GREEN JUSTICE: A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE/李恒译(3)
III. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT
The official history of environmental justice is approximately 20years old. In 1979, in Houston, Texas, residents formed community action group to block a hazardous waste facility from being built in their middle-class African American Neighborhood. In 1982, environmental justice made news in Warren, North Carolina when a protest regarding the sitting of a PCB landfill in a predominantly African American area resulted in over 500 arrests. The Warren protest was followed by a report by the General Accounting Office which found that three out of four landfills in EPA Region 4 were located in predominately African American areas, even though those areas comprised only 20 percent of the region’s population. An additional report addressing environmental injustice was published in 1987 by the United Church of Christ entitled ‘Toxic Waste and Race in the United States’ which “found that the racial composition of a community – more than socioeconomic status – was the most significant determinant of whether or not a commercial hazardous waste facility would be located there.” The People of Color Environmental Leadership Seminar was held in 1991 in Washington D.C. and was attended by 650 people from around the world. The attendees adopted a set of “principles for environmental justice” that were circulated at the Earth Summit in1992 in Rio de Janeiro. In 1992, the EPA established an Environmental Equity Workgroup. On recommendation from this group, the EPA started an Office of Environmental Justice. In1994, the Center for Policy Alternatives took another look at the United Church of Christ 1987 report. They found that minorities are 47 percent more likely than others to live near hazardous waste facilities. The latest initiative in environmental justice occurred in 1994when President Clinton issued Executive Order No. 12898 which ordered federal agencies to comply with Title VI for all federally funded programs and activities that affect human health or the environment. Title VI states, “No person in the United States, shall, on the ground of race, color or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” Though overdue by environmental justice activist standards, President Clinton’s recognition of environmental justice increased government accountability, for which they were arguably already responsible, but now there was a clearly articulated standard.
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