Session 8 Blog Post for March 31

In Eric T. Freyfogle’s “Notes on Environmental Justice”, Eric concludes the piece by talking about how environmental justice movements may make our environmental issues worse by misinterpreting natural systems as being contained and controlled by humans.  This is to say that the human perspective of nature as being in some ways transcendental is problematic for productivity of the natural systems of earth.  What are some issues with some of the environmental movements discussed in the first reading, “The Environmental Justice Movement,” that may, in placing humans as the top priority, cause further detrimental effect to environmental systems as a whole?

It is understandable that the stances of groups like the Citizen’s Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes or agitators like Ben Chavis and his coining of the term “environmental racism” were centered on the people affected by the chemical runoff in places like Alabama, Houston and Chicago’s South Side and not so much the environment being degraded.  However, this lack of holistic perspective in terms of widespread human caused environmental disaster will cause a further spread of unethical practices.  The large chemical companies that instigated the creation of the “Cancer Alley” between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in 1970 was caused due to a misinterpretation of the value of the people living in the area. So, action was taken by people to help people through action such as the federal “Community Right to Know” law of 1986.  However, solutions like this seem to fall short of protecting the environment as a whole because an overarching theme of environmental justice centered around the environments themselves was not established.  Humans created goals established to retain the value of humans in the guise of large corporate establishments.  However, after these goals were met, the larger problem of environmental exploitation was not confronted.  Lois Gibbs was able to get the state of New York to buy out the Love Canal homes after widespread human issues with the land were established.  However, without placing humans within a larger environmental context, environmental justice movements will always miss the mark and will ultimately fail at preventing future environmental degradation.