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Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada by
From Flint, Michigan, to Standing Rock, North Dakota, minorities have found themselves losing the battle for clean resources and a healthy environment. This book provides a modern history of such environmental injustices in the United States and Canada. From the 19th-century extermination of the buffalo in the American West to Alaska's Project Chariot (a Cold War initiative that planned to use atomic bombs to blast out a harbor on Eskimo land) to the struggle for recovery and justice in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, this book provides readers with an enhanced understanding of how poor and minority people are affected by natural and manmade environmental crises. Written for students as well as the general reader with an interest in social justice and environmental issues, this book traces the relationship between environmental discrimination, race, and class through a comprehensive case history of environmental injustices. Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability includes 50 such case studies that range from local to national to international crises. Provides comprehensive coverage and analysis of the far-reaching specter of environmental racism in the U.S. and Canada, using numerous case studies that extend across the U.S. and Canada from the 19th century into the present day Examines the confluence of climate change, natural resource conflicts, political and corporate corruption, and racism Reflects a regional arrangement to better highlight patterns and types of injustices as well as victims Is written by a prolific author and expert on environmental and Native American issues
Call Number: GE230 .J65 2020
Love Canal Revisited by
Thirty years after the headlines, Love Canal remains synonymous with toxic waste. When this neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York, burst upon the nation's consciousness, the media focused on a working-class white woman named Lois Gibbs, who gained prominence as an activist fighting to save families from the poison buried beneath their homes. Her organization, the Love Canal Homeowners Association, challenged big government and big business--and ultimately won relocation. But as Elizabeth Blum now shows, the activists at Love Canal were a very diverse lot. Blum reveals that more lurks beneath the surface of this story than most people realize--and more than mere toxins. She takes readers behind the headlines to show that others besides Gibbs played important roles and to examine how race, class, and gender influenced the way people--from African American women to middle class white Christian groups--experienced the crisis and became active at Love Canal. Blum explores the often-rocky interracial relationships of the community, revealing how marginalized black women fought to be heard as they defined their environmental activism as an ongoing part of the civil rights struggle. And she examines how the middle-class Ecumenical Task Force--consisting of progressive, educated whites--helped to negotiate legal obstacles and to secure the means to relocate and compensate black residents. Blum also demonstrates how the crisis challenged gender lines far beyond casting mothers in activist roles. Women of the LCHA may have rejected feminism because of its anti-family stance, but they staunchly believed in their rights. And the incident changed the lives of working-class men, who found their wives in the front lines rather than in the kitchen. In addition, male bureaucrats and politicians ran into significant opposition from groups of both men and women who pressed for greater emphasis on health rather than economics for solutions to the crisis. No previous account of Love Canal has considered the plight of these other segments of the population. By doing so, Blum shows that environmental activism opens a window on broader social movements and ideas, such as civil rights and feminism. Her book moves the story of Love Canal well beyond its iconic legacy--the Superfund Act that makes polluters accountable--to highlight another vital legacy, one firmly rooted in race, class, and gender.
Call Number: GE235.N7 B58 2008
Silent Spring by
First published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, Silent Spring alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. "Silent Spring became a runaway bestseller, with international reverberations . . . [It is] well crafted, fearless and succinct . . . Even if she had not inspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one of the greatest nature writers in American letters" (Peter Matthiessen, for Time's 100 Most Influential People of the Century). This fortieth anniversary edition celebrates Rachel Carson's watershed book with a new introduction by the author and activist Terry Tempest Williams and a new afterword by the acclaimed Rachel Carson biographer Linda Lear, who tells the story of Carson's courageous defense of her truths in the face of ruthless assault from the chemical industry in the year following the publication of Silent Spring and before her untimely death in 1964.
Call Number: SB959 .C3 2012
Love Canal by
The inspiring story of a seemingly ordinary woman who led one of the most successful, single-purpose, grassroots efforts of our time.
Call Number: TD181.N72N513
Love Canal - 40 Years Later
Love Canal: A Legacy of Doubt
- Love Canal: A Legacy of DoubtIn 1978, toxic chemicals leaking from an old landfill thrust an upstate New York community called Love Canal into the national headlines, and made it synonymous with “environmental disaster.”
Love Canal Nightmare
- Love Canal NightmareIn 1980, three frustrated mothers made American history by taking federal officials hostage in the community built on the site of New York's toxic Love Canal. In this riveting expose, the three activists-Lois Gibbs, Barbara Quimby, and Patti Grenzy-and research scientist Dr. Beverly Paigen, who staunchly stood by the residents, discuss their volatile four-year political battle to have the entire community evacuated. Archival footage of President Jimmy Carter, Jane Fonda, government officials, and residents who were on the scene convey the urgency of America's first headline eco-disaste
Databases
- Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Viewpoint essays, topic essays, and news and magazine articles on controversial issues. Browse for topics or search.
- Points of View Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Points of view essays, topic overviews, and news and magazine articles on controversial issues. Browse for topics or search.
Online from CCBC Libraries
Green Voices by
The written works of nature's leading advocates--from Charles Sumner and John Muir to Rachel Carson and President Jimmy Carter, to name a few--have been the subject of many texts, but their speeches remain relatively unknown or unexamined. Green Voices aims to redress this situation. After all, when it comes to the leaders, heroes, and activists of the environmental movement, their speeches formed part of the fertile earth from which uniquely American environmental expectations, assumptions, and norms germinated and grew. Despite having in common a definitively rhetorical focus, the contributions in this book reflect a variety of methods and approaches. Some concentrate on a single speaker and a single speech. Others look at several speeches. Some are historical in orientation, while others are more theoretical. In other words, this collection examines the broad sweep of US environmental history from the perspective of our most famous and influential environmental figures. This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to Knowledge Unlatched--an initiative that provides libraries and institutions with a centralized platform to support OA collections and from leading publishing houses and OA initiatives. Learn more at the Knowledge Unlatched website at:
Call Number: 2016
Carson's Silent Spring by
Silent Spring is a watershed moment in the history of environmentalism, credited with launching the modern environmental movement. In synthesizing a jumble of scientific and medical information into a coherent argument, Carson successfully challenged major chemical industries and the idea that modern societies could and should exert mastery over nature at any cost. Her critique remains salient today.This book provides the first in-depth analysis, contextualisation and overview of Silent Spring, a critical work in the history of environmentalism, surveying its lasting impact on the environmentalist movement in the last fifty years.
Call Number: 2014
Love Canal by
Today, "Love Canal" is synonymous with the struggle for environmental health and justice. But in 1972, when Lois Gibbs moved there with her husband and new baby, it was simply a modest neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York. How did this community become the poster child for toxic disasters? How did Gibbs and her neighbors start a national movement that continues to this day? What do their efforts teach us about current environmental health threats and how to prevent them? Love Canal is Gibbs' original account of the landmark case, now updated with insights gained over three decades.
Call Number: 2011
