Difference between revisions of "Uneven environmental health and pollution patterns"
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==General introduction== | ==General introduction== | ||
In cities, environmental health concerns manifest as an injustice where lower income, marginalised, and/or racialized groups are unequally exposed to pollution, climate-vulnerable infrastructure, or otherwise unequally exposed to conditions of climate-health risk (Collins, 2010; Kabisch & van den Bosch, 2017; Morello-Frosch et al., 2001; Pearsall & Pierce, 2010). Access to healthy environments and choices thus largely coincides with privilege (<b>distributive justice</b>). | In cities, environmental health concerns manifest as an injustice where lower income, marginalised, and/or racialized groups are unequally exposed to pollution, climate-vulnerable infrastructure, or otherwise unequally exposed to conditions of climate-health risk (Collins, 2010<ref>Collins, T. W. (2010). Marginalization, facilitation, and the production of unequal risk: The 2006 Paso del Norte floods. Antipode, 42(2), 258–288. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00755.x</ref>; Kabisch & van den Bosch, 2017<ref>Kabisch, N., & van den Bosch, M. A. (2017). Urban green spaces and the potential for health improvement and environmental justice in a changing climate. In N. Kabisch, H. Korn, J. Stadler, & A. Bonn (Eds.), Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas: Linkages between Science, Policy and Practice (pp. 207–220). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56091-5_12</ref>; Morello-Frosch et al., 2001<ref>Morello-Frosch, R., Pastor, M., & Sadd, J. (2001). Environmental justice and Southern California’s “riskscape.” Urban Affairs Review, 36(4), 551–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/10780870122184993</ref>; Pearsall & Pierce, 2010<ref>Pearsall, H., & Pierce, J. (2010). Urban sustainability and environmental justice: evaluating the linkages in public planning/policy discourse. Local Environment, 15(6), 569–580. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2010.487528</ref>). Access to healthy environments and choices thus largely coincides with privilege (<b>distributive justice</b>). | ||
[[File:5-Uneven-Environmental-Health-And-Pollution-Patternes.jpg|600px]] | [[File:5-Uneven-Environmental-Health-And-Pollution-Patternes.jpg|600px]] | ||
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In many cases the production of hazardous environments inhabited by vulnerable people is the consequence of [[Exclusive access to the benefits of sustainability infrastructure]](Driver 1) and [[Uneven and exclusionary urban intensification and regeneration]] (Driver 4), whereby privileged groups tend to move to neighbourhoods characterised by healthier, greener, and safer environments while other areas become “social dumps” characterised by pollution, crime, unwelcoming public space, and disease where marginalized residents are displaced (Anguelovski, 2016<ref>Anguelovski, I. (2016). From toxic sites to parks as (green) LULUs? New challenges of inequity, privilege, gentrification, and exclusion for urban environmental justice. Journal of Planning Literature, 31(1), 23–36</ref>; Armiero & D’Alisa, 2012<ref>Armiero, M., & D’Alisa, G. (2012). Rights of resistance: The garbage struggles for environmental justice in Campania, Italy. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 23(4), 52–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2012.724200</ref>). Apart from a manifestation of injustice in cities, these neighbourhoods and their inhabitants can become stigmatised, “ghetto-ised”, and systematically unrecognized and excluded from conversations about urban sustainability and health (<b>participatory & recognition justice</b>). | In many cases the production of hazardous environments inhabited by vulnerable people is the consequence of [[Exclusive access to the benefits of sustainability infrastructure]](Driver 1) and [[Uneven and exclusionary urban intensification and regeneration]] (Driver 4), whereby privileged groups tend to move to neighbourhoods characterised by healthier, greener, and safer environments while other areas become “social dumps” characterised by pollution, crime, unwelcoming public space, and disease where marginalized residents are displaced (Anguelovski, 2016<ref>Anguelovski, I. (2016). From toxic sites to parks as (green) LULUs? New challenges of inequity, privilege, gentrification, and exclusion for urban environmental justice. Journal of Planning Literature, 31(1), 23–36</ref>; Armiero & D’Alisa, 2012<ref>Armiero, M., & D’Alisa, G. (2012). Rights of resistance: The garbage struggles for environmental justice in Campania, Italy. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 23(4), 52–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2012.724200</ref>). Apart from a manifestation of injustice in cities, these neighbourhoods and their inhabitants can become stigmatised, “ghetto-ised”, and systematically unrecognized and excluded from conversations about urban sustainability and health (<b>participatory & recognition justice</b>). | ||
*<b>Resorting to hazardous behaviors</b> | |||
In addition, in the case of urban energy poverty, poor households in Europe have adjusted their daily behaviours by resorting to burning unsuitable and unsafe materials in their houses in order to keep warm or by turning on their stoves as a source of heat, which contributes to new health and household hazards. This behaviour has come as a response to rising fuel prices and austerity policies, leading to intense air pollution inside homes and all around entire neighbourhoods (Thomson et al., 2017<ref>Thomson, H., Snell, C., & Bouzarovski, S. (2017). Health, well-being and energy poverty in Europe: A comparative study of 32 European countries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(6), 584. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14060584</ref>). | |||
Revision as of 14:07, 1 September 2020
"Racialized or ethnically exclusionary urbanization" as a driver of injustice refers unequal exposure to harmful and health-impairing pollutants, conditions and urban environments and/or unequal access to safe and healthy environments.
