According to a survey, most Americans don't think that black people are more affected by pollution than white people.
Dylan Bugden, an environmental sociologist at Washington State University in Pullman, says that research shows that people of colour and poor people are more likely to live in areas of high pollution due to the deliberate construction of polluting industries.
Bugden found that respondents to the survey were more likely to blame poverty than structural racism. Bugden's study shows that race is the primary factor behind environmental inequality. Many people said that a lack of hard work and poor personal choices made them more exposed to pollution.
Timmons Roberts is an environmental sociologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Budgen created two sets of questions to find out how Americans view the environment. The National Opinion Research Center distributed these through mail, phone and face-to-face interviews to households that were randomly selected. 1,000 people responded to them.
The first set of questions asked if Americans understand the causes of environmental inequality and if they support policies that address it. According to the results, only one-third of people think that Black people are more likely to be polluted. Black and Hispanic people and poor people experience environmental inequalities, but a third of the respondents think it's fair. The majority of respondents supported policy measures to address these issues.
The second set of questions looked at how beliefs about hard work and social mobility affect US opinions. People who were characterized as having an underlying bias against black people were less likely to understand the causes of environmental inequality. They thought pollution was more harmful to poor communities than Black communities. When respondents thought that people could get out of harmful living situations if they worked harder, they were less likely to think that Black communities were more affected by pollution.
Bugden says that the results show that there is a belief in the United States that everyone has the same opportunities. Some Americans think that the only barriers faced by minorities are personal choice, responsibility and hard work. This phenomenon is called colour-blind environmental racism.
Sacoby Wilson is an environmental-health scientist at the University of Maryland in College Park.
Sarah Grineski is a sociologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Lessons can be learned from the findings for the groups and organizations trying to address environmental injustice. Bugden says that these groups should communicate that race is the root of inequalities in the environment. He says that it has to be part of the policy.
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The president promised to address environmental inequalities. 40% of the federal government's investments in climate and clean energy will be given to disadvantaged communities. The tool that will be used to determine which communities are disadvantaged does not factor in race. People think that poverty is the main driver of the differential burden of hazard when it isn't. Race and racism are the reasons for it.
The article was published on June 14th, 2022.
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