Posted on 04/06/2012 1:00:30 AM PDT by Absolutely Nobama
From HHS:
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“HHS Environmental Justice Strategy and Implementation Plan
HHS recognizes that disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards with negative health effects persists in minority and low-income populations and Indian tribes and that coordinated Federal action is needed to eliminate these disparities. The HHS vision for environmental justice is ‘a nation that equitably promotes healthy community environments and protects the health of all people’. The 2012 HHS Environmental Justice Strategy and Implementation Plan (2012 HHS EJ Strategy) provides clear direction of goals, strategies and actions to address environmental justice in minority and low-income populations and Indian tribes.
The 2012 HHS EJ Strategy was developed as part of the Department’s reaffirmation of its commitment to environmental justice. In August 2011, HHS joined 16 other Federal agencies in signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898. The MOU called for each agency to develop an environmental justice strategy and prepare annual implementation progress reports. HHS published a draft EJ Strategy in October 2011 for public comment. The final 2012 HHS EJ Strategy reflects comments received during the public comment process, as well as comments and concerns expressed in seventeen stakeholder engagements between November 2010 and November 2011.
The 2012 HHS EJ Strategy is organized into four interrelated strategic elements as follows:
•Policy Development and Dissemination
•Education and Training
•Research and Data Collection, Analysis, and Utilization
•Services
Overview of the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice
The Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ IWG) was established in 1994 under Executive Order (EO) 12898. On September 22, 2010, Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, reinvigorated the EJ IWG. The role of the EJ IWG is to guide, support and enhance federal environmental justice and community-based activities, and it requires each of the 17 Federal agencies who are members of the working group to ‘make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.’ Visit http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/ for more information.
On August 4, 2011, the leadership of the 17 Federal agencies, including HHS, took an important step in the Administration’s effort to support environmental justice by signing the Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898 (EJ MOU). Among the responsibilities called for in the EJ MOU is for each of the Federal agencies to review, and where appropriate, update their existing environmental justice strategies.
HHS Environmental Justice
•HHS 2012 Environmental Justice Strategy
•HHS 2012 Environmental Justice Strategy (PDF)
•HHS 2012 Environmental Justice Progress Report
•HHS 2012 Environemtnal Justice Progress Report (PDF)
Environmental Justice across HHS
•CDC/OMHD
•NIH/NIEHS
•NIH/NLM
Additional Resources
•Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice In Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations (Executive Order 12898) (PDF – TBD KB)
•F2010 White House Environmental Justice Forum Speech
•Environmental Justice at the EPA
http://www.hhs.gov/environmentaljustice/
ABC: Judge Cuts Water to California Farmers to Save Endangered Fish
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2009/03/31/abc-judge-cuts-water-california-farmers-save-endangered-fish
Michelle Obama has new warning on obesity
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46303.html
Why obesity is a national security threat
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-06/opinion/frum.obesity.military_1_military-personnel-physical-education-military-service?_s=PM:OPINION
New plan to cut the fat of the military
http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/new-plan-to-cut-the-fat-of-the-military
Inspectors Searching Children’s Lunch Boxes: “This Isn’t China, Is It?”
http://www.nccivitas.org/2012/state-inspectors-searching-childrens-lunch-boxes-this-isnt-china-is-it/
Humanity Needs to Start Farming Bugs for Food, Says United Nations Policy Paper
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-08/humanity-needs-start-farming-bugs-food-says-united-nations-policy-paper
The Six-Legged Meat of the Future
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703293204576106072340020728.html
To Fight World Hunger, the Secret Ingredient Could Be Bugs
http://www.good.is/post/to-fight-world-hunger-the-secret-ingredient-could-be-bugs/
Health department raids community picnic and destroys all food with bleach
http://www.adistinctiveworld.net/?p=6091
FDA shuts down raw milk producer
http://harvestpublicmedia.org/article/1030/fda-shuts-down-raw-milk-producer/5
Shutdown of two small cheesemakers raises more doubts about food-safety legislation
http://grist.org/politics/2010-10-30-the-fda-inspired-shutdown-of-two-small-cheesemakers-raises-more/
No soup for you! Mike targets salt sellers
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/no_soup_for_you_mike_targets_salt_Y7r7Xs73WnRLTX8Q08Tl2M
Blame Photoshop, Not Diabetes, for This Amputation
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/nyregion/in-health-dept-ad-photoshop-not-diabetes-took-leg.html?_r=1
And, finally from Occupy Wall Street:
“The Environmental Justice Committee is collaborating with activists from other Occupies and organizations on a series of actions for Earth Day. We are planning actions related to community gardens, Chevron’s environmental impact, and an analysis for Earth Day that highlights the ecological devastation caused by the 1% and its disproportionate affect on communities of color and neighborhoods experiencing economic oppression.”
http://occupyoakland.org/generalassembly/committees/environmental-justice-committee/
Is there EJ in the FDA?
