Environmental justice aims to ensure that all communities have equitable access to clean air, clean water, green spaces, and other environmental resources that promote good health. This includes addressing issues like food deserts, where disadvantaged neighborhoods lack access to fresh and nutritious food. Community Empowerment: Environmental justice advocates work to empower communities to participate in decision-making processes regarding their environment. This includes providing them with the tools and knowledge needed to advocate for policies and practices that protect their health and environment. Policy and Advocacy: The field of environmental justice and public health relies on policy initiatives and advocacy efforts to bring about change. These efforts often include pushing for stricter environmental regulations, community-based research, and legal actions against polluters. Environmental Racism: Environmental justice also sheds light on the phenomenon of environmental racism, where minority and low-income communities face a disproportionate burden of pollution and environmental hazards. Addressing this issue is central to achieving equitable public health outcomes. Global Impact: While many environmental justice discussions focus on local or national issues, it's important to recognize that environmental problems often have global implications. Climate change, for example, affects communities worldwide and requires collective efforts to mitigate its impact on public health. Health Equity: Ultimately, the goal of environmental justice and public health is to promote health equity. This means that everyone, regardless of their background, should have the same opportunities to lead a healthy life, free from the adverse effects of environmental hazards. Environmental justice and public health represent a powerful partnership between environmental stewardship and social justice. It recognizes that the health and well-being of individuals and communities are deeply intertwined with the health of the planet. By addressing environmental inequalities and advocating for policies that prioritize public health, this field contributes to a more equitable and sustainable future for all.
Download or read book Environmental Justice written by Barry E. Hill and published by Environmental Law Institute. This book was released on 2009 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental risks and harms affect certain geographic areas and populations more than others. The environmental justice movement is aimed at having the public and private sectors address this disproportionate burden of risk and exposure to pollution in minority and/or low-income communities, and for those communities to be engaged in the decision-making processes. Environmental Justice provides an overview of this defining problem and explores the growth of the environmental justice movement. It analyzes the complex mixture of environmental laws and civil rights legal theories adopted in environmental justice litigation. Teachers will have online access to the more than 100 page Teachers Manual.
Download or read book Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice written by Jill Lindsey Harrison and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-07-29 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of political conflicts over pesticide drift and the differing conceptions of justice held by industry, regulators, and activists. The widespread but virtually invisible problem of pesticide drift—the airborne movement of agricultural pesticides into residential areas—has fueled grassroots activism from Maine to Hawaii. Pesticide drift accidents have terrified and sickened many living in the country's most marginalized and vulnerable communities. In this book, Jill Lindsey Harrison considers political conflicts over pesticide drift in California, using them to illuminate the broader problem and its potential solutions. The fact that pesticide pollution and illnesses associated with it disproportionately affect the poor and the powerless raises questions of environmental justice (and political injustice). Despite California's impressive record of environmental protection, massive pesticide regulatory apparatus, and booming organic farming industry, pesticide-related accidents and illnesses continue unabated. To unpack this conundrum, Harrison examines the conceptions of justice that increasingly shape environmental politics and finds that California's agricultural industry, regulators, and pesticide drift activists hold different, and conflicting, notions of what justice looks like. Drawing on her own extensive ethnographic research as well as in-depth interviews with regulators, activists, scientists, and public health practitioners, Harrison examines the ways industry, regulatory agencies, and different kinds of activists address pesticide drift, connecting their efforts to communitarian and libertarian conceptions of justice. The approach taken by pesticide drift activists, she finds, not only critiques theories of justice undergirding mainstream sustainable-agriculture activism, but also offers an entirely new notion of what justice means. To solve seemingly intractable environmental problems such as pesticide drift, Harrison argues, we need a different kind of environmental justice. She proposes the precautionary principle as a framework for effectively and justly addressing environmental inequities in the everyday work of environmental regulatory institutions.
