There Has to Be a Better Way
Climate and Environmental Justice
Aretha Franklin, the wonderful American soul singer, had a great song called “It Just Ain’t Fair”. She was talking about her life. But for me the title is a wonderful introduction to Environmental Justice, or rather Injustice, and the people affected by our uncaring attitude to the environment and the climate.
The world takes advantage of those that are poor, coloured or indigenous. Often these communities have no choice about where they live. So they make their homes in areas that are seriously polluted. Or perhaps they suffer from drought, flooding, forest fires or unpredictable weather.
I want us to think about what that means for families.
What is Environmental Justice?
We all have the right to live in a clean, safe and healthy environment regardless of who we are. However, that is not the situation that exists at present. Humanity is creating many different forms of pollution that can and do affect disadvantaged communities. This makes their lives difficult and unpleasant at the very least. An example of this is oil pipelines contaminating the water of indigenous people.
It is hard to live close to this!
There are many forms of Environmental Injustice
Chemical Pollution
ClientEarth states that “chemical pollution refers to contamination of our environment by chemicals that are not there naturally.” In other words, we have put them there. Polluting chemicals are found everywhere: in the food we eat, in the air we breathe and in the products we use. During manufacture, storage, transport and disposal, chemicals can leak into the surrounding environment.
Many of us are suffering from bad health as a result of exposure to these chemicals. We also know that they affect the balance of systems in our environment, for example the health of our soil. This affects the ability of populations to produce food. Research into plastic is showing us that there is plastic everywhere on our planet, including our bodies. Most of us are exposed to those chemicals in some form but it is the unequal exposure that creates the injustice.
For example A Human Rights Watch report about Louisiana in the USA shows that an 85 mile stretch of communities along the Mississippi River lives alongside some 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations. It has become known as Cancer Alley. “Parts of Cancer Alley have the highest risk of cancer from industrial air pollution in the United States”. The report says that “ these harms are disproportionately borne by the area’s Black residents.” People in the area suffer not only from extremely high rates of cancer, but also from miscarriages, high risk pregnancies, the poor health of newborns and respiratory ailments.
Another Example
A similar distressing report by Amnesty International shows the harms being done to Latinix/Hispanic and Black communities in Texas along the Houston Ship Canal where many fossil fuel and petrochemical plants are situated. It says, “These facilities operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, spewing toxic pollution into the air and water, which harms human health, the environment and climate… Along this sprawling petrochemical corridor, steam and smoke billow from imposing industrial facilities, flare stacks burn day and night, and the thick smog is visible for miles.”
“The people who live, work and go to school alongside this polluting industry are exposed daily to a toxic cocktail of hazardous chemicals in the air they breathe. Chemical odours routinely seep into homes and schools, while residents are kept awake at night from the loud rumbling of industry. These communities are comprised of disproportionately low-income, racialized people and people with limited English.” Quite clearly there are health effects.
Water Pollution
Muslim Aid has produced an account of the challenges of polluted water in marginalised communities. They say that ”poverty and the lack of sanitation means that millions of people in the poorest parts of the world are forced into drinking dirty water, exposing themselves to harmful bacteria and disease.”
What are the causes of water pollution?
Almost all causes of water pollution can be traced back to human activity. This can be industrial waste, sewage, marine dumping, agriculture, development, oil spills radioactive waste, fossil fuels and the effects of global warming. Within that there are many different types of water pollution that affect health. Clearly this is the health of humans, animals and plants.
Oil pipelines running through the Amazon are creating many oil spills affecting local and indigenous communities. According to Mongabay these spills are contaminating land and water in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Columbia. The report says that in Ecuadorian indigenous communities – especially among women – there are very high rates of cancer. At the same time toxic oil compounds in the water are killing the fish, and depriving people of parts of their diet. Many areas in these countries are nature reserves put aside for regeneration of the environment. Oil spills are causing havoc in these regions too.
Air Pollution
According to an article in Nature, air pollution is one of the leading causes of health complications and mortality worldwide, especially affecting low-income groups. They say “716 million of the world’s lowest income people live in areas of unsafe pollution, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
They also say “Air pollution has wide-ranging and profound impacts on human health and well-being. Poor air quality has been shown to be responsible for over 4 million deaths each year from outdoor pollutants, 2.3 million from indoor air pollution, and a wide range of cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological diseases. It also impacts productivity, exacerbates inequalities, and reduces cognitive abilities.”
That just ain’t fair.
Many Farmers in India are now reliant on Unpredictable Rain
Climate Justice
This is seen as part of Environmental Justice but focuses specifically on the fact that Climate Change does not affect all communities equally. It looks at what can be done to make things fairer. Many of those who are most at risk from climate disasters are least responsible for causing them. An instance of this could be the many Indian farmers who now wait for unpredictable monsoon rains that never come when expected. This makes crop planting very hard. These communities produce only a very few carbon emissions compared to richer countries, and thus make little contribution to Climate Change.
The University of California says “Climate Justice recognizes the disproportionate impacts of climate change on low-income communities and communities of colour around the world, the people and places least responsible for the problem.
Who is really responsible for most of the emissions that cause Climate Change?
A report from Oxfam in 2023 showed that the richest 1 percent of the world’s population produced as much carbon pollution in 2019 as the five billion people who make up the poorest two-thirds of humanity. The report continues that those extra emissions will cause 1.3 million heat-related excess deaths, most between 2020 and 2030.
This does not release the rest of us who are not part of that 1% from the responsibility of doing what we can. We are still very rich compared with the people I am talking about.
Seems to me “That just ain’t fair”.
Can we do anything about this situation?
It would be easy for us to shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, these people are poor and we can’t do anything about it.”
I believe we must. We will not change our futures if we don’t involve everybody regardless of their financial situation, skin colour, sexual orientation and any other differences they happen to have. We all live on the same struggling planet. It needs us all.
- Firstly, we need to find our compassion and understanding which means we need to educate ourselves about how life is for other people.
- We need to decide on how we as individuals can cut down on our use of fossil fuels and plastics.
- We can encourage our local supermarkets to stock organic foods produced nearby.
- We can encourage our governments to increase their aid budget. Yes, there may be corruption so the money does not get to ordinary people. We must find a way round that.
- We can give money to organisations that dig wells in poorer countries
- We must write to the newspapers to ask them to educate us on the needs of other countries. They must also put pressure on our governments to support local groups in countries that want to change.
COP30 is due to take place in Brazil very soon. Please write to your governments and ask them to fund adaption and assistance to developing countries to transition to the use of renewable energy. They also need help to deal with the aftermath of extreme weather events. Rich governments have been very reluctant to do that.
This is a huge and depressing problem worldwide, but it has to be dealt with, otherwise we will not be able to build a sustainable future for all our children.
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Photos by Jeff Ackley, Muhammed A. Mustapha and Guru Moorthy Gokul on Unsplash