ENVIRONMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

ENVIRONMENT - Essay Example This brings us to the first reason which highlights the notion of the existence of environmental racism – that of social inequality; the one that exists and widens the margin between the upper and middle white class and the lowly minorities; hence the formulation of a basic criticism which looked at how the low income and the minority Americans had to face the clearly disproportionate burden of environmental issues. These comprised of the existence of basic landfill which were located near their residence as well as the unsafe and risky environments in which these individuals held jobs (Bullard, 2000) Studies conducted on the placement of hazardous toxic waste sites went to show that the primary locations selected for the dumping of unsafe agents were mostly in the South. It showed how the hazardous waste sites were located primarily in the communities where the black resided. This brings us to the second reason that contributes to environmental inequality, that which pertains to racial inequality and discrimination being a major reason why it is mainly residential areas in which the low income black reside are primary locations for the dumping and disposal of hazardous toxic wastes (Gaventa, John and Willingham, 1990). The aspect of residential segregation along with racial income inequality falls to be the key reasons as to why environmental inequality in societies prevails. Even since 1987, research has focused on these aspects looking at the reasons behind why it was that the minorities were at higher risk as compared to whites to be living in areas which had more pollution, health risks, and unsafe environmental aspects. They were able to chalk down residential segregation as one of the top reasons as to why societies showed such disparity when it come to the allocation of environmentally unsafe locations being near the minority or African-American residential areas. GIS based socio-spatial analysis is just one way that we can see the