Once They Destroy The Environment, They Won't Be Able To Live Here Either
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TOPLINE
Environmental justice, aka EJ: let’s discuss
Interview w/ VA Tech prof about EJ in Virginia
ACTION: Donate to Virginia Organizing to help fund its future EJ efforts
When I was a kid, grown-ups often told my parents I should be a lawyer. Maybe this happens to all mouthy punks out there who read at an eighth-grade level despite only being in the fifth grade (!!!), or maybe those people truly thought I ought to take the LSAT and put “Esq.” after my name, and shit. Who knows. Joke’s on them, though, because despite spending hundreds of dollars on prep books and briefly actually studying for the LSATs, I realized I had a brighter future before me: journalism.
(This is a joke. There is no darker future than journalism. Do you get it?)
Warren County, North Carolina is widely considered a/the birthplace of the environmental justice movement. In 1982, community activists tried and failed to shut-down an illegal chemical dumping operation carried out mostly under the cover of darkness. It’s not technically Virginia, the state this newsletter is about, but it’s right on the border, so go with it. [via]
Anyway! You may have heard the term “environmental justice” before. You probably understand it, in broad strokes at least. Loosely, “EJ” is the belief that the causes and effects of the climate crisis are disproportionately borne by marginalized people: poor, of color, homeless, etc., and that this is fundamentally unjust.
Not a terribly hard concept to grasp, right? Yet it’s been surprisingly difficult (for me at least) to understand how people effectively fight for environmental justice in at a practical, community level.
To get some answers on, like, the EJ “ground game” (so to speak), I interviewed Dr. Brandy Faulkner, faculty in Virginia Tech's Political Science department. In addition to her academic work, Faulkner works with Virginia Organizing, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) based in Charlottesville, VA that does “grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice by empowering people in local communities.” (Thanks to longtime readers Ben S. for the tip, and Nik B. for the intro!)
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview was edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
Infante: Do we currently live in an environmentally just society?
Faulkner: Absolutely not. Unfortunately, we still see a disparate environmental impact among underrepresented communities. They are not treated with the same care and concern as those who have better political, social, and economic standing. Often they don’t have access to resources, green space, or clean air and water. We have to do better.
When did you first encounter the concept of environmental justice?
I remember being incredibly interested in environmentalists like Wangari Maathai and Robert Bullard. Their work was so incredible because they focused on the ways in which race and class were influencing environmental decisions and on how policies were having a disparate impact on black and brown communities. It was something I knew intuitively, but to see others taking it seriously was inspiring.
Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She pioneered reforestation efforts with the Green Belt Movement, which she started in her native Kenya by “paying poor women a few shillings to plant trees.” [via]
Have you experienced instances of environmental injustice in your own life that have motivated you to organize against it?
My dad worked in the textiles industry before he retired. The textile mill was one of the few jobs available for folks in my area who were poor and didn’t have college degrees. Exposure to the chemicals he used at work, especially during the 1970s and 1980s, affected his health, specifically his lungs. A lot of people in our area developed asthma. And although it was never officially connected to the textile mill, I still to this day think about the effect it probably had on the environment and on our health. It shut down about 10 years ago.
Corporations certainly have the resources to make a difference. Do they have the will?
Right now, I’m in a town that will most definitely be affected by the Mountain Valley Pipeline, so I’m organizing against it.
How do social and economic structures like race, gender, and class affect the concept of environmental justice?
Just as in most other policy areas, race, gender, class, and their intersections disadvantage some groups while privileging others. Underrepresented groups are often not involved in the decisions that affect their lives. Decision makers rarely seek our input. Our communities are forgotten or in some worst case scenarios, intentionally targeted for mistreatment. The key factor is access to power and resources. Those who have it want to keep it; so, underrepresented communities become expendable.
Why should this matter to someone who cares about climate change, but doesn’t think they are affected by environmental justice issues?
We’re all connected on this planet, and ultimately what affects one of us will affect us all environmentally. If we continue to degrade the planet, we’ll all suffer, albeit it at different rates of intensity. Wouldn’t it be much better if we just worked together to ensure that we preserve our environment and natural resources not just for ourselves but also for future generations? It’s in everyone’s self-interest to fight for environmental justice.
They need to understand, once they destroy the environment, they won’t be able to live here either.
Can environmental justice leadership come from the private sector? Can corporations lead the charge towards an environmentally just future?
People who are directly affected by problems should always be at the forefront of the solutions. Corporations can surely be environmentally responsible [but] we don’t have a lot of examples of where it happens. The question is what would motivate them to do so?
The problem is that too often they place profit over people and there is little legislative accountability barring some catastrophic event. Some of them see environmental justice as too expensive. Others believe environmental impact is the price we pay for technological progress. They need to understand that once they help destroy the environment, it means they won’t be able to live here either!
Corporations certainly have the resources to make a difference. Do they have the will?
Virginia Organizing mobilized around the Dan River spill of 2014, when Duke Energy spilled 39,000 tons of toxic coal slurry into a vital source of drinking water for VA and NC communities. [via]
Why did you get involved with VA Organizing’s environmental justice effort? What are the opportunities you see for this effort?
VA Organizing is such a great organization; joining the state-wide environmental justice effort wasn’t a hard decision. I’ve worked in our local chapter on other significant issues like the school-to-prison pipeline, so I know we can be effective. The advantage that we have is that our organization has chapters all over the state, and each region has its own environmental challenges.
We come together to talk about how to support each other and how we can make a real difference no matter where we are in the state. We’re out in our communities connecting with other people who have similar concerns, and we figure out where to start. We have an opportunity to hold corporations and our elected officials accountable for their environmental decisions. We’re so much stronger together!
Environmental justice is often framed in either/or terms: either we have jobs, or we protect the environment.
Are there obstacles to organizing around environmental justice in Virginia? What are they, and what strategies can you use to overcome them?
Some people just don’t understand why environmental justice is important. When people see some of our leaders—especially ones they support and respect—denying that there are serious problems, it causes them to be dismissive as well.
Also, the push for environmental justice is often framed in either/or terms: either we have jobs, or we protect the environment. So some people think that supporting environmental justice means all the jobs will disappear. That narrative is especially powerful in coal industry-dependent areas.
Then there’s the fact that corporations that perpetuate environmental injustice, like Dominion Energy, fund political campaigns. This makes it less likely that our elected reps will make any serious moves to address environmental problems. I was really happy to see some legislators make a public pledge not to take Dominion money. It’s a step in the right direction.
ACTION: Donate to Virginia Organizing to help fund its EJ efforts
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Heat Beat is a newsletter about climate change, politics, and taking action, written by a non-expert for non-experts. If you enjoyed this story, please share it with someone you love. Or someone you hate, I guess. Whatever you’re into, really.