The environmental justice movement began after the discovery of illegal dumping throughout 14
North Carolina counties. 31,000 gallons of
polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) was dumped by the Ward Transformers Company throughout these counties. The state government in North Carolina devised a landfill diversion plan for this waste after discovering the dumping, but the landfill was sited in
Warren County, which had the greatest concentration of African American residents of all North Carolina's 100 counties, and was also one of the poorest, ranking 97th in
GDP of the counties in North Carolina. The
conservation movement was made popular by the emphasis on
wildlife protection and
wilderness preservation during the 20th century, but this presented cost barriers to poorer individuals whose concerns were not with wildlife and wilderness preservation. By virtue of the fact that this movement was not championed by poor people in its formative stages, it has caused these individuals to view the mainstream environmental movement as "elitist". This elitism is understood through three different forms, according to a study by Denton E. Morrison and Riley E. Dunlap: •
Compositional – Environmentalists tend to be from the middle and upper classes, both socially and financially •
Ideological – The reforms benefit the movement's supporters but impose costs on nonparticipants, i.e.: wildlife preservation benefits middle/upper class individuals because they have a greater utility derived from these things, poor people do not get as much utility •
Impact – These reforms are "regressive" in their impact to society, meaning that disenfranchised individuals are disproportionally harmed by these changes made by the middle/upper class The
environmental justice movement emerged as a critique of mainstream environmentalism's elitism and racism. One of the greatest barriers to entry for poor individuals to join in the environmental justice movement is legal fees. In order to try to prevent the kinds of pollution like that of Warren County, there are a great number of legal fees involved which are often costly. To that end, many of the companies that produce pollution will encourage acceptance of this pollution by communities in order to avoid cleanup costs and costs associated with making certain industries more environmentally sustainable. That is, the cost of paying communities to accept pollution is often less than the (initial) costs of avoiding pollution all together. Therefore, it can be ascertained that poorer communities are likely to accept compensation for a certain level of pollution, and wealthier communities are willing to accept a smaller amount of pollution and demand a greater level of environmental quality. The difference is that one group is able to pay for environmental quality, and the other group is not. == See also ==