Reciprocal Inclusion of Microbiomes and Environmental Justice Contributes Solutions to Global Environmental Health Challenges

Choudoir, Mallory J.; Eggleston, Erin M.

doi:10.1128/msystems.01462-21

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 115 publications

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“…Whether in terms of downstream or upstream interventions, addressing disparities in the human microbiome in terms of cascading relationships is considered a pathway for creating a more equitable and sustainable world. In another article published in the special collection “microbes and social equity,” Choudoir and Eggleston (2022) point to the ways that microbiome science can advance environmental justice by addressing not only the racialized uneven burden of environmental harms but also the linked effects of colonialism on both structural racism and global ecological alterations.…”

Section: Anti-racism 1: Environmental In/justicementioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-racism, racism, and the microbiome: A review

Rawson

2024

Progress in Environmental Geography

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Debates about the relationship between racism, anti-racism, and the new life sciences calls for further inquiry into the growing popularity of microbiome science. Scientists define human microbiomes as unique communities of microorganisms that vary across body-sites, lifespan, location, and lifestyle. As new biomarkers for human diversity, scientists argue that microbiomes environmentally mediate development and health, which also reframes classical models of disease. In the small subset of literature that engages the stakes for race, the implications of human microbiome science are posed in terms of paradoxically reifying racism and empowering anti-racist science. To illustrate this duality, I first review the two most pervasive critiques of explicitly and implicitly reproducing racial categories in human microbiome science. Then, I show how some of the same critics embrace other versions of microbiome science as a tool to fight for environmental justice and de-essentialize race. However, in the next section, I challenge this distinction by arguing that even the most promising aspect of microbiome science as biosocial “becoming” can reproduce racial hierarchies too. In sketching limits in the current literature, I conclude by suggesting that critical engagements with biosocial formations of race need to further examine the relational formation of whiteness and that such inquiry requires elevating Black and Indigenous scholars.

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Section: Anti-racism 1: Environmental In/justicementioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-racism, racism, and the microbiome: A review

Rawson

2024

Progress in Environmental Geography

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“…Understanding the nichomes and their complex relationships requires knowledge of the conditions under which the global regulators are expressed. It will be this holistic One Earth concept that will help to find an equilibrium between the human and the bacterial worlds [169].…”

Section: One Earth: Final Remarks and Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

One Earth: The Equilibrium between the Human and the Bacterial Worlds

Bravo,

Moreno-Blanco,

Espinosa

2023

IJMS

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Misuse and abuse of antibiotics on humans, cattle, and crops have led to the selection of multi-resistant pathogenic bacteria, the most feared ‘superbugs’. Infections caused by superbugs are progressively difficult to treat, with a subsequent increase in lethality: the toll on human lives is predicted to reach 10 million by 2050. Here we review three concepts linked to the growing resistance to antibiotics, namely (i) the Resistome, which refers to the collection of bacterial genes that confer resistance to antibiotics, (ii) the Mobilome, which includes all the mobile genetic elements that participate in the spreading of antibiotic resistance among bacteria by horizontal gene transfer processes, and (iii) the Nichome, which refers to the set of genes that are expressed when bacteria try to colonize new niches. We also discuss the strategies that can be used to tackle bacterial infections and propose an entente cordiale with the bacterial world so that instead of war and destruction of the ‘fierce enemy’ we can achieve a peaceful coexistence (the One Earth concept) between the human and the bacterial worlds. This, in turn, will contribute to microbial biodiversity, which is crucial in a globally changing climate due to anthropogenic activities.

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“…Ultimately, microbiologists are needed to inform climate change research policies to address environmental justice and achieve health equity ( 13 ). Working in the policy space presents a unique set of challenges, especially for scientists.…”

Section: Opportunities and Challenges For Transdisciplinary Microbial...mentioning

confidence: 99%