Environmental Justice: It's in the Little Things

Over spring break, I traveled to Houston Texas. On our way to the park one day we decided to walk through one of the richer neighborhoods in Huston to look at the mansions and large houses. They all had well-trimmed lawns or people who were working on their lawns with the exception of one thing. In several of the yards, there was a large, bright yellow sign. The sign was against a high rise that was scheduled to be built a few streets down. I soon realized that this yellow sign was environmental justice at work (or environmental injustice in this case). It represents what is often the case all over the world; those who can afford to fight against injustice are the ones who succeed. These people, like the houses I saw in Houston live in gated communities away from the environmental consequences of their living. They don't have to smell or even see the garbage they produce each day, don't want to see the high rise buildings they work in and don't need to deal with the pollution they create on a daily basis. For the poor, this is not even possible. They don't have the money, political clout or resources to fight off large corporations and individuals from harming their local environment. The rich live lives of luxury and excess while the poor pay for it with their environment. While I don't know whether the high rise will actually be built in Huston or not, it does represent typical environmental justice. If the rich neighborhood was able to prevent construction, the high rise would still be built but it is likely that it would be built near a poorer community that is unable to fight back. In addition to the above example, environmental injustice can be found in our food system and waste disposal systems amongst other system.

Over break, I also watched the film Food Inc. this film shows countless examples of environmental injustice. One example that was particularly upsetting to me was Monsanto's patenting of their seed. In this way, Monsanto makes it illegal for farmer to save seed. This locks farmers in a cycle of debt to buy seed each year and keeps the farmers farming and buying seed each year. Even farmers that buy traditional seed are often prosecuted by Monsanto because of cross pollination from neighboring farms that contain genes patented by Monsanto. Unable to afford legal bills, they are often forced to settle with Monsanto and do as Monsanto wishes. This example shows how those who are unable to stand up to larger, richer corporations or individuals are forced to bend to the will of society and big business. The needs of the rich thus keep, in this case, farmers in debt so that the rich can have cheaper food.

The above examples are a bit abstract in that they don't directly deal with some sort of pollution or physical harm. It is typical to think of environmental justice in terms of physical pollution, like we see in the book Flammable. In the book, a shantytown in Buenos Aires is suffering lead poisoning and other toxic poisoning as a result of the Shell Oil Company. Wile the example of Huston and Food Inc don't deal directly with a physical form of pollution they are environmental justice issues in that they represent the actions of the many impacting a small portion of the population, or as is the case in Houston not affecting a portion of the population. Those affected tend to be those who are marginalized by society because they are unable to fight for their own rights because of a lack of money and resources to do so.