Sustainability

"In the 1980s, a new movement was born to combat what its leaders called "environmental racism." Those leaders said, in essence: "Regulate pollution, yes--but do it with equity. Do it fairly. Don't make black, brown, and poor children bear a disproportionate burden of asthma and cancer. Regulate, yes--but do it fairly."

"...Among the devasting findings [of the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ's landmark report Toxic Wastes and Race (1987)] was that three out of the five largest commercial hazardous waste landfills in the United States were located in predominantly black or Hispanic communities .. Three out of every five black and Hispanic Americans lived in communites with uncontrolled toxic waste sites, while approximately half of all Asian/Pacific Islanders and Indians lived with them."--Van Jones, The Green-Collar Economy

"Restoration means putting the Earth's life support systems back in working order: rivers, forests, wetlands, deserts, soil, and endanged species, too... Human systems also need restoration. Let's rehabilitate the South Bronx, and all the other places like it across the Earth. To accomplish that, we must give the unemployed and the never-employed a stake in the wider restoration process. Let's also put environmental conscience into world trade and into our corporate thinking."--David Brower, Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run, 1995

Economic Think Tanks

Wealth and Asset Ownership in the U.S.

For U.S. statistics, consult the U.S. Census Bureau's Wealth and Asset Ownership section.

Environmental Justice Links