Through case studies that highlight the type of information that is seldom reported in the news, Faces of Environmental Racism exposes the type and magnitude of environmental racism, both domestic and international. The essays explore the justice of current environmental practices, asking such questions as whether cost-benefit analysis is an appropriate analytic technique and whether there are alternate routes to sustainable development in the South.
Starting with the premise that all Americans have a right to live in a healthy environment, Bullard chronicles the efforts of five African American communities, empowered by the civil rights movement, to link environmentalism with social justice.
Environmental sustainability and social justice are both widely regarded as desirable social objectives. Professor Dobson's powerful new study explores the relationship between these two objectives and concludes that radical environmental demands are only incompletely served by couching them in terms of justice.