Environmental Justice in America

"Edwardo Lao Rhodes makes the case that race and class were not a major concern of environmental policy until the 1990s. Why this was so and why awareness of social justice must be an important consideration in thinking about environmental impact take up the first part of the book. Part II looks more closely at public policy concerns and discusses the methodological approaches that shed light on the problem of environmental justice. Rhodes proposes the application of "data envelopment analysis" as a more useful risk assessment tool than the current methodologies. Part III examines a complex case involving the disposal of hazardous material in rural Noxubee County, Mississippi. The acknowledgment that it was difficult to arrive at an "equitable" solution in Noxubee leads to a discussion of recommendations to help ensure that sharing the burden of risk will become a fundamental part of environmental policy. Though the book is primarily concerned with justice issues in the United States, it links these issues to international environmental justice programs and to issues of national sovereignty, to the paternalism of developed nations toward the underdeveloped world, and to notions of economic necessity."--BOOK JACKET.