Ethanol Could Increase Net Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Ethanol and similar biofuels are known for their efficiency and lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels. However, could these benefits be outweighed by greenhouse-gas effects associated with necessary land-use changes? Thousands of acres of farms in the UNITED STATES were initially used for food production but are now used to harvest crops for ethanol; what effect does this have on the environment? According to Searchinger et al. (2008), diverting harvested crops to ethanol production means that additional land (including forests, grasslands, etc.) has to be converted into farmland to maintain the capacity of crops-for-food production. This results in increased greenhouse gas emissions at rates which may not justify the environmental benefits of ethanol.

"[Most major studies] have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases because biofuels sequester carbon through the growth of the feedstock. These analyses have failed to count the carbon emissions that occur as farmers worldwide respond to higher prices and convert forest and grassland to new cropland to replace the grain (or cropland) diverted to biofuels. By using a worldwide agricultural model to estimate emissions from land-use change, we found that corn-based ethanol, instead of producing a 20% savings, nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years. Biofuels from switchgrass, if grown on U.S. corn lands, increase emissions by 50%. This result raises concerns about large biofuel mandates and highlights the value of using waste products" (Searchinger et al. 2008, 1238).

Searchinger et al.'s report was published in the Science magazine, published by the non-profit American Association for the Advancement of Science. The full research paper is embedded in the Microsoft OneDrive frame below.

● ● ● ● ●  Citing this Work (MLA Formatting)  ● ● ● ● ●
Searchinger, Timothy, Ralph Heimlich, R. A. Houghton, Fengxia Dong, Amani Elobeid, Jacinto Fabiosa, Simla Tokgoz, Dermot Hayes, and Tun-Hsiang Yu. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change." Science 319.5867 (2008): 1238-240. Web.

Black Madonna of Czestochowa: One of the World’s Artistic Gems

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            Housed in the stately Jasna Gora (“Bright Mountain”) Monastery of Czestochowa (southern Poland), a bold gold frame above the altar borders a dark, dim, fifteenth-century painting: the Black Madonna (Our Lady) of Czestochowa (1434). It is an oil painting on wood and features a stunning accessory: an interchangeable “robe” frame covering encrusted with jewels. Attracting hundreds of thousands of Christian pilgrims annually for over six centuries (Karafilly 1998, H1), Poland’s famous Black Madonna has been replicated several times. One copy is found at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, another is found in Switzerland’s Hospice of the Great St. Bernard Pass (Duricy 2013), and others are found in various churches of England. Art historians and analysts have debated the significance and purpose of Black Madonna portraits. While Black Madonna portraits at Jasna Gora and other places worldwide might embody the resilient and generous spirit of Virgin Mary, these images have a wide variety of other meanings and symbolism as well.

Subject Matter and History
            The Black Madonna of Czestochowa features Virgin Mary (Madonna) and her miraculous son, Jesus Christ. Her right hand gestures towards Jesus, and Jesus’ left index finger points upward towards his mother. Like with many examples of Roman Catholic artwork, the subjects’ heads are surrounded by golden haloes – to presumably denote their important status within Christianity. Meanwhile, the bejeweled frame covering includes crowns atop the heads of Madonna and Jesus. Jesus is holding an ornately designed, thick book – this may or may not be the Bible. Just like the Bible, the history of this artwork is not exactly well-documented or properly dated in time. This artwork was legendarily created or inspired by St. Luke the Evangelist (DICI 2012; Duricy 2013; Karafilly H1), while it may really be painted in the fifteenth century. St. Helena – Constantine’s Queen Mother – allegedly found the portrait when she visited the Holy Land (fourth century), and then she brought it to the city of Constantinople. It could have eventually arrived in Poland, when St. Ladislaus obtained this masterpiece in the 1400s (Duricy 2013). Four famous examples of these bejeweled picture frame (“robe”) coverings existed over the years, being named after the dominant material adorning the surface: diamonds, rubies, pearls, and chain. The current robe overwhelmingly sparkles with diamonds (Rozanow 2010). There are at least seven total robes, and only two are on public display (Karafilly H2).

