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116-501: Ohio EPA was created on Oct. 23, 1972. It combined environmental programs that previously had been scattered throughout several state departments. The director of Ohio EPA is appointed by the governor and serves as a cabinet member. Ohio EPA establishes and enforces standards for air, water, waste management and cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances. The Agency also provides financial assistance to businesses and communities; environmental education programs for businesses and

232-516: A Global Framework on Chemicals aiming to reduce pollution was agreed during an international conference in Bonn , Germany. The framework includes 28 targets, for example, to "end the use of hazardous pesticides in agriculture where the risks have not been managed" by 2035. Pollution has a cost. Manufacturing activities that cause air pollution impose health and clean-up costs on the whole of society. A manufacturing activity that causes air pollution

348-598: A comprehensive global movement, introducing numerous concepts to political ecology, including ecological debt, environmental racism, climate justice, food sovereignty, corporate accountability, ecocide, sacrifice zones, and environmentalism of the poor. It aims to augment human rights law, which traditionally overlooked the relationship between the environment and human rights. Despite attempts to integrate environmental protection into human rights law, challenges persist, particularly concerning climate justice. Scholars such as Kyle Powys Whyte and Dina Gilio-Whitaker have extended

464-425: A concept David Pellow calls “Indispensability”. Joen Márquez introduces the concept of “racial expendability” in his book Black and Brown Solidarity , in which he argues that “black and brown bodies are, in the eyes of the state and its constituent legal system, generally viewed as criminal, deficient, threatening, and deserving of violent discipline and even obliteration.” Critical EJ builds on this work by countering

580-539: A conversation of equity. Bullard writes that equity is distilled into three board categories: procedural, geographic, and social. From his publication “Confronting Environmental Racism in the Twenty-First Century,” he draws our the difference between the three within the context of environmental injustices: Procedural equity refers to the “fairness” question: the extent that rules, regulations, evaluation criteria and enforcement are applied uniformly across

696-474: A crossroads of all their identities, with privilege and marginalization in the intersection between their class, race, gender, sexuality, queerness, cis- or transness, ethnicity, ability, and other facts of identity. As David Nibert and Michael Fox put it in the context of injustice, “The oppression of various devalued groups in human societies is not independent and unrelated; rather, the arrangements that lead to various forms of oppression are integrated in such

812-555: A factor of calculating optimal levels. While a study puts the global mean loss of life expectancy (LLE; similar to YPLL ) from air pollution in 2015 at 2.9 years (substantially more than, for example, 0.3 years from all forms of direct violence), it also indicated that a significant fraction of the LLE is unavoidable in terms of current economical-technological feasibility such as aeolian dust and wildfire emission control. In markets with pollution, or other negative externalities in production,

928-609: A few core responsibilities that each regulatory division of Ohio EPA fulfills: Ohio EPA’s Central Office is located in Columbus . Five district offices manage the Agency's programs at the local level. They are located in Bowling Green , Twinsburg , Dayton , Columbus and Logan . Pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take

1044-461: A flourishing community is a further criteria for a just society. However, initiatives have been taken to expand the notion of environmental justice beyond the three pillars of distribution, participation, and recognition to also include the dimensions of self-governing authority, relational ontologies, and epistemic justice. Robert D. Bullard writes that environmental justice, as a social movement and ideological stewardship, may instead be seen as

1160-554: A genocidal kind before federal recognition. Origins of the environmental justice movement can be traced to the Indigenous Environmental Movement, which has involved Indigenous populations fighting against displacement and assimilation for sovereignty and land rights for hundreds of years. The terms 'environmental justice’ and ‘ environmental’ racism ’ did not enter the common vernacular until residents of Warren County, North Carolina protested against

1276-914: A health risk to animals. Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air pollution. China , United States , Russia , India Mexico , and Japan are the world leaders in air pollution emissions. Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants , coal-fired power plants , oil refineries , petrochemical plants, nuclear waste disposal activity, incinerators, large livestock farms (dairy cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), PVC factories, metals production factories, plastics factories, and other heavy industry . Agricultural air pollution comes from contemporary practices which include clear felling and burning of natural vegetation as well as spraying of pesticides and herbicides. About 400 million metric tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year. The United States alone produces about 250 million metric tons. Americans constitute less than 5% of

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1392-406: A landfill designed to accept polychlorinated biphenyls in the 1982 PCB protests . Thirty-thousand gallons of PCB fluid lined 270 miles of roadway in fourteen North Carolina Counties, and the state announced that a landfill would be built rather than undergoing permanent detoxification. Warren County was chosen, the poorest county in the state with a per capita income of around $ 5,000 in 1980 , and

1508-406: A large interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes contributions to political ecology , environmental law , and theories on justice and sustainability . The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as: the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to

1624-631: A long and troubling history, with many examples dating back to the early 20th century. For instance, the practice of "redlining" in the US, which involved denying loans and insurance to communities of colour, often led to these communities being located in areas with high levels of pollution and environmental hazards. Today, environmental racism continues to be a significant environmental justice issue, with many low-income communities and communities of colour facing disproportionate exposure to pollution and other environmental risks. This can have serious consequences for

