Capitalism in Practice: Free Market Influence on Environmental Justice in America's Prisons, 2019
Environmental injustice occurs when marginalized groups face disproportionate environmental impac... more Environmental injustice occurs when marginalized groups face disproportionate environmental impacts from a range of threats. Prisons are increasingly being uncovered to be areas of extreme environmental injustice through exposing incarcerated populations to environmental threats like toxic water and air, and for polluting the environments where they are located. The United States currently incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, and these issues of environmental injustice are impacting thousands throughout the carceral system. This report details multiple cases in which capitalistic ideals have shaped the way the carceral system functions, and how this monetary influence has furthered the prevalence of environmental impacts. We explore the history of the prison system, privatization of prisons, carceral natural disaster response, and the weaponization of food. At the Global Environmental Justice Project at UCSB, we work to illuminate these largely overlooked problems in order to heighten awareness of the depth and breadth of environmental injustice, to underscore the profound social and ecological oppressions and harms associated with incarceration, and to suggest transformative solutions. With this work, we hope to increase awareness of the harms of housing prisoners for profit.
Environmental Injustice Behind Bars: Toxic Imprisonment in America, 2018
Environmental injustice is a term used to describe the fact that environmental threats in general... more Environmental injustice is a term used to describe the fact that environmental threats in general, and climate disruptions in particular, affect communities, nations, and regions of the globe differently and unevenly, with low income and global south communities, people of color communities, and indigenous communities being hit the hardest. Prisons and jails in the United States have been increasingly found to be associated with environmental impacts on the lands upon which they are built and on the inmates that they house, and are a new focus for the environmental justice movement. Rampant toxics exposure, water contamination, inadequate medical care, rancid food, extreme heat, poor air quality, chemical attacks by authorities, and in some cases the very facilities being built on contaminated superfund sites directly impact the health of those who are incarcerated and work in these spaces. Legally, many of these incidents directly violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and given the disproportionately high number of members of minority groups in the prison system, constitute environmental justice, civil rights, and human rights violations as well.
This report details the research conducted by the UCSB Prison Environmental Justice Project (an initiative of the Global Environmental Justice Project) that investigates the links between prisons, jails, immigrant prisons, and environmental justice concerns in the United States. Through our research we have found clear and compelling evidence of environmental injustice in a multitude of carceral facilities around the country- from state and federal prisons, to juvenile detention centers to immigrant prisons, and we call for immediate congressional action to bring about swift remediation of these issues. All over the nation, juveniles, citizens, immigrants, and legal asylum seekers are being held captive in institutions that are poisoning them against their will and knowledge. Currently, these abuses and indiscretions against prisoners and their wellbeing are well documented, blatantly ignored, and face no repercussions for the entities involved. We strongly recommend further research into these institutions, legal action, and grassroots resistance to bring about new practices prioritizing compassionate rehabilitation, public health, and environmental justice. We are heartened to see the many actions taken by prisoners and their allies to bring attention to these concerns and to fight back against the predatory, cruel, and genocidal policies and practices of the U.S. prison system. These include petitions, health surveys, sit-ins, hunger strikes, spoken and written words shared with mass media and NGOs, and artistry depicting these struggles and visions of a better world. We support these nonviolent, peaceful efforts and hope that this report will be received as an affirmation for those persons engaging in such acts and as an inspiration to those who have yet to join the movement.
Until fairly recently, few scholars, activists, or government officials have linked prisons to en... more Until fairly recently, few scholars, activists, or government officials have linked prisons to environmental and environmental justice concerns, but this is changing. In 2015, we launched UCSB’s Prison Environmental Justice Project (a component of the Global Environmental Justice Project) to investigate the myriad links between prisons, jails, detention centers, and environmental justice concerns in the U.S. and globally, currently and historically. The PEJP works closely with advocacy groups like the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons and the Prison Ecology Project, and with faculty and students at numerous universities. Together, we have been hard at work uncovering and highlighting scores of cases where ecosystems, nearby communities, and prisoners themselves have been placed at great risk due to prison proposals, construction, and routine operations. Our hope is to illuminate this largely overlooked problem in order to heighten awareness of the depth and breadth of environmental injustice, to underscore the profound social and ecological oppressions and harms associated with incarceration, and to suggest transformative solutions.
