Boerner, Christopher and Thomas Lambert. “Environmental Injustice.” Public Interest, no. 118, Winter 1995, pp. 61-82.
Christopher Boerner and Thomas Lambert in their article “Environmental Injustice” examine the injustices done to the minority communities in the United States concerning environmental pollution. The authors argue that minority communities face a lot of environmental racism, which has spurred concerns from civil rights movements. Advocates of environmental justice have been on the forefront claiming that minorities and the poor have been discriminated when it comes to the site of industrial and waste facilities. While there are policies that require equality in the prevention of environmental pollution, policymakers seem to …show more content…
According to the author, policymakers have been pushing for environmental protection policies at the expense of the poor. The author uses rational thinking to give real life example and justify that governments should shift their focus on more important things like food security rather than concentrate on climate change. For example, developed countries have been pushing for green energy and planting of trees to protect the environment. The outcome has been to subject poor people on using unsafe energy like firewood. However, the author does not provide sufficient information to support the fact that encouraging people to plant trees subjects the poor to using firewood. It is by chance that minority groups and the poor live in areas that have arable land that can be used for planting trees. In this case, Ridley should consider the fact that tree are important in attracting rainfall, and therefore, reduce the greenhouse effect. The move by governments to encourage the establishment of biomass facilities should be seen as a positive initiative that reduces the reliance on wood, which is contrary to what the author is postulating. Manufacturing industries have been key contributors to the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Therefore, closure of such industries should be supported and not demonized as a way of reducing …show more content…
In his article titled “Confronting Whiteness and the Flint Water Crisis,” Shafer examines the aspects of race and power. The author uses real examples of classroom discussions with his students to shade light on the ills done to minority groups such as African Americans for the greater good of the whites. Also, Shafer relies on other scholars’ literature to support the subject of African Americans being invisible because they are less powerful in a white dominated society. The United States in the process of reducing the burden of taxes on the affluent chooses to overlook the needs and wellbeing of blacks in the society. As suggested in the article, the Flint water crisis emanated from the government’s initiative to grant massive tax reliefs for the wealthy. The government decided to “save state money by changing the way residents of Flint got their water (p. 23).” Flint, a town with a large population of African Americans was initially getting its drinking water from Lake Huron. This appeared expensive for the federal government, and therefore, providing water to these people from Flint River would be cost-effective. The move to save money for the state did not consider the negative effects of water from the river, which was believed to have high amounts of
Christopher Boerner and Thomas Lambert in their article “Environmental Injustice” examine the injustices done to the minority communities in the United States concerning environmental pollution. The authors argue that minority communities face a lot of environmental racism, which has spurred concerns from civil rights movements. Advocates of environmental justice have been on the forefront claiming that minorities and the poor have been discriminated when it comes to the site of industrial and waste facilities. While there are policies that require equality in the prevention of environmental pollution, policymakers seem to …show more content…
According to the author, policymakers have been pushing for environmental protection policies at the expense of the poor. The author uses rational thinking to give real life example and justify that governments should shift their focus on more important things like food security rather than concentrate on climate change. For example, developed countries have been pushing for green energy and planting of trees to protect the environment. The outcome has been to subject poor people on using unsafe energy like firewood. However, the author does not provide sufficient information to support the fact that encouraging people to plant trees subjects the poor to using firewood. It is by chance that minority groups and the poor live in areas that have arable land that can be used for planting trees. In this case, Ridley should consider the fact that tree are important in attracting rainfall, and therefore, reduce the greenhouse effect. The move by governments to encourage the establishment of biomass facilities should be seen as a positive initiative that reduces the reliance on wood, which is contrary to what the author is postulating. Manufacturing industries have been key contributors to the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Therefore, closure of such industries should be supported and not demonized as a way of reducing …show more content…
In his article titled “Confronting Whiteness and the Flint Water Crisis,” Shafer examines the aspects of race and power. The author uses real examples of classroom discussions with his students to shade light on the ills done to minority groups such as African Americans for the greater good of the whites. Also, Shafer relies on other scholars’ literature to support the subject of African Americans being invisible because they are less powerful in a white dominated society. The United States in the process of reducing the burden of taxes on the affluent chooses to overlook the needs and wellbeing of blacks in the society. As suggested in the article, the Flint water crisis emanated from the government’s initiative to grant massive tax reliefs for the wealthy. The government decided to “save state money by changing the way residents of Flint got their water (p. 23).” Flint, a town with a large population of African Americans was initially getting its drinking water from Lake Huron. This appeared expensive for the federal government, and therefore, providing water to these people from Flint River would be cost-effective. The move to save money for the state did not consider the negative effects of water from the river, which was believed to have high amounts of