Week 9: Environment, Health, Equity and Justice

What is environmental justice?

Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, in environmental laws, regulations, and policies. It seeks to ensure that everyone enjoys a healthy environment and is not disproportionately affected by environmental hazards.

• most disadvantaged are least exposed

general definition of environmental definition

• general term, most used, more political than “environmental equity”, born in USA

• emphasis is on remedial action to correct inequities

• arose out of environmental racism movement

Principles of environmental justice

• protection from environmental degradation

• prevention of adverse health effects

• culpability – ability to hold polluters responsible

• reverse burden of proof – guilty until proven innocent

• remedial action – in cases of identified injustice

• recognition of relevant groups in processes, remediation, benefits

environmental equity

• fair sharing of benefits (“goods”) and burdens (“bads”) of production

• two forms

  • equal sharing (typical)

  • sharing proportio

3 dimensions of environmental justice

• Procedural justice

• Distributive justice

• Recognition justice

Procedural Justice

• fair participation in due process

• emphasis on causal mechanisms for inequitable outcomes

• extent to which governmental rules/regulations, enforcement, treaties, and sanctions applied in a nondiscriminatory way

• e.g., environmental assessment process

• should involve appropriate communities

distributive (outcome) justice

• distribution of benefits (goods) and burdens (bads)

• spatial statistics involved

• temporal (generational equity)

• often very simple analysis

recognition justice (newest type)

• status afforded groups within systems of power/control

• involve those directly impacted

• race, gender, ethnicity

• E.g., Indigenous groups and activities on traditional territories

• highly linked to procedural justice

Social Equity

• underpins environmental equity and justice

• social and economic factors that typically coincide with environmental equity issues

• e.g., class, race, gender, political power

• often environmental equity solutions are social equity solutions (e.g., income assistance)

Environmental justice - Context

• 1970s-80s environmental movement and civil rights movement “merged” – pressure on US federal government – emphasis on waste

• 1990 USEPA – Environmental Equity Workgroup

• 1992 – EEW report released – inequities exist

• 1994 Clinton – Executive Order – address human health and environmental effects of all federal agency programs

“National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice”

• passed in Canada in 2024

• Declining sex ration in Aamjiwnaang First Nation community near Sarnia, Ontario – benzene contamination likely culprit

• benzene emissions linked to declining number of boys in the community

Research issues for assessing outcome justice

Environmental threat

• often single exposure type (e.g., MSW)

• increasing emphasis on multi-exposure (Camden?)

• distance - plume modeling, wind direction etc rare

Geographic scale/unit

• this has proven critical, results often flip flop depending on scale

• e.g., census tract, dissemination area (enumeration area), county

subpopulation

• race, ethnicity, income, gender, age

• beware of homogeneity of local populations such that true positives may be masked

• e.g., study in the South US only, potential false negatives high proportion people of colour

time

• most studies cross-sectional

• more longitudinal research needed

Outcome is equitable if:

• Hazardous sites are located in disadvantaged communities no more frequently than other communities

• Implications?

Early Evidence for Distributive (In)justice

Evidence for distributive (in)justice

Evidence for distributive (in)justice

Inequity exists… sometimes

• differences not as predicted for AA, yes for dwelling value, almost for His %

• Controls: industrial employment, employment %, older dwelling also significant ; % male employed opposite of predicted

for exam: Know patterns of studies, how some studies are biased etc.

• main study about environmental justice: Anderton

• know that studies flip/flop between

measuring exposure is key, GIS helps!

• proportional assignment through buffering

• 80% = 0.8 of a facility; 20% = 0.2 of a facility

Which came first, disadvantaged or the facility?

• only two significant, and in the opposite direction expected (South Carolina, TRI)

• these two are actually working against the hypothesis

Does it even matter which came first if the resultant pattern is inequitable?

Canadian example: dose-response relationship (Hamilton)

• lower SES = more suspended particulates

• higher SES = less

Linear regression vs comparison of means test

Linear regression is important because it contains other variables

• gender, age, income, smoking

• all included as control variables

Modelling

• Jerrett et al (2001)

• air quality, exposure measure through local monitoring stations NOT “on/off” exposure or relying on distance from facility!

• SES inequities as predicted

• how you model matters…somewhat:

  • SAR drops low income and adds unemployment

• dwelling value most consistent predictor (more stable than income as a measure of SES)

Ethnicity and pollution in Hamilton

Procedural Justice

• far fewer studies of procedural environmental justice

• What types of research methods might be used to assess procedural justice?

Procedural justice

• whether or not you have access to decision making

What constitutes “just”?

Is it procedurally just if:

• all qualifying sites have equal chance of being selected

AND/OR

• some acceptable amount of benefit accrues to local community

AND/OR

• “outcome” is equitably “distributed”?

Procedural justice and scale

Is this not in my back yard (NIMBY)?

• process of opposition whereby facilities are placed where resistance is least – often disadvantaged

• Lincolnville Nova Scotia

• Underground railroad: Activists who helped black slaves escape from the US and settle in Canada (Nova Scotia)

1st generational vs 2nd generational landfills

1st: no liner, old school landfill, no attempts to catch leachate, more problematic

2nd: liner, modern landfill

Is this not in my back yard (NIMBY)? Or No opportunity to say, “no”?

Triple Jeopardy for the disadvantages

1. increased risks from social and behavioural determinants of health (e.g. smoking); 

2. higher risks from high ambient pollution exposure;

3. an effect modification that makes exposure to ambient pollutants exert disproportionately large health effects on them compared with advantaged groups.

Addressing Inequities

• To what extent should concerns about environmental equity/justice guide environmental (or other) policy?

• How might we address the issue of environmental equity/justice in policy at all three levels (national, state/provincial, municipal)?