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6/26/13 Environmental Justice For All
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by Leyla Kokmen
Mar.-Apr. 2008
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Environmental Justice For AllHow to save our cities, revive the economy, and green the planet—all at the same time
Image Gallery
image by Jeremy Traum
This article is part of a package on the new green justice movement. For more,
read Global Warming Is Color-Blind and The Temperature Transcends Race.
Manuel Pastor ran bus tours of Los
Angeles a few y ears back. These
weren’t the ty pical sojourns to
Disney land or the MGM studios,
though; they were expeditions to
some of the city ’s most
env ironmentally blighted
neighborhoods—where railway s, truck traffic, and refineries conv erge,
and where people liv e 200 feet from the freeway .
The goal of the “toxic tours,” explains Pastor, a professor of geography
and of American studies and ethnicity at the Univ ersity of Southern
California (USC), was to let public officials, policy makers, and donors
talk to residents in low-income neighborhoods about the env ironmental
hazards they liv ed with ev ery day and to literally see, smell, and feel
the effects.
“It’s a pretty effectiv e forum,” say s Pastor, who directs USC’s Program
for Env ironmental and Regional Equity , noting that a lot of the
“tourists” were eager to get back on the bus in a hurry . “When y ou’re in
these neighborhoods, y our lungs hurt.”
Like the tours, Pastor’s research into the economic and social issues
facing low-income urban communities highlights the env ironmental
disparities that endure in California and across the United States. As
stories about global warming, sustainable energy , and climate change
make headlines, the fact that some neighborhoods, particularly low-income and minority communities, are
disproportionately toxic and poorly regulated has, until recently , been all but ignored.
A new breed of activ ists and social scientists are starting to capitalize on the moment. In principle they hav e
much in common with the env ironmental justice mov ement, which came of age in the late 1 97 0s and early
1 980s, when grassroots groups across the country began protesting the presence of landfills and other
env ironmentally hazardous facilities in predominantly poor and minority neighborhoods.
In practice, though, the new leadership is taking a broader-based, more inclusiv e approach. Instead of fighting
a proposed refinery here or an expanded freeway there, all along try ing to establish that sy stematic racism is
at work in corporate America, today ’s env ironmental justice mov ement is focusing on proactiv e responses to
the social ills and economic roadblocks that if remov ed would clear the way to a greener planet.
The new mov ement assumes that society as a whole benefits by guaranteeing safe jobs, both blue-collar and
white-collar, that pay a liv ing wage. That univ ersal health care would both decrease disease and increase
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white-collar, that pay a liv ing wage. That univ ersal health care would both decrease disease and increase
awareness about the quality of ev ery one’s air and water. That better public education and easier access to job
training, especially in industries that are emerging to address the global energy crisis, could reduce crime,
boost self-esteem, and lead to a homegrown economic boon.
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