1740-546: A metropolis, Berlin did not emerge from a state of barbarism into civilization until after 1870. The primitive conditions were intolerable for a world national capital, and the Imperial German government brought in its scientists, engineers, and urban planners to solve the deficiencies and forge Berlin as the world's model city. A British expert in 1906 concluded that Berlin represented "the most complete application of science, order and method of public life," adding "it

1856-566: A result; when sea life suffers from exposure to toxins such as mercury, we find that human beings also endure the effects of mercury when they consume those animals; and the intersecting character of multiple forms of inequality is revealed when nuclear radiation or climate change affects all species and humans across all social class levels, racial/ethnic groups, genders, abilities, and ages. David Pellow applies his concept of Critical EJ towards modern-day movements in his publication Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies , in which he applied

1972-647: A series of “genuine solutions” that echoed the Bali Principles. Initially, the environmental justice movement focused on addressing toxic hazards and injustices faced by marginalized racial groups within affluent nations. However, during the 1991 Leadership Summit, its scope broadened to encompass public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, and other issues. Over time, the movement expanded further to include considerations of gender, international injustices, and intra-group disparities among disadvantaged populations. Environmental justice has evolved into

2088-647: A significant contribution from movements in the United States, and recognized that economic inequality, ethnicity, and geography played roles in determining who bore the brunt of environmental pollution”. At the 2007 United Nations Climate Conference , or COP13, in Bali, representatives from the Global South and low-income communities from the North created a coalition titled “ Climate Justice Now! ”. CJN! Issued

2204-586: A significant issue in the United States in the early twentieth century, as progressive reformers took issue with air pollution caused by coal burning, water pollution caused by bad sanitation, and street pollution caused by the three million horses who worked in American cities in 1900, generating large quantities of urine and manure . As historian Martin Melosi notes, the generation that first saw automobiles replacing horses saw cars as "miracles of cleanliness". By

2320-476: A small amount that has been incinerating, virtually every piece of plastic that was ever made in the past still exists in one form or another. And since most of the plastics do not biodegrade in any meaningful sense, all that plastic waste could exist for hundreds or even thousands of years. If plastic production is not circumscribed, plastic pollution will be disastrous and will eventually outweigh fish in oceans. Carbon dioxide , while vital for photosynthesis ,

2436-479: A social movement addresses environmental issues that may be defined as slow violence and otherwise may not be addressed by legislative bodies. Slow violence exacerbates the vulnerability of ecosystems and of people who are poor, disempowered, and often involuntarily displaced, while fueling social conflicts that arise from desperation. Drawing on concepts of anarchism , posthumanism , critical theory , and intersectional feminism , author David Naguib Pellow created

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2552-612: A way that the exploitation of one group frequently augments and compounds the mistreatment of others.” Thus, Critical EJ views racism, heteropatriarchy, classism ,nativism, ableism, ageism, speciesism (the belief that one species is superior to another), and other forms of inequality as intersecting axes of domination and control. The organization Intersectional Environmentalism, founded by Leah Thomas in 2020, builds from this theory to argue that intersectional environmentalism means that “social [and] environmental justice are intertwined and environmental advocacy that disregards this connection

2668-449: Is Critical Environmental Justice that while “a molecule of carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide can occur in an instant, … it remains in the atmosphere for more than a century, so the decisions we make at one point in time can have dramatic ramifications for generations to come”. Pollution does not stay where it starts, and so consideration must be taken as to the scale of an issue rather than solely its effects. The third pillar of Critical EJ

2784-419: Is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste , resource extraction , and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed. The movement began in the United States in the 1980s. It was heavily influenced by

2900-458: Is a marvel of civic administration, the most modern and most perfectly organized city that there is." The emergence of great factories and consumption of immense quantities of coal gave rise to unprecedented air pollution , and the large volume of industrial chemical discharges added to the growing load of untreated human waste. Chicago and Cincinnati were the first two American cities to enact laws ensuring cleaner air in 1881. Pollution became

3016-532: Is also discussed as environmental racism or environmental inequality . Environmental justice is typically defined as distributive justice , which is the equitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits . Some definitions address procedural justice , which is the fair and meaningful participation in decision-making . Other scholars emphasise recognition justice , which is the recognition of oppression and difference in environmental justice communities . People's capacity to convert social goods into

3132-474: Is also happening unevenly, with people of color, the poor, indigenous peoples, peoples of the global South, and women suffering the most.”   Pellow further contextualizes scale through temporal dimensions. For instance, how does the emergence and use of coal-fired power plants and petroleum-based economics develop and change over historical periods, and in turn unveiling the social causes of our ecological crises. Pellow observes in his 2017 publication What

3248-464: Is an example of a negative externality in production. A negative externality in production occurs "when a firm's production reduces the well-being of others who are not compensated by the firm." For example, if a laundry firm exists near a polluting steel manufacturing firm, there will be increased costs for the laundry firm because of the dirt and smoke produced by the steel manufacturing firm. If external costs exist, such as those created by pollution,

3364-473: Is harmful and incomplete.” The second pillar of Critical EJ is a focus on the role of scale in the production and possible resolution of environmental injustices. Critical EJ embraces multi-scalar methodological and theoretical approaches order to better comprehend the complex spatial and temporal causes, consequences, and possible resolutions of EJ struggles. Julie Sze writes, “thinking globally and acting locally also demands that people more fully comprehend