Environmental injustice occurs when marginalized groups face disproportionate environmental impac... more Environmental injustice occurs when marginalized groups face disproportionate environmental impacts from a range of threats. Prisons are increasingly being uncovered to be areas of extreme environmental injustice through exposing incarcerated populations to environmental threats like toxic water and air, and for polluting the environments where they are located. The United States currently incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, and these issues of environmental injustice are impacting thousands throughout the carceral system. This report details multiple cases in which capitalistic ideals have shaped the way the carceral system functions, and how this monetary influence has furthered the prevalence of environmental impacts. We explore the history of the prison system, privatization of prisons, carceral natural disaster response, and the weaponization of food. At the Global Environmental Justice Project at UCSB, we work to illuminate these largely overlooked problems in order to heighten awareness of the depth and breadth of environmental injustice, to underscore the profound social and ecological oppressions and harms associated with incarceration, and to suggest transformative solutions. With this work, we hope to increase awareness of the harms of housing prisoners for profit.
Prisons and jails around the globe are sites of heart-wrenching, stomach-turning violence and bru... more Prisons and jails around the globe are sites of heart-wrenching, stomach-turning violence and brutality, perpetrated by the governments and corporations that build and manage them. These abuses intersect with and reinforce a myriad of environmental injustices. Specifically, the evidence of water contamination, air pollution exposure, poor nutrition and woefully inadequate medical care, torture and neglect in carceral facilities around the world is widespread and overwhelming. What we document in this report are the many ways that environmental injustices also reflect what we call the incarceration-extraction nexus--those intersections between the act of extracting people out of our communities and caging them in prisons and jails where they are subjected to a range of abuses, and the act of extracting wealth from and poisoning our ecosystems. In some instances, we find that entire communities are living in “open air prisons” wherein their daily lives, freedoms, and mobility are restricted and controlled by occupying governments. In those cases, while the people are not being extracted, their labor and ecological resources usually are, and they face additional environmental and public health threats associated with colonization. In this Annual Report, the UCSB Prison Environmental Justice Project provides data, stories, and analysis of these challenges in great detail. We offer historical data and narratives to provide context and a deeper understanding of how we got into this mess. We also present myriad examples of how prisoners and their allies are fighting back to create more livable conditions in these facilities and to ultimately abolish the prison industrial complex as we know it.
Climate change is an urgent problem. Because it is causing new weather extremes and fatal catastr... more Climate change is an urgent problem. Because it is causing new weather extremes and fatal catastrophes, climate change is better termed climate disruption. Bending the curve to flatten the upward trajectory of pollution emissions responsible for climate disruption is essential in order to protect billions of people from this global threat. Education is a key part of the solution.This textbook book lays out ten solutions that together can bend the curve of climate warming below dangerous levels. These solutions fall into six categories: science, societal transformation, governance, economics, technology, and ecosystem management. Four themes emerge from the book: * There is still time to bend the curve. The time to act was yesterday, but if proper actions are taken now, there is still time to avoid disastrous changes. We have to pull on three levers: The carbon lever to achieve zero net emissions of carbon dioxide before 2050; the short-lived climate pollutants lever to drastically ...
Drawing on theories of social movements and environmental sociology, this article considers a fra... more Drawing on theories of social movements and environmental sociology, this article considers a frame transformation that is taking place within ecological social movements. This transformation produced a new frame: "total liberation." We explore this phenomenon by analyzing interviews with activists, fieldwork observations, and documents from radical environmental and animal rights movement networks in the United States. Beyond introducing the total liberation frame, the article expands current understandings of how and why frame transformations occur through a consideration of how multiple frames, as well as intra-and intermovement tensions and influences, shape frame transformation.
