The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies”1. As a whole, environmental justice is more of an intersectional issue involving health factors, geographic locations, race, ethnicity, industrial pollution, and many more. Since this topic is connected to many others, the systems thinking strategy needs to be employed. According to Dr. Richard Niesenbaum, system thinking is defined as allowing us to “consider human impact and sustainability from a broad perspective that includes seeing overall structures, patterns, and cycles as opposed to just specific events” 2. This essay will use systems thinking to visually illustrate how the consequences, barriers, solutions, and causes of environmental justice are all interconnected.
Shown below is a visual representation of environmental justice using the systems thinking strategy.
The visual representation of environmental justice shown above includes barriers, consequences, solutions, and causes used in the systems thinking strategy. Of course, since this is a visual representation, there needs to be more of an in-depth description of the magnitude of the problem.
One of the most important parts of systems thinking is identifying the causes. As shown above, in the red section of the system, many of the causes have to do with racism, unlawful placement of industrial facilities, and poverty. When connecting causes to other parts of the system, I noticed a lot of connections to the barriers. One of the most well-known examples of environmental racism is the wrongful placement of industrial facilities near low-income and non-white communities. According to the Food Empowerment Project, landfills, trash incinerators, coal plants, and toxic waste dumps are typically found in black, brown, and indigenous low-income communities3. Wrongful placement of industrial facilities can also be a serious problem when it comes to being exposed to harmful chemicals and toxins released into the environment.
In order to understand the causes and the solutions, it is important to break down the consequences and barriers of the problem, which are shown in the yellow and red sections of the system. This part of the systems thinking process deals with what the people affected have to face and what the obstacles are when finding a solution. While creating the visual representation of the system, I realized I did not have as many connections to consequences as I did for causes and barriers. The consequences of environmental racism and injustice revolve around what the affected populations have to live with when treated unfairly. The most important consequence I found in my research was health issues caused by exposure to pollution. A perfect example of this connection is “Cancer Alley” in Reserve, Louisiana. This area contains approximately 25% of the country’s petrochemical production with more than 130 plants, refineries, landfills, and factories. In Cancer Alley, the cancer risk is increased by 12-16% in low-income/black communities compared to high-income/white communities. Aside from cancer, there are also neurological, carcinogenic, and respiratory effects from pollution on humans4.
Another important barrier in this issue is protest and ignorance of those in power. The Black Lives Matter movement allowed for environmental racism issues to resurface, which lead to more protests. For decades, environmental justice and climate change advocates in the country have worked hard to bring attention to the high environmental risks that communities of color have to face. Protests have been happening since the 1980s, and the Chemical and Engineering News website has an article that has a perfect example of the ignorance of leadership regarding environmental racism. In 1995, Juan and Ana Parras were driving on the highway between Harrisburg and Manchester, Texas. They passed a large sign announcing a new site of a high school in their neighborhood. As they were driving by, they saw the site and the huge smokestacks behind it. Of course, they were outraged since the site for the new site was about half a mile from refineries and chemical plants that tower over the predominantly Hispanic community. Juan, Ana, and their son Bryan organized lots of protests to convince local leaders to relocate the site for the high school. Unfortunately, the project to build near the refineries began and ignored the protests and the members of the community. Although, this did not stop the protests and the participants did not give up on their rights5.
As I was trying to connect my solutions to the causes, barriers, and consequences in the system, I noticed that I connected a lot of my causes to my solutions (shown in the green section of the system representation). One of the biggest solutions that people need to be aware of is community involvement and protests. In 2020, the Chemical & Engineering News published an article titled “The Rise of Environmental Justice” after the George Floyd murder controversy. The environmental justice movement resurfaced as well as other systemic racism issues. An example of environmental racism protests took place in St. James Parish, Louisiana. The protest started when Formosa Plastics Group planned to build a $9.4 billion dollar petrochemical plant on a location where the town’s residents wanted to hold a Juneteeth ceremony. The ceremony was planned to be held at a gravesite of formerly enslaved people. The town’s request to hold the ceremony was denied by Formosa, and this caused a serious racially-motivated protest. The town formed a group called RISE St. James to file a lawsuit against the plastics company. The RISE St. James group went from 10 people in the first meeting to a large population of St. James Parish5. I wanted to include this example of a protest because of how one event can lead to another. This example may not be the best solution, but it is definitely the best example of how to attract attention to the issue.
Overall, the systems thinking strategy has been very helpful when making connections in the environmental justice topic. In my visual representation, I was able to learn more about my topic by making connections between the consequences, barriers, causes, and solutions of environmental justice.
1.US EPA, O. (2015, February 13). Learn About Environmental Justice [Overviews and Factsheets]. 2. Niesenbaum, R. (2020). Sustainable Solutions: Problem Solving for Current and Future Generations. 3. Food Empowerment Project. (2022). Environmental Racism. https://foodispower.org/environmental-and-global/environmental-racism/ 4.James, W., Jia, C., & Kedia, S. (2012). Uneven Magnitude of Disparities in Cancer Risks from Air Toxics. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 9(12), 4365–4385. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9124365 5. Mullin, R. (2020). The rise of environmental justice. Chemical & Engineering News. https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/rise-environmental-justice/98/i32
