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Emphasizing the voices of activists, this book's diverse contributors examine communities' common experiences with environmental injustice, how they organize to address it, and the ways in which their campaigns intersect with related movements such as Black Lives Matter and Indigenous sovereignty.
The global COVID-19 pandemic exposed the ways in which BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities and white working-class communities have suffered disproportionately from the crisis due to sustained exposure to toxic land, air, and water, creating a new urgency for addressing underlying conditions of systemic racism and poverty in North America. In addition to exploring the historical roots of the Environmental Justice movement in the 1980s and 1990s, the volume offers coverage of recent events such as the DAPL pipeline controversy, the Flint water crisis, and the rise of climate justice. The collection incorporates the experiences of rural and urban communities, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, and Indigenous peoples in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
The chapters offer instructors, undergraduate and graduate students, and general readers a range of accessible case studies that create opportunities for comparative and intersectional analysis across geographical and ethnic boundaries.
List of contents
Introduction Part 1: Race, Place, and Environmental Justice in the United States 1. Urban Environmental Justice Movements in the United States 2. Resilience at the Periphery: North America's Non-Urban Environmental Justice Movements 3. Intercultural Alliances Part 2: Indigenous Movements and Environmental Justice in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean 4. Environmental Justice in Hawai i and Oceania 5. Alaska Native Environmental Activism 6. Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Beyond: The Inuit Circumpolar Council's Climate Change Advocacy Work 7. Ecocide, Ethnic Rights, and Extractivism: Struggles for Environmental Justice in Mexico 8. Plundered Paradise: The Puerto Rican Struggle Against Environmental Colonialism Part 3: Environmental Justice, Climate Justice, and Sustainability 9. Indigenous Environmental Justice, Renewable Energy Transition, and the Infrastructure of Sovereignty 10. The Food Justice Movement 11. "We Are Missing Our Lessons to Teach You One": Youth Activists on the Frontlines of Climate Justice
Summary
Emphasizing the voices of activists, this book’s diverse contributors examine communities’ common experiences with environmental injustice, how they organize to address it, and the ways in which their campaigns intersect with related movements such as Black Lives Matter and Indigenous sovereignty.
Report
"This volume is a welcome contribution to EJ studies and EJ history that will serve scholars across many disciplines, including history, sociology, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, Black studies, and Latin American studies...The chapters will bolster and reinforce lecture materials. Each chapter is readable and clearly argued and has an engaging mix of historical content, historiographical context, and contemporary framing."
Jayson Maurice Porter, HWater, H-Net Reviews, November 2024