This paper is organized around two points. The first concerns the literature on environmental jus... more This paper is organized around two points. The first concerns the literature on environmental justice (EJ) studies and its lack of incorporation of social scientific theories and concepts concerning racism. This is surprising, given EJ studies' strong interest in challenging a form of racism - environmental racism. This, in turn, allows for a critique of theories of racism for their lack of attention to the ways in which society-environment relations structure racist practices and discourses, and a critique of scholars who have understated the continuing impact of racism on communities of color. The second point concerns the degree to which modernization has led to an improvement in the environmental impacts associated with market economies and their production systems. Drawing on ecological modernization, risk society, and the treadmill of production theories, I argue that, as with popular and scholarly views on racism, many scholars have overstated the level of progress societ...
This commentary on “Interrogating the Treadmill of Production” by Gould, Pellow, and Schnaiberg t... more This commentary on “Interrogating the Treadmill of Production” by Gould, Pellow, and Schnaiberg takes up the challenge, invited by the article itself, of asking some of the questions that still seem unanswered by the model. Among the questions asked are: Why not refer to capitalism instead of the treadmill and to workers/owners instead of producers? Why is the temporal priority of production over consumption taken as its logical primacy? Why is sustainability equated with no growth? What are the specific reasons for denying that a green capitalism (a green treadmill?) is possible? Why is it that no alternative system is offered, as Marxists would offer socialism as an alternative to capitalism? What would constitute empirical evidence for/against the treadmill thesis? Arewe really running in place? It is suggested that these key questions still need to be answered if the treadmill theory is to be compelling to sociologists both inside and outside environmental sociology.
▪ In this review, we provide an introduction to the topics of environmental justice and environ... more ▪ In this review, we provide an introduction to the topics of environmental justice and environmental inequality. We provide an overview of the dimensions of unequal exposures to environmental pollution (environmental inequality), followed by a discussion of the theoretical literature that seeks to explain the origins of this phenomenon. We also consider the impact of the environmental justice movement in the United States and the role that federal and state governments have developed to address environmental inequalities. We conclude that more research is needed that links environmental inequalities with public health outcomes.
This issue, with a focus on community health and guest edited by Professor Marjorie Kagawa-Singer... more This issue, with a focus on community health and guest edited by Professor Marjorie Kagawa-Singer of UCLA, is another step in building bridges. In the Editors' Note to the theme section, she and Paul Ong discuss the broader purpose of publishing health-oriented articles. In addition, we have two non-theme articles. Lisa Park and David Pellow highlight on the difficulties faced by workers in the Silicon Valley, including health issues. While the emergence of this new economy has created wealth for many, there have been dire ...
... Jackson, Orrin Williams (a brilliant man and great friend), the late Carretta McCarter, Chery... more ... Jackson, Orrin Williams (a brilliant man and great friend), the late Carretta McCarter, Cheryl Johnson, Hazel Johnson, Sara Parran, Bob Ginsburg, Charles Lee, Robert Bullard, Stefan Noe, Jim Burris, Ken Dunn, Bill Eyring, Kevin Greene, Ann Irving, Joanna Hoelscher, Keith ...
Environmental sociology has become a mature field within the discipline of sociology. We consider... more Environmental sociology has become a mature field within the discipline of sociology. We consider several of the key theories that define the core and boundaries of the field, calling attention to debates and unresolved questions. We contend that two of the defining features of this field are (a) attention to the inseparability of human and nonhuman natures and (b) attention to the role that power and social inequality play in shaping human/nonhuman interactions. These two characteristics of environmental sociology also reveal strong links between this field and the broader discipline, in light of recent reexaminations of classical sociological writings. We conclude with a consideration of new directions environmental sociologists might take toward building an even more robust, interdisciplinary, and critical area of study.
Capitalism in Practice: Free Market Influence on Environmental Justice in America's Prisons, 2019
Environmental injustice occurs when marginalized groups face disproportionate environmental impac... more Environmental injustice occurs when marginalized groups face disproportionate environmental impacts from a range of threats. Prisons are increasingly being uncovered to be areas of extreme environmental injustice through exposing incarcerated populations to environmental threats like toxic water and air, and for polluting the environments where they are located. The United States currently incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, and these issues of environmental injustice are impacting thousands throughout the carceral system. This report details multiple cases in which capitalistic ideals have shaped the way the carceral system functions, and how this monetary influence has furthered the prevalence of environmental impacts. We explore the history of the prison system, privatization of prisons, carceral natural disaster response, and the weaponization of food. At the Global Environmental Justice Project at UCSB, we work to illuminate these largely overlooked problems in order to heighten awareness of the depth and breadth of environmental injustice, to underscore the profound social and ecological oppressions and harms associated with incarceration, and to suggest transformative solutions. With this work, we hope to increase awareness of the harms of housing prisoners for profit.
