America’s Environmental Injustice

Addi Vander Velde

Climate change is one of the biggest global issues facing our world today. The impact of climate change is felt not just by American citizens but by every country and every person within this world. Every country takes a stance on how to provide climate freedoms within the sphere of their own government. In America, the government along with corporations, have used lower income neighborhoods, which are predominantly minority based, as a dumping ground for toxic waste. This impacts everything about the livelihood of the people that live within that environment, from the water they drink to the way their brain thinks. The way American corporations go about disposal of waste and the governmental control over it is a clear example of unfreedom within this country. The regulation of American corporations by the government is directly impacting the environment around everyday citizens. Environmental Freedom comes when everyone, no matter how much money you make or where you live, has the right to clear air, clean water, and clean sources of food and housing. 

The term Freedom does not have a broad or overarching meaning. Freedom is an ideal that is applied to individual issues where the question is asked ‘how do I provide freedom to the most amount of people and not infringe on the freedom of others in the process’.  The American environmental conservation approach is not situated within this ideal of freedom. The statement that is said when it comes to large corporations and their waste is, ‘I understand that this hurts the environment, but it makes me the most money, and that is what I care about’. There is no good way to combat the attitude towards environmental justice in our current system as the American political sphere and economy have been manipulated to benefit the wealthy and the powerful. This has left the current system to be at odds against environmental justice. The American government has failed to provide freedom to their citizens by not safeguarding their basic rights to life.  

According to the UN Environmental Programme, “exposure to air pollution at a young age can hinder lung growth, inhibit brain development and increase the risk of conditions such as asthma.” (UN Environmental Programme, 2020). Along with causing physical and mental burdens to children through the potential development of diseases such as asthma, air pollution also causes a financial burden to their parents. In America specifically, poor air quality disproportionally affects certain communities within the country. In the United States, it is found that “poorer people and some racial and ethnic groups are among those who often face higher exposure to pollutants and who may experience greater responses to such pollution” (American Lung Association, 2020). This disproportionate distribution of air pollutants prey on the poor and disabled within the country and make it so that they are more likely to be taken advantage of by corporations. 

One of the main ways that the climate justice movement has been pushing for climate freedom is through the act of civil disobedience. Hannah Adents says that “Disobedience to the law, civil and criminal, has become a mass phenomenon in recent years, not only in America, but also in a great many other parts of the world. The defiance of established authority, religious and secular, social and political, as a world-wide phenomenon may well one day be accounted the outstanding event of the last decade” (Ardent, 69). The use of civil disobedience has given a voice to the people who have been silenced by corporate interest in government. From marches in Copenhagen to tying your own physical body to the White House grounds, people all over the world are learning that to make their voice heard. It has come to the attention of many organizers, not just in the climate sectors, that you must speak louder and take action to gain attention through media attention. In the book How to Blow up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm, Malm claims that “the ruling classes really will not be talked into action. They are not amenable to persuasion; the louder the sirens wail, the more material they rush to the fire, and so it is evident that change will have to be forced upon them.” (Malm, 20). It has come to the time in the climate movement that freedom will not be found through governance but found in an ugly freedom of harsh actions to break down corporate interests to build a cleaner, greener, and fairer world. 

This past semester I worked as a communications intern for EARTHDAY.ORG. While at the organization, one of my jobs was to connect with grassroots environmentalists and help them gain state, regional, and national support from the connections that EARTHDAY.ORG had. One of the main activists that stuck out to me was Gina Ramirez. Gina is the President of the Southeast Environmental Task Force. She led a grassroots movement aimed to block the permitting of a toxic metal shredder facility in her community. The permit would allow the facility, Southside Recycling, to open in a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood in Southeast Chicago. Reserve Management Group, the owner of Southside Recycling, known for violating EPA-set emissions standards, would process 2bn pounds of scrap metal a year in a neighborhood that has been besieged by industrial pollution for more than a century. Ramirez started organizing events for the community and other activists against the recycling plant in January of 2021. In November of 2021, after 11 months of tireless efforts and a month-long hunger strike, she was able to persuade the city of Chicago to indefinitely delay issuing the final permit for the company. 

In Chicago’s Southeast Side, residents are historically subjected to environmental racism as a result of the city’s zoning laws and land-use practices. Communities of color are faced with air quality issues and health vulnerabilities such as asthma due to the industrial dust and noxious odors from diesel trucks and factories. In 2017 alone, the EPA reported that 77% of toxic substances released in Chicago occurred in the Southeast side. The proposed Southside Recycling metal shredder would have processed another 2 billion pounds of scrap metal every year adding to the existing amount of air pollution in the city. Contributing to environmental inequity, RMG had closed a metal shredder in the affluent, predominantly white North Side of Chicago and set to reopen another in Southeast Chicago which already has 250 contaminated sites and a history of facing high levels of air pollution. 

To prevent the addition of another toxic facility in an already vulnerable community, Gina Ramirez used her voice by writing in local newspapers about the issue, reaching out and speaking with her representatives, and organizing rallies and marches within the community.

The act of protest that gained the most media traction and national attention to the issue was a month-long hunger strike led by Ramirez and her fellow activists. Moreover, Ramirez sent her son’s baby teeth to researchers who published a study that found measurable concentrations of toxic and trace metals in the teeth and toenails of a sampling of children with asthma living on the Southeast side compared to children with asthma in a demographically similar Chicago community. These findings only furthered Ramirez’s concerns and brought attention to the children’s health issues in the neighborhood. 

According to Jerry Taylor one of the libertarian principles against climate actions is that restricting greenhouse gas emissions would harm the economy, thus putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk. Taylor claims to counter the libertarian belief that, “if party A is harming party B, the contention that A gains more than B loses in the course of that transgression should not encourage libertarians to green-light rights violations”. When it comes to corporate violations of environmental laws and regulations the government is quick to choose to look over the violations at the risk of enforcing them will impact the economy. In cases like this it is a rarity to win. Unlike many other situations, through Gina Ramirez’s work, the city did not issue the final permit necessary for the toxic metal shredding plant to open. This decision marked a huge step in the fight for environmental justice in Southside Chicago. By preventing further pollution, the community and the surrounding environment has time to heal. This achievement encourages others in similar situations to continue the civil rights fight against environmental polluters and decades-long unjust practices led by city planners.

The fight for freedom in the environmental justice spear is not an easy fight to take on, or one that can be done through the action of the government. The American government has lost control of the game as the umpire of the economy. They are no longer able to or want to safeguard the lives of minorities within the country on grounds of pollution. This means that in order to gain freedom swift and bold action is necessary. The ethical consideration is no longer in the hands of the law when it comes to environmental justice. As Thoreau said, it is okay to disobey the state because the laws that are being created are not laws that have to be followed by those who are creating them. 

Citations 

Disparities in the impact of Air Pollution. American Lung Association. (2020, April 20). Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.lung.org/clean-air/outdoors/who-is-at-risk/disparities

Crises of the Republic. Hannah Ardent (1972). Retrieved May 5, 2023

How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Andreas Malm (January 5, 2021). Retrieved May 4, 2023

Gina Ramirez, manager, Midwest Outreach, Center for Policy Advocacy. NRDC Biographies. (2023). https://www.nrdc.org/bio/gina-ramirez 

United Nations. (2023). United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/un-system-sdg-implementation/united-nations-environment-programme-unep-44155#:~:text=UNEP%20worked%20to%20address%20the,and%20municipal%20solid%20waste%20management