Environmental Justice

All too often, the places people live in differ drastically depending on their socioeconomic status. This is more apparent in the sorts of environments neighborhoods are created under.

Many underrepresented minority communities experience high poverty rates that have fewer environmentally friendly landscapes or designs as compared to those communities that are more wealthier and privileged with power.

These wealthier areas have a lot more greener spaces such as access to parks and bike paths. Unfortunately, areas of lower-income do not receive the same sorts of features in their communities.

Instead, they receive a lot of sources of pollution such as factories, energy plants, and waste/landfills.

These facilities close proximity to impoverished communities can create a range of health problems like asthma and other respiratory problems, development of cancers, and increasing rates of obesity due to insufficient areas to play and exercise.

The fight to eliminate such disparities is also known as environmental justice, a movement that the Office of Legacy Management defines as the creation of spaces for all people, more so those communities who have historically been disenfranchised, to participate and develop, implement, and enforce environmental regulations and policies.

This would translate into a single population not having to disproportionately share the burden from negative consequences such as pollution. All communities would be protected from environmental hazards.

Besides lacking beneficial environmental features, people with less political and economic power are susceptible to experiencing negative health effects due to the lack of protections from larger systems of power, as seen by larger corporations and coal ash.

Coal ash is a mixture of sludge with high concentrations of many heavy metals that are known to be toxic carcinogens.

These particles can easily enter deep into people's lungs due to their small size and can cause numerous health problems, as described by an article from Nat Geo in their discussion of how larger corporation’s incompetence in protecting its workers has caused the appearance of many diseases.

Another prominent source of health and social inequity concerns lead, another metal that is hazardous to humans as it impairs cognitive development, leading to behavioral issues among children.

Lead pollution and poisoning are more commonly found in urban areas where a greater portion of low-income communities reside, as demonstrated by recent findings in Santa Ana.

Providing residents that platform to voice their concerns and needs against systemic or institutional powers will hopefully help change these situations for the better.

Although each person and family deserves the right to basic necessities such as housing, we must all consider the environments in which we housing units such as apartments are built.

I hope that with this brief introduction to the environmental justice movement, as well as providing the videos about the subject, you can gain this social justice lens in whatever position you find yourself working in at UCI and beyond.

What do you think?

Every week, we will invite you all, our general members, to engage with these topics that each board member offers. Consider reflecting on the following questions and sharing your opinions with us via social media. With your permission, we will add your responses/opinions in the following newsletter to further develop the conversation (and it totally can be confidential too!)

Please feel free to expand or ask other questions, and let us know what you think:

. Do you or anybody you know have been the victim of environmental racism? How so? What specific features have you noticed about the communities you have lived in that makes you say so?

2. In your dream profession, how might you possibly use your position to advocate for environmental justice?

3. What else are you thinking about environmental justice?

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Spotlight Writer

Jesus Chavez, Co-President

This Jesus Chavez one of the co-presidents and is currently a fourth year, double majoring in Public Health Sciences and Public Health Policy with a few certificates. When he's not busy with schoolwork or his involvements such as research, extracurriculars, or his jobs, he likes to work out, listen to music and podcasts, and attending concerts (hopefully will be able to go to more soon).