General introduction
In cities, environmental health concerns manifest as an injustice where lower income, marginalised, and/or racialized groups are unequally exposed to pollution, climate-vulnerable infrastructure, or otherwise unequally exposed to conditions of climate-health risk (Collins, 2010[1]; Kabisch & van den Bosch, 2017[2]; Morello-Frosch et al., 2001[3]; Pearsall & Pierce, 2010[4]). Access to healthy environments and choices thus largely coincides with privilege (distributive justice).
Manifestations and types of injustice
- Hazardous environments inhabited by vulnerable people
In many cases the production of hazardous environments inhabited by vulnerable people is the consequence of Exclusive access to the benefits of sustainability infrastructure(Driver 1) and Uneven and exclusionary urban intensification and regeneration (Driver 4), whereby privileged groups tend to move to neighbourhoods characterised by healthier, greener, and safer environments while other areas become “social dumps” characterised by pollution, crime, unwelcoming public space, and disease where marginalized residents are displaced (Anguelovski, 2016[5]; Armiero & D’Alisa, 2012[6]). Apart from a manifestation of injustice in cities, these neighbourhoods and their inhabitants can become stigmatised, “ghetto-ised”, and systematically unrecognized and excluded from conversations about urban sustainability and health (participatory & recognition justice).
- Resorting to hazardous behaviors
In addition, in the case of urban energy poverty, poor households in Europe have adjusted their daily behaviours by resorting to burning unsuitable and unsafe materials in their houses in order to keep warm or by turning on their stoves as a source of heat, which contributes to new health and household hazards. This behaviour has come as a response to rising fuel prices and austerity policies, leading to intense air pollution inside homes and all around entire neighbourhoods (Thomson et al., 2017[7]).
Illustration
[Source: NATURVATION [1] and GREENLULUS [2] projects; including personal communication.]
[[File:
Ways forward
Links to projects
This driver links to the following research projects:
- ↑ Collins, T. W. (2010). Marginalization, facilitation, and the production of unequal risk: The 2006 Paso del Norte floods. Antipode, 42(2), 258–288. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00755.x
- ↑ Kabisch, N., & van den Bosch, M. A. (2017). Urban green spaces and the potential for health improvement and environmental justice in a changing climate. In N. Kabisch, H. Korn, J. Stadler, & A. Bonn (Eds.), Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas: Linkages between Science, Policy and Practice (pp. 207–220). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56091-5_12
- ↑ Morello-Frosch, R., Pastor, M., & Sadd, J. (2001). Environmental justice and Southern California’s “riskscape.” Urban Affairs Review, 36(4), 551–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/10780870122184993
- ↑ Pearsall, H., & Pierce, J. (2010). Urban sustainability and environmental justice: evaluating the linkages in public planning/policy discourse. Local Environment, 15(6), 569–580. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2010.487528
- ↑ Anguelovski, I. (2016). From toxic sites to parks as (green) LULUs? New challenges of inequity, privilege, gentrification, and exclusion for urban environmental justice. Journal of Planning Literature, 31(1), 23–36
- ↑ Armiero, M., & D’Alisa, G. (2012). Rights of resistance: The garbage struggles for environmental justice in Campania, Italy. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 23(4), 52–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2012.724200
- ↑ Thomson, H., Snell, C., & Bouzarovski, S. (2017). Health, well-being and energy poverty in Europe: A comparative study of 32 European countries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(6), 584. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14060584