Announcements • Extra Credit Reports (on the Optional Field Trip) Due Wednesday in Class • Homework #4: Due Wednesday in Class – Requires you to investigate EJ struggles in the Seattle Area, hyperlinks available in online version

• Reading for Wednesday: Katrina Articles, #1 (distributed in class and placed on e-reserve)

• Reading for Friday: Katrina Articles, #2 (placed on e-reserve) – Three chapters from Seeking Higher Ground – Chapters 2 & 12 REQUIRED, Chapter 13 OPTIONAL

Lecture Notes August 11, 2008 I.

The Environmental Identity & Social Movement Thesis in PE (cont) A.

II.

Discussion of „Kayapo: Out of the Forest‟

From Political Ecology to Environmental Justice A. B.

History & Overview of the Environmental Justice Movement in the United States Discussion of Di Chiro

Kayapo: Out of the Forest • What barriers did the Kayapo overcome to organize this demonstration? • How did they achieve this? • Why did the Kayapo oppose the dam project? What were their principle arguments?

• How were the Kayapo regarded by non-indigenous Brazilians? • What was the role of the international media in this controversy?

From Political Ecology to Environmental Justice Research in political ecology has shown us that environmental conflicts are: 1) POLITICAL ISSUES & 2) STRUGGLES OVER LIVELIHOOD •

indigenous peoples (or groups marginalized within global economic and political systems) form successful social movements to maintain control over their home territories & resources and/or prevent forms of development that threaten their survival

•

„environmentalisms of the poor‟ (Guha) – combine environmental and SOCIAL JUSTICE agendas

 Specific branch of research in environmental anthropology dedicated to documenting and supporting similar struggles in the U.S. and abroad = ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

What is Environmental Justice? EJ is BOTH: •

A THEORY

& •

A SOCIAL MOVEMENT

Defining EJ •

Began with a narrower concept: ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM – people of color are more likely to be exposed to toxic levels of environmental harm and other environmental risks due to:

1.

Intentional Discrimination –

2.

Institutional Discrimination –

 Field initially focused on exposure to TOXICITY – waste-disposal facilities, factory pollution, lead paint, etc.

Defining EJ •

Concept has become BROADER over time

•

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: the equitable treatment of all people, regardless of race, income, culture, or social class,

with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies; includes equal access to environmental decision-making processes (NOT just non-discriminatory outcomes) •

Defines the environment as “the place where we live, work, play, and pray;” includes urban and „built‟ environments; no separation between human and „natural‟ worlds

History of EJ •

Stems from LONG history of environmental activism within people of color communities (hidden history, often left out of the conventional public history of the environmental movement ion the U.S.)

•

Rooted in several movements that gained momentum in the 60s & 70s: 1) Civil Rights Movement 2) Labor Movement – esp. farm workers protesting pesticide exposure, etc.

3) Environmental Movement – specifically „anti-toxics‟ activism – Growing concern about the impacts of INDUSTRIAL pollution in the U.S. = development of an „anti-toxics agenda‟ within environmental activism

– Between 1936 and 1969, Cuyahoga River in Ohio CAUGHT FIRE several times – 1978: LOVE CANAL = forever changed the way U.S. views corporate environmental responsibility

LOVE CANAL

1982 Warren County Protest •

often cited as the first EJ struggle (although many earlier struggles hidden in mainstream history)

•

predominately African-American community in North Carolina targeted as landfill site for PCB-contaminated soil; supposedly targeted on “purely technical grounds”

•

Community staged a massive demonstration (peaceful, 6 weeks in duration, 500 people arrested) that linked environmental and civil right‟s agendas  forged connections between race, poverty, and environmental risk

•

6,000 trucks of PCB-laced soil still dumped in the area but GRASSROOTS EJ Movement born out of this protest

•

RACIALIZED the „anti-toxics agenda