3480-447: Is important that policymakers attempt to balance these indirect benefits with the costs of pollution in order to achieve an efficient outcome. It is possible to use environmental economics to determine which level of pollution is deemed the social optimum. For economists, pollution is an "external cost and occurs only when one or more individuals suffer a loss of welfare". There is a socially optimal level of pollution at which welfare

3596-436: Is maximized. This is because consumers derive utility from the good or service manufactured, which will outweigh the social cost of pollution until a certain point. At this point the damage of one extra unit of pollution to society, the marginal cost of pollution, is exactly equal to the marginal benefit of consuming one more unit of the good or service. Moreover, the feasibility of pollution reduction rates could also be

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3712-415: Is not unusual. When accidents occur, some pollution sources, such as nuclear power stations or oil ships, can create extensive and potentially catastrophic emissions. Plastic pollution is choking our oceans by making plastic gyres, entangling marine animals, poisoning our food and water supply, and ultimately inflicting havoc on the health and well-being of humans and wildlife globally. With the exception of

3828-449: Is often classed as point source (coming from a highly concentrated specific site, such as a factory , mine , construction site ), or nonpoint source pollution (coming from a widespread distributed sources, such as microplastics or agricultural runoff ). Many sources of pollution were unregulated parts of industrialization during the 19th and 20th centuries until the emergence of environmental regulation and pollution policy in

3944-493: Is sometimes referred to as pollution, because raised levels of the gas in the atmosphere are affecting the Earth's climate. Disruption of the environment can also highlight the connection between areas of pollution that would normally be classified separately, such as those of water and air. Recent studies have investigated the potential for long-term rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to cause slight but critical increases in

4060-597: Is the view that social inequalities - from racism to speciesism - are deeply embedded in society and reinforced by state power, and therefore the current social order stands as a fundamental obstacle to social and environmental justice. Pellow argues in his 2017 publication What is Critical Environmental Justice that social change movements may be better off thinking and acting beyond the state and capital as targets of reform and/or as reliable partners. Furthermore, that scholars and activists are not asking how they might build environmentally resilient communities that exist beyond

4176-858: Is triple the number of deaths caused by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and 15 times higher than deaths caused by wars and other forms of human violence. The study concluded that "pollution is one of the great existential challenges of the Anthropocene era. Pollution endangers the stability of the Earth's support systems and threatens the continuing survival of human societies." Adverse air quality can kill many organisms, including humans. Ozone pollution can cause respiratory disease , cardiovascular disease , throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion . A 2010 analysis estimated that 1.2 million people died prematurely each year in China alone because of air pollution. China's high smog levels can damage

4292-655: The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil. The 17 Principles have a likeness in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. In the summer of 2002, a coalition of non-governmental organizations met in Bali to prepare final negotiations for the 2002 Earth Summit . Organizations included CorpWatch, World Rainforest Movement, Friends of the Earth International, the Third World Network, and

4408-646: The American civil rights movement and focused on environmental racism within rich countries. The movement was later expanded to consider gender, international environmental injustice, and inequalities within marginalized groups. As the movement achieved some success in rich countries, environmental burdens were shifted to the Global South (as for example through extractivism or the global waste trade ). The movement for environmental justice has thus become more global, with some of its aims now being articulated by

4524-403: The Global South . Because of the impacts of these chemicals, local and international countries' policy have increasingly sought to regulate pollutants, resulting in increasing air and water quality standards, alongside regulation of specific waste streams. Regional and national policy is typically supervised by environmental agencies or ministries , while international efforts are coordinated by

4640-579: The UN Environmental Program and other treaty bodies . Pollution mitigation is an important part of all of the Sustainable Development Goals . Various definitions of pollution exist, which may or may not recognize certain types, such as noise pollution or greenhouse gases . The United States Environmental Protection Administration defines pollution as "Any substances in water, soil, or air that degrade

4756-737: The United Nations . The movement overlaps with movements for Indigenous land rights and for the human right to a healthy environment . The goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for marginalized communities in making environmental decisions that affect their lives. The global environmental justice movement arises from local environmental conflicts in which environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations in resource extraction or other industries. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks. Environmental justice scholars have produced

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4872-588: The environment from the adverse effects of pollution, many nations worldwide have enacted legislation to regulate various types of pollution as well as to mitigate the adverse effects of pollution. At the local level, regulation usually is supervised by environmental agencies or the broader public health system . Different jurisdictions often have different levels regulation and policy choices about pollution. Historically, polluters will lobby governments in less economically developed areas or countries to maintain lax regulation in order to protect industrialisation at

4988-428: The free market equilibrium will not account for the costs of pollution on society . If the social costs of pollution are higher than the private costs incurred by the firm, then the true supply curve will be higher. The point at which the social marginal cost and market demand intersect gives the socially optimal level of pollution. At this point, the quantity will be lower and the price will be higher in comparison to

5104-616: The ozone layer , and hydrogen sulfides , which are capable of killing humans at concentrations of less than 1 part per thousand. Volcanic emissions also include fine and ultrafine particles which may contain toxic chemicals and substances such as arsenic , lead , and mercury . Wildfires , which can be caused naturally by lightning strikes , are also a significant source of air pollution. Wildfire smoke contains significant quantities of both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, which can cause suffocation . Large quantities of fine particulates are found within wildfire smoke as well, which pose

