Environmental Health

By Victor Lewis 

During the past decade, the environment has come to the forefront as a crucial issue. But many people have ignored the fact that environmental deterioration does not impact everyone equally. There is growing evidence that persons and communities of color throughout the world are the most frequently and severely affected victims.

By Charles Lee 

In October 1991, more than 600 persons from virtually every state in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Central America, and the Marshall Islands gathered in Washington D.C. at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. It was a defining moment for the environmental justice movement in the United States. One of the Summit's most important contributions was the adoption of the Principles of Environmental Justice.

By Jose Morales 

The Macro Perspective

The global degradation of the environment threatens the survival of all life on this planet as well as human life. While this degradation affects all people, it does so unequally. This is a central point regarding the connection between Puerto Ricans and Latinos and the environment in the USA. How is this possible? To start, the degradation of the environment is generally the result of human activity; in particular, how society creates and recreates its life. In other words... the unequal degradation of the environment results from the unity of production and the social order. Production can be understood as industrial activity, and the social order is the way in which the society is organized around recreating its life, enabling production to happen.

During the past few years discussion of "environmental justice" or "environmental racism" has expanded from the realm of a few grassroots organizations to become one of the trendiest issues of the day. Nearly everyone seems to be jumping into the fray—including the "big ten" environmental organizations, the EPA, Congress, corporate America, and on up to President Clinton. Likewise, within the legal community, the issue has moved from the discussions and litigation of a handful of activist attorneys to become the subject of numerous conferences, seminars, law school symposia, and so on.

Despite all of the current fascination with this subject, however, the

By Francis Calpotura 

A recent victory by activists in the Georgia Sea Islands to preserve their community is one example of the many and, I’ll submit, strategic challenges that confront the fastest-growing movement that involves people of color in the country today the environmental justice movement.

Race, Poverty & the Environment readers are accustomed to reading about the latest EJ victories: in Kettleman City, in Albuquerque, in Tucson, in Oakland. Communities of color have been successful in fighting incinerators, groundwater contamination, lead poisoning and other environmental hazards and their connection to real people's lives. The courageous efforts of the Sea Islanders to stem the tide of unwanted and devastating development that endangers their land and culture is a recent addition to this impressive list of victories.