Environmental Injustice Behind Bars: Toxic Imprisonment in America, 2018
Environmental injustice is a term used to describe the fact that environmental threats in general... more Environmental injustice is a term used to describe the fact that environmental threats in general, and climate disruptions in particular, affect communities, nations, and regions of the globe differently and unevenly, with low income and global south communities, people of color communities, and indigenous communities being hit the hardest. Prisons and jails in the United States have been increasingly found to be associated with environmental impacts on the lands upon which they are built and on the inmates that they house, and are a new focus for the environmental justice movement. Rampant toxics exposure, water contamination, inadequate medical care, rancid food, extreme heat, poor air quality, chemical attacks by authorities, and in some cases the very facilities being built on contaminated superfund sites directly impact the health of those who are incarcerated and work in these spaces. Legally, many of these incidents directly violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and given the disproportionately high number of members of minority groups in the prison system, constitute environmental justice, civil rights, and human rights violations as well.
This report details the research conducted by the UCSB Prison Environmental Justice Project (an initiative of the Global Environmental Justice Project) that investigates the links between prisons, jails, immigrant prisons, and environmental justice concerns in the United States. Through our research we have found clear and compelling evidence of environmental injustice in a multitude of carceral facilities around the country- from state and federal prisons, to juvenile detention centers to immigrant prisons, and we call for immediate congressional action to bring about swift remediation of these issues. All over the nation, juveniles, citizens, immigrants, and legal asylum seekers are being held captive in institutions that are poisoning them against their will and knowledge. Currently, these abuses and indiscretions against prisoners and their wellbeing are well documented, blatantly ignored, and face no repercussions for the entities involved. We strongly recommend further research into these institutions, legal action, and grassroots resistance to bring about new practices prioritizing compassionate rehabilitation, public health, and environmental justice. We are heartened to see the many actions taken by prisoners and their allies to bring attention to these concerns and to fight back against the predatory, cruel, and genocidal policies and practices of the U.S. prison system. These include petitions, health surveys, sit-ins, hunger strikes, spoken and written words shared with mass media and NGOs, and artistry depicting these struggles and visions of a better world. We support these nonviolent, peaceful efforts and hope that this report will be received as an affirmation for those persons engaging in such acts and as an inspiration to those who have yet to join the movement.
Until fairly recently, few scholars, activists, or government officials have linked prisons to en... more Until fairly recently, few scholars, activists, or government officials have linked prisons to environmental and environmental justice concerns, but this is changing. In 2015, we launched UCSB’s Prison Environmental Justice Project (a component of the Global Environmental Justice Project) to investigate the myriad links between prisons, jails, detention centers, and environmental justice concerns in the U.S. and globally, currently and historically. The PEJP works closely with advocacy groups like the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons and the Prison Ecology Project, and with faculty and students at numerous universities. Together, we have been hard at work uncovering and highlighting scores of cases where ecosystems, nearby communities, and prisoners themselves have been placed at great risk due to prison proposals, construction, and routine operations. Our hope is to illuminate this largely overlooked problem in order to heighten awareness of the depth and breadth of environmental injustice, to underscore the profound social and ecological oppressions and harms associated with incarceration, and to suggest transformative solutions.
Environmental injustice occurs when marginalized groups face disproportionate environmental impac... more Environmental injustice occurs when marginalized groups face disproportionate environmental impacts from a range of threats. Prisons are increasingly being uncovered to be areas of extreme environmental injustice through exposing incarcerated populations to environmental threats like toxic water and air, and for polluting the environments where they are located. The United States currently incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, and these issues of environmental injustice are impacting thousands throughout the carceral system. This report details multiple cases in which capitalistic ideals have shaped the way the carceral system functions, and how this monetary influence has furthered the prevalence of environmental impacts. We explore the history of the prison system, privatization of prisons, carceral natural disaster response, and the weaponization of food. At the Global Environmental Justice Project at UCSB, we work to illuminate these largely overlooked problems in order to heighten awareness of the depth and breadth of environmental injustice, to underscore the profound social and ecological oppressions and harms associated with incarceration, and to suggest transformative solutions. With this work, we hope to increase awareness of the harms of housing prisoners for profit.