5220-408: The waste products from overconsumption , heating, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and other human activities, whether they accumulate or disperse, will degrade the environment . In the hierarchy of controls, pollution prevention and waste minimization are more desirable than pollution control. In the field of land development , low impact development is a similar technique for

5336-556: The world's population , but produce roughly 25% of the world's CO 2 , and generate approximately 30% of world's waste . In 2007, China overtook the United States as the world's biggest producer of CO 2 , while still far behind based on per capita pollution (ranked 78th among the world's nations). Chlorinated hydrocarbons (CFH), heavy metals (such as chromium, cadmium – found in rechargeable batteries, and lead – found in lead paint, aviation fuel, and even in certain countries, gasoline), MTBE, zinc, arsenic, and benzene are some of

5452-633: The 1940s, automobile-caused smog was a significant issue in Los Angeles . Other cities followed around the country until early in the 20th century when the short-lived Office of Air Pollution was created under the Department of the Interior . The cities of Los Angeles experienced extreme smog events and Donora, Pennsylvania , in the late 1940s, serving as another public reminder. Environmental justice movement Environmental justice

5568-462: The EPA. They rely on distributive justice , centered around the nature of private property. Native Americans do not fall under the same statutory frameworks as they are citizens of Indigenous nations, not ethnic minorities. As individuals, they are subject to American laws. As nations, they are subject to a separate legal regime, constructed on the basis of pre-existing sovereignty acknowledged by treaty and

5684-494: The Environmental Equity Work Group (EEWG) in 1990 in response to additional findings by social scientists that “racial minority and low-income populations bear a higher environmental risk burden than the general population’ and that the EPA's inspections failed to adequately protect low-income communities of color”. In 1992, the EPA published Environmental Equity: Reducing Risks for All Communities -

5800-952: The First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, held in Washington, DC. The four-day summit was sponsored by the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice. With around 1,100 persons in attendance, representation included all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and the Marshall Islands. The summit broadened the environmental justice movement beyond its anti-toxins focus to include issues of public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, housing, resource allocation, and community empowerment. The summit adopted 17 Principles of Environmental Justice , which were later disseminated at

5916-577: The Indigenous Environmental Network. They sought to articulate the concept of climate justice. During their time together, the organizations codified the Bali Principles of Climate Justice , a 27-point program identifying and organizing the climate justice movement. Meena Raman, Head of Programs at the Third World Network, explained that in their writing they “drew heavily on the concept of environmental justice, with

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6032-531: The Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice. The working group sought to address environmental justice in minority populations and low-income populations. David Pellow writes that the executive order “remains the cornerstone of environmental justice regulation in the US, with the EPA as its ventral arbiter”. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, grassroots movements and environmental organizations advocated for regulations that increased

6148-562: The PCB dumping after reading newspapers meant for their garden mulch, and days later he and Rev. Leon White led a “humane blockade” to prevent trucks from arriving at the landfill. After being arrested for the demonstration, Furriccio continued his defiance against the county by refusing to post bail and going on a nineteen-day hunger strike. Rev. Benjamin Chavis was serving for the United Church of Christ (UCC) Commission for Racial Justice when he

6264-681: The U.S. Constitution. Environmental justice to Indigenous persons is not understood by legal entities but rather their distinct cultural and religious doctrines. Environmental Justice for Indigenous peoples follows a model that frames issues in terms of their colonial condition and can affirm decolonization as a potential framework within environmental justice. While Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences vary from place to place, David Pellow writes that there are “common realities they all share in their experience of colonization that make it possible to generalize an Indigenous methodology while recognizing specific, localized conditions”. Even abstract ideas like

6380-528: The US escalated throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Many impacted countries do not have adequate disposal systems for this waste, and impacted communities are not informed about the hazards they are being exposed to. The Khian Sea waste disposal incident was a notable example of environmental justice issues arising from international movement of toxic waste. Contractors disposing of ash from waste incinerators in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania illegally dumped

6496-403: The US, race is the most important determinant of environmental injustice. In other countries, poverty or caste (India) are important indicators. Tribal affiliation is also important in some countries. Environmental justice scholars Laura Pulido and David Pellow argue that recognizing environmental racism, as an element stemming from the entrenched legacies of racial capitalism , is crucial to

6612-488: The acidity of ocean waters , and the possible effects of this on marine ecosystems. In February 2007, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), representing the work of 2,500 scientists, economists, and policymakers from more than 120 countries, confirmed that humans have been the primary cause of global warming since 1950. Humans have ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and avoid

6728-588: The aforementioned pillars towards the Black Lives Matter movement and the problem of state violence. Pellow argues that within conventional studies, “the Black Lives Matter movement and the struggle against environmental racism … is a connection that many scholars might not make at first glance because police brutality and environmental politics would appear to be only tangentially related.” Following his four pillars of Critical EJ, his ties

6844-411: The amount of pollution that they are producing. The associated costs of doing this are called abatement costs, or marginal abatement costs if measured by each additional unit. In 2005 pollution abatement capital expenditures and operating costs in the US amounted to nearly $ 27 billion. The Pure Earth , an international non-for-profit organization dedicated to eliminating life-threatening pollution in

