BBD – Environmental Equity

About Environmental Equity

After decades of activism and scholarship, it is now commonly accepted that racialized and poor
communities across Canada and the United States experience disproportionate levels of environmental risk and fewer environmental benefits. This is known as environmental injustice.

Our group, led by the Community Race Relations Committee of Peterborough (CRRC), the Kawartha World Issues Centre (KWIC), and researchers from Trent University and University of Toronto, alongside other partners, is attempting to shed some light on the nature of environmental injustice in our community.

While this work is just beginning, already it’s clear that there is a very strong relationship between where pollution-creating firms are located and where low-income people live in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough. This is environmental injustice in action. Higher-income people in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough, on the whole, have access to a safer, less polluted, and healthier environment than those living on low-income.

As we endeavour to learn and organize with community partners to move this work forward, we’ll be sharing updates on mapping4change.org.

                                                         “Some live more downstream than others” – Jim Tarter (2002: 213)

Reports