Initiatives

Environmental Justice

Overview

Environmental justice broadly refers to the idea that historically disenfranchised communities, such as low-income and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), disproportionately suffer the negative impact of environmental hazards. From the damage to infrastructure caused by hurricanes and wildfires to the fact that race is the best indicator of whether a person lives near a hazardous waste site, low-income and BIPOC communities overwhelmingly experience the burden of these problems.

Furthermore, environmental goods are proven to be unequally distributed. Underserved communities often have limited access to environmental benefits such as clean air, outdoor spaces, and clean water. In this way, environmental justice lies at the nexus of environmental protection, public health, and social justice.

While environmental justice is often placed under the umbrella of Environmental Health, environmental justice issues intersect with every aspect of the environmental movement and apply to all of NCEL’s issue areas.

NCEL Point of Contact
Nabjot Kaur

Environmental Health Program Manager

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Key Facts

Disenfranchised communities, BIPOC communities in particular, suffer disproportionately from environmental health hazards such as poor water quality and toxic chemical exposure. This experience is largely due to a lack of resources, disinvestment, and decaying infrastructure.

Historically, disadvantaged communities have had less access to outdoor spaces and recreation, while many urban green spaces are located in more affluent neighborhoods.

As climate change continues to increase the frequency and intensity of severe weather, low-income and BIPOC communities are ill-equipped to handle these challenges due to weak infrastructure and limited resources.

Issues

While all issues we work on are related to environmental justice, below are a few with an emphasis on equity and justice.

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Resources

NCEL Resources

Online Resources

Disaster in the Making: Addressing the Vulnerability of Low-Income Communities to Extreme Weather

Extreme weather is becoming more frequent and low-income communities are the most at risk. This report looks at recommendations for the federal government to strengthen the local response before and after extreme weather events strike.

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Environmental Justice: Income, Race, and Health

Environmental protection is often viewed as a luxury, but in reality it is low-income and minority communities who are most at risk to adverse environmental impacts.

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Access to Parks for Youth as an Environmental Justice Issues: Access Inequalities and Possible Solutions

Repeated contact with nature helps foster mental and physical health among young people. However, this study finds that low-income and minority children have less exposure to outdoor recreation opportunities.

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EJSCREEN

EJSCREEN is an environmental justice mapping and screening tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and demographic indicators.

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Minnesota Environmental Justice Table (MNEJ) and the Fight to Close Hennepin Energy Resource Center (HERC)

The Minnesota Environmental Justice Table is a coalition of members and organizations from across the state. As part of the larger global network of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), MNEJ is trying to shut down HERC, a more than thirty-year-old incinerator in an area with the highest rate of asthma hospitalizations in the state.

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