6960-478: The anarchist-inspired Common Ground Collective , which was co-created by Scott Crow to provide services for survivors of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast in 2005. Crow gave insight as to what change outside of state power looks like, telling Pellow: We did service work, but it was a revolutionary analysis and practice. We created a horizontal organization that defied the state and did our work in spite of

7076-728: The board and in a non-discriminatory way. Unequal protection might result from nonscientific and undemocratic decisions, exclusionary practices, public hearings held in remote locations and at inconvenient times, and use of English-only material as the language in which to communicate and conduct hearings for non-English-speaking publics. Geographic equity refers to the location and spatial configuration of communities and their proximity to environmental hazards, noxious facilities and locally unwanted land uses (Lulus) such as landfills, incinerators, sewage treatment plants, lead smelters, refineries and other noxious facilities. For example, unequal protection may result from land-use decisions that determine

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7192-429: The case if the producer were to receive payment for the external benefits to others. Goods and services that involve negative externalities in production, such as those that produce pollution, tend to be overproduced and underpriced since the externality is not being priced into the market. Pollution can also create costs for the firms producing the pollution. Sometimes firms choose, or are forced by regulation, to reduce

7308-537: The concept of Critical Environmental Justice (CEJ) in his work What is Critical Environmental Justice . Critical EJ is a perspective intended to address a number of limitations and tensions within EJ Studies. Critical EJ calls for scholarship that builds on research in environmental justice studies by questioning assumptions and gaps in earlier work in the field, embracing greater interdisciplinary, and moving towards methodologies and epistemologies including and beyond

7424-514: The concept to the Black Lives Matter movement and associated movements, demonstrating: (1) how attention to multiple categories of difference and inequality (including more-than-human species and the built environment); (2) an emphasis on the role of scale as a way of understanding the violence of racism and the promise of resistance movements; (3) a focus on linking the entrenched character of social inequalities with transformative, anti-authoritarian and anarchist perspectives; (4) and an application of

7540-506: The concepts of racial and socioecological indispensability can produce an enriched account of that movement's core concerns, its limitations, and its possibilities. The first pillar of Critical EJ Studies involves the recognition that social inequality and oppression in all forms intersect, and that actors in the more-than-human world are subjects of oppression and frequently agents of social change. Developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality theory states that individuals exist in

7656-650: The consequences of global warming, a major climate report concluded. But to change the climate, the transition from fossil fuels like coal and oil needs to occur within decades, according to the final report this year from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Pollution affects humans in every part of the world. An October 2017 study by the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health found that global pollution, specifically toxic air, water, soil and workplaces, kills nine million people annually, which

7772-445: The cost of human and environmental health . The modern environmental regulatory environment has its origins in the United States with the beginning of industrial regulations around Air and Water pollution connected to industry and mining during the 1960s and 1970s. Pollution control is a term used in environmental management . It refers to the control of emissions and effluents into air, water or soil. Without pollution control,

7888-442: The costs of hazardous waste disposal in the US and other industrialized nations. However, this led to a surge in exports of hazardous waste to the Global South during the 1980s and 1990s. This global environmental injustice, including the disposal of toxic waste, land appropriation, and resource extraction, sparked the formation of the global environmental justice movement. Environmental justice as an international subject commenced at

8004-529: The degree to which scholars should place emphasis on one or more social categories of difference (e.g., race, class, gender, sexuality, species, etc.) versus a focus on multiple forms of inequality; (2) the extent to which scholars studying EJ issues should focus on single-scale versus multi-scalar analyses of the causes, consequences, and possible resolutions of EJ struggles; (3) the degree to which various forms of social inequality and power—including state power—are viewed as entrenched and embedded in society; and (4)

8120-557: The developing world, issues an annual list of some of the world's most polluting industries. Below is the list for 2016: A 2018 report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and GRAIN says that the meat and dairy industries are poised to surpass the oil industry as the world's worst polluters. The textile industry is one of the largest polluters in the globalized world of mostly free market dominated socioeconomic systems. Chemically polluted textile wastewater degrades

8236-440: The development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socio-economic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal programs and policies Environmental justice

8352-666: The discourse on environmental justice concerning Indigenous peoples and settler-colonialism. Gilio-Whitaker critiques distributive justice, which assumes a capitalistic commodification of land inconsistent with Indigenous worldviews. Whyte explores environmental justice within the context of colonialism's catastrophic environmental impacts on Indigenous peoples' traditional livelihoods and identities. The environmental justice movement seeks to address environmental discrimination and environmental racism associated with hazardous waste disposal, resource extraction, land appropriation, and other activities. This environmental discrimination results in

8468-635: The earlier extreme cases of water quality problems with the Great Stink on the Thames of 1858, which led to the construction of the London sewerage system soon afterward. Pollution issues escalated as population growth far exceeded the viability of neighborhoods to handle their waste problem. Reformers began to demand sewer systems and clean water. In 1870, the sanitary conditions in Berlin were among

8584-555: The eighties you couldn't just say there was discrimination. You had to prove it.” Fighting for change, not recognition, is an additional factor of environmental justice as a social movement.   In response to the Warren County Protests, two cross-sectional studies were conducted to determine the demographics of those exposed to uncontrolled toxic waste sites and commercial hazardous waste facilities. The United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice studied

