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Spring 2001

Is Inequality Bad for the Environment and Bad for Your Health?

DifferenTakes Series
8 ~ Spring 2001
[PDF Version]
By James K. Boyce

Inequality is bad for the environment and bad for public health. That’s the conclusion of a recent study of the United States by biologist Andrew Klemer, environmental scientist Paul Templet of Louisiana State University, resource economist Cleve Willis, and the present author.1

James K. Boyce teaches economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

References

  1. James K. Boyce, Andrew R. Klemer, Paul H. Templet, and Cleve E. Willis, “Power Distribution, the Environment, and Public Health: A State-level Analysis, ” Ecological Economics, Vol. 29 (1999), pp. 127-140.
  2. See, for example, Robert D. Bullard, ed., Environmental Justice and Communities of Color (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1994).
  3. Manuel Pastor, Jim Sadd, and John Hipp, “Which Came First? Toxic Facilities, Minority Move-in, and Environmental Justice, ” Journal of Urban Affairs, Vol. 23 (2001), pp. 1-21.
  4. See Ichiro Kawachi, Bruce P. Kennedy, and Richard G. Wilkinson, eds., The Society and Population Health Reader: Income Inequality and Health (New York: New Press, 1999).
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U.S. High School Social Studies Textbooks: Perpetuating the Idea of Overpopulation

DifferenTakes Series
9 ~ Spring 2001
[PDF Version]
By Anne Hendrixson

Ingrained into the U.S. popular imagination is the idea that the world is overpopulated. Americans talk not so much about “population” as “overpopulation,” in the belief that the planet is burdened with too many people. Often, Americans think of this glut of people as flowing from Mexico, India or Africa where birth rates are perceived as out-of-control and rising. Many view “overpopulation” as the main cause of environmental degradation, urban sprawl, hunger, poverty, political instability and even war.

Anne Hendrixson is a freelance writer and activist. She is a core member of the Committee on Women, Population, and the Environment.

References

  1. United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 1998. New York: Oxford University Press.
  2. “National Standards for World History: Exploring Paths to Present,” University of California at Los Angeles: National Center for the History in the Schools (1994), p. 274.
  3. H.J. De Blij and Peter O. Miller, Geography: Realms, Regions and Concepts. 7th edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons (1994), p. 462.
  4. Iftikhar Ahmad, Herbert Brodsky, Marylee Crofts and Elisabeth Ellis, World Cultures: A Global Mosaic. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall (1998), p. 580.
  5. Robin E. Kelly, Fearon’s World Geography and Cultures. Paramus, NY: Globe Fearon Educational Publishers, (1994), p. 163.
  6. See, for example, Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns, The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment. Oxford: The International African Institute in association with James Currey, (1996).
  7. H.J. De Blij and Peter O. Miller, op. cit., p 487.
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The Presidential Election and the Collapse of the Media’s Democracy Police

DifferenTakes Series
10 ~ Spring 2001
[PDF Version]
By Frank Holmquist

Most Americans believe that the U.S. wrote the book on democracy, despite the lack of voting rights for African-Americans until the 1965 Voting Rights Act, just in time for the Bicentennial celebrations. But with last year’s Presidential election and its aftermath we have a President who won neither the popular vote nor the Electoral College vote had Florida votes been properly counted and minority voters not disenfranchised.

Frank Holmquist is a Professor of Politics in the School of Social Science at Hampshire College. He writes about the African political economy and the struggle for democracy in Kenya.

