Environmental Slavery and Oppression: A Global Problem

Contributors: Sakereh Carter and Dr. Sacoby Wilson

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Have you ever considered where your trash goes? Who cultivated the sugar that you put in your coffee everyday? Who was responsible for making the bricks on the outside of your home? The contaminants that people are exposed to, so that you could buy a new sweater? The American lifestyle is inherently oppressive, the small luxuries that we take for granted come at the expense of others' health and well-being.

Recent studies demonstrate an occupational link between heat stress and chronic kidney disease in Nicaraguan sugarcane workers. Above: Male sugarcane workers in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. Jason Beaubien. SOURCE: NPR

Globally, low-wealth Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are disproportionately impacted by a myriad of environmental and occupational hazards including landfills [1], incinerators [2], power plants [3], leaking underground storage tanks [4], occupational heat stress [5], pesticide exposure [6], lead poisoning [7], and much more [8].

The inequitable distribution of environmental hazards in low-wealth communities of color is linked to imperialist subjugation, oppression, and exploitation of low-income and non-White communities [9]. This exploitation protects the economic capital and status of global economic powers. For example, Africa is the only continent that’s able to back its currency with natural resources. In Burgis’s book “The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa’s Wealth [10].” Burgis ascribes Africa’s economic situation to historical and contemporary looting of resources across the continent. Burgis argues that “each of us bears responsibility for this sorry situation every time we thoughtlessly fill our cars with gas, buy a gold or a diamond wedding ring, sip a fizzy drink in an aluminum can or use a cellphone [10].”

Incessant extraction of Africa’s natural resources perpetuates Western exceptionalism, as America and other developed countries use African resources to maintain the inequitable distribution of power across the world. Analogous to slavery in America, the world turns a blind eye to pervasive injustices in order to sustain our consumer habits and convenient lifestyles. Moreover, the devaluation of BIPOC communities justifies the mistreatment, maliciousness, and atrocities inflicted on Africans, Mexicans, Indigenous, Latino, African-Americans/Blacks, Southeast Asians, and other people of color. Overall, the uneven distribution of polluting entities, capitalistic exploitation, sanctioned poisoning, and othering of BIPOC communities fosters environmental slavery [9].

Environmental slavery encompasses both environmental racism and classism [9]. Environmental racism refers to the prejudice and biases held by institutions and people that enable individuals within the dominant group to degrade environmental landscapes and harm human health in BIPOC communities [9]. Environmental racism is observed when a multitude of companies concentrate toxic facilities in BIPOC neighborhoods, policymakers sanction the siting of polluting entities in BIPOC communities, and enforce laws that benefit the dominant racial group, and BIPOC communities are devalued due to their perceived inferiority [9]. Similarly, environmental classism refers to the disregard for low-wealth individuals which justifies the inordinate amount of environmental hazards in low-wealth communities. The perceived disposability of low-wealth communities contributes to a higher prevalence of locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) that are driven by “cheap land” acquisition and lack of political resistance. Notably, cheap is synonymous with “worthless”, “a bargain”, and “inferior” which inevitably informs the way people living ON that cheap land are treated. Thus, environmental classism and racism go hand-in-hand to produce environmental slavery [9].

Uneven Distribution of Polluting Entities

“Imported plastic waste was put into cargo containers at Port Klang in Malaysia last month before being returned to its country of origin.” Credit: Fazry Ismail/EPA, via Shutterstock. SOURCE: NYTIMES

BIPOC communities are disproportionately exposed to environmental pollutants that synergistically impact their health and well-being. In Southeast Asia, the implementation of China’s National Sword Policy diverted all plastic waste to low-income communities of color in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia [11] (See Image 2, 3, 4). To reduce the unconscionable amount of plastic waste, community members open-air burn, melt or incinerate the plastic which releases toxic compounds into their air and local waterways [11]. A farmer living in Thailand said, “You are selfish.” Petrochemical waste has impacted her health and contaminated her drinking water. “It’s your trash and you know it’s toxic. Why do you dump your trash in Thailand [11]?

These noxious land uses make it difficult to attract healthy investments which increases the probability that BIPOC communities are dumped on more, creating a feedback loop.

