Environmental Justice Perspective Research Articles

Lixo, racismo e injustiça ambiental na Região Metropolitana de Belém

Resumo A lógica da produção e de descarte de resíduos sólidos é expressão das mais perversas e paradoxais da desigual distribuição de poder no capitalismo. Estigmatiza com a ideia de “atraso”, de “indesejáveis”, indivíduos e lugares “descartáveis”, que recebem os resíduos e os riscos a eles associados que a sociedade de consumo produz. Ancorado em pesquisa documental e bibliográfica e em entrevistas abertas com moradores e ativistas envolvidos na luta pela retirada do Lixão de Marituba, como é conhecido o irregular e polêmico aterro da Região Metropolitana de Belém, este artigo focaliza e discute o caso – emblemático como cena colonial na contemporânea Amazônia urbana – a partir dos marcos da ecologia política e das noções de justiça ambiental, colonialidades, racismo e necropoder.

Adverse Physical and Mental Health Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Among Gulf Coast Children: An Environmental Justice Perspective

Background: This study applies an environmental justice lens to examine whether racial/ethnic minority and low socioeconomic status affected children's physical and mental health after the Deepwate...

Petrochemical releases disproportionately affected socially vulnerable populations along the Texas Gulf Coast after Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey resulted in a natural-technological disaster in which flooding caused petrochemical facilities to release hazardous chemicals. Natural-technological disasters are rarely analyzed from an environmental justice (EJ) perspective. We calculated a Hurricane Harvey petrochemical hazard density index (PHDI) based on the locations of 42 facilities with reported releases along the Texas Gulf Coast. We used sociodemographic data from the American Community Survey to examine census tract-level social inequalities in PHDI (n = 1099 tracts). Results from generalized estimating equations indicate that tracts with higher proportions of Hispanic, disabled, or young residents had greater PHDI. PHDI was positively associated with tract poverty, with a slight downward curve at high poverty. Under conditions of higher Hispanic composition, the positive effect of poverty on PHDI was amplified. With more frequent storms predicted, regulatory agencies need to ensure that the petrochemical industry prepares for rapid shutdowns in order to protect residents from natural-technological disasters.

Light pollution inequities in the continental United States: A distributive environmental justice analysis

Excessive exposure to ambient light at night is a well-documented hazard to human health, yet analysts have not examined it from an environmental justice (EJ) perspective. We conducted the first EJ study of exposure to light pollution by testing for socially disparate patterns across the continental United States (US). We first calculated population-weighted mean exposures to examine whether ambient light pollution in the US differed between racial/ethnic groups. We then used multivariable generalized estimating equations (GEEs) that adjust for geographic clustering to examine whether light pollution was distributed inequitably based on racial/ethnic composition and socioeconomic status across US neighborhoods (census tracts). Finally, we conducted a stratified analysis of metropolitan core, suburban, and small city–rural tracts to determine whether patterns of inequity varied based on urban-rural context. We found evidence of disparities in exposures to light pollution based on racial/ethnic minority and low-to-mid socioeconomic statuses. Americans of Asian, Hispanic or Black race/ethnicity had population-weighted mean exposures to light pollution in their neighborhoods that were approximately two times that of White Americans. GEEs indicated that neighborhoods composed of higher proportions of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, or renter-occupants experienced greater exposures to ambient light at night. Stratified analyses indicated that those patterns of inequity did not substantially vary based on urban-rural context. Findings have implications for understanding environmental influences on health disparities, raise concerns about the potential for a multiple environmental jeopardy situation, and highlight the need for policy actions to address light pollution.

Globalising sustainable development: Decolonial disruptions and environmental justice in Bolivia

AbstractThe 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the new global development goals guiding the work of mainstream development actors until 2030. The shift to “sustainable development” marks a response to climate change and constitutes a rebranding of international development as global development, prominently by the UN, World Bank, and IMF. In this paper, I draw from recent fieldwork in Bolivia to question what is being globalised. In response to calls for northern geographers to better attend to new forms of coloniality and knowledge production, I take seriously indigenous agendas for development, land, and sovereignty to critique Agenda 2030 with decolonial territorial agendas and theories of environmental justice. I argue that the implementation of Agenda 2030 has reconfigured the borderlands between international development and indigenous territorial agendas. In a drastic reworking of the “boomerang effect,” development infrastructure is being disconnected from anti‐extractive indigenous territorial politics, as the modes of engagement between states, the private sector, and NGOs are reconfigured by the unifying agenda of sustainable development – weakening both indigenous struggles for territorial sovereignty and the environmental remit of the SDGs. An environmental justice perspective locates the case of the Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro (TIPNIS) Secure case within a bigger struggle between local claims to land and global extractive capital, foregrounding that decolonial agendas for territory are entangled with contemporary extractive capitalism. In seeking consensus between states, the private sector, and civil society, the SDGs minimise the sites of conflict that instruct “sustainable development,” revealing both a critical weakness of the SDGs and a pathway towards their greater effectiveness.

