The problems of environmental racism and environmental justice in America were highly evident after Hurricane Katrina. It became easy to see how some of the environmental burdens are distributed based on race. Read more
New Orleans is 62 percent African American and two feet below sea level. Most of the people stranded after the hurricane "were poor, black, disproportionately elderly, young and old, and without private transportation," which shows how not only where these people living in a high-risk area, but they were also left out of many of the disaster plans.
After reading this article, the part that shocked me the most was when it talked about how years before Hurricane Katrina, environmental justice activists where "anticipating the racially disproportionate effects of climate change." If we knew that a disaster like this was going to happen why wouldn't we derive an evacuation plan that incorporated the majority of the people being affected. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the ones without there own transportation. It's unfortunate that it took a disaster like this for the majority of Americans' to realize the environmental racism that is happening in our country.
For example: It was surprising to me when in the article it talked about how southern African American communities were facing problems from toxic/chemical pollution from oil refineries. It shows that communities in the South were facing environmental racism even before the hurricane. This proves that it really did take a natural disaster for me to realize environmental racism happening in our country.
What do you think are ways to make environmental justice a more known issue without more natural disasters? Do you think Americans have learned from this situation? Why or why not? And, do you think it is possible to ever have environmental justice for everyone? Why or why not?
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