Global Plastic Pipeline. SOURCE: VISUAL CAPITALIST

Environmental degradation from plastic pollution decreases land value and contaminates waterways, flora, and livestock. Consequently, local residents are unable to live off the land, suffer from agonizing ailments, and reside in visually unappealing environments. If your community was heavily polluted and littered with plastic scraps, what kind of message would that send to you? The message screams that we devalue these communities and they don’t deserve to live in clean, beautiful environments.

“She grew up there and said that when she was a child, their house was surrounded by forests. The air was fresh and smelled of leaves and flowers. She used to fish in the creeks. There are no flowers now and the water is too polluted for her children to fish in, or even go outside; there are too many trucks from the plastic recycling factories rumbling through the neighborhood. Their roads are littered with flakes of plastic [11].”

It may not be your fault that petrochemical companies infuse every American product with plastic, but it is your duty to fight against companies that exploit communities for capital gain, harm human health, and destroy the environment. Support legislation and community-based organizations that divest from fossil fuels, stymie plastic use, and curb plastic production.

Plastic litters the ground in Mumbai, India . Credit: Randy Olson. SOURCE: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

In Owino Uhuru, a suburb of Mombasa, residents experience elevated lead exposure due to a nearby lead smelter that recycles lead-acid batteries [12] (See Image 5). The Kenyan court awarded $12 million US dollars to compensate residents for damages and contamination from the operation [12]. Lead exposure is associated with reduced IQ in children, reproductive toxicity, neurological deficiencies, and multigenerational effects [13].

Residents hold up a sign that says “Public Health You Have Failed Kenya” in Owino Uhuru, a suburb of Mombasa. SOURCE: HRW

We must not treat environmental pollution like a disease that can be rectified with drugs. The damages associated with environmental pollution are multi-generational, persist for decades, and destroy communities that often don’t have the infrastructure or capacity to handle an environmental catastrophe.

Economic Exploitation

Profit motives are the driving factor for environmental degradation and the poisoning of BIPOC communities. A component of environmental slavery is the global gap in economic wealth between developed nations and undeveloped nations. Economic wealth is accrued through the exploitation of BIPOC communities with overseas labor, lax environmental regulations, and overcharging consumers in developed countries.

“A child labourer packs bags of cobalt for poverty wages, while the companies exploiting him make billions.” SOURCE: THENATIONAL.SCOT

Human rights activists filed a lawsuit against Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla alleging that these companies violated human rights policies by placing children in dangerous cobalt mining conditions [14] (See Image 6). Cobalt is a critical component of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in cell phones and electrical vehicles and 60% of cobalt is mined in the democratic republic of the Congo [14]. A 2018 study found that children living near the mines exhibit DNA damage as a result of mining activity and preliminary studies suggest that cobalt miners newborn children have an increased risk of birth defects [15]. After use, many of America’s electronic items are sent to Southeast Asia where e-waste recyclers are exposed to toxic chemicals that are associated with reproductive toxicity, immunotoxicity, and cancer [11] (See Image 7). In 2019, all Apple companies accrued 260.2 billion dollars in revenue [16].

In Nicaragua, male sugarcane workers are dying from chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) which is linked to chronic occupational heat stress and volume depletion [5] (See Image 1). Insufficient kidney donors, lack of alternative job opportunities, poor access to healthcare, and low economic wealth prevents male workers from leaving the industry or receiving treatment. “There is no alternative,” says a woman from La Isla, Nicaragua, who lost her father to CKD. “No other way to support a family [17].”

“Imported plastic cases from electronic products mostly originating in the USA, Canada and China are seen at an illegal recycling factory near Klang, Malaysia on 21st January, 2019.” SOURCE: GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR INCINERATOR ALTERNATIVES (GAIA)

In 2017, American consumers spent 380 billion on articles of clothing [18]. Approximately, “20% of industrial pollution comes from the textile manufacturing process and over 8,000 chemicals are used to turn raw materials into clothing [19].” Many textile workers are exposed to these toxic chemicals without adequate protection [19]. These toxins CREATE RIVERWAYS SO TOXIC that they eradicate ecological wildlife and increase the risk of cancer in adjacent communities [19].