Unequal social vulnerability to Hurricane Sandy flood exposure.

Disparities exist in post-disaster flooding exposure and vulnerable populations bear a disproportionate impact of this exposure. We describe the unequal burden of flooding in a cohort of New York residents following Hurricane Sandy and assess whether the likelihood of flooding was distributed equally according to socioeconomic demographics, and whether this likelihood differed when analyzing self-reported or FEMA flood exposure measures. Residents of New York City and Long Island completed a self-administered survey 1.5–4.0 years after the storm. Multivariable logistic regressions were performed to determine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and flood exposure. Participants (n=1231) residing in areas of the lowest two quartiles of median household income experienced flooding the most often (FEMA/self-reported: < $40,298: 65.3%/42.0%, $40,298 - $67,188: 43.3%/32.1%) and these areas contained the highest proportions of non-white participants (< $40,298: 39.1%, $40,298 - $67,188: 36.6%) and those with < high school education (< $40,298: 35.5%, $40,298 - $67,188: 33.6%). Both self-report (p < 0.05) and FEMA (p < 0.05) flood measures indicated that older participants were more likely to live in a household exposed to flooding, while those living in higher income areas had decreased likelihood of flooding (p < 0.0001). Socioeconomic and age disparities were present in exposure to flooding during Hurricane Sandy. Future disaster preparedness responses must understand flooding from an environmental justice perspective to create effective strategies that minimize disproportionate exposure and its adverse outcomes.

‘As far below as you can come’? Historical archaeology on vulnerability and marginalization of life at the bottom of the social ladder

SUMMARY: In the 19th and early 20th centuries there were numerous non-proprietors and paupers in the Swedish countryside, such as crofters, boarders and inhabitants of rural slums. Multisource methods such as triangulation of written documents, historical maps and archaeological evidence are used to study the living conditions, vulnerability and marginalization of boarders and inhabitants of rural slums from an environmental justice perspective. Being poor also meant being more exposed to risks than people with greater resources and having fragile safety nets. Marginalization could offer new possibilities to the poor, but also weaker security nets and increased vulnerability.

Perceptions of deforestation in the Argentinean Chaco: Combining Q-method and environmental justice

The Gran Chaco, Latin America’s second largest forest after the Amazon, has one of the highest deforestation rates worldwide. In the province of Salta, Argentina, the deforestation rate is particularly high, with substantial environmental and social impacts. The province is characterized by the presence of various actors (large-scale producers, small-scale farmers, indigenous peoples, governmental actors, civil society), who are differently exposed to the impacts of deforestation. To better understand this unequal exposure, the paper looks at deforestation from a perspective of environmental justice. As justice is strongly dependent on the local context, we focus on capturing the perceptions of stakeholders on deforestation. We use Q-method, which combines qualitative and quantitative methods to study perceptions. Our results point to the existence of three significant perspectives. The first one, labelled “Development” perspective ranks distribution as the most important dimension. The second one labelled “Family agriculture” perspective stresses the significance of procedural issues. The third one labelled “Subsistence” perspective elaborates mainly on matters of recognition. We conclude that, in order to slow down deforestation, it would be essential to create conditions where marginalized actors are given priority, to facilitate their participation and grant their rights with respect to land use.

Farming Intensification and Environmental Justice in Northern Ireland

Going for Growth, an industry-led strategy to expand the agri-food sector, was adopted by the Northern Irish government in 2013 in order to encourage farming intensification in Northern Ireland. This approach, however, threatens an already fragile natural environment and has already had detrimental consequences for human health and well-being. This article employs an environmental justice perspective to scrutinize farming intensification in a community affected by this phenomenon. Based on findings from semi-structured interviews with local residents, the article describes their exposure to environmental risks as a result of farming intensification. The uneven distribution of environmental burdens is also coupled with limited opportunities for the local residents to engage in environmental decision-making and to be recognized as active agents of change. The article concludes that farming intensification in Northern Ireland is marked by procedural environmental injustice and should be addressed by downscaling levels of production and reforming decision-making processes.

The Access and Benefit-Sharing Regime: an Environmental Justice Perspective

The Access and Benefit-Sharing Regime: an Environmental Justice Perspective

Polluting our prisons? An examination of Oklahoma prison locations and toxic releases, 2011–2017

Recent research has highlighted numerous environmental concerns with US prisons, including that prisons are often located on undesirable land that is in close proximity to environmental hazards. We utilize an environmental justice and green criminology perspective to test this in Oklahoma using data on prison sites and toxic releases provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency for a period of seven years (2011–2017). We focus on Oklahoma because it recently became the state with the highest overall incarceration rate and has a history of elevated levels of pollution. Our results find that prison zip codes have greater TRI emissions compared to non-prison zip codes. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the study and directions for future research.

