Environmental Justice For All
(Page 5 of 6)
Mar.-Apr. 2008
by Leyla Kokmen
“Poor Americans of all races, and poor Americans of color in particular, disproportionately suffer from social ills of every kind,” they write. “But toxic waste and air pollution are far from being the most serious threats to their health and well-being. Moreover, the old narratives of intentional discrimination fail to explain or address these disparities. Disproportionate environmental health outcomes can no more be reduced to intentional discrimination than can disproportionate economic and educational outcomes. They are due to a larger and more complex set of historic, economic, and social causes.”
RELATED CONTENT
Noun, singular: A pejorative term lobbed at new buildings, both residential and commercial, that ar...
Singer Al Green and poet Rainer Maria Rilke share a sense of the sublime...
Declare Your Town a Civil Liberties Safe Zone December 16, 2002 Issue By Leif Utne, Utne In the fa...
Former Santa Fe Public Defender Andrew J. O’Connor found himself in handcuffs last month for allege...
For Guatemalan Campesinos, the Civil War Continues Compesino occupation of Nueva Linda finca plant...
Today’s environmental justice advocates would no doubt take issue with the finer points of Nordhaus and Shellenberger’s criticism—in particular, that institutional racism is a red herring. Activists and researchers are acutely aware that they are facing a multifaceted spectrum of issues, from air pollution to a dire lack of access to regular health care. It’s because of that complexity, however, that they are now more geared toward proactively addressing an array of social and political concerns.
“The environmental justice movement grew out of putting out fires in the community and stopping bad things from happening, like a landfill,” says Martha Dina Argüello, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility–Los Angeles, an organization that connects environmental groups with doctors to promote public health. “The more this work gets done, the more you realize you have to go upstream. We need to stop bad things from happening.”
“We can fight pollution and poverty at the same time and with the same solutions and methods,” says the Ella Baker Center’s Van Jones.
Poor people and people of color have borne all the burden of the polluting industries of today, he says, while getting almost none of the benefit from the shift to the green economy. Jones stresses that he is not an environmental justice activist, but a “social-uplift environmentalist.” Instead of concentrating on the presence of pollution and toxins in low-income communities, Jones prefers to focus on building investment in clean, green, healthy industries that can help those communities. Instead of focusing on the burdens, he focuses on empowerment.
With that end in mind, the Ella Baker Center’s Green-Collar Jobs Campaign plans to launch the Oakland Green Jobs Corps this spring. The initiative, according to program manager Aaron Lehmer, received $250,000 from the city of Oakland and will give people ages 18 to 35 with barriers to employment (contact with the criminal justice system, long-term unemployment) opportunities and paid internships for training in new energy skills like installing solar panels and making buildings more energy efficient.
The concept has gained national attention. It’s the cornerstone of the Green Jobs Act of 2007, which authorizes $125 million annually for “green-collar” job training that could prepare 30,000 people a year for jobs in key trades, such as installing solar panels, weatherizing buildings, and maintaining wind farms. The act was signed into law in December as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 | 5 |
6 |
Next >>