Environmental degradation often accompanies conditions of poverty, and due to a complex history of racial subjugation within Western society, ethnic minorities are more likely to live in such conditions and thus tend to be impacted most significantly. Furthermore, elitist memberships of environmental organizations have historically excluded minorities – since environmental degradation impacts minorities most significantly and society tends to treat issues affecting minorities with lower concern, the actual level of environmental degradation is often underestimated and sufficient action cannot be taken.
While the idea has been only relatively recently established, evidence of the connection between environmental exploitation or degradation and conditions of poverty can be traced back as early as the colonization of the Americas. As settlers colonized the land, they radically altered the environment by clearing out land and capitalizing on natural resources and wildlife which Indigenous communities had used for sustenance for centuries before. Even after later being forced onto reserves and into poverty, Indigenous populations are continually pushed into poor socio-economic conditions through systemic maltreatment and negligence. This is exemplified in cases such as the mercury poisoning of Grassy Narrows where a corporation illegally contaminated a community river with 10 tonnes of mercury, directly affecting residents’ welfare and ability to work thus resulting in poverty. (Bruser & Poisson, 2017)
This correlation can also be observed in instances of primitive accumulation and the privatization of natural resources throughout history. One notable case is that of the Enclosure Laws of England between 1780-1820 which privatized community land, allowing the state and group of wealthy elites to capitalize on resources previously used by locals thereby controlling the conditions and means of production, forcing locals into wage labour (Robbins, 2014). Incidents such as this are recognized as “the essential building blocks of modern capitalism” and push capitalists to continually overexploit both labour and nature – inevitably resulting in socio-economic crisis. (Robbins, 2014)
Perhaps the most striking example of the “inextricable interrelation between the problems of poverty and environmental quality”, as activist and former Los Angeles mayor would describe it (McGurty, 1997), can be found in the implementation of “spatial fix(es)” by corporations – an idea which was ironically once praised as the solution to the aforementioned economic crises (Robbins, 2014). Similarly to moving waste into lower-income urban areas in order to capitalize on cheaper property and reduced regulation, spatial fixes on a global scale allow corporations to additionally capitalize on labor and natural resources, not only underpaying laborers and resulting in uneven global development but also severely impacting environmental quality, compounding the poverty in these regions by affecting the health of laborers and thus the ability to work (Robbins, 2014).
As well as directly resulting in poverty through the appropriation or contamination of land and resources, environmental degradation also indirectly perpetuates poor socio-economic conditions. Environmental regulation projects, for example, are often funded by tax increases and higher consumer prices and affect most significantly and disproportionately those in poverty. (McGurty, 1997) Additionally, since the majority of impoverished communities are typically made up of predominantly ethnic minorities, it is the minorities that tend to be impacted most immediately and significantly by environmental degradation.
This intersectionality between poverty and race is due primarily to the systematic subjugation of minorities throughout the history of Western society, particularly the Indigenous and African-American populations. While Indigenous communities were stripped of their resources and ousted from their land, African-Americans were thrust into slavery, reducing both groups to the lowest class of society and later condemning them to self-reinforcing socioeconomic conditions. Since the perspective toward minorities permeated every level of society (influencing government and legislative bodies), overcoming these conditions meant overcoming not only individual but also systemic oppression. This structural violence towards ethnic minorities would echo within social institutions for generations to come and directly accounts for the link between race and poverty in today’s society.
Combined with the capitalist mindset that dominates society, this paved the way for government and corporate institutional negligence and exploitation of the politically and economically unempowered lower classes with little to no concern. Whether dumping contaminants in a predominantly African-American community in the case of Flint, Michigan (Teichner, 2018) or strategically placing chemical factories in low-income First-Nations communities such as Aamjiwnaang in Sarnia, Ontario (McGuire, 2013), the rationale behind the injustices can be reduced to a simple calculus. The general disregard for lower classes meant a reduced ethical concern by those making the decisions as well as a less significant potential public outcry over the injustice. This also meant a reduced legal risk by the corporations, as the law tended to act favorably towards the wealthy white elite. Thirdly, since lower-income communities are seen as less desirable areas and have decreased property value, purchasing property in order to build a landfill or factory could be done at a significantly lower cost (with labor often following suit). This rationale primed for governments and corporations to subject lower classes to such environmental injustices with little to no risk.
Furthermore, because of the historically elitist membership of environmental organizations, minorities are often excluded from forums and decision making regarding environmental issues. This claim was verified in 1973 when a study undertaken by the National Center for Voluntary Action found that the organizations that had “recently changed their priorities and approaches, were staffed primarily by “middle class, professional, white, married men in their thirties.”” (McGurty, 1997). Since these environmental groups were comprised predominantly by white male elites and thus supported the interests of these members, urban-environmental issues did not affect members of these groups regardless of their actual prevalence. These environmental problems were seen to affect only “special groups” (McGurty, 1997) and thus did not warrant environmental concern.
This type of thinking goes hand-in-hand with the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) response that is often elicited by residents towards local threats of negative environmental and economic impact (McGurty, 1997). Such as in the case of the Warren County waste contamination, “NIMBYism” enables society to relocate environmental degradation rather than reduce it, and since these problems impact minorities most significantly yet society tends to disregard issues affecting minorities, the level of actual environmental decay is underestimated and sufficient action cannot be taken.
This can have also implications on an international scale. Since production and environmental degradation is simply relocated to distant and poorer countries, awareness of the actual level of degradation is reduced and Western society is enabled to grossly underestimate their own actual environmental impact. Just as in the case of Sierra Club, first-world Western societies hold greater scientific authority on global environmental change, and this reduced level of awareness and concern ultimately reduces efforts taken to combat GEC. Whether on a global or local scale, the intersectionality of race, poverty and environmental quality is undeniable.
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References
Bruser, D., Poisson, J. (2017). Ontario knew about Grassy Narrows mercury site for decades, but kept it secret. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/11/11/ontario-knew-about-mercury-site-near-grassy-narrows-for-decades-but-kept-it-secret.html
Robbins, P. Hintz, J. & Moore, S. [Eds.] (2014). Political economy. (pp.98-118) In Environment and society: A critical introduction. Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford
McGurty, E.M. (1997). From NIMBY to Civil Rights: The Origins of the Environmental Justice Movement. Environmental History, 2(3): 301-323.
Teichner, M. (2018). The Flint water crisis: A loss of trust. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-flint-water-crisis-a-loss-of-trust/
McGuire, P. (2013). I Left My Lungs in Aamjiwnaang. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/4w7gwn/the-chemical-valley-part-1
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