Ecosocial work through corporate social responsibility: the case of company engagement with civil society in coastal communities in Mauritius

ABSTRACTThis article presents a case study of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in coastal areas of Mauritius where company CSR work has brought new ways of engaging with communities. The study examines in what ways companies are involved in ecosocial work and what the challenges and possibilities are from an environmental justice perspective. Based on interviews with representatives of companies and other organizations involved with CSR the study shows that CSR involvement in ecosocial work may bring possibilities for advancing environmental justice for local communities as it can enhance resources and capacity building, as well as bring actors together and play a role in advocacy and empowerment work. Challenges include that companies may have difficulties in contributing to greater justice in terms of community involvement. Moreover, inequalities and substantial environmental justice issues, such as access to land and safe housing, are difficult to fully address through a CSR framework.

THE VIRUS, THE DISEASE AND THE INEQUALITY

Abstract The advance of the COVID-19 pandemic expresses multiple territorial dimensions. The following analysis, about the data released on notified cases and deaths, allow us to raise interpretations that relate the evolution of the pandemic with the inequalities already present in the São Paulo urban space and with the different existing conditions to adhere to isolation. This article presents reviews that dialogues with the perspective of environmental justice, discussing some impacts of territorial inequalities on the life and death of São Paulo residents, such as the distribution of urban characteristics, work, comorbidities, access to health equipment, and race, that maintains a center periphery pattern. As it is an observation of an ongoing case, it is an exploratory study, with open hypotheses.

Adat Movements for Environmental Justice: the Case of Benoa Bay Bali

This paper is the result of a literature study on environmental justice, adat movements, and adat perspectives of Tri Hita Karana related to the Benoa Bay reclamation project, and in-depth interview with the coordinator of ForBALI I Wayan "Gendo" Suardana. The discussion begins on environmental justice is a central issue in Indonesia. Then the discussion of the Benoa Bay reclamation project into a tourist development area, which has the potential to threaten maritime conservation and loss of livelihoods of local residents. Furthermore, the discussion about Tri Hita Karana as adat perspectives that underlies the movement of indigenous peoples to reject reclamation project. Finally, the discussion about the ForBALI movement as a representation of indigenous peoples who reject the reclamation project in Benoa Bay. Based on the discussion it was concluded that, adat movements through ForBALI has temporarily succeeded in thwarting the reclamation project at Benoa Bay by PT TWBI. The adat perspective on Tri Hita Karana became the philosophical basis of the ForBALI movement. The ForBALI movement has succeeded in integrating the environmental movement, political movement and cultural movement into the spirit of resistance of indigenous peoples in facing the hegemony of the power of neoliberal capitalism.

Medición de la injusticia ambiental sobre poblaciones vulnerables y carenciadas por anegamientos pluviales: Un análisis en Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz (Argentina) basado en SIG

Los anegamientos producidos por lluvias intensas, recurrentes en muchas ciudades emplazadas dentro de planicies aluviales y con deficiente escorrentía, suelen ocasionar dispares grados de afección en la población, susceptibles de valorar desde la emergente perspectiva de la justicia ambiental. En esta aportación se pretende evaluar la exposición diferencial a dos eventos de anegamiento hídrico-pluvial por parte de varios grupos sociales vulnerables y con privaciones en la ciudad de Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz (Argentina) para desvelar posibles injusticias. Metodológicamente se delimitó el área urbana poblada (AUP), como ámbito relevante, y se seleccionó un conjunto de indicadores sociodemográficos expresando vulnerabilidad y privaciones humanas. El análisis recurrió intensamente a la tecnología SIG y a la técnica estadística de la χ², para estimar, como resultados relevantes, qué grupos sociodemográficos y qué partes de la ciudad han sufrido una sobre-afección calificable de injusta. La confrontación con los hallazgos de otros autores permitió reivindicar una mejor exactitud de nuestros resultados para el caso estudiado y postular la idoneidad y utilidad de la metodología adoptada en la planificación y gestión urbana, al considerar unas injusticias ambientales largamente soslayadas.

