Faces of Environmental Racism

Racial minorities in the United States are disproportionately exposed to toxic wastes and other environmental hazards, and cleanup efforts in their communities are slower and less thorough than efforts elsewhere. Internationally, wealthy countries of the North increasingly ship hazardous wastes to poorer countries of the South, resulting in such tragedies as the disaster at Bhopal. Through case studies that highlight the type of information that is seldom reported in the news, Faces of Environmental Racism exposes the type and magnitude of environmental racism, both domestic and international. The essays explore the justice of current environmental practices, asking such questions as whether cost-benefit analysis is an appropriate analytic technique and whether there are alternate routes to sustainable development in the South. The second edition of this unique volume further explores the ongoing problem of environmental racism. With a new introduction and preface, and new chapters by such experts as Charles W. Mills, Robert Melchior Figueroa, and Segun Gbadegesin, the second edition of Faces of Environmental Racism carries on the work of the first.

This wide-ranging collection of essays . . . is vivid and rigorous., A compelling collection . . . [on] a global issue that demands our immediate attention., Within the context of civil rights, the book clearly illustrates the role of environmental health and justice., This volume portrays extremely well the diversity of perpetrators and victims of environmental injustice around the world. The book makes a strong contribution to the literature, and it is one of the few volumes to recognize environmental justice as a pressing domestic and international issue concurrently., In its second edition Faces of Environmental Racism remains an accessible and penetrating introduction to the issue of environmental racism in North America and as perpetrated in Africa by multi-national corporations based in industrialised western nations.

Laura Westra is professor emerita of philosophy at the University of Windsor and the author or editor of numerous books, including An Environmental Proposal for Ethics (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994), Faces of Environmental Racism (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995), Perspectives on Ecological Integrity (Kluwer), The Greeks and the Environment (Rowman & Littlefield, 1997) and Technology and Values (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998). Bill Lawson is professor of philosophy at Michigan State University.