Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice: 1266196

Question 1.

This question requires an explanation on how the research conducted by Dr. Bullard suggested that there was racism in the manner by which landfills, chemical plants and dumps were located.

Answer

The research done came up with a map of all dump sites and the demographics of the neighbourhood, indicating that 82% of these dump sites were located in areas predominantly occupied by the blacks. This was an empirical evidence indicating environmental racism, since there was a practice of disproportionately burdening the black and brown communities with environmental hazards that would not be allowed in the white communities.

The research revealed a larger pattern where landfills and other industrial waste facilities were put up in the black and brown neighboourhoods, not only in Northwood but across the country including Dallas, Huston and Alabama. A similar landfill that was opened in Chicago where the majority were the whites was immediately shut down by the city officials.

From the podcast of episode 8, it is clear that the intentional location of landfills and dumpsites into the blacks neighbourhood by the waste management companies in the Northwood community aided by the city officials was a classic case of racism, as most of such facilities were located in areas predominantly habited by the blacks and browns.

Question 2.

We are required to explain how the Northwood Manner residents won the lawsuit (if they did win) or reasons for loosing the law suit (if they lost).

Answer

The Northwood residents lost the lawsuit against the state of Texas and the private company called whispering Pine; a company that started the dumpsite in their neighbourhood marketing itself as a sanitarian landfill.

This is because the of the following reasons:

1. The judge presiding over the initial hearing was given a different set of maps by the waste management company showing that there was no relationship between the location of dumpsites and the demographics, this map was obtained by using the standard practices accepted at that time.
2. Dr. Bullard representing the black community found it hard to explain the rationale of how he came up with his map since it was an ingenious idea not in practice by then, even though his map clearly proved that there was a relationship between the location of landfills and demographics, showing a clear pattern of skewed implementation of environmental policies resulting to racial discrimination.
3. The second judge referred to the methods used in obtaining demographic data as being inaccurate and subjective, hence rejecting it on such merits. Since the method used was not widely in practice, Bullard could not convince the jury that it was a sound method of collecting demographic data.

Even though the residents lost the lawsuit, their objectives were achieved years later when the president released an executive order directing that county officials have to take demographics into account before approving new dumpsites in the future. This suit therefore stopped racism by construction of landfills in the blacks neighbourhood.

Question 3.

This question requires an explanation on how the location of landfills, chemical facilities and dump sites is both a civil right issue and a public policy issue.

Answer

Discriminate location of waste facilities that cause environmental harm and health concerns is in violation of Civil Rights Act, just like in the cases of housing, employment and voting discrimination, therefore amounting to a civil rights issue.

On the other hand, construction of public waste facilities like chemical plants and landfills by the state departments is governed by environmental policies to protect the environment and the neighbouring communities, hence skewed implementation of this policies in favour of other communities is indicative of a public policy issue.

The construction of landfills and dumpsites in Northwood and other areas dominated by the black and brown communities indicates a flaw in the implementation of public policies that should be addressed by the concerned city officials, as well as a civil issue since it requires participation from the disadvantaged communities to give it the publicity it deserves for an action to be taken. The involvement of activists and other humanitarian groups suggests that it is a civil rights issue and that there is a civil Rights Act that has been contravened in the implementation of public environmental policies.

Question 4.

1. Executive order is an official communication issued by the president outlining directives on certain policies to be implemented immediately. Normally, executive orders pertain to matters of urgent national interests that does not require further delay by the time-consuming legislative process.
2. Executive orders are easier to implement than legislative since they are direct orders which are final as they come from the president’s office and no further intervention or approval process is required. They are implemented as they are without any amendments. On the other hand, legislation goes through a long consultative process from a member of representatives who may often have particular interests thereby delaying the process, and most likely will propose legislations that favour them. The time-consuming nature of legislations and vested interests by representatives makes them less desirable as compared to executive orders.
3. The Environmental Protection Agency has failed in its attempts to implement the executive order issued by President Clinton. The executive order did not contain the elements of Environmental Justice being part of rulemaking or allowing decisions, thus a number of federal agencies have not fulfilled the executive order. It has been 2 decades since the issue of the order but minority and low-income communities across the entire nation are still exposed to pollution and other environmental hazards resulting from poor implementation of environmental protection policies.

Question 5.

From the article provided, the Trump administration has dismantled and peeled the Environmental regulations that were achieved by the Environmental Justice movement, causing a national outcry especially by the minorities and other low-income citizens.

The administration has also perpetuated disproportionate burdening of blacks, Latinos and other disadvantaged groups by harmful waste from industrial plants. From the article, a number of politicians and academicians including environmental activists are calling upon the Trump administration to consider implementing environmental protection laws during this time of inevitable global warming concerns.

Question 6

1. From the 3 maps given, it can be noted that there is a progressive change in the locations of the waste facilities and dumpsites. The environmental protection executive order has resulted into indiscriminate location of these facilities; hence they are not located near residential homes. The maps indicate that before the Environmental Justice movement. most of the dumpsites were located near residential apartments while in the years after the executive order, new landfills have taken into consideration environmental protection.
2. Even though the landfills and dump sites present a considerable health and environmental concerns to the residents, most of them still leave there because they have no finances to move and settle elsewhere as most of them are low-income groups.
3. A superfund site refers to a highly polluted area and requires a long-term strategy to be cleaned up. Such sites are contaminated by hazardous wastes and are listed to be cleaned by the EPA’s superfund program so as to ensure that there is protection of the environment as well as public health.