More Related Content
Similar to Environmental justice (20)
Environmental justice
- 1. Group 4: QUIDES, Geriel MOLINA, Kyle ROSARIO, Jamaica PARAS, Satur Environmental Justice The right of every individual to live in healthy environment regardless of race, gender, age, or nationality. Basically, it means that no one’s health or quality of life should suffer because of the environment they live in. The health of a community suffers when people don’t have access to healthy homes and foods, transportation, fresh air, and safe neighborhoods. Environmental Justice is a human right that’s why it is important. Environmental Racism A racial discrimination in environmental policy-making and enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the presence of life threatening poisons and pollutants for communities of color, and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the environmental movement. Example of Environmental Injustices Issues
- 2. 1. Toxic Waste Landfill in Kettleman City, USA Kings County is a county in California’s San Joaquin Valley whose population is about sixty-five percent white that mostly lives around the county seat of Hanford. Kettleman City is a little farmworker community of 1,100 residents, where ninety-five percent of them are Latino, located in the southwest side of the county, 32 miles from Hanford. Chemical waste disposal and treatment site with a capacity of 5.7 million cubic yards (and it's full), expanding an extra million cubic yards. Environmental Impacts Potential: Air pollution, Groundwater pollution or depletion, Loss of landscape/aesthetic degradation, Noise pollution Health Impacts Visible: Accidents, Exposure to unknown or uncertain complex risks (radiation, etc…), Deaths Other Health impacts Birth malformations and leukemia 2. APECO Special Economic Zone on ancestral lands and fishing grounds, Aurora, Philippines The APECO (Aurora Pacific Ecozone and Freeport) zone, located in Casiguran, Aurora Island, was established by the Philippine government in 2007, through the creation of a tailored law, known as the APECO Act of 2007, with the aim to establish a special economic zone based on public-private partnerships and to attract vast foreign investment thanks to tax incentives. As the law states, “the Aurora Ecozone shall be developed into and operated as a decentralized, self-reliant and self-sustaining industrial, commercial/trading, agro-industrial, tourist, banking, financial and investment center with suitable residential areas.” Environmental Impacts Visible: Food insecurity (crop damage) Potential: Air pollution, Biodiversity loss (wildlife, agro-diversity), Loss of landscape/aesthetic degradation, Noise pollution, Deforestation and loss of vegetation cover, Surface water pollution / Decreasing water (physico-chemical, biological) quality, Soil contamination, Groundwater pollution or depletion Health Impacts Visible: Mental problems including stress, depression and suicide Potential: Health problems related to alcoholism, prostitution
- 3. Socio-economic Impacts Visible: Increase in Corruption/Co-optation of different actors, Displacement, Loss of livelihood, Violations of human rights, Land dispossession, Loss of landscape/sense of place Potential: Increase in violence and crime, Lack of work security, labour absenteeism, firings, unemployment, Loss of traditional knowledge/practices/cultures, Militarization and increased police presence, Social problems (alcoholism, prostitution, etc..) History of Environmental Justice 1982- The Fight of Environmental Justice took When residents of Warren County, North Carolina, mounted mass demonstrations against a plan to dump contaminated soil in landfill in their community. The EPA investigated four similar landfills in southern states and found that they were all located in black or low-income neighborhood. It would be several years before the term “environmental racism” would offer a succinct label for the injustice they fought and before the term “environmental justice” would lend a name to the movement. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Established in December 1970 by an executive order of President Richard Nixon. It is an agency of the United States federal government whose mission is to protect human and environmental health. EPA is responsible for creating standards and laws promoting the health of individuals and the environment. 1987- The United Church of Racial Justice Commission The United Church of Racial Justice Commission found that around the country, communities of color and low-income people were disproportionately exposed to environmental toxics through the siting of hazardous and toxic waste facilities in and near their communities. 1992- The Federal Government was Force to Act President George H.W. Bush founded the Office of Environmental Justice (formerly known as the Office of Environmental Equity) inside the EPA. 1994- President Bill Clinton Signed an Executive Order 12898 of February 11, 1994 The executive order requiring federal agencies to consider environmental justice in all of their policies, as well as extending civil rights protection to environmental discrimination. But the Congress never passed a bill to make Clinton’s executive order law.
- 4. 2001- George W. Bush His administration shifted the focus of the Office of Environmental Justice from protecting law-income and minority communities to all people. Leaving vulnerable populations without federal environmental advocate. 2005- Environmental Civil Rights Claims were Rejected Under the leadership of Bush, many environmental civil rights claims were rejected or delayed for years. 2009- Obama’s Action on Environment Angers Congress Obama’s administration recommitted to environmental justice. During the 2 years Democrats controlled the House, Senate, White House they didn’t file a single bill focused on strengthening environmental justice protections. 2010- Republicans Took Control of Congress Passing major environmental legislation faded further when Republicans took control of the Congress in 2010 midterm elections. 2017- Weakening of EPA President Donald J. Trump is making good on his vow to weaken the EPA, “Environmental protection, what they do is a disgrace, every week they come out with a new regulations.”. Who’s going to protect the environment? “We’ll be fine with the environment, we can leave a little bit.”. Trump cut 2.6 billon away from the budget of EPA. As the EPA loses funding and the regulations rolled back, vulnerable communities may very likely fall through the cracks. Emerging Themes in Environmental Justice Given the conceptual, spatial, and international expansion of the EJ discourse, movements labelled with a justice appellation have proliferated. 1. Climate Justice It is the understanding that the urgent action needed to prevent climate change must be based on community-led solutions and the well-being of local communities, indigenous people and the global poor, as well as the biodiversity and intact ecosystems. 2. Indigenous Justice
- 5. Supports Indigenous community-based justice programs that offer alternatives to mainstream justice processes in appropriate circumstances. 3. Energy Justice Explores the intersection of energy and equity issues related to a variety of domestic and global energy dynamics, to include ways for rectifying persistent unequal distributions of energy resources to ensure reliable, clean, and affordable energy access. 4. Food Justice Examines inequities and injustices along the entirety of the food supply chain. Key areas of inquiry include food access, food security, and food sovereignty, which connect to “health, globalization, worker rights and working conditions, disparities regarding access to environmental (or food) goods, land use and respect for the land, and, ultimately, how our production, transportation, distribution, and consumptions systems are organized”. Agency and Organizations that Takes Care of the Environment In Philippines The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) The primary government agency responsible for the conservation, management, protection, proper use and sustainable development of the country’s environment and natural resources. World Wide Fund for Nature- their projects don’t only focus on food, water, and climate, but on wildlife as well especially on the survival of rarest and endangered species in the country. Waves for Water- works with leaders and partners to provide clean and portable water. Greenpeace Philippines- protects natural landscapes, species and more from environmental threats such as perilous waste imports, coal projects, and illegal logging. Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation- works to restore natural habitats and aims to educate the public on how to protect wildlife from feasible harms. Save Philippine Seas- they promote community empowerment, environmental education, and shark conservation. Mother Earth Foundation- campaigns zero-waste advocacy to local authorities.
- 6. Haribon Foundation- their widely known platform to save different bird species and to conserve their habitats as they empower and educate people