Environmental Justice
“You can’t have climate change without sacrifice zones, and you can’t have sacrifice zones without disposable people, and you can’t have disposable people without racism.”
Hop Hopkins
Pollution Sources
Manufacturing
Wherever there are economic, political and social inequities, you will find environmental injustices. Maryland is no exception. From CAFO’s on the Eastern Shore to the smokestacks of South Baltimore to Brandywine in Prince George’s County, poorer communities and communities of color suffer a disproportionate burden of environmental degradation, and thus health inequities.
The MD Campaign for Environmental Human Rights understands that to fight for the right to a healthy environment we need to fight the racism that is at the root of environmental injustice. To achieve that end, we are working to:
- Create a state Environmental Justice Commission with teeth
- Laws that require the assessment of the cumulative impact of discrete environmental permits before adding others to the mix
- Laws that require environmental impact assessments including health impact assessments
- Rules that give teeth to Maryland’s 1973 Environmental Policy Act (MEPA)
“If environmental justice is to be secured for all … there must be a concerted effort to amend state constitutions to include the environmental rights of individual citizens.”
Barry Hill, former Director of the Office of Environmental Justice at the EPA