Environmental Justice - History

History

In the early 1980s, environmental justice emerged as a concept in the United States, fueled by a mounting disdain within African-American, Hispanic and indigenous communities that were subject to hazardous and polluting industries located predominantly in their neighborhoods. This prompted the launch of the environmental justice movement, which adopted a civil rights and social justice approach to environmental justice and grew organically from dozens, even hundreds, of local struggles, events and a variety of other social movements. By many accounts, the environmental justice movement began in 1982 in Warren County, North Carolina. The state selected the Shocco Township to host a hazardous waste landfill containing 30,000 cubic yards of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated soil. Sixty-nine percent of the Shocco Township's population is non-white and 20 percent of the residents have incomes below the poverty level. The Shocco Township has the third lowest per capita income in the state. The publication of two studies, one by the government and the other by the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice (1987), provided empirical support for the claims of environmental racism. Robert D. Bullard’s Dumping in Dixie (1990) added further support for the disproportionate burden of toxic waste on minority communities.

In January 1990, the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources sponsored a conference on race and the incidence of environmental hazards. Later the same year, the United States Environmental Protection Agency established its Workgroup on Environmental Equity. By September 1991, the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit took place, organized and attended by more than 650 grassroots and national leaders representing more than 300 environmental groups. The Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit (also called Summit II) was also held in Washington DC, from October 23–26, 2002. Materials produced at the summit included a timeline for Environmental Justice milestones.

By 1992, the EPA established its Office of Environmental Equity and the Work group on Environmental Equity had finished its report. Critics of the report contend that EPA did not go far enough in examining its current activities, including its own role in reinforcing environmental inequalities. Legislatively, a number of bills were introduced into Congress, including the Environmental Justice Act 1992. President Clinton signed Executive Order 12898 (federal actions to address environmental justice in minority populations and low-income populations) into law on February 11, 1994.

Historically, minorities have been absent from the rank and file membership of mainstream environmental associations. At the same time, these organizations have not taken on environmental justice issues. In the 1990s, mainstream environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace all began to recruit minorities both among their membership and to serve in staff and decision making positions. A few, including the Sierra Club and Greenpeace have participated in the environmental justice struggle by filing briefs or providing informational and organizational resources. Others assert that since the 1990s, "an international Environmental Justice Movement is flourishing, having emerged out of various struggles, events and social movements worldwide.