Download or read book Dumping In Dixie written by Robert D. Bullard and published by Avalon Publishing - (Westview Press). This book was released on 2008-03-31 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To be poor, working-class, or a person of color in the United States often means bearing a disproportionate share of the country’s environmental problems. Starting with the premise that all Americans have a basic right to live in a healthy environment, Dumping in Dixie chronicles the efforts of five African American communities, empowered by the civil rights movement, to link environmentalism with issues of social justice. In the third edition, Bullard speaks to us from the front lines of the environmental justice movement about new developments in environmental racism, different organizing strategies, and success stories in the struggle for environmental equity.
Download or read book Environmental Justice and Community Based Health Model Discussion and Recommendations Report written by U.s. Environmental Protection Agency National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2001-02-28 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EPA, through its Office of Environmental Justice, asked the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to provide advice and recommendations on the following questions: (1) What strategies and areas of research should be pursued to achieve more effective, integrated community-based health assessment, intervention, and prevention efforts?; (2) How should these strategies be developed, implemented and evaluated so as to ensure substantial participation, integration and collaboration among federal agencies, in partnership with: impacted communities; public health, medical and environmental professionals; academic institutions; state, tribal and local governments; and the private sector?; (3) How can consideration of socioeconomic status and cultural factors: (a) contribute to health disparities and cumulative and disproportionate environmental effects; and (b) be incorporated into community health assessments? This report reflects the advice and recommendations that resulted from pre-meeting preparation and on-site discussions and public comments. It sets forth a number of policy recommendations for consideration by EPA and other federal, state and local agencies to consider.
Download or read book Environmental Health Hazards and Social Justice written by Florence Margai and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides geographic perspectives and approaches for use in assessing the distribution of environmental health hazards and disease outcomes among disadvantaged population groups. Estimates suggest that about 40 per cent of the global burden of disease is attributable to exposures to biological and chemical pathogens in the physical environment. And with today's rapid rate of globalization, and these hazardous health effects are likely to increase, with low income and underrepresented communities facing even greater risks. In many places around the world, marginalized communities unwillingly serve as hosts of noxious facilities such as chemical industrial plants, extractive facilities (oil and mining) and other destructive land use activities. Others are being used as illegal dumping grounds for hazardous materials and electronic wastes resulting in air, soil and groundwater contamination. The book informs readers about the geography and emergent health risks that accompany the location of these hazards, with emphasis on vulnerable population groups. The approach is applications-oriented, illustrating the use of health data and geographic approaches to uncover the root causes, contextual factors and processes that produce contaminated environments. Case studies are drawn from the author's research in the United States and Africa, along with a literature review of related studies completed in Europe, Asia and South America. This comparative approach allows readers to better understand the manifestation of environmental hazards and inequities at different spatial scales with localized disparities evident in both developed and developing countries.
Download or read book The Promise and Peril of Environmental Justice written by Christopher H. Foreman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are we environmentally victimizing, perhaps even poisoning, our minority and low-income citizens? Proponents of "environmental justice" assert that environmental decisionmaking pays insufficient heed to the interests of those citizens, disproportionately burdens their neighborhoods with hazardous toxins, and perpetuates an insidious "environmental racism." In the first book-length critique of environmental justice advocacy, Christopher Foreman argues that it has cleared significant political hurdles but displays substantial limitations and drawbacks. Activism has yielded a presidential executive order, management reforms at the Environmental Protection Agency, and numerous local political victories. Yet the environmental justice movement is structurally and ideologically unable to generate a focused policy agenda. The movement refuses to confront the need for environmental priorities and trade-offs, politically inconvenient facts about environmental health risks, and the limits of an environmental approach to social justice. Ironically, environmental justice advocacy may also threaten the very constituencies it aspires to serve--distracting attention from the many significant health hazards challenging minority and disadvantaged populations. Foreman recommends specific institutional reforms intended to recast the national dialogue about the stakes of these populations in environmental protection.