An Environmental Justice Perspective on Air Quality Offsets

Air quality offsets in South Africa are intended to counterbalance the harm caused by atmospheric emissions and deliver a net ambient air quality benefit in the affected airshed. In practice, they are implemented as a condition of leniency from compliance with the Minimum Emission Standards, and they focus on converting solid fuel burning households in low-income communities to cleaner forms of energy. Air quality offsets are not supported by all stakeholders, with non-governmental organisations in particular voicing vociferous objections. To date, there have only been very limited analyses of the ethical dimensions of air quality offsets. In this paper, air quality offsets and the Minimum Emission Standards are examined and compared from the perspective of three notions of environmental justice: distributive justice, which focuses on the distribution of environmental burdens and benefits; procedural justice, which considers inclusion and exclusion in decision- and policy-making processes; and justice as recognition, which focuses on the cultural and institutional processes that determine recognition, misrecognition and non-recognition of various groups. It is found that air quality offsets should guide action which promotes distributive justice because they are focussed on reducing polluting emissions in vulnerable, low-income communities that are exposed to the highest levels of ambient pollution. From a procedural justice perspective, South Africa’s legislative processes provide for involving most stakeholders in decision-making processes. Air quality offset initiatives should be evaluated once they have been implemented at scale to determine whether they have indeed aided in redressing injustices. Assessment criteria could include whether the air quality-related health risk of vulnerable communities has been reduced, whether community members have participated in the design and implementation of interventions, and whether marginalised members of the community have benefitted from the interventions.

Environmental Conflicts Related to Urban Expansion Involving Agrarian Communities in Central Mexico

Rural territories and cultures have been increasingly sacrificed through depopulation, invasion by infrastructure, and the presence of industries which are incompatible with agriculture. Meanwhile, the expansion of urban space through demographic agglomeration and the concentration of activities in cities is leading to a progressively urbanised world. This article sheds light on the particularities of the relationship between urban expansion and the assault on agrarian modes of existence that survive at the diffuse urban frontiers in Central Mexico. A multiple case study was carried out; nine social-environmental conflicts where an agrarian community resisted the installation of urban infrastructure or city enterprises were analysed through the perspective of Political Ecology and environmental justice. Peasant communities question the political, economic, environmental, and cultural factors of the hegemonic social configuration as urban megaprojects menace their territory. In their struggles, they highlight that urban development undermines the very conditions necessary for the existence of the city, as its social metabolism depends in part on the resources these rural communities are defending.

Environmental justice implications of land grabbing for industrial agriculture and forestry in Argentina

Land grabbing results in social impacts, injustice, conflict and displacement of smallholders. We use an environmental justice framework to analyse land grabbing and actions taken by local communities (resistance, protest, and proactive organisation). Qualitative research investigating land grabbing for tree plantations and agriculture (primarily soy) was undertaken in Argentina. We found that pre-existing local vulnerabilities tended to result in people acquiescing rather than resisting land grabs. Local people considered existing injustices to be more pressing than land grabbing. Locals tacitly accepted injustice resulting in communities becoming displaced, fenced-in, or evicted. Consequently, already-vulnerable people continue to live in unhealthy conditions, insecure tenure situations, and bear a disproportionate social and environmental burden. More attention should be given to pre-existing vulnerabilities and to improving the wellbeing of people affected by land grabs. Analysing land grabbing from an environmental justice perspective contributes to understanding the deeper reasons about why, where and how land grabbing occurs.

The Rhetoric of Development and Resistance by Tribal Women in Kashipur

In the post-Independence era, development has been one of the key goals of the Indian state. Development is often seen as being synonymous with the process of modernisation and economic growth. Such a version of development has undoubtedly benefitted a few capitalists and layers of the middle class, yet it has remained in the realm of rhetoric for a large section of India’s tribal population. Development through mega projects displaces a large number of people. Displacement without adequate rehabilitation and compensation further aggravates the situation. In Odisha since 1993, few multinational and national companies have tried setting up mining projects in Kashipur. Many tribal villagers have protested strongly against these proposed projects from an egalitarian, environmental and social justice perspective. Significantly, women have remained in the forefront of these movements airing their concern. The article takes the case study of the Kashipur movement and critically analyses the role of women and their involvement in the struggle.

A Canadian Selvage: Weaving Artistic Research into Resource Politics

This exploratory article addresses our experiences as artist-researchers engaged with “Trading Routes: Grease Trails, Oil Futures,” a research-creation project supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. “Trading Routes” focuses on the intersecting geographies of Indigenous fish grease trails and the proposed Alberta-British Columbia oil pipeline. These converging routes are shedding light on the present entanglement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural heritage, ecological perspectives, and resource extraction. Through artistic scholarship, material production, historical and cultural understanding, we seek to better account for the ways in which an environmental social justice perspective can be crafted into arts-based research. We write from a point of reflection, where we assess, evaluate, disentangle, and unclad some of the learning that has come to us through the research-creation and presentation of contemporary weaving. We suggest that arts-based research can offer a methodology of learning and thinking rooted in a perspective of informing, informality, or thinking about artworks in form, an extension of a/r/tographic praxis that is grounded in an analysis of materiality and aesthetics.