ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM

Environmental Racism



Environmental Racism

Introduction

This paper will be illustrating a research impact on natural gas drilling 'Fracking' in Ohio and Pennsylvania regions with respect to environmental racism impact of residence around the area. When you started to talk about environmental racism? The first wide-ranging survey on the relationship between the location of disposal sites for toxic waste and the ethnic composition and socio-economic communities selected dates back to 1987, and the Report of the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ (Waste toxic and race in the United States) (Ramachandra, 1989).

This is a document of extreme importance, not only for the rigor of the analysis, but also because it had the merit of attracting public attention and the social partners on the issue he faces. The report highlighted, in general, a dramatic reality: "More than half the U.S. populations [live] in the local areas of residence with one or more toxic sites are not protected." But even more serious is the fact that "in five African-or Hispanic-Americans, three [live] in communities with toxic sites are not protected." And it is not random but rather systematic economic and political choices: in fact research has shown that "compared to other factors considered, race by far the predominant factor in the placement of facilities for the disposal of toxic waste commercial ". To confirm this, "statistics between race and location of these plants have proved the most consistent of the other groups tested. The probability that it is purely coincidental association is less than one in ten thousand” ( Donald, Grinde & Bruce, 1995).

Hence, the definition of environmental racism as "racial discrimination in environmental policy, and unequal application of laws and environmental measures; deliberately hitting the black population for the placement of landfills for toxic waste officially authorizing the presence of deadly poisons and pollutants in toxic waste disposal sites located in communities of color; historic exclusion of African-American people from the leadership of the environmental movement. “The denial of fundamental justice both levels, the distribution is participatory, is therefore combined, as we shall see, even the denial of equal application of legislative measures.

Impact on Natural Gas Drilling 'Fracking' In Ohio and Pennsylvania Regions

Shale gas is used for several years in the United States. It has about 500 000 wells operating in 31 states. In 2009, unconventional gas has accounted for half of U.S. gas production, and it would provide 60% in 2030, according to the latest projections of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEA). Other experts suggest now a century of reserves in the United States, more than double the forecast there ten years. BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil, Total invested one after the other in these promising fields (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2004). But the question of their environmental impact is more discussion with the proliferation of stories about contaminated wells, including Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio and Wyoming. The issue is complex because companies are not required to make public the list of chemicals used in fracturing due to ...