Prisons and jails around the globe are sites of heart-wrenching, stomach-turning violence and bru... more Prisons and jails around the globe are sites of heart-wrenching, stomach-turning violence and brutality, perpetrated by the governments and corporations that build and manage them. These abuses intersect with and reinforce a myriad of environmental injustices. Specifically, the evidence of water contamination, air pollution exposure, poor nutrition and woefully inadequate medical care, torture and neglect in carceral facilities around the world is widespread and overwhelming. What we document in this report are the many ways that environmental injustices also reflect what we call the incarceration-extraction nexus--those intersections between the act of extracting people out of our communities and caging them in prisons and jails where they are subjected to a range of abuses, and the act of extracting wealth from and poisoning our ecosystems. In some instances, we find that entire communities are living in “open air prisons” wherein their daily lives, freedoms, and mobility are restricted and controlled by occupying governments. In those cases, while the people are not being extracted, their labor and ecological resources usually are, and they face additional environmental and public health threats associated with colonization. In this Annual Report, the UCSB Prison Environmental Justice Project provides data, stories, and analysis of these challenges in great detail. We offer historical data and narratives to provide context and a deeper understanding of how we got into this mess. We also present myriad examples of how prisoners and their allies are fighting back to create more livable conditions in these facilities and to ultimately abolish the prison industrial complex as we know it.
Climate change is an urgent problem. Because it is causing new weather extremes and fatal catastr... more Climate change is an urgent problem. Because it is causing new weather extremes and fatal catastrophes, climate change is better termed climate disruption. Bending the curve to flatten the upward trajectory of pollution emissions responsible for climate disruption is essential in order to protect billions of people from this global threat. Education is a key part of the solution.This textbook book lays out ten solutions that together can bend the curve of climate warming below dangerous levels. These solutions fall into six categories: science, societal transformation, governance, economics, technology, and ecosystem management. Four themes emerge from the book: * There is still time to bend the curve. The time to act was yesterday, but if proper actions are taken now, there is still time to avoid disastrous changes. We have to pull on three levers: The carbon lever to achieve zero net emissions of carbon dioxide before 2050; the short-lived climate pollutants lever to drastically ...
Drawing on theories of social movements and environmental sociology, this article considers a fra... more Drawing on theories of social movements and environmental sociology, this article considers a frame transformation that is taking place within ecological social movements. This transformation produced a new frame: "total liberation." We explore this phenomenon by analyzing interviews with activists, fieldwork observations, and documents from radical environmental and animal rights movement networks in the United States. Beyond introducing the total liberation frame, the article expands current understandings of how and why frame transformations occur through a consideration of how multiple frames, as well as intra-and intermovement tensions and influences, shape frame transformation.
This paper is organized around two points. The first concerns the literature on environmental jus... more This paper is organized around two points. The first concerns the literature on environmental justice (EJ) studies and its lack of incorporation of social scientific theories and concepts concerning racism. This is surprising, given EJ studies' strong interest in challenging a form of racism - environmental racism. This, in turn, allows for a critique of theories of racism for their lack of attention to the ways in which society-environment relations structure racist practices and discourses, and a critique of scholars who have understated the continuing impact of racism on communities of color. The second point concerns the degree to which modernization has led to an improvement in the environmental impacts associated with market economies and their production systems. Drawing on ecological modernization, risk society, and the treadmill of production theories, I argue that, as with popular and scholarly views on racism, many scholars have overstated the level of progress societ...