State-Sanctioned Poisoning of BIPOC communities

Unjust discriminatory environmental practices are fortified with local, state, and federal law. These statutes enforce toxic land and zoning decisions, establish thresholds for pollution emissions, and determine the level of stringency for external investors. If lax, environmental regulations may encourage the aggregation of polluting entities in one locale. The monopolization of industry in global BIPOC communities breeds modern-day colonialism because communities are FORCED to work in those industries to provide for their families. In several cases, these industries corrupt local governments by creating economically-driven deals with political leaders, although the money is not allocated to the general population. Furthermore, these industries convince local communities that industry is good for economic development and that they can make more money working for a toxic industry in a toxic environment. The crucial piece of information withheld from local residents is that their salary is a small fraction of the revenue that the company generates in developed nations. In Indonesia, the plastic scrap sorting industry is touted as a ‘good job’ because sifters may find American or European currency among the rubbish [11] (See Image 8, 9). “In two months, he’s found about $100 among the trash, though the money changer who comes to collect their foreign currency gives him about 7000 Indonesian rupiah for each US dollar, half the global market exchange rate [11].”

“A waste picker burns imported plastic discarded from a paper recycling factory in Bangun, East Java, Indonesia. The plastic comes in bales of imported paper for recycling.” Photo courtesy of Fully Handoko/Ecoto. SOURCE: GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR INCINERATOR ALTERNATIVES (GAIA)

Imported plastic waste discarded from paper recycling plants piles up in villages in Bangun, East Java, Indonesia. Photo courtesy of Fully Handoko/Ecoton. SOURCE: GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR INCINERATOR ALTERNATIVES (GAIA).

Othering BIPOC communities

Weis, 1995 describes ‘othering’ as “that process which serves to mark and name those thought to be different from oneself” [20]. A study conducted in 2018 revealed that African American/Black and White boys raised in similar socioeconomic conditions exhibit stark differences in economic capital and earnings as adults. This study prompted a follow-up conversation with three African-American scholar-activists Erin Kerrison, School of Social Welfare, University of California Berkeley; Wizdom Powell, Health Disparities Institute, University of Connecticut; and Abigail Sewell, Sociology, Emory University held by Othering & Belonging Editor-in-chief Andrew Grant Thomas concerning the process of ‘othering’ Black people and other people of color.

When asked “What does othering mean to you?” Wizdom and Erin responded:

WIZDOM: I think to be othered is to be denied the fullness of one’s humanity. It’s about reminding people, either by the barriers we put up in social spaces or the barriers to opportunities to advance our well-being, about saying through words or actions, that “you’re not one of us.”

ABIGAIL: “I want to add that the other rendering renders the subject as an object. When you are rendered as object instead of subject, then anything can be done to you and it’s okay. We, the mainstream, the people who are not othered, the self to which other people need to aspire, can do whatever we want to you and you have no recourse. And I think that’s a really important part of being relegated to the object as opposed to the subject.”

The dehumanization of indigenous communities and communities of color is so deeply ingrained in our society that we use these individuals to soak up the most poisonous compounds on the planet. Deformities, low birth weight, and infertility, we sterilize these communities and use their babies to soak up toxic compounds so that we can sustain our consumer habits and companies can satisfy their insatiable desire for money. Profit motives and the disdain for low-resource communities leads to the dehumanization and devaluing of these populations that justifies the creation and maintenance of ‘sacrifice zones’ [9].

“Native Americans march to a burial ground disturbed by bulldozers building the Dakota Access Pipeline, September 2016.” Credit: Robyn Beck Getty Images. SOURCE: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

One study found an association between pesticide exposure and an increased risk of having a child with anencephaly in agriculture workers [21]. Newborn babies diagnosed with anencephaly are born stillborn 75% of the time and die within months if they survive [22]. Oil and gas extraction poisons the land that indigenous communities rely on for survival and cultural preservation. Contamination of food and water from fossil fuel extraction is linked to diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure [23]. “Before, longevity was a part of our heritage, but now we are the sacrificed communities and our people are dying because of new diseases we never had before [24] (See Image 10). Additionally, the negative health effects associated with environmental exposures can take years to manifest, a phenomenon Murphy calls the “chemical manifestation of ongoing colonial violence [25].

Our consumption of fossil fuels supports a self-indulgent extractive economy that cares more about profit margins than actual people.

Sacrifice zones are maintained by economic and political forces that often don’t align with the interests of low-income communities of color. These forces are reinforced by regional law enforcement and unchecked global militarization. On January 16th, 2020, a court-ordered mandate sanctioned the forcible removal of activists that were protesting the construction of a pipeline on Indigenous land [26] (See Image 11). The policing of Brown and Black bodies across the world perpetuates the oppression of low-resource communities by restricting individual agency, pacifying resistance, placing constraints on community autonomy, and protecting the interests of White and wealthy companies.