8700-510: The environment with large amounts of microplastics and has been identified in one review as the industry sector producing the largest amount of pollution. A campaign of big clothing brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma to voluntarily reform their manufacturing supply chains to commit to achieving zero discharges of hazardous chemicals by 2020 (global goal) appears to have failed. Outdoor air pollution attributable to fossil fuel use alone causes ~3.61 million deaths annually, making it one of

8816-574: The environmental aftermath of war can be characterized as slow violence . The term “slow violence” was coined by author Rob Nixon in his 2011 book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor . Slow violence is defined as “violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all”. Environmental justice as

8932-589: The first fires . According to a 1983 article in the journal Science, " soot " found on ceilings of prehistoric caves provides ample evidence of the high levels of pollution that was associated with inadequate ventilation of open fires." Metal forging appears to be a key turning point in the creation of significant air pollution levels outside the home. Core samples of glaciers in Greenland indicate increases in pollution associated with Greek, Roman, and Chinese metal production. The burning of coal and wood, and

9048-669: The first time the agency embarked on a systematic examination of environmental risks to communities of color. This acted as their direction of addressing environmental justice. In 1993 the EPA founded the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC). In 1994 the office's name was changed to the Office of Environmental Justice as a result of public criticism on the difference between equity and justice. That same year, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 , which created

9164-554: The form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants , the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events, the word pollution generally implies that the contaminants have an anthropogenic source – that is, a source created by human activities, such as manufacturing , extractive industries , poor waste management , transportation or agriculture . Pollution

9280-455: The free market equilibrium. Therefore, the free market outcome could be considered a market failure because it "does not maximize efficiency". This model can be used as a basis to evaluate different methods of internalizing the externality, such as tariffs , a Pigouvian tax (such as a carbon tax ) and cap and trade systems. Air pollution has always accompanied civilizations. Pollution started from prehistoric times , when man created

9396-461: The health and well-being of these communities, leading to higher rates of asthma, cancer, and other illnesses. Addressing environmental racism requires a multifaceted approach that tackles the underlying social, economic, and political factors that contribute to its persistence. More particularly, environmental justice scholars from Latin America and elsewhere advocate to understand this issue through

9512-560: The human body and cause various diseases. In 2019, air pollution caused 1.67 million deaths in India (17.8% of total deaths nationally). Studies have estimated that the number of people killed annually in the United States could be over 50,000. A study published in 2022 in GeoHealth concluded that energy-related fossil fuel emissions in the United States cause 46,900–59,400 premature deaths each year and PM2.5-related illness and death costs

9628-709: The human/nonhuman divide and their relationships to one another. Pellow expands writing in Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies that “racial indispensability is intended to challenge the logic of racial expendability and is the idea that institutions, policies, and practices that support and perpetrate anti-Black racism suffer from the flawed assumption that the future of African Americans  is  somehow  de-linked  from  the  future  of  White  communities.” Traces of environmental injustices span millennia of unrecorded history. Indigenous peoples experienced environmental devastation of

9744-438: The ideology of white supremacy and human dominionism, and articulating the perspective that excluded, marginalized, and other populations, beings, and things - both human and nonhuman - must be viewed not as expensable but rather an indispensable to our collective futures. Pellow uses racial indispensability when referring to people of color and socioecological indispensability when referring to broader communities within and across

9860-457: The importance of including their perspectives and needs in environmental decision-making. Martinez-Alier's work also introduces the concept of "ecological distribution conflicts," which are conflicts over access to and control of natural resources and the environmental impacts that result from their use, and which are often rooted in social and economic inequalities. The violence wrought by climate change, toxic drift, deforestation, oil spills, and

9976-507: The largely unexamined question of the expendability of human and non-human populations facing socioecological threats from states, industries, and other political economic forces. In his 2017 publication What is Critical Environmental Justice , David Pellow writes as an example of the four pillars working in-tandem: Where we find rivers dammed for hydropower plants we also tend to find indigenous peoples and fisherfolk, as well as other working people, whose livelihoods and health are harmed as

10092-901: The later half of the 20th century. Sites where historically polluting industries released persistent pollutants may have legacy pollution long after the source of the pollution is stopped. Major forms of pollution include air pollution , water pollution , litter , noise pollution , plastic pollution , soil contamination , radioactive contamination , thermal pollution , light pollution , and visual pollution . Pollution has widespread consequences on human and environmental health , having systematic impact on social and economic systems. In 2019, pollution killed approximately nine million people worldwide (about one in six deaths that year); about three-quarters of these deaths were caused by air pollution . A 2022 literature review found that levels of anthropogenic chemical pollution have exceeded planetary boundaries and now threaten entire ecosystems around

10208-503: The lens of decolonisation. The latter underlies the fact that environmental racism emanates from the colonial projects of the West and its current reproduction of colonial dynamics. As environmental justice groups have grown more successful in developed countries such as the United States, the burdens of global production have been shifted to the Global South where less-strict regulations make waste disposal cheaper. Export of toxic waste from

