Books
Robert
Bullard. Dumping
in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality (Westview
Press, 2000).
Dumping in Dixie is an intellectually
stimulating and deeply disturbing book that makes you think about
the meaning of environmental racism for people who have to
live in these unhealthy locations and what is says about our
society as a whole.
------. The
Quest For Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics
of Pollution (Sierra Club Books, 2005)
In this new edited book, Bullard offers another disturbing
account of unequal distribution of environmental hazards. He
examines the toxic impact on poor and minority communities
from Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" to Nigeria's oil
valleys.
Olga Pomar's chapter, "Toxic Racism on a New
Jersey Waterfront," describes the overwhelming struggles
of Camden, NJ residents. (Olga Pomar is an attorney at the
Camden branch of LSNJ)
David
Naguib Pellow and Robert J. Brulle, eds. Power,
Justice, and the Environment: A Critical Appraisal of the Environmental
Justice Movement (MIT Press, 2005).
An insightful analysis of the history of the EJ movement and
a hopeful vision for its future.
Andrew
Szasz, Ecopopulism:
Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental Justice (University
of Minnesota Press, 1994).
Szasz uncovers crucial issues of race, class and gender as
he tells the story of the our growing environmental problems.
Reports
 Toxic
Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles
to Dismantle Environmental Racism
This
year marks the twentieth anniversary of the United Church of Christ
landmark 1987 Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States report.
As part of the celebration, the UCC commissioned a new study, Toxic
Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle
Environmental Racism, led by environmental justice scholars Robert
D. Bullard (Clark Atlanta University), Paul
Mohai (University of Michigan), Robin
Saha (University of Montana), and Beverly
Wright (Dillard University of Louisiana). The new report is
the first to use 2000 census data, a current national database
of commercial hazardous waste facilities, and Geographic Information
Systems to count persons living nearby to assess nationally the
extent of racial and socioeconomic disparities in facility locations.
It also examines racial disparities by region and state, and for
metropolitan areas, where most hazardous waste facilities are located. >>> more
READ
THE FULL REPORT >>> (167 pages, pdf)
Racism
and Metropolitan Dynamics: The Civil Rights Challenge of the
21st Century (August 2002)
http://www1.umn.edu/irp/publications/racismandmetrodynamics.pdf (36
pages)
A briefing paper prepared for the Ford Foundation by john a.
powell at the Institute
on Race and Poverty (University of Minnesota Law School,
Aug 2002) Advocates must contend with the long legacy of explicitly
racist government policies that substantially dictate both where
opportunities are located today and who is able to gain access
to those opportunities. To combat this racist history,
make connections between people and opportunities, and remedy
the spatial
aspects of structural racism, we need to adopt regional strategies
and policies.
READ
THE FULL REPORT >>> (36
pages, pdf)
Not
in My Backyard: Executive Order 12.898 and Title VI as Tools
for Achieving Environmental Justice
(U.S. commission on Civil Rights, October 2003, 194 pages, pdf)
This
report examines how well four federal agencies—the Environmental
Protection Agency, the
U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development, and the
U.S. Department of Transportation—have implemented Executive
Order 12,898 and Title VI. Executive
Order 12,898 requires federal agencies to collect data on the health
and environmental impact of
their activities on communities of color and low-income populations,
and develop policies incorporating
the principles of environmental justice into their programs and activities.
In this report the
Commission assesses the efforts of these agencies to adopt, promote,
and execute policies ensuring
that environmental justice is incorporated into their core missions,
whether affected communities are
provided meaningful participation in environmental decision-making
processes, and to what extent these communities have access to scientific
data and effective Title VI enforcement procedures.
READ
THE REPORT >>> (194 pages, pdf)
Toxic Pollution and Health: An Analysis of Toxic Chemicals Released
in Communities Across the United States
(NJPIRG Law & Policy Center, March 2007)
The
report, Toxic Pollution and Health,
uses information from the federal Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) to
analyze toxic pollution linked to serious health problems such as
cancer, birth defects or neurological damage. Due to a recent EPA
action restricting the public’s
right-to-know, today’s report may provide one of the last complete
pictures of toxic pollution in New Jersey. ...
The federal Toxic Release Inventory is a public right-to-know program
that requires industrial facilities to publicly disclose their toxic
releases. In 2004, EPA reported that the TRI has helped to reduce
toxic pollution by 57% nationwide since its inception in 1988. Despite
this success, the EPA recently weakened the program by authorizing
industrial facilities to withhold previously reported pollution information.
>>> read
more about the report on NJPIRG's website
READ
THE FULL REPORT >>> (65 pages, pdf)
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) RESOURCES
The
Northeast Report
A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists and a group of
independent scientists illustrates the effects our choices will have
on the Northeast’s health, natural resources, economy, and
very character by looking at two different futures—one where
we remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels, producing high levels
of global warming pollution, and one where we begin to reduce our
emissions as individuals, industries, and communities. The report
also explores actions we can take to reduce emissions.
>>> http://www.climatechoices.org/ne/resources_ne/nereport.html
Journals, journal articles
and book chapers
The
Jersey Sierrian. The Jersey
Sierran, the quarterly publication of the New Jersey Chapter,
is now available online in pdf format.
>>> http://newjersey.sierraclub.org/njs_sierran/index.asp
Montague, Peter and Maria B. Pellerano. "Environmental
Advocacy in the United States" in
Encyclopedia of Toxicology, 2nd ed.,
Philip Wexler, ed., Academic Press, 2005, p. 178-202. (ISBN 0-12-745353-7)
Review of the book:
"This three-volume encyclopedia covers basic, critical, and
controversial elements in toxicology, i.e. those elements that
are essential to an understanding of the subject's scientific underpinnings
and societal ramifications. As such, it covers not only key concepts
such as dose response, mechanism of action, testing procedures,
endpoint responses, and target sites, but also individual chemicals
and classes of chemicals. Although the reference has a strong chemical emphasis,
it also looks at concepts such as radiation and noise, history, laws, regulation,
education, organizations, and databases. The entries are alphabetically arranged
and extensively cross-referenced. The index is in Volume III."
--Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR
Montague's and Pellerano's chapter represents an excellent history
of the US environmental movement with its various forerunners,
such as conservation and public health movements, to today's environmental
movement. A special focus on the social determinants of
health and various hypotheses are explored, and an introduction
to new scientific perspectives on links between environment
and disease, are provided. This balanced, insightful overview of
environmental issues is highly recommended reading for every U.S.
citizen, and a requirement must for environmental activists.
>>> read: History_US_Environmental_Movement.pdf
Coming Spring 2008 - Environmental
Justice, a new quarterly
peer-reviewed journal, will be the central forum for the research,
debate, and discussion of the equitable treatment and involvement
of all people, especially minority and low-income populations,
with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement
of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
In the News
Feb
17, 2007. Santa Cruz, CA. SF
Bay Area's poor and minorities face disproportionate burden of
exposure to environmental hazards. From African
American residents of West Oakland's diesel-choked neighborhoods
to Latinos in San Francisco's traffic-snarled Mission District,
poor and minority residents of the San Francisco Bay Area get
more than their share of exposure to air pollution and environmental
hazards.
READ
MORE >>>
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