“Police officers making an arrest during a raid on a Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory camp near a railway crossing in Tyendinaga, Ontario, on Monday.” Credit: Chris Helgren/Reuters SOURCE: COMMON DREAMS

We cannot control where we’re born. We have to make sure that everyone has access to clean water, air, and soil. None of us are tangentially related to the aforementioned atrocities, we are complicit in this system of oppression every time we buy a TV, use our cellphones, or buy 200 dollars worth of clothing. We are contributing to an exploitative, oppressive, racist system that disproportionately impacts low-wealth communities of color. It’s time to RETHINK AND RESTRUCTURE the way this society operates because the way it currently operates is KILLING people and we need to love each other not destroy each other (See Image 12) [27].

Here is a set of recommendations to implement and advance environmental justice across the globe [28] (See Figure 1, Table 1):

“A fire burned in the Amazon basin on November 22, 2014, in Ze Doca, Brazile. Mario Tama/Getty.” SOURCE: BUSINESS INSIDER

1. Academic researchers, environmental experts, health practitioners, and political stakeholders should utilize the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas), a global environmental justice mapping tool that delineates environmental conflicts on a global scale. Conflicts may be categorized by “commodity, by company, by country, by forms of mobilization, social actors involved, types of environmental, social, health and economic impacts, and by outcomes.” https://ejatlas.org/

“Frequency of forms of mobilization for environmental justice. SOURCE: Joan Martinez-Alier et al., 2016

2. The EJAtlas may be used to conduct statistical analyses on local environmental conflicts across the globe. In 2015, mining (21%), resource extraction (19%), land conflicts (17%), and water quality (14%) accounted for 71% of all global conflicts suggesting that extractive economies cultivate socio-environmental conflicts.

3. Global activists, EJ advocates, and EJ academic researchers should learn non-academic EJ terminology that recognizes community expertise, experience, and community-led environmental justice pedagogy (See Table 

“Vocabulary of the global environmental justice movement.” SOURCE: Joan Martinez- Alier et al., 2016

“Vocabulary of the global environmental justice movement.” Continued. SOURCE: Joan Martinez- Alier et al., 2016

4. Black, Indigenous, and People of color should seek professional support from academic researchers, scientific experts, non-governmental organizations, and trade unions. This will increase political autonomy, strengthen community-university partnerships, and support community assertions of injustice.

5. An analysis of successful global environmental justice cases revealed that ‘strengthening of participation’ across a multitude of stakeholders enhances positive outcomes in environmental conflicts.

6. Apply the theoretical paradigm of ‘global environmental justice’ including “(1) equity in the burden of environmental risk, (2) recognition of the diversity of the participants and experiences in affected communities, and (3) participation in the political processes which create and manage environmental policy to local environmental perturbations and EJ curriculum.

The Global Environmental Justice Atlas. SOURCE: EJAtlas.org

References

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2. https://environmentmaryland.org/blogs/blog/mde/plastic-perspective-plastic-and-public-health

3. https://www.naacp.org/climate-justice-resources/coal-blooded/; https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-plants-smother-communities-of-color/

4. Sacoby Wilson, Hongmei Zhang, Kristen Burwell, Ashok Samantapudi, Laura Dalemarre, Chengsheng Jiang, LaShanta Rice, Edith Williams, and Charles Naney.Environmental Justice.Oct 2013.175–182.http://doi.org/10.1089/env.2013.0019

5. Wesseling, C., Glaser, J., Rodríguez-Guzmán, J., Weiss, I., Lucas, R., Peraza, S., da Silva, A. S., Hansson, E., Johnson, R. J., Hogstedt, C., Wegman, D. H., & Jakobsson, K. (2020). Chronic kidney disease of non-traditional origin in Mesoamerica: a disease primarily driven by occupational heat stress. Revista panamericana de salud pública = Pan American journal of public health, 44, e15. https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2020.15; https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/02/04/383628551/new-clues-to-mysterious-kidney-disease-afflicting-sugar-cane-workers

6. https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/documents/RacePovertyPesticides072009.pdf

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8. Martinez-Alier, J. (2016, January 07). Global Environmental Justice and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199685271.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199685271-e-25

9. Environmental Justice Movement: A Review of History, Research, and Public Health Issues.Source: Journal of Public Management & Social Policy . 2010, Vol. 16 Issue 1, p19–50. 32p. 2 Charts, 1 Graph. Author(s): Wilson, Sacoby M.

