SOCS 325 Environmental Injustice
SOCS 325 Environmental Injustice
Choose a local example of an environmental injustice (e.g.
local sighting of a landfill, power lines, power plant). Research the
background of the case, the decision to locate the facility at the site, and
the impacts on the local environment and community and submit a paper. The
paper must be double spaced, minimum two pages in length, and in APA format.
Air pollution: This 2018 study found that communities living below the poverty line have a 35 percent higher burden from particulate matter emissions than the overall population. Non-whites had a 28 percent higher health burden and African Americans, specifically, had a 54 percent higher burden than the overall population.
In detail: In a 4-part series, we uncovered a staggering asthma rate among Pittsburgh’s children.
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SOCS 325 Environmental Injustice
Worth your time: Environmental injustice in Pittsburgh: Poor, minority neighborhoods see higher rates of deaths from air pollution
Chemical waste: People of color make up nearly half the population in fence-line zones – areas closest to hazardous chemical facilities. They are almost twice as likely as whites to live near dangerous chemical plants.
Chemical facilities in communities of color have almost twice the rate of incidents compared to those in predominately white neighborhoods – one incident per six facilities compared to one incident per 11 facilities.
In detail: In June 2012, EHN dispatched reporters to seven communities to report on their struggles to cope with an array of environmental threats. Years later their stories still resonate with all of us, as many of these communities still face disproportionate impacts from pollution.
Lead exposure: Although childhood lead exposure in the United States is decreasing, children of color are still disproportionately affected by lead poisoning, according to the CDC.
Water contamination: Concerns about drinking water contamination among minority groups have been reported since the 1950s. Water quality is certainly still an issue today; for example, people of the Navajo Nation have dealt with water contamination since the 1950s uranium mining of the region, as well as the Gold King Mine wastewater spill in 2015. Today, one in three homes in the Navajo Nation do not have a tap or a toilet.
Water quality can be affected by a host of different toxic chemicals or metals. For example, lead leached from aging pipes can pollute the drinking water. Flint, Michigan, has been dealing with community lead poisoning since 2014. More than half of Flint’s population is people of color.
A few major cities across the country such as Detroit, Pittsburgh, Newark, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh struggle with select toxics in their tap water.
Climate change: The effects of climate change, such as extreme weather conditions, can have devastating impacts on low-income communities. Extreme weather can displace residents that lack a safe place to go or the capacity to rebuild, and even cause death, especially if housing is old or inadequately built.
Hurricane Katrina was devastating to New Orleans’ African American community. Racial discrimination had pushed Black communities to the outskirts of the city; these were communities most impacted when the levees failed and are systematically neglected by local government. By 2013, about 80 percent of the mostly Black residents of the city’s Lower 9th Ward had not returned to their community due to inadequate rebuilding efforts.
