Canadian climate activist David Suzuki wrote Thursday that “environmental racism” is one of the prime drivers behind the ecological irresponsibility of American corporations.
In an article titled “Corporate greed fuels environmental racism,” Suzuki asserts that “Black, Indigenous and other historically marginalized people” have suffered disproportionately from the “deadly effects” of pollution in places like Louisiana and Texas.
“That most of the polluting plants disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic communities illustrates the pernicious pervasiveness of environmental racism,” the 88-year-old activist writes.
Cancer rates among the predominantly Black residents along the industrial corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge “are far higher than in the rest of the United States,” he laments.
Racism is defined by Merriam Webster as “a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race,” a phenomenon that might seem difficult to discern in the case of polluters.
File/Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s environment minister, right, embraces David Suzuki, co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, in the Canada Pavilion at the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. ( Christinne Muschi/Bloomberg via Getty)
The charge of “environmental racism” is echoed by Sharon Lavigne, founder of Louisiana-based environmental group Rise St. James, who notes that there is “a 10-mile radius where a dozen petrochemical facilities operate near the homes of Black residents.”
It’s “appalling” that company executives “put financial gain and shareholders above human health,” Suzuki declares.
Even Louisiana representative Clay Higgins has called for EPA administrator Michael Regan to “be arrested the next time he sets foot in Louisiana,” Suzuki notes, adding that Regan is “Black.”
This is a “disturbing illustration” of a mindset opposed to rules and regulations “so that large corporations can continue to reap obscenely excessive returns while polluting air, land and water,” he asserts.
The problem of environmental racism is not unique to Louisiana and Texas, Suzuki insists, but is also “pervasive throughout the U.S., Canada and other countries.”
Addressing environmental racism is a “necessary first step” in finding ways to live without “putting all life at risk,” Suzuki contends.
Suzuki, who agitates for a “renewable energy revolution,” also opposes fracking and liquefied natural gas, while insisting that unchecked emissions from the oil and gas sector “continue to soar.”
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