This commentary on “Interrogating the Treadmill of Production” by Gould, Pellow, and Schnaiberg t... more This commentary on “Interrogating the Treadmill of Production” by Gould, Pellow, and Schnaiberg takes up the challenge, invited by the article itself, of asking some of the questions that still seem unanswered by the model. Among the questions asked are: Why not refer to capitalism instead of the treadmill and to workers/owners instead of producers? Why is the temporal priority of production over consumption taken as its logical primacy? Why is sustainability equated with no growth? What are the specific reasons for denying that a green capitalism (a green treadmill?) is possible? Why is it that no alternative system is offered, as Marxists would offer socialism as an alternative to capitalism? What would constitute empirical evidence for/against the treadmill thesis? Arewe really running in place? It is suggested that these key questions still need to be answered if the treadmill theory is to be compelling to sociologists both inside and outside environmental sociology.
▪ In this review, we provide an introduction to the topics of environmental justice and environ... more ▪ In this review, we provide an introduction to the topics of environmental justice and environmental inequality. We provide an overview of the dimensions of unequal exposures to environmental pollution (environmental inequality), followed by a discussion of the theoretical literature that seeks to explain the origins of this phenomenon. We also consider the impact of the environmental justice movement in the United States and the role that federal and state governments have developed to address environmental inequalities. We conclude that more research is needed that links environmental inequalities with public health outcomes.
This issue, with a focus on community health and guest edited by Professor Marjorie Kagawa-Singer... more This issue, with a focus on community health and guest edited by Professor Marjorie Kagawa-Singer of UCLA, is another step in building bridges. In the Editors' Note to the theme section, she and Paul Ong discuss the broader purpose of publishing health-oriented articles. In addition, we have two non-theme articles. Lisa Park and David Pellow highlight on the difficulties faced by workers in the Silicon Valley, including health issues. While the emergence of this new economy has created wealth for many, there have been dire ...
... Jackson, Orrin Williams (a brilliant man and great friend), the late Carretta McCarter, Chery... more ... Jackson, Orrin Williams (a brilliant man and great friend), the late Carretta McCarter, Cheryl Johnson, Hazel Johnson, Sara Parran, Bob Ginsburg, Charles Lee, Robert Bullard, Stefan Noe, Jim Burris, Ken Dunn, Bill Eyring, Kevin Greene, Ann Irving, Joanna Hoelscher, Keith ...
Environmental sociology has become a mature field within the discipline of sociology. We consider... more Environmental sociology has become a mature field within the discipline of sociology. We consider several of the key theories that define the core and boundaries of the field, calling attention to debates and unresolved questions. We contend that two of the defining features of this field are (a) attention to the inseparability of human and nonhuman natures and (b) attention to the role that power and social inequality play in shaping human/nonhuman interactions. These two characteristics of environmental sociology also reveal strong links between this field and the broader discipline, in light of recent reexaminations of classical sociological writings. We conclude with a consideration of new directions environmental sociologists might take toward building an even more robust, interdisciplinary, and critical area of study.
The article reviews two decades of scholars' claims that exposures to pollution and other environ... more The article reviews two decades of scholars' claims that exposures to pollution and other environmental risks are unequally distributed by race and class, examines case studies of environmental justice social movements and the history and politics of environmental justice policy making in the United States, and describes the emerging issue of global climate justice. The authors engage the contentious literature on how to quantitatively measure and document environmental injustice, especially the complex problems of having data of very different types and areas (such as zip codes, census tracts, or concentric circles) around polluting facilities or exposed populations. Also considered is the value of perspectives from critical race theory and ethnic studies for making sense of these social phenomena. The article concludes with a discussion of the globalization of the environmental justice movement, discourse, and issues, as well as with some policy implications of finding and understanding environmental justice. One unique feature of this review is its breadth and diversity, given the different approaches taken by the three coauthors.
Much contemporary environmental policymaking shifts our political focus away from our ecological ... more Much contemporary environmental policymaking shifts our political focus away from our ecological goals, stressing instead the need to create "economically efficient " means to accomplish these goals. Social scientists have paid limited attention to the social distributive outcomes of such policymaking. Yet these outcomes of heightening attention to economic efficiencies affect the scale and intensity of political constituencies for environmental protection. In this Tale Of Two Cities, we trace this process of "markets over politics " and its impacts in the United States, Chicago, and its northern suburb of Evanston, Illinois, in the 1990s. Both cities constructed and implemented curbside recycling programs during this period. But the rationale, goals, and means of recycling were dramatically different in the two municipalities. Although both communities recruited unskilled labor for the actual sorting jobs, the Chicago facility initially offered a repressive and ...
