Do you think that the disadvantages of pollution- or nuisance-causing projects should be shared equally, and the benefits too?
Environmental Justice
When it comes to pollution and danger and nuisance, we all fall into the NIMBY (not in my back yard) camp, unless the financial incentives are too tempting. But that power plant, oil well, mine, polluting factory, freeway/motorway, airport or rubbish tip or whatever has to be put somewhere. When it comes to the resultant power struggle, it is usually the poor who lose out, and the poor are often minorities. Even if the facility is put away from current human habitation, it is usually the poorer workers who have to move nearby for the work, or can only afford housing whose cost is depressed by the proximity to the facility. This has been so since the start of the industrial revolution, when the poor moved into crowded tenements close to Britain's dark satanic mills while the owners and managers had houses out in the leafy suburbs.
Sometimes the powers that be do not even trouble to tell the poor that they are at risk, and are in no hurry to remedy the situation once the poor find out. One such situation occurred at Love Canal, Niagara Falls in upper New York State. At one stage in its life Love Canal had been a dump for a lot of toxic chemicals. It was then covered over, and despite warnings a school and housing was built on top. Ordinary workers moved in. It took some time for a pattern of injury and illness to build up, but for a long time the local government was in denial. Then the Environmental Protection Agency advocated evacuation, but nothing was done for a year. Eventually a lot of letter-writing and demonstrating, other publicity campaigns and pressure on politicians did residents get evacuated, but by then it was tool late for the health of some of them. Of course, there have been, and still are, many more "Love Canals". This campaign is considered to be the beginning of the environmental justice movement in the USA, which led eventually to the 1979 'Superfund' Act.
Another example from the USA occurred in Warren County, North Carolina. Some men driving liquid tankers trucks containing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) deliberately let 30,000 gallons drain out along the roadside, causing a major health problem and environmental disaster. The state government cleaned it up, but then had to dispose of the toxic soil, It decided to dump it in a working class area predominantly (84%) inhabited by people of colour. The residents lost their case in the courts even though the high water table made the landfill site unsuitable, and turned to civil disobedience along with civil rights workers. Eventually they failed to stop the landfill, but not before a movement to counter environmental racism and inequality had grown.
Another case of environmental racism occurred in Nigeria. The Ogoni people of Ogoniland were a minority population with very little input into the Nigerian military dictatorship as oil wells were drilled on their land by Royal/Dutch Shell and Chevron, and the environment was degraded, with the mangroves that they used for fuel being killed by oil. The considerable wealth that the oil gave to Nigeria was not spent on the Ogonis, and they received little protection from the damage. When Ken Saro-Wiwa brought their plight to international attention, he was hanged for treason in 1995. Since then there have been few improvements.
Dams are another kind of development which can affect a lot of people around the world, often the rural poor. For example, China relocated 1.3 million people for the Three Gorges Dam, and plans to move many more for other ambitious water projects. Many villages have been drowned, as has much agricultural land upon which people depended. Depending on which country they are in and how much political clout they have, some receive a new home and land and compensation, but many receive little if anything.
In the case of the NYC trash story below, most trash transfer stations are currently in poor, minority areas, but people representing rich areas are opposed to having them moved into richer areas. It is not often that the issue of inequality is raised when it comes to news wires on environmental issues, so I commend Sara Kugler of the Associated Press for mentioning it in the story.
This article drew most of its examples from a chapter by Wendy Maples in: Bingham, N., Blowers A.T. and Belshaw, C.D.(eds)(2003) Contested Environments, Chichester, John Wiley & Sons/The Open University
Recent news stories involving the superfund include:
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