ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
mandatory reading
BOOKS & ARTICLES
Black Environmentalists Talk About Climate and Anti-Racism by Somini Sengupta
Racism has a cost for everyone by Heather C. McGhee — TED Talk on how racism fuels bad policymaking and drains our economic potential, by public policy expert Heather C. McGhee
The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection by Dorceta Taylor — examines the emergence and rise of the multifaceted U.S. conservation movement from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century and details how it was initially led by white urban elites, whose early efforts discriminated against the lower class and were often tied up with slavery and the appropriation of Native lands.
A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism & Its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet A. Washington — Featuring extensive scientific research and Washington's sharp, lively reporting, A Terrible Thing to Waste documents how, from lead poisoning injuries to the devastating effects of atmospheric pollution, infectious disease, and industrial waste, Americans of color are harmed by environmental hazards in staggeringly disproportionate numbers.
Environmentalism’s Racist History, by Jedediah Purdy — article that dissects just how many environmentalist priorities and patterns of thought came from an argument among white people, some of them bigots and racial engineers, about the character and future of a country that they were sure was theirs and expected to keep
The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors by James Mills explores how minority populations view their place in wild environments and shares the stories of those who have already achieved significant accomplishments in outdoor adventures
Climate Change Tied to Pregnancy Risks, Affecting Black Mothers Most by Christopher Flavelle — New York Times article breaks down the data from studies covering more than 32 million births from 2007 to 2019 demonstrating that exposed to high temperatures or air pollution are more likely to have premature, underweight or stillborn babies — and how Black mothers and babies are harmed at much higher rates than the population at large.
I’m a black climate expert. Racism derails our efforts to save the planet. by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color by Robert Bullard — This anthology by environmental justice icon Dr. Robert D. Bullard explores the history of environmental racism and provides case studies from around the country.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
BOOKS
PDF: Toxic Wastes and Race In the United States: A National Report on the Racial and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste Sites (1987) by the Commission for Racial Justice
After Belonging: The Objects, Spaces and Territories of the Ways We Stay in Transit — an important collection of projects and essays from architects and thinkers probing the complicated landscapes of transit and transition. It reveals architecture’s power as a medium whose boundaries characterize difference–national, social, racial, and others. But also this rich volume demonstrates the myriad of forces that propel people, ideas, and things to transgress the material and ideological boundaries that architecture reinforces.
Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor by Rob Nixon — The violence wrought by climate change, toxic drift, deforestation, oil spills, and the environmental aftermath of war takes place gradually and often invisibly. Using the innovative concept of "slow violence" to describe these threats, Rob Nixon focuses on the inattention we have paid to the attritional lethality of many environmental crises, in contrast with the sensational, spectacle-driven messaging that impels public activism today.
The Quest for Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics of Pollution by Robert Bullard — This much anticipated follow-up to Dr. Robert D. Bullard's highly acclaimed Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color captures the voices of frontline warriors who are battling environmental injustice and human rights abuses at the grassroots level around the world, and challenging government and industry. policies and globalization trends that place people of color and the poor at special risk.
Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage by Dianne G Glave — In Rooted in the Earth, environmental historian Dianne D. Glave overturns the stereotype that a meaningful attachment to nature and the outdoors is contrary to the black experience. In tracing the history of African Americans' relationship with the environment, emphasizing the unique preservation-conservation aspect of black environmentalism, and using her storytelling skills to re-create black naturalists of the past, Glave reclaims the African American heritage of the land.
Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility by Dorceta Taylor — Taking stock of the recent environmental justice scholarship, Toxic Communities examines the connections among residential segregation, zoning, and exposure to environmental hazards. Renowned environmental sociologist Dorceta Taylor focuses on the locations of hazardous facilities in low-income and minority communities and shows how they have been dumped on, contaminated and exposed.
Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney — Drawing on a variety of sources from film, literature, and popular culture, and analyzing different historical moments, including the establishment of the Wilderness Act in 1964 and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Finney reveals the perceived and real ways in which nature and the environment are racialized in America. She also highlights the work of African Americans opening doors to greater participation in environmental and conservation concerns.
A People's Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching about the Environmental Crisis by Bill Bigelow and Tim Swinehart
How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood by P E Moskowitz
The Battle of Lincoln Park: Urban Renewal & Gentrification in Chicago by Daniel Kay Hertz
Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago by David Naguib Pellow
The Yellow House: A Memoir by Sarah M. Broom
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
This City Is Killing Me: Community Trauma and Toxic Stress in Urban America by Jonathan Foiles
ARTICLES
The Green Movement Is Talking About Racism? It's About Time by Brentin Mock — The same people and organizations we admire for protecting our wild places also have a history of being apathetic—or plain antagonistic—toward issues of race and social justice
Climate Activists: Here’s Why Your Work Depends on Ending Police Violence by Dany Sigwalt
The Stoop Isn’t the Jungle by Dwayne Betts
US states have spent the past 5 years trying to criminalize protest by Naveena Sadasivam
A Leader in the War on Poverty Opens a New Front: Pollution by Kendra Pierre-Louis
Flint’s Children Suffer in Class After Years of Drinking the Lead-Poisoned Water by Erica L. Green