Author(s): Ramanathan, Veerabhadran; Aines, Roger; Auffhammer, Max; Cole, Jonathan; Forman, Fonna... more Author(s): Ramanathan, Veerabhadran; Aines, Roger; Auffhammer, Max; Cole, Jonathan; Forman, Fonna; Han, Hahrie; Jacobsen, Mark; Pellow, David; Pezzoli, Keith; Press, Daniel; Rignot, Eric; Samuelsen, Scott; Silver, Whendee; Solomon, Gina; Somerville, Richard; Tucker, Mary Evelyn; Victor, David; Zaelke, Durwood; Barth, Matt | Editor(s): Ramanathan, Veerabhadran; Niemann, Michelle; Millard-Ball, Adam | Abstract: The Learning Companion to Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions can help all readers gain the most from this book. This resource includes questions for review and discussion which help connect ideas, understand key concepts, and to increase the ability of readers at all levels to effectively discuss and explain climate change solutions.The Learning Companion provides review questions that can be used to assess familiarity with key concepts, ensuring all readers are ready to apply what they’ve learned. These questions can also help instructors identify areas of learning th...
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This report details the research conducted by the UCSB Prison Environmental Justice Project (an initiative of the Global Environmental Justice Project) that investigates the links between prisons, jails, immigrant prisons, and environmental justice concerns in the United States. Through our research we have found clear and compelling evidence of environmental injustice in a multitude of carceral facilities around the country- from state and federal prisons, to juvenile detention centers to immigrant prisons, and we call for immediate congressional action to bring about swift remediation of these issues. All over the nation, juveniles, citizens, immigrants, and legal asylum seekers are being held captive in institutions that are poisoning them against their will and knowledge. Currently, these abuses and indiscretions against prisoners and their wellbeing are well documented, blatantly ignored, and face no repercussions for the entities involved. We strongly recommend further research into these institutions, legal action, and grassroots resistance to bring about new practices prioritizing compassionate rehabilitation, public health, and environmental justice. We are heartened to see the many actions taken by prisoners and their allies to bring attention to these concerns and to fight back against the predatory, cruel, and genocidal policies and practices of the U.S. prison system. These include petitions, health surveys, sit-ins, hunger strikes, spoken and written words shared with mass media and NGOs, and artistry depicting these struggles and visions of a better world. We support these nonviolent, peaceful efforts and hope that this report will be received as an affirmation for those persons engaging in such acts and as an inspiration to those who have yet to join the movement.
Papers by David Pellow
This report details the research conducted by the UCSB Prison Environmental Justice Project (an initiative of the Global Environmental Justice Project) that investigates the links between prisons, jails, immigrant prisons, and environmental justice concerns in the United States. Through our research we have found clear and compelling evidence of environmental injustice in a multitude of carceral facilities around the country- from state and federal prisons, to juvenile detention centers to immigrant prisons, and we call for immediate congressional action to bring about swift remediation of these issues. All over the nation, juveniles, citizens, immigrants, and legal asylum seekers are being held captive in institutions that are poisoning them against their will and knowledge. Currently, these abuses and indiscretions against prisoners and their wellbeing are well documented, blatantly ignored, and face no repercussions for the entities involved. We strongly recommend further research into these institutions, legal action, and grassroots resistance to bring about new practices prioritizing compassionate rehabilitation, public health, and environmental justice. We are heartened to see the many actions taken by prisoners and their allies to bring attention to these concerns and to fight back against the predatory, cruel, and genocidal policies and practices of the U.S. prison system. These include petitions, health surveys, sit-ins, hunger strikes, spoken and written words shared with mass media and NGOs, and artistry depicting these struggles and visions of a better world. We support these nonviolent, peaceful efforts and hope that this report will be received as an affirmation for those persons engaging in such acts and as an inspiration to those who have yet to join the movement.