Environmental Justice in America

This book examines environmental justice as a public policy concern and suggests a new methodology for evaluating environmental justice problems. Edwardo Lao Rhodes makes the case that race and class were not a major concern of environmental policy until the 1990s. He looks at public policy concerns and methodological approaches to the issues, and he discusses a case of hazardous waste disposal, which leads to policy recommendations for sharing risk. Throughout, Rhodes links these issues to international environmental justice programs, to issues of national sovereignty and the paternalism of developed nations toward the underdeveloped world, and to notions of economic necessity.