Featured Author: We are happy to have Jenny Price, published author, environmental writer, and advocate, writing this feature article for Symbiosis. To learn more about Jenny, please visit her page on the LA Observed:
www.laobserved.com/writers/jennyprice.php
Environmental Justice! Grassroots Effort Inspires National and Local Change - By Jenny Price
It’s been a buzzword for awhile now—but what exactly does it mean? Well, environment justice (EJ) starts with the recognition that some people suffer the consequences of our environmental troubles—air and water pollution, for example—a lot more than others. Also, some people enjoy the benefits of environmental policies and programs a lot more than others.
And low-income and minority communities generally get the short end of the stick. In other words, it focuses on the vastly inequitable distribution of environmental messes and solutions. EJ means that everyone has a right to breathe clean air and drink clean water. It means that everyone has a right to green space, fresh food, and a healthy environment for their kids.
How long has it been around?
The EJ movement really got going in the late 1980s and early 90s, and was rooted in a few key local grassroots battles in the decade before. In fact, two of these battles happened in the L.A. area—against proposed public waste-incinerator projects—and launched two pioneering EJ groups, Mothers of East L.A. and Concerned Citizens of South Central L.A.
Three national events generally define the official birth of the EJ movement:
• In 1987, a United Church of Christ report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, publicizes the disproportionate siting of hazardous waste facilities
A view of Los Angeles from the Hollywood Bowl Overlook.
in minority communities. • In 1990, a couple of civil rights organizations mail off letters to the Group of 10 environmental powerhouses—the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the other usual suspects—to object that they almost entirely neglect EJ and that their staffs include almost no people of color.
• In 1992, 300 activists converge in D.C. for the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, and vow to “reshape and redefine the American environmental movement.”
EJ groups multiply across the U.S. (and the globe), to fight specific projects but also to battle broadly to
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