10324-420: The location of residential amenities and disamenities. The poor and communities of colour often suffer a “triple” vulnerability of noxious facility siting, as do the unincorporated—sparsely populated communities that are not legally chartered as cities or municipalities and are therefore usually governed by distant county governments rather than having their own locally elected officials. Social equity assesses

10440-570: The loss of land-based traditions and economies, armed violence (especially against women and indigenous people) environmental degradation , and environmental conflict . The global environmental justice movement arises from these local place-based conflicts in which local environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks. There are many divisions along which an unjust distribution of environmental burdens may fall. Within

10556-404: The manufacturer will choose to produce more of the product than would be produced if the manufacturer were required to pay all associated environmental costs. Because responsibility or consequence for self-directed action lies partly outside the self, an element of externalization is involved. If there are external benefits, such as in public safety , less of the good may be produced than would be

10672-410: The most frequent soil contaminants. A series of press reports published in 2001, culminating in the publication of the book Fateful Harvest, revealed a widespread practise of recycling industrial leftovers into fertilizer, resulting in metal poisoning of the soil. Ordinary municipal landfills are the source of many chemical substances entering the soil environment (and often groundwater), emanating from

10788-717: The movement, with white supremacy continuing to shape human relationships with nature and labor. Environmental racism is a pervasive and complex issue that affects communities all over the world. It is a form of systemic discrimination that is grounded in the intersection of race, class, and environmental factors. At its core, environmental racism refers to the disproportionate exposure of certain communities, mostly those that are marginalised, to environmental hazards such as pollution, toxic waste, and other environmental risks. These communities are often located near industrial sites, waste facilities, and other sources of pollution that can have serious health impacts. Environmental racism has

10904-451: The nation $ 537–$ 678 billion annually. In the US, deaths caused by coal pollution were highest in 1999, but decreased sharply after 2007. The number dropped by about 95% by 2020, as coal plants have been closed or have scrubbers installed. In 2019, water pollution caused 1.4 million premature deaths. Contamination of drinking water by untreated sewage in developing countries is an issue, for example, over 732 million Indians (56% of

11020-498: The natural quality of the environment, offend the senses of sight, taste, or smell, or cause a health hazard. The usefulness of the natural resource is usually impaired by the presence of pollutants and contaminants." In contrast, the United Nations considers pollution to be the "presence of substances and heat in environmental media (air, water, land) whose nature, location, or quantity produces undesirable environmental effects." The major forms of pollution are listed below along with

11136-439: The particular contaminants relevant to each of them: One of the most significant natural sources of pollution are volcanoes , which during eruptions release large quantities of harmful gases into the atmosphere. Volcanic gases include carbon dioxide, which can be fatal in large concentrations and contributes to climate change , hydrogen halides which can cause acid rain , sulfur dioxides, which are harmful to animals and damage

11252-495: The placement of hazardous waste facilities in the US and found that race was the most important factor predicting placement of these facilities. These studies were followed by widespread objections and lawsuits against hazardous waste disposal in poor, generally Black, communities. The mainstream environmental movement began to be criticized for its predominately white affluent leadership, emphasis on conservation, and failure to address social equity concerns. The EPA established

11368-1348: The population) and over 92 million Ethiopians (92.9% of the population) do not have access to basic sanitation . In 2013 over 10 million people in India fell ill with waterborne illnesses in 2013, and 1,535 people died, most of them children. As of 2007 , nearly 500 million Chinese lack access to safe drinking water. Acute exposure to certain pollutants can have short and long term effects. Oil spills can cause skin irritations and rashes . Noise pollution induces hearing loss , high blood pressure , stress , and sleep disturbance . Mercury has been linked to developmental deficits in children and neurologic symptoms. Older people are significantly exposed to diseases induced by air pollution . Those with heart or lung disorders are at additional risk. Children and infants are also at serious risk. Lead and other heavy metals have been shown to cause neurological problems, intellectual disabilities and behavioural problems. Chemical and radioactive substances can cause cancer and birth defects . The health impacts of pollution have both direct and lasting social consequences. A 2021 study found that exposure to pollution causes an increase in violent crime. A 2019 paper linked pollution to adverse school outcomes for children. A number of studies show that pollution has an adverse effect on

11484-555: The presence of many horses in concentrated areas made the cities the primary sources of pollution. King Edward I of England banned the burning of sea-coal by proclamation in London in 1272, after its smoke became a problem; the fuel was so common in England that this earliest of names for it was acquired because it could be carted away from some shores by the wheelbarrow . The Industrial Revolution gave birth to environmental pollution as we know it today. London also recorded one of

11600-414: The prevention of urban runoff . Policy , law and monitoring/transparency/ life-cycle assessment -attached economics could be developed and enforced to control pollution. A review concluded that there is a lack of attention and action such as work on a globally supported "formal science – policy interface", e.g. to " inform intervention, influence research, and guide funding". In September 2023

11716-474: The productivity of both indoor and outdoor workers. Pollution has been found to be present widely in the natural environment . A 2022 study published in Environmental Science & Technology found that levels of anthropogenic chemical pollution have exceeded planetary boundaries and now threaten entire ecosystems around the world. There are a number of effects of this: To protect

11832-450: The public; and pollution prevention assistance to help businesses minimize their waste at the source. Ohio EPA has several regulatory divisions that play different roles in environmental protection. Each division issues permits to regulate industries that pollute in a specific area, like air emissions or wastewater discharges to rivers and streams. The permits include requirements for operating, monitoring and reporting compliance. There are

