The Quest For Environmental Justice ─ Human Rights And The Politics Of Pollution

In 1994, Sierra Club Books was proud to publish Dr. Robert D. Bullard's Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color, a collection of essays contributed by some of the leading participants in the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, which focused attention on "environmental racism"--racial discrimination in environmental policymaking and the enforcement of environmental protection laws and regulations. Now, picking up where that groundbreaking anthology left off, Dr. Bullard has assembled a new collection of essays that capture the voices of frontline warriors who are battling environmental injustice and human rights abuses at the grassroots level around the world and challenging government and industry policies and globalization trends that place people of color and the poor at special risk.
Part I presents an overview of the early environmental justice movement and highlights key leadership roles assumed by women activists. Part II examines the lives of people living in "sacrifice zones"--toxic corridors (such as Louisiana's infamous "Cancer Alley") where high concentrations of polluting industries are found. Part III explores land use, land rights, resource extraction, and sustainable development conflicts, including Chicano struggles in America's Southwest. Part IV examines human rights and global justice issues, including an analysis of South Africa's legacy of environmental racism and the corruption and continuing violence plaguing the oil-rich Niger delta.
Together, the diverse contributors to this much-anticipated follow-up anthology present an inspiring and illuminating picture of the environmental justice movement in the first decade of the twenty-first century.