Yep.
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/95s0316/95s-0316-rpt0274-09-NEJAC-vol210.pdf?utm_campaign=Google2&utm_source=fdaSearch&utm_medium=website&utm_term=environmental justice&utm_content=2
A whole lot, in fact.
EJ is big in the US Army, too.
“Environmental Justice (back to top)
Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies (EPA, 1996). Opportunities for involving historically disadvantaged communities offer different challenges and may require different approaches. This part of the Web site is a resource for those situations.
Executive Order #12898 (February 1994) - Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-income Populations
DoD Strategy on Environmental Justice (March 1995) – Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-income Populations”
http://www.asaie.army.mil/Public/IE/Toolbox/reference_materials.html
Mother Jones: Can you briefly explain what 'environmental justice' means to you?
Van Jones: Environmental justice is the movement to ensure that no community suffers disproportionate environmental burdens or goes without enjoying fair environmental benefits.
And the Air Force:
The EA addresses the potential environmental consequences from implementing the Proposed Action and includes the No Action Alternative. Through communication with local, state, and federal agencies as well review of past documentation and field review, the following resources areas were identified for assessment of potential direct or indirect environmental consequences: land use,socioeconomics and environmental justice, cultural resources,biological resources, physical resources, hazardous materials and hazardous waste, and safety. Potential cumulative effects for each resource are also considered.”
http://www.whiteman.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110630-044.pdf
Thank you!
This needs to be explored. This is NOT a good thing, not by a long shot.
EJ is very, very big with Air Force.
http://www.whiteman.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110630-044.pdf
In fact, I’d have to say the USAF is Crazytown for Environmnetal Justice.
“FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT FOR UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
AIR FORCE PILOT TRAINING AT FORT WORTH ALLIANCE AIRPORT
The Air Force announced Feb. 11 it determined a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) for the environmental assessment of a proposed Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals training program for United Arab Emirates military pilots using F-5 aircraft at Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas.
The environmental assessment analyzed direct, indirect and cumulative environmental impacts. Analysis covered noise, airspace management and air traffic control, land use, earth resources, water resources, hazardous materials and waste, biological resources, utilities and infrastructure, socioeconomics and environmental justice, cultural resources, and air quality.
The Air Force conducted the study in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires Federal agencies to consider environmental consequences in the decision-making process.
The United Arab Emirates requested the pilot training through the United States Government’s Foreign Military Sales Program. The program is part of Security Assistance authorized by the Arms Export Control Act, and includes training as well as the sale of equipment. The Air Force does not have the capacity to provide the training in the timeframe and rate requested by the UAE. Lockheed Martin Corporation will provide the pilot training at Alliance Airport with on-site Air Force oversight of the program.
The program would include the bed down of 15 F-5 A/B aircraft, employment of more than 90 Lockheed Martin support personnel, and improvement of existing Fort Worth Alliance Airport facilities. Most of the flying training would take place away from the airport within existing military training airspace in central Texas and southwest Oklahoma.”
http://www.aetc.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=11456
Environmental Justice ping!
Also, see comments!
In fact “environmental justice” is intended to keep minority communities safely poor. The most infamous example was the GM parts plant that was supposed to go into a poor black town in Louisiana and create hundreds of jobs. A few “Environmental justice” lawsuits later, the plant ended up in a white town in Arkansas.
Mission accomplished.
Is it me, or does the word “CONgress” never seem to appear in Environmental Justice documents ?
Oops. Belay my last.
From the office of CONgresswoman Nazi Pelosi in 1999:
” It is already clear that environmental justice will become a pivotal human rights issue in the next century. The basic reason is also clear: viewed through the lens of social progress, the history of our time is essentially the saga of the expansion of civil rights. However halting and problematic at times, the march of humanity toward the frontiers of equality and justice has been inexorable.
Thus, the barriers that have protected the inequalities and injustices of environmental assaults must also fall. Indeed, this Environmental Justice Symposium would not be necessary if the world’s deadly pollutants were distributed equally. They are not. Yet everyone here knows that environmental protection should be the birthright of every human being.
In 1999, it is simply intolerable that pollution tends to prey most heavily upon the most vulnerable Americans — on the poor, the helpless, the minorities, the immigrants, and the children. Our ultimate goal should be, of course, the total elimination of dangerous pollutants; but, while waiting for that blessed day to arrive, we cannot fall silent, smugly accepting the inevitability that those Americans already on the edge of survival should also shoulder the greatest burdens of pollution.