11948-555: The quality of the soil and water . The pollution comes from the type of conduct of chemical treatments used e.g., in pretreatment, dyeing, printing, and finishing operations that many or most market-driven companies use despite "eco-friendly alternatives". Textile industry wastewater is considered to be one the largest polluters of water and soil ecosystems , causing "carcinogenic, mutagenic, genotoxic, cytotoxic and allergenic threats to living organisms". The textile industry uses over 8000 chemicals in its supply chain, also polluting

12064-408: The relationship between the local and the global or, in other words, to consider scale”. Scale is deeply racialized, gendered, and classed. While the conclusions of climate scientists are remarkably clear that anthropogenic climate change is occurring at a dramatic pace and with increasing intensity. David Pellow writes in his 2016 publication Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies that “this

12180-542: The right to a clean environment, a human right according to the United Nations, contradicts Indigenous peoples understanding of environmental justice as it reflects the commodification of land when seen in light of property values. Joan Martinez-Alier 's influential concept of the environmentalism of the poor highlights the ways in which marginalized communities, particularly those in the Global South, are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and

12296-533: The role of sociological factors (race, ethnicity, class, culture, life styles, political power, etc.) on environmental decision making. Poor people and people of colour often work in the most dangerous jobs and live in the most polluted neighbourhoods, their children exposed to all kinds of environmental toxins in the playgrounds and in their homes. In non-Native communities, where toxic industries and other discriminatory practices are disproportionately occurring, residents rely on laws and statutory frameworks outlined by

12412-554: The site was set for the predominantly Black community of Afton. Its residents protested for six-weeks, leading to over 500 arrests. That the protests in Warren County were led by civilians led to the basis of future and modern-day environmental, grassroots organizations fighting for environmental justice. Deborah Ferruccio, a contributor to the protest, explained in an interview with The Warren Record that those present were ordinary people. Her husband Ken Ferruccio learned of

12528-523: The social sciences. Critical EJ scholars believe that since multiple forms of inequality drive and characterize the experience of environmental injustice, the EJ field would benefit from expanding in that direction. Differentiation between conventional environmental studies and Critical EJ studies is done through four distinctive "pillars". These include, in David Pellow's writing: (1) questions concerning

12644-515: The state … not only did we feed people and give them aid and hygiene kits and things like that, but we also stopped housing from being bulldozed, we cut the locks on schools when they said schools couldn't be opened, and we cleaned the schools out because the students and the teachers wanted that to happen. And we didn't do a one size fits all like the Red Cross would do – we asked the communities, every community we went into, we asked multiple people,

12760-411: The state, but rather how they might do so with a different model of state intervention. Pellow believes that by building and supporting strongly democratic practices, relationships, and institutions, movements for social change will become less dependent upon the state, while any elements of the state they do work through may become more robustly democratic. He contextualizes this pillar with activist

12876-424: The street sex workers, the gangsters, the church leaders, everybody, we talked to them: what can we do to help your neighborhood, to help your community, to help you? And that made us different because for me, it's the overlay of anarchism. Instead of having one franchise thing, you just have concepts, and you just pick the components that match the needs of the people there. The fourth pillar of Critical EJ centers on

12992-535: The top contributors to human death , beyond being a major driver of climate change whereby greenhouse gases are considered per se as a form of pollution (see above ) . Society derives some indirect utility from pollution; otherwise, there would be no incentive to pollute. This utility may come from the consumption of goods and services that inherently create pollution (albeit the level can vary) or lower prices or lower required efforts (or inconvenience) to abandon or substitute these goods and services. Therefore, it

13108-589: The wide variety of refuse accepted, especially substances illegally discarded there, or from pre-1970 landfills that may have been subject to little control in the U.S. or EU. There have also been some unusual releases of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins , commonly called dioxins for simplicity, such as TCDD . Pollution can also occur as a result of natural disasters. Hurricanes, for example, frequently result in sewage contamination and petrochemical spills from burst boats or automobiles. When coastal oil rigs or refineries are involved, larger-scale and environmental damage

13224-458: The world. Pollutants frequently have outsized impacts on vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly, and marginalized communities, because polluting industries and toxic waste sites tend to be collocated with populations with less economic and political power. This outsized impact is a core reason for the formation of the environmental justice movement , and continues to be a core element of environmental conflicts , particularly in

13340-496: The worst in Europe. August Bebel recalled conditions before a modern sewer system was built in the late 1870s: Waste-water from the houses collected in the gutters running alongside the curbs and emitted a truly fearsome smell. There were no public toilets in the streets or squares. Visitors, especially women, often became desperate when nature called. In the public buildings the sanitary facilities were unbelievably primitive....As

13456-638: Was sent to Warren County for the protests. Chavis was among the 500 arrested for taking part in the nonviolent protests and is credited with having coined the term “environmental racism” while in the Warren County jail. His involvement, alongside Rev. Leon White, who also served for the UCC, laid the foundation for more activism and consciousness-raising. Chavis would later recall in a New Yorker's article titled “Fighting Environmental Racism in North Carolina” that while “Warren County made headlines … [he] knew in

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