MODULE 2: Environmental Racism

 AGENDA

1. Population debate follow up
2. Reporting groups (5 minutes or so)
3. Environmental injustice

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Population debate follow up

1. Lots of empirical issues
2. A key conceptual issue not dealt with: 

Does adding population add intrinsic value to the world, as Toby Ord argues?

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Finished reporting groups--invasive, endangered, population, water

• Discuss the Ord question, using the workbook

Unfinished reporting groups--environmental orgs, geoengineering, faking nature, rewilding, recycling

• Finalize assignments, using the reporting doc
• If you have time, discuss the Ord question, using the workbook

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Module 3: Environmental injustice 

Some environmental wrongs are wrong but not injustices

• cutting down a beloved tree for no reason
• hunting an endangered species to extinction
• polluting a whole city's water supply

Some environmental wrongs are injustices

• policies that are unfair to certain groups

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Plan

(A) Alleged forms of environmental injustice

1. Environmental racism  (Feb 19, 21)
2. Principle of commensurate benefits and burdens (Feb 24, 26)
3. Kinship disruption theory (Feb 28)

(B) Water injustices - Mar 3

(C) Should environmentalists focus on injustice? - Mar 5

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Environmental racism

Today: racial disparities in the distribution of burdens and benefits 

Friday: but is it really racism? 

Today's author: Robert Bullard, "father of the environmental justice movement"

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Racial disparities

A. WASTE SITES IN HOUSTON (Bullard, "The Mountains of Houston") -- watch video up to 3:45

Background

1. 1979--white city council plans "Whispering Pines" landfill in Northwood Manor, a middle class 82% Black neighborhood in Houston
2. A class action suit was filed against the city--Bean vs. Southern Waste Management
3. Dr. Bullard, a sociologist, was asked to study waste patterns in Houston to support the plaintiffs
4. Blacks made up 25% of Houston's population, but 100% of landfills were in Black neighborhoods
5. Other waste management sites also disproportionally in Black neighborhoods
6. "This city siting pattern in turn set the stage for private waste disposal firms to follow" in later years. (Bullard p. 2)
7. Also talks about incinerators, waste transfer stations, recycling facilities (dirty vs. clean), illegal dumping, the priorities of white-led environmental groups like the Sierra Club
8. What did you learn from this article?

B. OTHER DISPARITIES--DR. BULLARD'S TALK AT SMU in 2023

1. Heat islands (36, 40)
2. Aftermath of natural disasters (45)
3. Living near petrochemical plants and heavy industry (25-29)

C. BLACKOUTS IN TEXAS, FEB 2021 (NYT) (More info) (more photos)

D. WATER QUALITY  (Benton Harbor, Michigan, vs. St. Joseph, Michigan)

E. LIVING NEAR GREEN SPACE (source for image below) (NYT article)

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Next question

1. When are disparities "just disparities"
2. When are they unjust/racist?

Next Reading: Cole and Foster, Environmental Racism