In a wealthy society, the poor are vulnerable, almost by definition. To be poor and a member of a minority group intensifies that vulnerability. To be poor, a minority, and a child constitutes the ultimate in vulnerability.
Of all children, those from lower-income families face the greatest environmental health risks. One in five children live in poverty. African-American, Hispanic and Native American children are overly represented among the 3-4 million who live within a mile of an EPA-designated hazardous waste site.
The childhood plagues of the past have been largely tamed and domesticated. Today, our children are beset with more chronic and debilitating conditions, such as cancer and asthma. Something is terribly wrong when statistics show that cancer, formerly a disease associated with the elderly, is now the second leading cause of death in children and that asthma has increased by
40% since 1980. Even with progress in reducing environmental lead in the environment, there are still one million children with elevated levels in their blood.
Over 2.2 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year on crops, lawns, and public spaces. This year, Consumers Union reported that fruits and vegetables in child diets have unsafe levels of pesticide residues. Even one serving of some produce can exceed the safe daily limits for children. Every individual has the right to live in an environment free of deadly pollutants and toxic waste, and every child has a right to be born free of exposure to toxic chemicals.
The burden of protection should not rest solely on parents. The science is far too complex for all but the most sophisticated specialists. This is a task for government, and our government should do its job. Thomas Jefferson wrote, as long ago as 1809, that “the care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”
Environmental protection should be as blind as Justice. It should know no cost or color. Anchored in these principles, I requested, along with other members here today, a General Accounting (GAO) study to review the federal data on environmental health. We asked the GAO study to focus on the disproportionate environmental health impacts on lower income communities and communities of color and to make recommendations to improve the collection, analysis, and accessibility of information.
Some of my colleagues joined me, also, in sending a letter to Vice President Gore asking the Administration to increase the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to employ trained staff with a background in civil rights. This action would signal minority communities plagued by the pollution that undermines the health of their children and their hopes for economic opportunity that the federal government works to ensure that all civil rights are respected. A nation that preserves its environmental health lays the foundation for a healthy, stable society that will enjoy the confidence of all its members.
At the beginning of my remarks, I prediced that environmental justice will be central human rights issue of the next century. We should not wait, however, until the next century to find out whether I am correct. We need to act now, and that is why this symposium today — this crystallizing moment in the history of an irresistible political movement — is of such paramount importance.”
http://pelosi.house.gov/pressarchives/releases/prejall.htm
Ping, also comments
This is darn interesting:
This is really darn interesting when you consider the fact that Ed Mah-key of Massachusetts wrote the Cap and Traitor Bill that passed in ‘09, but died in the Senate:
“Former Environmental Justice Intern Brittany Cochran testified before Congressman Ed Markey, Chair of the House Select Committee on Global Warming. She shared her testimony of increased hurricane activity in New Orleans due to global warming and how Hurricane Katrina devastated her college campus, family, and community (November 2 – 5, 2007).
Former DSCEJ Environmental Justice Intern, Brittany Cochran was featured in the September 2006 issue of Seventeen Magazine. Her work with the DSCEJ has given her the passion to share her knowledge about the devastating impact of global warming. In her interview with Seventeen Magazine Brittany quoted ‘I’m from a rural area in Louisiana where everybody’s poor. When you went to school, they’d say if you got good grades, you might be able to get a good job at one of the chemical plants in town but they never told us how those factories are poisoning our earth or that they’re the reason why our parents and grandparents have cancer. They never told us the truth. That is what I’m setting out to do. Having a healthy place to live isn’t a privilege...it’s a right.’ “
Former Environmental Justice Intern, Melony Lewis, from Memphis, TN was a part of a ten person team to travel with the environmental group Greenpeace to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa August 26, 2001. The WSSD had close to 60,000 government leaders, national delegates, businessmen, non-governmental organizations, and concerned activists. They discussed ways to preserve our natural resources, and look for solutions to some of the biggest problems facing the earth, such as global warming and economic security. Melony petitioned for clean energy options and to persuade governments to resist pressure from big corporations.
‘Using clean energy is Important because it will allow for the present generations to insure that our future generations have accessible energy and allow millions of people now to have new access to energy.’
Melony, along with other young activists, participated in solar power demonstration projects, as well as, took part in lobbying the U.S. delegation to support clean energy solutions. The team met with U.S. Congressional leaders at a Global Forum press event. The main goal of their journey was to show support for developing nations in their quest to find clean energy solutions.”
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