10. Burgis, T. (2016). The looting machine: Warlords, oligarchs, corporations, smugglers, and the theft of Africa’s wealth. London: William Collins.

11. https://wastetradestories.org/; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/world/asia/asia-trash.html; https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapping-the-flow-of-the-worlds-plastic-waste/; https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis/

12. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/22/landmark-decision-kenya-lead-pollution-case#:~:text=Felix%20Horne&text=In%20a%20victory%20for%20environmental,that%20recycled%20lead%2Dacid%20batteries.

13. Vigeh, Mohsen et al. “How does lead induce male infertility?.” Iranian journal of reproductive medicine vol. 9,1 (2011): 1–8.; Reuben, Aaron et al. “Association of Childhood Blood Lead Levels With Cognitive Function and Socioeconomic Status at Age 38 Years and With IQ Change and Socioeconomic Mobility Between Childhood and Adulthood.” JAMA vol. 317,12 (2017): 1244–1251. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.1712

14. https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/17/tech/apple-microsoft-tesla-dell-congo-cobalt-mining/index.html; https://www.thenational.scot/news/18109815.google-tech-giants-fight-cobalt-child-labour-case/

15. Banza Lubaba Nkulu, C., Casas, L., Haufroid, V., De Putter, T., Saenen, N. D., Kayembe-Kitenge, T., Musa Obadia, P., Kyanika Wa Mukoma, D., Lunda Ilunga, J. M., Nawrot, T. S., Luboya Numbi, O., Smolders, E., & Nemery, B. (2018). Sustainability of artisanal mining of cobalt in DR Congo. Nature sustainability, 1(9), 495–504. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0139-4

16. https://www.statista.com/statistics/265125/total-net-sales-of-apple-since-2004/

17. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16007129

18. https://remake.world/stories/news/how-fast-fashion-and-racism-are-intricately-linked/

19. https://www.greenamerica.org/program/toxic-textiles

20. 1995, Lois Weis, “Identity Formation and the Process of ‘Othering’: Unraveling Sexual Threads”, in Educational Foundations: A Journal Focusing on Interdisciplinary Aspects of the Educational Foundations, volume 9, number 1, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Prakken Publications; San Francisco, Calif.: Caddo Gap Press, ISSN 1047–8248, OCLC1010553345; Othering and Belonging 3 (August 2018): ©2018 by Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley. ISSN 2474–6061

21. Lacasaña, M., Vázquez-Grameix, H., Borja-Aburto, V. H., Blanco-Muñoz, J., Romieu, I., Aguilar-Garduño, C., & García, A. M. (2006). Maternal and paternal occupational exposure to agricultural work and the risk of anencephaly. Occupational and environmental medicine, 63(10), 649–656. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2005.023333

22. https://www.healthline.com/health/anencephaly

23. Maldonado, J.K.; Pandya, R.; Colombi, B., eds. 2014. Climate change and indigenous peoples in the United States: impacts, experiences and actions. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Publishing International. 174 p; Maldonado, J.K.; Shearer, C.; Bronen, R.; Peterson, K.; Lazrus, H. 2013. The impact of climate change on tribal communities in the US: Displacement, relocation, and human rights. Climatic Change. 3: 601–614.

24. https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr944.pdf; https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/native-americans-fighting-fossil-fuels/

25. Murphy, M. 2013. Chemical infrastructures of the St. Clair River. In: Boudia, S.; Jas, N., eds. Toxicants, health and regulation since 1945. London: Pickering and Chatto: 103–115.

26. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/canadian-police-arrest-activists-blocking-gas-pipeline-indigenous-land-wetsuweten; https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/world/canada/rail-blockade-protest.html; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/canada-indigenous-land-defenders-police-documents

27. https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-fires-breaking-records-2019-8

28. David Schlosberg (2004) Reconceiving Environmental Justice: Global Movements And Political Theories, Environmental Politics, 13:3, 517–540, DOI: 10.1080/0964401042000229025; https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/16-icas_cp_martinez_alier_et_al.pdf