Environmental Racism: an ecumenical study guide

1 EnvironmentalRacisman ecumenical study guideProduced by the Eco- justice Working GroupNational Council of Churches of Christ in the USAW ritten and Compiled by Rebecca Barnes-DaviesNational Council of Churches USAN ational Council of Churches USAEco- justice Program Office110 Maryland Ave., NESuite 108 Washington, DC Listing IntroductionDefining Environmental racism and JusticeEnvironmental justice PrinciplesA Brief History of the MovementModern Examples of Environmental racism and InjusticeTheological ReflectionsStudy and reflectionHistorical overview Action StepsResourcesPage235781011131416 ecumenical Environmental racism study PacketIntroductionAs Christians we have been called to follow Jesus Christ, to walk in his ways of mercy, justice , love and truth-telling. While we gather to worship, study the Bible, and offer our lives to God as part of our interior Christian life, we know that to embody and share the good news also means that we must attend to the world around us.

2 Sometimes, we are required to move outside comfort zones to confront societal and religious laws and practices that conflict with our understanding of God s desire for the read in John 3:16-17 that God so loved world that God gave God s only Son, in order that the world might be saved. In this scripture reading, God s entire creation is saved in Christ and loved by God. As Christian disciples trying to spread this good news, we must pay particular attention to those in God s creation who are currently most neglected, those to whom God s love is not transmit-ted through societal and religious structures. Approaching Environmental racism and justice from our Christian faith perspective, we are called first to insist upon justice for all of God s people and creatures. We must never forget forget the need to protect, defend, and care for God s creation the earth and all non-human crea-tures.

3 While we remember this larger ecological frame-work, our goal in this study packet is to look particularly at human lives and human environments. In learning about Environmental racism and justice , we shall reflect on issues such as how people s health and lives are affected by the air they breathe, the water they drink, the food they eat, the health they possess, and the environments (school, work, urban, rural) in which they people are affected by Environmental hazards more than others. In the United States and around the world, more people of color live and work in unhealthy, pol-luted environments than do white people. People living in middle and upper class neighborhoods often are able to avoid toxic dumping, nuclear waste, or sewage treatment near their homes, schools, and work places. They are also privileged to receive a better response from government agencies to their requests for environment law enforcement and creation of clean, healthy green Our goal in this packet is to study these discrepancies and to become equipped to advocate for the spreading of Environmental privileges and the elimination (or fair distribution) of Environmental 1987 the United Church of Christ Commission on Ra-cial justice issued a Report on Race and Toxic Wastes in the United States.

4 Race, more than class, was shown to be a determining factor in where hazardous, toxic sites would be built and of color receive slower, less effective response from regulatory agencies while companies caught polluting these communities have fewer penalties and cheaper fines than their counterparts in white People of color face worse health burdens (asthma, cancer, birth defects) because of Environmental pollution and have less access to health care, information, means of participa-tion, and economic and political influence in the processes of Environmental decisions, laws, and Environmental justice It is imperative that we do not forget the need to protect, defend, and care for God s realities led to the coining of the phrase environ-mental racism . Recognizing that harsh Environmental im-pacts and the movement for justice extends to low-income communities regardless of race, both the phenomenon and the movement often use the term Environmental is power in the act of defining determines how the world sees, understands, and responds to that which is being defined.

5 Variances in definition and a diversity of voices are key to fully understanding the complexities and layers of Environmental injustice. Therefore, this resource does not create one definition of Environmental racism or Environmental justice . It instead offers a collection of definitions, through which a fuller understanding can be drawn. You are invited to read and reflect on each definition in it own right. Particularly important are the Principles of Environmental justice that close this reflection section. Through these principles we read the voices of a gathered community of people of color who have first hand experience of environ-mental racism . Defining Environmental JusticeCharles Lee: Environmental racism refers to the disproportionate im-pact of Environmental contamination on communities of color. It refers to racial discrimination in formulating and carrying out Environmental policy.

6 It refers to the decisions to put hazardous waste facilities and other unwanted land uses in predominantly poor and people-of-color communi-ties. It refers to the adverse health affects that result from the unkind treatment of the environment in these com-munities. And it refers to the lack of persons of color in the leadership of the Environmental movement and in the Environmental workplace. God s Earth, Our Home, session 7 Environmental racism Karen Baker-Fletcher: Sooner or later, poisons shot into the environment affect all of us wherever we live, because water flows into water, air currents rush into air currents. No one desires to live in locations with unhealthy air, water, soil. Yet we all do, whether we live in the inner city with its extreme problems of pollution, or in poor rural areas with high levels of toxic waste, or in suburbs witnessing the removal of trees for further development, or anyone wondering how long it will take the smog from the cities to make its way to our backyard.

7 Ecological injustice is a global problem. Environmental justice 3 Environmental justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all people, free from any form of discrimination and , too, is a global problem. We begin with concerns about the communities where we were born and where our families still live, as well as communities where we live and work now. From there, the multi-faceted, far-reaching, all-encompassing problem of Environmental injustice requires that we move out to consider macro-ecological problems and the interrelatedness of all of our lives. Sisters of Dust, Sisters of Spirit, pages 4-5 Shantilal Bhagat: Environmental racism is sin, and like all other sins, it can-not be overcome by human strength or resolve alone. Only through the power of Christ, who alone is our deliverer from sin, and whose death earned forgiveness for all of our offenses, are we able to combat the sin of Environmental racism .

8 Your Health and the Environment: A Christian Perspec-tive, session 12, pages 54-55, Environmental racism and Health Larry Rasmussen: The task is creating reconciling and reconciled socioenvi-ronmental community. And the obstacle is not diversity, biological or otherwise. It is injustice, moral privilege, and exclusion. What would such community spiritual-moral formation for eco- justice mean for churches working together with other institutions and movements? It would require shedding the remnants of complex domination systems that have oppressed both peoples and the land. Earth Habitat, Introduction, p 6 The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national orgin, culture, education, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of envi-ronmental laws, regulations, and policies.

9 Fair Treatment means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative consequences resulting from industri-al, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal Environmental programs and Environmental justice Meaningful involvement means that: 1) potentially affected community residents have an appropriate opportunity to participate in decisions about a proposed activity that will affect their Environmental and/or health; 2) the public s contribution can influence the regulatory agency s decision; 3) the concerns of all participants involved will be consid-ered in the decision-making process; and 4) the decision-makers seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected.(Adopted, Washington , October 1991, First Nation-al People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit)PreambleWe, the People of Color, gathered together at this multina-tional People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, to begin to build a national and international movement of all peoples of color to fight the destruction and taking of our lands and communities, do hereby reestablish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our Mother The task is creating reconciling and reconciled socio- Environmental community.

10 And the obstacle is not diversity, biological or otherwise. It is injustice, moral privilege and justice PrinciplesENVIRONMENTAL justice 5 Earth; to respect and celebrate each of our cultures, lan-guages, and beliefs about the natural world and our roles in healing ourselves; to insure Environmental justice ; to promote economic alternatives which would contribute to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods; and to secure our political, economic, and cultural liberation that has been denied over 500 years of colonization and oppression, resulting in the poisoning of our communities and land and the genocide of our peoples do affirm and adopt these Principles of Environmental justice :1. Environmental justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all spe-cies, and the right to be free from ecological Environmental justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all people, free from any form of discrimination and Environmental justice mandates the right to ethi-cal, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living Environmental justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear test-ing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and Environmental justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic.