Robert Bullard Robert D. Bullard, known as the father of environmental justice, is the former Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy. Robert Bullard is renowned as the father of environmental justice. Bullard published a chapter “Decision Making,” in 1994. The larger piece is considered one of the fundamental works of the environmental justice movement. In the chapter, Bullard details how inequalities persist despite the recent attempts by federal agencies to reduce environmental and health threats in the United States. Bullard points to the fact that communities that are poor or inhabited largely by people of color, likely receive less protection than a community that is affluent or white. Bullard corroborates these claims by pointing to several studies that show strong correlation between the locations and distribution of air pollution, landfills, toxic waste dumps, lead poisoning, contaminated food supplies, and food desserts with primarily lower-income and people of color communities. This unequal environmental protection thus undermines three basic types of equality: procedural, geographic, and social. Environmental justice includes equitable and just inclusion of all people regardless of race, gender, religion, national origin, or socioeconomic status with respect to environmental concerns, particularly in the implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policy. Environmental justice is incredibly important within social justice, justice in terms of the distribution, wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. Environmental degradation and climate change disproportionately affect marginalized groups, despite these issues being largely created by the wealthy majority. Because of this environmental justice is essential to social justice and environmentalism. Many environmental injustices exist around the Fordham University Rose Hill Campus in Bronx, NY. The Cross Bronx Expressway, unsurprisingly constructed under Robert Moses, displaced more people than almost any highway in the US. Because the Cross Bronx Expressway intersects with much of the Bronx, most residents are exposed to extremely high levels of pollutants. Many large distribution centers lie just north of the Bronx, so the shipments to New York and New Jersey directly affect the surrounding areas as large diesel trucks transport the shipments. Additionally, a study conducted by a Fordham student revealed that there are much higher levels of particulate matter in the public green spaces in the Bronx, as opposed to private green spaces like Fordham’s campus and the NYBG. Consequently, the Bronx has been the New York City borough with the highest overall rates of asthma hospitalizations, deaths, and prevalence among children. The Bronx is also the poorest borough in New York City and is primarily Black and Latinx. This example shows how environmental issues, pollutants, and lack of green spaces, are also an issue of racism, classism, and public health. The pollution and health conditions in the Bronx violate procedural, geographic, and social equity. Thus, the pollution and health conditions in the Bronx clearly violate procedural, geographic, and social equity as described by Bullard. While poor and minority communities bear greater health and environmental burdens, wealthier and white communities receive the benefits of industrialization: “The current environmental protection paradigm has institutionalized unequal enforcement, traded human health for profit, placed the burden of proof on the ‘victims’ rather than on the polluting industry, legitimated human exposure to harmful substances, promoted ‘risky’ technologies such as incinerators, exploited the vulnerability of economically and politically disenfranchised communities, subsidized ecological destruction, created an industry around risk assessment, delayed cleanup actions, and failed to develop pollution prevention as the overarching and dominant strategy” (3). During COVID-19 we see exactly this as human health is traded for the profit of large corporations. The application of Bullard’s framework to current policies, like those implemented during COVID-19, demonstrated the strength and longevity of Bullard’s framework published in 1994. The current relevance of his work also unfortunately speaks to the reality that US policies involving environmental regulation continue to exacerbate inequality. Despite the high correlation of emissions and particulate matter levels with asthma rates, during COVID-19, the Trump Administration put an indefinite end to emission standards. The rollback legitimated human exposure to harmful substances, placing the burden of proof on the vulnerable populations exposed to more pollutants and erased any accountability on polluting corporations. Policies like these exhibit the environmental racism in America that Bullard discusses. These policy rollbacks were implemented to benefit rich corporations at the expense of the poor, minority communities that these emissions primarily occur in. The Bronx experienced the highest levels of COVID-19 cases and fatalities in New York City because of the higher asthma rates in the Bronx. The pollution standard rollback was implemented to reduce the health threats of COVID-19, but instead increased fatalities in minority, low-income communities where many polluting sources are located. The adverse effects of the policy further demonstrate Bullard’s claim that attempts by federal agencies to reduce environmental and health threats in the United States amplify existing inequalities, If the Trump administration had used science or community input, they would not have pushed a rollback that would in fact exacerbate the effects and fatalities of COVID-19. However, the well-being of large polluting institutions is in the Trump administration’s greater interest than the health and equity of low-income communities. How can we design a more equitable decision making process when those deciding continue to make decisions to benefit their own re-election and prosperity of their select elite supporters? Word Count: 868 Despite Manhattan's higher population than the Bronx, far more people have gotten infected, been hospitalized, and died from COVID-19 in the Bronx than in Manhattan.
www.businessinsider.com/why-bronx-coronavirus-crisis-worse-than-manhattan-2020-5#in-2019-manhattans-population-was-about-13-higher-than-that-of-the-bronx-1
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AuthorI am a senior at Fordham University, studying Economics, Environmental Studies, and Sustainable Business. My research interests include dune and plant ecology, coastal management, conservation, and climate change. CategoriesArchives |