Defining Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism

Reliable estimates of inhalation intake of air pollution and its distribution among a specified population are important for environmental epidemiology, health risk assessment, urban planning, and environmental policy. We computed distributional characteristics of the inhalation intake of five pollutants for a group of $25,000 people ($29,000 persondays) living in California's South Coast Air Basin. Our approach incorporates four main inputs: temporally resolved information about people's location (latitude and longitude), microenvironment, and activity level; temporally and spatially explicit model determinations of ambient concentrations; stochastically determined microenvironmental adjustment factors relating the exposure concentration to the ambient concentration; and, age-, gender-, and activityspecific breathing rates. Our study is restricted to pollutants of outdoor origin, i.e. it does not incorporate intake in a microenvironment from direct emissions into that microenvironment. Median estimated inhalation intake rates (mg d À1 ) are 53 for benzene, 5.1 for 1,3-butadiene, 8.7 Â 10 À4 for hexavalent chromium in fine particulate matter (Cr-PM 2.5 ), 30 for diesel fine particulate matter (DPM 2.5 ), and 68 for ozone. For the four primary pollutants studied, estimated median intake rates are higher for non-whites and for individuals in low-income households than for the population as a whole. For ozone, a secondary pollutant, the reverse is true. Accounting for microenvironmental adjustment factors, population mobility and temporal correlations between pollutant concentrations and breathing rates affects the estimated inhalation intake by 40% on average. The approach presented here could be extended to quantify the impact on intakes and intake distributions of proposed changes in emissions, air quality, and urban infrastructure. r

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“…Such concerns are components of the broader theme of environmental justice (Holifield, 2001;Levy et al, 2006;Taylor, 2000).…”

Section: Inhalation Intake Rate By Ethnicity and Incomementioning

confidence: 99%

Inhalation intake of ambient air pollution in California's South Coast Air Basin

Marshall

Granvold

Hoats

et al. 2006

Atmospheric Environment

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“…Both approaches are relevant in this work, given the historical intervention of the state and private capital in both the dispossession of Mapuche's common lands and forestry development. Finally, C) what is termed the movement for environmental justice and recent applications to water justice (PULIDO, 2000;HOLIFIELD, 2001;BOLIN et al, 2005;CUTTER, 2005;SIKOR et al, 2014;ZWARTEVEEN ET AL, 2014), which we propose as an analytical framework for research the socio-ecological conflict between the state, forestry corporations and Mapuche people.…”

Section: Approaches: Poststructuralist Political Ecology Theories Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forestry development, water scarcity, and the Mapuche protest for environmental justice in Chile

et al. 2016

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From a theoretical approach based on political ecology and environmental justice, we assess how forestry development has generated socio-spatial dynamics of environmental degradation and water scarcity in southern Chile. Through historical-geographical and ethnographic methods, we discuss how and why the spread of forestry plantations has significantly influenced social and environmental degradation of the Mapuche's modes of living. In response, during recent decades a political articulation of a Mapuche social movement is observed. Their demands include land, autonomy, rights and opportunities to frame their own development strategies. Within the internal diversity of this movement, a key principle is reversing the spread of environmental degradation by recovering the native forest and its natural water cycles, which have been disrupted significantly by the increasing of forestry plantations. We explore these dynamics of the Mapuche movement from an environmental justice approach.

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“…First, what unit of analysis should researchers employ to obtain the most accurate results possible (Anderton et al 1994a(Anderton et al , 1994bBowen et al 1995;Mohai 1995;Taquino, Parisi, and Gill 2002;Zimmerman 1994)? Second, which definitions of environmental racism and environmental inequality should researchers use as standards for determining whether environmental inequality exists (Bullard 1996;Downey 1998;Holifield 2001;Pulido 1996;Stretesky and Hogan 1998)? This article addresses the second question. However, rather than trying to determine which definitions of environmental racism and environmental inequality are best, I argue that it would be more fruitful to ask how the conclusions we draw vary according to the definitions of environmental racism and environmental inequality we employ.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Environmental Inequality: How the Conclusions We Draw Vary According to the Definitions We Employ

Downey¹

2005

Sociological Spectrum

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This article demonstrates that the conclusions environmental inequality researchers draw vary according to the definitions of environmental inequality they employ and that researchers can use a single set of results to test for the existence of multiple forms of environmental inequality. In order to illustrate these points, I set forth five definitions of environmental inequality, list the kinds of evidence we must obtain in order to determine whether each form of environmental inequality exists, and show how conclusions drawn from several recent environmental inequality studies vary depending on the definition of environmental inequality we employ. My goal is not to show that any one definition is superior to the others; nor am I trying to generalize from the studies reported here to a broader set of research findings. Instead, my goal is to a) show that we can use a single set of results to address a variety of environmental justice concerns and b) demonstrate that our interpretations of environmental inequality research have been too narrowly focused on one set of environmental inequality outcomes.

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Defining Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism

Cited by 236 publications

References 48 publications

Inhalation intake of ambient air pollution in California's South Coast Air Basin

Inhalation intake of ambient air pollution in California's South Coast Air Basin

Forestry development, water scarcity, and the Mapuche protest for environmental justice in Chile

Assessing Environmental Inequality: How the Conclusions We Draw Vary According to the Definitions We Employ

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