Geography 2412: Fall 2011 Assignment 2: Environmental Justice
Name:______
Date:______
Section # (or date/time of section meeting)______
DUE THE WEEK OF October 3
This assignment must by TYPED and turned in during recitation for full credit.
Part I - Explore the Environmental Defense Scorecard (8 pts)
NOTE: This part looks long and complicated but is actually very easy and not very time-consuming. It simply guides you through a webpage.
What is your home town/county/state? ______
Go to http://www.scorecard.org/
Question 1. Your community. For this question, enter the zip code of your hometown in the box near the top of the page and press the button that says “Get Report.” (2pts)
(a) Where did your community rank in terms of toxic pollution (non-cancer risk score) among all counties in the U.S. in 2002 (find it under TOXICS; give a percentile)?
(b) Who is the top polluter in your home county in terms of toxic chemicals?
(c) Are there any Superfund sites in your county (find it under TOXICS: Worst Toxic Waste Sites)? If so, how many, and what are they?
(d) How does your county rank among all counties in the US in terms of water quality, both surface water pollution and waterbodies (find it under WATER: See how your county’s water quality stacks up; give a percentile for each category).
Question 2. Environmental Justice in your community: View the Environmental Justice report for your county or community (find it under ENVIRONMENAL JUSTICE). Briefly describe the distribution of burdens by race/ethnicity and one other criterion (you pick which one; find them under Distribution of Environmental Burdens). NOTE: “Distribution of burdens” means RISK of being near a toxic chemical release or RISK of living near a superfund site. (one paragraph) Was there anything you were surprised about? Explain. (2pts).
Question 3 Go back to the main Scorecard homepage (http://www.scorecard.org/). Underneath where you put in your zip code you will see 5 different pull-down menu boxes. Go to the fourth menu box and pull down to “Compare different geographic issues on any pollution issue.” This will take you to another page, which says “Select what you wish to rank.” Go to the second pull-down menu, “By county” and pull down to “Number of Superfund Sites.” (1pt)
(a) What is the top county in the US in terms of number of Superfund sites?
(b) At the top of this same page, pull down the “Ranked in” menu and change from “Entire United States” to your home state, and press “go.” What is top-ranked county in your state in terms of number of Superfund sites?
Question 4 Go back to the main Scorecard homepage again and go to the fourth pull-down menu again (begins with “Compare”). Pull down to “Compare communities on environmental justice.” (2pt)
This will take you to a page that says “Find unequal burdens”
For the “group” select “People of color.”
For “show me all the counties in” Select your home state.
Uncheck all the boxes and then check one at a time and hit “Go” for each. Answer the following questions (after you click Go, you need to scroll down to see the List of Counties):
How many counties are there in your home state where people of color are worse off in terms of each of the following environmental burdens?:
(a) cancer risks from hazardous air pollutants
(b) releases of toxic chemicals
(c) Superfund sites
(d) facilities emitting smog and particulates
(e) All four?
List the counties that have increased environmental burdens for people of color, for all four environmental burdens:
Question 5
Report two other facts (not already mentioned above) about some aspect of pollution, health, or environmental justice in the US as a whole, or your state or your community that you found by exploring this webpage. Explain why it was surprising, expected, disturbing, etc (2pt, one paragraph).
Part II – Risk and Environmental Injustice (from your textbook, pg. 94) (2 pts).
1. Why do toxic waste dumps usually represent examples of environmental injustice? (Hint: draw from what you learned at the Environmental Defense Scorecard website and also think about who chooses to live near a toxic waste dump and why?)
2. Consider the long lists of precautions and risks on the label of an over-the-counter insecticide or herbicide (check one out at your local hardware/garden shop if your not familiar with it). How would this list impact your decision to use or not use the product? Why?
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