Environmental Justice
By Albert B. Kelly
The phrase “environmental justice” is one that I imagine
half the public dismisses with a roll of the eyes, concluding that it’s just one
of those “touchy-feely” politically correct terms easily weaponized for use as
the tip of some spear in our never-ending culture wars- the ones that fuel our partisan
politics. I understand why some feel this way. The push back comes because
“environmental justice” implies that there’s injustice and injustice suggests
that someone is always to blame. Because geography and demographics come into
play, it inevitably touches the raw nerve endings of poverty, wealth, race, and
ethnicity.
But environmental justice is not about pointing fingers and
casting blame. I say that because environmental justice starts with the past.
What I mean to say is that things were done differently a century ago, not from
calculated malice although there may have been some, but more from ignorance-
there wasn’t much thought or understanding as to long term effects on the
environment.
If you think about, the industrial revolution is a
relatively recent thing on the timeline of humanity- it hasn’t been around that
long. Science only evolved sufficient tools within the last half century to
measure impacts and the same is true of medicine in its ability to understand the
health implications. And it’s only been in the last century or so that we embraced
the idea that government should regulate the excesses of industry for the
common good.
Prior to science and medicine becoming sophisticated enough
to measure things, the conventional wisdom held that the earth could swallow
our mess, the rivers and oceans blend our toxic soups, and the atmosphere
neutralize our industrial airborne foulness. For a time it did, until it
didn’t.
For perspective, we didn’t have the first Earth Day until
1970 or the “Keep America Beautiful” TV commercial with the Native-American
shedding a tear over pollution until 1971. For those who remember that
commercial, here’s a bit of trivia. According to Finis Dunaway, a history
professor at Tufts University, KAB was founded in 1953 by the American Can
Company and Bridgeton’s own Owens-Illinois Glass Company.
Trivia and commercials aside, it is enough to recognize that
a great deal of the justice we seek today is a response to the ignorance and
limitations of the past. How the environmental justice movement plays out today
does appear to have the look and feel of our culture wars and partisan
politics, but that’s deceptive. I say this
because back in the day, industry was located in urban communities and big
cities as was most of the population.
But then we got the “suburbs”, a post-WWII 1950’s creation
that allowed whole chunks of city-dwellers to find greener pastures away from
the urban centers. Not too long after that, industry began to spread out into
these suburbs to get better tax incentives and be closer to their suppliers,
workers, and customers. This migration by those who could afford it, combined
with restrictive zoning, meant that minorities and the urban poor were the ones
left in the cities along with what we today call brownfield sites.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think part of why environmental
justice gets seen as a partisan thing is because any brownfield overlay map goes
mostly on top of urban communities with all that the urban stereotypes imply.
But it’s really not a partisan political thing; it is first and foremost the
past versus the present and even the future.
Knowing that prior generations couldn’t analyze soil, air,
and water the way we do today, let’s reframe environmental justice in more productive
and equitable ways. That’s why I am inviting any interested citizens to attend
a listening session with NJDEP staff on February 12th at 6:00pm at
the Municipal Court building located at 330 Fayette Street in Bridgeton.
Government has a role to play working with industry, but it starts with
listening to citizens and their concerns.
As for science, if science has given us anything in recent
decades, it’s an understanding that we’re all in this together; that the earth
is smaller than our grandparents believed and far more fragile than we’d ever
imagined. Viewed in this way, environmental justice is a heck of banner to
rally around no matter where you come from or what type of flag you choose to
fly. Environmental justice is how we atone for the sins of the past and how we
bless the future and that’s no small thing.