Download or read book Climate Change from the Streets written by Michael Méndez and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An urgent and timely story of the contentious politics of incorporating environmental justice into global climate change policy Although the science of climate change is clear, policy decisions about how to respond to its effects remain contentious. Even when such decisions claim to be guided by objective knowledge, they are made and implemented through political institutions and relationships—and all the competing interests and power struggles that this implies. Michael Méndez tells a timely story of people, place, and power in the context of climate change and inequality. He explores the perspectives and influence low‑income people of color bring to their advocacy work on climate change. In California, activist groups have galvanized behind issues such as air pollution, poverty alleviation, and green jobs to advance equitable climate solutions at the local, state, and global levels. Arguing that environmental protection and improving public health are inextricably linked, Mendez contends that we must incorporate local knowledge, culture, and history into policymaking to fully address the global complexities of climate change and the real threats facing our local communities.
Download or read book Toward Environmental Justice written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Noxious New York written by Julie Sze and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2006-11-22 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the culture, politics, and history of the movement for environmental justice in New York City, tracking activism in four neighborhoods on issues of public health, garbage, and energy systems in the context of privatization, deregulation, and globalization. Racial minority and low-income communities often suffer disproportionate effects of urban environmental problems. Environmental justice advocates argue that these communities are on the front lines of environmental and health risks. In Noxious New York, Julie Sze analyzes the culture, politics, and history of environmental justice activism in New York City within the larger context of privatization, deregulation, and globalization. She tracks urban planning and environmental health activism in four gritty New York neighborhoods: Brooklyn's Sunset Park and Williamsburg sections, West Harlem, and the South Bronx. In these communities, activism flourished in the 1980s and 1990s in response to economic decay and a concentration of noxious incinerators, solid waste transfer stations, and power plants. Sze describes the emergence of local campaigns organized around issues of asthma, garbage, and energy systems, and how, in each neighborhood, activists framed their arguments in the vocabulary of environmental justice. Sze shows that the linkage of planning and public health in New York City goes back to the nineteenth century's sanitation movement, and she looks at the city's history of garbage, sewage, and sludge management. She analyzes the influence of race, family, and gender politics on asthma activism and examines community activists' responses to garbage privatization and energy deregulation. Finally, she looks at how activist groups have begun to shift from fighting particular siting and land use decisions to engaging in a larger process of community planning and community-based research projects. Drawing extensively on fieldwork and interviews with community members and activists, Sze illuminates the complex mix of local and global issues that fuels environmental justice activism.
Download or read book Social Economic and Environmental Justice written by Kalea Benner, PhD, MSW, LCSW and published by Springer Publishing Company. This book was released on 2021-05-13 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative text is the first to introduce practical techniques social workers can use to incorporate social, economic, and environmental justice into their practice. The book emphasizes the role of justice in social work practice across the micro-macro spectrum. By assessing common human needs in relation to human rights, justice, and practice aimed at promoting fairness, students will learn how to incorporate theories and practical perspectives in social work practice with individuals, families, communities, and organizations. With its unique approach, this text focuses on structural oppression and inequities connected to clients' engagement in systems and structures. The impact of disparities on accessing and utilizing resources, and subsequently achieving successful outcomes, is examined through the justice lens. Beginning with an overview of key concepts and theoretical underpinnings that provide foundational knowledge, the text then examines each of the three justice foci --social, economic, and environmental--in detail through specific systems. These systems include criminal justice, education, food security, natural disasters and climate change, health, mental health, housing, and income disparities Throughout the book, readers are asked to reflect on their own perceptions to enhance understanding of the influence of justice on practice. Case studies, diagrams, boxed information, student learning outcomes, chapter summaries, and review questions enhance understanding and application of content. Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers. Key Features: Emphasizes the role of social, economic, and environmental justice in social work practice Examines the science and theory behind justice as it relates to social work Teaches practical methods for implementing justice-oriented social work practice Authored by prominent instructors actively engaged in co-curricular justice-related content Offers student learning outcomes and summaries in each chapter Presents abundant diagrams and boxes to enhance application of content Provides multiple experiential learning opportunities including case examples and reflective and knowledge-based review questions Offers practical examples of justice-informed social work Includes Instructor's Manual with sample syllabus, PowerPoints, exam questions, and media resources
Download or read book Resilience Environmental Justice and the City written by Beth Schaefer Caniglia and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-08 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban centres are bastions of inequalities, where poverty, marginalization, segregation and health insecurity are magnified. Minorities and the poor – often residing in neighbourhoods characterized by degraded infrastructures, food and job insecurity, limited access to transport and health care, and other inadequate public services – are inherently vulnerable, especially at risk in times of shock or change as they lack the option to avoid, mitigate and adapt to threats. Offering both theoretical and practical approaches, this book proposes critical perspectives and an interdisciplinary lens on urban inequalities in light of individual, group, community and system vulnerabilities and resilience. Touching upon current research trends in food justice, environmental injustice through socio-spatial tactics and solution-based approaches towards urban community resilience, Resilience, Environmental Justice and the City promotes perspectives which transition away from the traditional discussions surrounding environmental justice and pinpoints the need to address urban social inequalities beyond the build environment, championing approaches that help embed social vulnerabilities and resilience in urban planning. With its methodological and dynamic approach to the intertwined nature of resilience and environmental justice in urban cities, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners within urban studies, environmental management, environmental sociology and public administration.