References

  1. Linda Greenhouse, “Divining the Consequences of a Court Divided,” New York Times, Sunday, December 17, 2000, p.16.
  2. Pamela S. Karlan, “The Court Casts its Vote,” New York Times, Monday, December 11, 2000, p. A31; Anthony Lewis, “Raising the Stakes,” New York Times, December 11, 2000, p.A31.
  3. Wayne Barrett, “The Five Worst Republican Outrages,” The Village Voice, December 26, 2000, p. 25.
  4. Adam Nagourney and David Barstow, “G.O.P.’s Depth Outdid Gore’s Team in Florida,” New York Times, Friday, December 22, 2000, p.A1.
  5. Barnett, op.cit.
  6. Of course, many African-American individuals and civil rights organizations did react, although their complaints were generally ignored by the media until the last Supreme Court decision decided the matter. Perhaps the most vigorous pro-democracy mobilization came from the African-American community because their votes may have been disproportionately uncounted and because their voting rights were so long in coming and so hard won.
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Britain’s Man-made BSE Disaster: Boundless and Without Borders

DifferenTakes Series
11 ~ Spring 2001
[PDF Version]
By Dr. Lynette J. Dumble

In 1985, a mystery disease now known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy [BSE or mad cow disease] first appeared in a dairy cow from Kent, England. Within the space of three years, the annual number of BSE-infected cattle in Britain rose to 731. By 1989, 400 new cases appeared each week. By 1992, 100 new cases appeared daily. BSE subsequently spread to fifteen other mainland European countries, leading to the slaughter of five million cattle over the past sixteen years.

Dr. Lynette J. Dumble is a medical and environmental scientist and the International Co-ordinator of the Global Sisterhood Network. Visit the website of the Global Sisterhood Network at: http//home.vicnet.net.au/~globalsn.

Between the years 1970 and 1998, Dr. Dumble held senior research and teaching positions in surgery, and history and philosophy of science, at the University of Melbourne, the University of Illinois in Chicago, and the University of Texas in Houston. She has a major interest in women’s health, and is the author of Medical Misogyny, to be released by Zed Books London in December, 2001.

References

Brown, Paul, et al. “Resistance of scrapie infectivity to steam autoclaving after formalsehyde fixation and limited survival after ashing at 360°C: Practical and theoretical implications.” Journal of Infectious Diseases 1990; 161: 467-472.

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Pollution, Communities, and Schools: A Portrait of Environmental Justice on Southern California’s “Riskscape”

DifferenTakes Series
12 ~ Spring 2001
[PDF Version]
By Rachel Morello-Frosch, Manuel Pastor, Jr.

Lately, politicians have been talking passionately about diversity and equal opportunity in America. Changing demographic realities are pushing politicians in this direction as they are forced to contend with a rapidly changing political and economic landscape. Even President George W. Bush recently unveiled initiatives for improving primary and secondary education for minority and low-income students, emphasizing that no child should be left behind.

Rachel Morello-Frosch is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Health Education at San Francisco State University. She is an epidemiologist and environmental health scientist, whose research interests include air toxics, comparative risk assessment and environmental justice, and conflicts over science and risk in policy-making.

Manuel Pastor, Jr. is a professor of Latin American/Latino Studies and Director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance and Community, at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His current research interests include environmental equity and changing labor markets in regional economies. The authors are currently collaborating on a community-academic partnership that includes research, organizing, and policy advocacy on environmental justice issues in southern California.

References

  1. Institute of Medicine. 1999. “Toward environmental justice: Research, education, and health policy needs.” Pp 14-21. Washington, DC: Committee on Environmental Justice, Health Sciences Policy Program, Health Sciences Section, Institute of Medicine.
  2. Morello-Frosch, R., M. Pastor, and J. Sadd. 2001. “Environmental Justice and Southern California’s “Riskscape”—The Distribution of Air Toxics Exposures and Health Risks Among Diverse Communities.” Urban Affairs Review 36: 551-578.
  3. Pastor, Manuel, James Sadd, and Rachel Morello-Frosch. 2001. “Who’s Minding the Kids? Pollution, Public Schools and Environmental Justice in Los Angeles.” Social Science Quarterly in press.
  4. Pastor, M., J. Sadd, and J. Hipp. 2001. “Which came first? Toxic facilities, minority move-in, and environmental justice.” Journal of Urban Planning, Forthcoming.
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