Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada

From Flint, Michigan, to Standing Rock, North Dakota, minorities have found themselves losing the battle for clean resources and a healthy environment. This book provides a modern history of such environmental injustices in the United States and Canada. From the 19th-century extermination of the buffalo in the American West to Alaska's Project Chariot (a Cold War initiative that planned to use atomic bombs to blast out a harbor on Eskimo land) to the struggle for recovery and justice in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, this book provides readers with an enhanced understanding of how poor and minority people are affected by natural and manmade environmental crises. Written for students as well as the general reader with an interest in social justice and environmental issues, this book traces the relationship between environmental discrimination, race, and class through a comprehensive case history of environmental injustices. Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability includes 50 such case studies that range from local to national to international crises.

Bruce E. Johansen is professor emeritus of communication and Native American studies at the University of Nebraska.

Preface Chapter 1 Background What Is Environmental Justice? Types of Environmental Discrimination Perpetrators and Victims Challenges and Solutions Future Outlook Chapter 2 Unifying Themes Introduction Mining: Mother Earth or Mother Lode? Lead, Lead Everywhere: Flint, Michigan's Water Crisis in Context The Political Economy of Lead Poisoning and Other Water Quality Issues Canadian Tar Sands: From Treaty Forest to Moonscape Pipelines and Protests "Cowboys" vs. "Indians": Racial Stereotyping and Agent Orange in Vietnam Farmworkers: Toxicity as an Occupational Hazard Extermination of the Buffalo as Environmental Warfare Environmental Racism and the Demise of an Ice World Chapter 3 Cases: United States East Introduction Houston, Texas: Segregation, Sewage, and Environmental Racism Anniston, Alabama: A Plague of PCBs Dickson, Tennessee: Environmental Racism's "Poster Child" A 100 Percent Chance of Pig-manure Showers in North Carolina Bridgeport, Connecticut: A Spreading Web of Toxins Chester, Pennsylvania: Unwilling Capital of Hazmat South Chicago: Life and Death in the "Toxic Doughnut" Race, Class, and Toxicity at Love Canal North Carolina: Protesting Unwelcome Toxic Dumps Donald Trump, Hurricane Maria, and Puerto Rico Triana, Alabama: Dumped On, Ceaselessly Malathion and the Rosebud Sioux in Mission, South Dakota Houston, Texas: Always Awaiting the Next Flood Akwesasne: Land of the Toxic Turtles The Toxics Plantation: Life and Death in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" The Demographics of Death in New Orleans: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina Chapter 4 Cases: United States West Introduction Montana's Gros Ventre and Assiniboine: Gold Mining and Cyanide Poisoning The Mothers of East Los Angeles Stand Down a Toxic Incinerator-and More Pueblo, Colorado: The Toxic Legacy of the "Pittsburgh of the West" Richmond, California: The Greens vs. Big Oil Alaska's Pebble Mine: Corporate Gold vs. Natives' Salmon Alaska Natives: Swamped by Warming The Point Hope Eskimos: An Atomic Harbor and a Nuclear Dump as a Neighbor "The Most Bombed Nation on Earth" Utah's Goshute Asked to House Waste Uranium-but Were Denied The Laguna Pueblo and Anaconda's Jackpile Uranium Mine The Navajos' Nuclear Legacy The Largest Uranium Spill in the United States Hunting Grounds to Dumping Grounds The Moapa Paiute: Good-Bye Toxic Ash: Solar In, Coal Power Out Chapter 5 Cases: Canada Introduction Grassy Narrows, Ontario: The Continuing Toxic Toll of Mercury The Aamjiwnaang of Ontario: Immersed in a Toxic Bath Dumping on Blacks in Africville, Nova Scotia British Columbia: Native Canadians vs. Mining's "New Prosperity" The Crees: Hydro Quebec's Electric Dreams The Lubicon Cree: Land Rights and Resource Exploitation The Dene: Killed by the "Money Rock" The Inuit: Mother's Milk Is Toxic Who Is Liable for Ruining a Culture? The Inuit Sue the United States of America Selected Bibliography Index