Imagine if a coal-burning power plant suddenly moved into the lot behind your home. You would like to have a say in whether a power plant could open in your backyard, right? If environmental justice were served, your word would be heard and appreciated, and the plant would probably not be constructed there. However, for hundreds of years until the present, environmental justice has not been available for all people especially the poor.
Environmental Justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." In layman’s terms this means that all people should be considered when any changes to the environment are made. For a long time, factories, power plants or any structures that would be an eyesore were built in or near poor communities. This way, the rich profiting from these health hazards could reap the benefits of these services but not be affected by their consequences. Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, notes this problem quite well; “there are some people who are in elected offices who see nothing wrong with placing every single facility in one community and saying, ‘Well, there’s nothing wrong with it because it has to go somewhere.’”
This is referred to as the NIMBY movement (Not In My Backyard). This movement of earlier 20th century moved unwanted land uses such as landfills and hazardous productions from middle-class communities to poor communities with large minority populations. NIMBY mentality was so prevalent that it spawned another similar policy’s acronym. PIBBY: Place In Blacks’ Backyard. Yes, this is a documented name for this inconsiderate planning.
Today, the need for environmental justice has become more apparent, and people in positions of power are often acting more responsibly. This means they realize that it is not right for the majority of a nation’s population to benefit from a service that degrades the living conditions of another group of citizens. Unfortunately, this problem of environmental injustice is far from gone.
- Environmental Justice, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_justice
- Patterns emerge on race and environment, The Carrboro Citizen, http://www.carrborocitizen.com/main/2007/11/15/patterns-emerge-on-race-and-environment/
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