Environmental Justice Eyes Users as well as Producers

Monday, June 28, 2010

by Jeannie Kever, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, June 19, 2010

image BP might well stand for Bad Publicity these days, but Kristin Shrader-Frechette, director of the Center for Environmental Justice and Children’s Health at the University of Notre Dame, says there is plenty of blame to go around. A proponent of the emerging field of environmental justice, Shrader-Frechette was in Houston recently for a conference at the University of St. Thomas and she talked with the Chronicle’s Jeannie Kever on the teachable moment offered by the Gulf oil spill.

Q: What makes the environment a moral issue?

A: It’s really two things. Number one, what we do to the environment affects what we do to people. If we mistreat the environment, we harm people who depend on the environment. If it’s bad to harm people, it’s bad to harm the environment. The second reason is that we did not create the environment. We don’t have property rights, really, over air or water. God created the environment, so if we misuse something we have no right to, then morally, we’re behaving in an inappropriate way.

Q: Your work focuses on the consequences of lax regulations, including health problems from pollution. But what can the average person do?

A: People need to ensure that everyone who makes a polluting product or releases pollutants pays the full cost of doing business. If I use gasoline, then I ought to pay the full price of using gasoline. I ought to be paying the cost of the BP oil spill. I ought to be paying for the harm to indigenous people in Latin America and in Africa who are harmed by drilling practices that would never be allowed in the United States. Using an internal combustion engine releases nitrogen oxides and particulates and benzene. If I buy that gasoline, it should be priced high enough to cover pollution control.

Q: But you can’t demand the gas station charge you above-market prices, so what can you do?

A: Join with a non-governmental organization — one of my favorite groups is Physicians for Social Responsibility – that works for reform of regulations so that polluters and those of us who consume polluting products pay the full cost. Right now, we don’t pay the full cost of pollution control, and that pollution is disproportionately dumped on poor people and minorities.

Q: Does BP have a moral responsibility to clean up the Gulf spill?

A: BP has a moral responsibility, but BP is not really the bad guy. All of the oil companies have done questionable things. What we the people have to do, we have to force those who supply our goods to supply those goods in ethical ways. [Read rest of interview]

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