The Problem

Environmental injustice (or environmental inequality) is widespread in the U.S. and around the globe. Environmental injustice is the term scholars use to describe what occurs when marginal populations suffer a disproportionately high burden of environmental harm and are excluded from environmental decisions affecting their communities. This is a social problem that primarily affects people of color, Indigenous peoples, low-income populations, immigrants, and women. These communities are sites where hazardous facilities, landfills, incinerators, toxic waste sites, and contaminated water, air, land, and food are frequently the order of the day. Environmental racism is a specific form of environmental inequality that impacts people of color. Many people tend to think of racism in limited terms— as language and behavior perpetrated by individual bigots. However, sociologists have determined that racism is also perpetrated on a massive scale by institutions, corporations, and governments every day. Racism is also far more than merely prejudice and discrimination, which means that in addition to causing anxiety, fear, and anger among those who suffer under its heels, it is also responsible for increased vulnerability to increased illness, disease, and death. Environmental racism is a particular form of racism and must be confronted by people, organizations, and institutions at all scales if we are to reduce its impacts in society. This chapter explores the research evidence concerning environmental injustice and racism and considers several approaches that scholars, activists, and governments have taken to address this critical social problem.

The Research Evidence

Research on environmental inequalities dates back to the early 1970s and has produced thousands of studies revealing empirical evidence of the strong spatial correlation between various social categories (e.g., race, class, immigration status) and exposure or spatial proximity to environmental pollutants. The field of scholarly research on this topic is commonly known as environmental justice studies. That field also explores and analyzes political responses to environmental inequalities, what is commonly known as the environmental justice movement.

The empirical evidence is clear that at the city, county, regional, national, and transnational scales, environmental threats hit lowincome, people of color, immigrant, and Indigenous communities hardest. This includes exposure to a range of pollutants but also the impacts of climate change.