Every new scientific study done on the health problems and stresses brought about by environmental pollution shows us how awful it truly is. However, what is not frequently discussed by traditional news outlets is the racial component of who is most affected by the abuses to our planet and how. As has been pointed out in a few diaries here, environmental justice is social justice is racial justice. A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) looks into the racial breakdown of who pollutes and who suffers the burden of that pollution.
On average, non-Hispanic whites experience a “pollution advantage”: They experience ∼17% less air pollution exposure than is caused by their consumption. Blacks and Hispanics on average bear a “pollution burden” of 56% and 63% excess exposure, respectively, relative to the exposure caused by their consumption.
That is a terrible number, but not surprising. In November 2017, a study showed that black communities were 75 percent more likely to be situated right next to industrial sites that produce the kinds of air and ground and water pollution that is known to cause myriad health issues.
This study is unique in that the researchers needed to tie together the amount of pollution affecting certain communities, what was producing that pollution, and how much different communities supported (i.e. with their money or labor) that pollution. An example would be the large amount of pollution emitted by the agricultural industry. Researchers looked at the consumption of food by whites and blacks, by way of grocery stores and restaurants.
Christopher Tessum a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington and one of the authors of the study, told NPR that after looking at the numbers it became clear that white Americans consume disproportionately more than people of color when it comes to the goods and the foods that result in pollution. "These patterns didn't seem to be driven by different kinds of consumption," says Tessum, "but different overall levels."
With a racist White House and a big business-driven EPA, the small steps our country was taking toward more environmental and social justice have been halted and set back, for the time being.