1. Environmental Justice
Critical Urbanism
Montgomery Norton
May 11, 2009

2. Poisoned Communities
• Institute of Medicine of the National
Academies (1999) - Toward
Environmental Justice: Research,
Education, and Health Policy Needs
• Center for Health, Environment, and
Justice (2001) - Poisoned Schools:
Invisible threats, visible action

3. Environmental Justice
• “No group of people, including
racial,ethnic, or socioeconomic 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” - EPA

4. Environmental Justice
• “Environmental Racism: denial of human
rights, environmental protection, and
economic opportunities” to communities of
color (p.1).
• “Environmental justice is a civil rights and a
human rights issue” (p. 2).
• Health is the main focus of the environmental
justice movement in the U.S.

5. Principles of Environmental
Justice-Oct 27,1991
• Preamble: “We... Fight the destruction
and taking of our lands and
communities, do hereby re-establish
our spiritual interdependence to the
sacredness of our Mother Earth; to
respect and celebrate each of our
cultures, languages and beliefs about
the natural world and our roles in
healing ourselves...”

6. Environmental Justice
• U.S. EPA (1992) - Office of Environmental
Equity (renamed Office of Env. Justice)
• Executive Order 12898 (1994) - Federal
Actions to Address Environmental Justice in
Minority Populations and Low-Income
Populations
• CA Office of Planning and Research:
– General Plan Guidelines (2003) - Sustainable
Development and Environmental Justice
– Env Just in CA State Government (2003)
• Cal/EPA (2004) - Environmental Justice
Action Plan; Inter-Agency Environmental
Justice Strategy

7. Why?
• CEQA/NEPA - enforced through
litigation
• No other comparable state
environmental regulations

8. Where?
• Cancer Alley - Louisiana’s petrochemical
corridor
• Texas’ Gulf Coast Communities
• North Richmond, CA
• Los Angeles/Long Beach Ports, CA
• West Dallas, TX
• South Bronx, NY
• South Central LA, CA

9. Solutions
• Environmental Justice framework seeks to
prevent environmental threats before they
occur - “Precautionary Principle”
• Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management
Corp. (1979)
• Activation & mobilization of the
disenfranchised (impoverished, indigenous,
minorities, women, and children)
• Join forces: Environmental & Social Justice
activists into the Environmental Justice
Movement (Sustainability)

10. Green Collar Jobs
• Green-collar jobs address two crucial concerns facing
our survival—restoring the environment and making a
living.
• Green-collar jobs consist of work within the growing
industries that are helping us kick the oil habit, curb
greenhouse-gas emissions, eliminate toxins, and
protect natural systems.
• These green jobs connect a person’s commitment to
their work with a commitment to the planet, while
building a vibrant, restorative economy.
• A job that does something for the planet, and little to
nothing for the people or the economy, however,
does not qualify.