Download or read book Sacrifice Zones written by Steve Lerner and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-09-14 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stories of residents of low-income communities across the country who took action when pollution from heavy industry contaminated their towns. Across the United States, thousands of people, most of them in low-income or minority communities, live next to heavily polluting industrial sites. Many of them reach a point at which they say “Enough is enough.” After living for years with poisoned air and water, contaminated soil, and pollution-related health problems, they start to take action—organizing, speaking up, documenting the effects of pollution on their neighborhoods. In Sacrifice Zones, Steve Lerner tells the stories of twelve communities, from Brooklyn to Pensacola, that rose up to fight the industries and military bases causing disproportionately high levels of chemical pollution. He calls these low-income neighborhoods “sacrifice zones.” And he argues that residents of these sacrifice zones, tainted with chemical pollutants, need additional regulatory protections. Sacrifice Zones goes beyond the disheartening statistics and gives us the voices of the residents themselves, offering compelling portraits of accidental activists who have become grassroots leaders in the struggle for environmental justice and details the successful tactics they have used on the fenceline with heavy industry.
Download or read book Environmental Health Literacy written by Symma Finn and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-12 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores various and distinct aspects of environmental health literacy (EHL) from the perspective of investigators working in this emerging field and their community partners in research. Chapters aim to distinguish EHL from health literacy and environmental health education in order to classify it as a unique field with its own purposes and outcomes. Contributions in this book represent the key aspects of communication, dissemination and implementation, and social scientific research related to environmental health sciences and the range of expertise and interest in EHL. Readers will learn about the conceptual framework and underlying philosophical tenets of EHL, and its relation to health literacy and communications research. Special attention is given to topics like dissemination and implementation of culturally relevant environmental risk messaging, and promotion of EHL through visual technologies. Authoritative entries by experts also focus on important approaches to advancing EHL through community-engaged research and by engaging teachers and students at an early age through developing innovative STEM curriculum. The significance of theater is highlighted by describing the use of an interactive theater experience as an approach that enables community residents to express themselves in non-verbal ways.
Download or read book Environmental Justice and the Rights of Unborn and Future Generations written by Laura Westra and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-05-04 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The traditional concept of social justice is increasingly being challenged by the notion of a humankind that spans current and future generations. This book, with a foreword by Roger Brownsword, is the first systematic examination of how the rights of the unborn and future generations are handled in common law and under international legal instruments. It provides comprehensive coverage of the arguments over international legal instruments, key legal cases and examples including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, industrial disasters, clean water provision, diet, HIV/AIDS, environmental racism and climate change. Also covered are international agreements and objectives as diverse as the Kyoto Protocol, the Millennium Development Goals and international trade. The result is the most controversial and thorough examination to date of the subject and the enormous ramifications and challenges it poses to every aspect of international and domestic environmental, human rights, trade and public health law and policy.
Download or read book Environmental Justice and Environmentalism written by Ronald Sandler and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In ten essays, contributors from a variety of disciplines consider such topics as the relationship between the two movements' ethical commitments and activist goals, instances of successful cooperation in U.S. contexts, and the challenges posed to both movements by globalisation and climate change.