            After the 1400s, additional restorations took place. Art historian Ernst Scheyer conjectures that this painting was at least restored “in the nineteenth century and painted somewhat darker than previously.” The possible reasons why there is a “Black” Madonna – rather than white, as seen in many Western depictions of Madonna – are discussed in detail later below. Not everyone is pleased to venerate this Madonna image. In December 2012, she was vandalized with black paint (DICI 2012). This relatively recent case of vandalism is certainly not the first one; in 1430, Bohemian bandits stomped on and slashed the Madonna portrait; they also stole pilgrim’s votive gifts (Karafilly H1; Barham 2003, 330). A legend purports that these mischievous vandals ran away in horror when blood oozed out of the painting! Regardless of various cases of vandalism on her, the Black Madonna is said to have given miracles to the Polish people, who overcame invasive, dangerous groups such as the Swedes, Bolsheviks, and Nazis (Karafilly H1-2). Therefore, this gives hope to devout pilgrims that Madonna’s resiliency can help them overcome difficult times.

Style, Meanings, Symbolism, and Cultural Context
            Anyone including art connoisseurs and first-time Jasna Gora visitors may instantly notice Madonna and Jesus wearing solemn and/or stoic facial expressions. This could signify that Christian worshippers should humbly and seriously respect them – as Jesus’ salvation of humans from sin is an important and serious task. Madonna also has two noticeable long scars and one shorter scar on her face. These scars – left alone by restorers to reveal the Bohemian vandals’ inexcusable action (Karafilly H1) – can represent the painful sorrows of her son’s crucifixion, and/or the adversity she might have faced in raising a son who constantly challenged authorities in power. She seems to hold Jesus on her arm and on the left part of her chest. However, the not-quite-perfect shadowing of Jesus and the ripples in Madonna’s clothing results in him levitating against her body – rather than being visibly anchored to her.
Compared to some subdued Christian paintings, colors are relatively vibrant. Madonna’s and Jesus’ bright, light-gold haloes are interconnected to each other – essentially signifying the unconditional love and interconnectedness of their mother-son relationship. I and some other art analysts would argue that Madonna’s purple robe symbolizes royalty and dignity, while her hood could signify that she is protective, humble, and respectable. Jesus’ red robe could represent the blood he unfortunately shed when being crucified and dying for humans’ sins. The artwork’s lighting is peculiar in that Madonna has a bright spot on her nose while Jesus does not. Also, there may be two relatively dim light sources coming from opposite directions. From our view, the left side of Madonna’s face is lit, while the opposite is true in regards to Jesus.

            Visual-aid artwork in chapels, churches, synagogues, etc. helped illiterate worshippers understand main messages and tenets of the religion worshipped within these places. The diamond “robe” frame cover visually implies to Christians – even illiterate ones – that the subjects surrounded by jewels in this painting are meant to be revered for their immense importance in Christianity. A major component of Ancient to Medieval Art History is determining the styles and mannerisms of ancient societies’ artwork. According to Leonard Moss and other art historians and iconographers, the Madonna figure is “distinctly thirteenth-fourteenth century Byzantine in form” (Duricy 2013). Black Madonna of Czestochowa is a variety of Hodegetria iconography, in which Madonna is affirming – with her right hand – that her young boy is someone to respect and repent sins to. In an image caption contest, Madonna could be saying, “Look, everyone, my son right here is very important to Christianity.” Jesus might respond, “Yeah, but mom, you did the important task of giving birth to me and encouraging me to spread my message of salvation and love around the world!”

Theories of Why Madonna is Black
            The skin of Madonna and Jesus in this painting is darker in color than their skin in many Western Christian artworks. Plenty of art historians, scholars, and iconographers have contributed their theories in regards to this. Joan Carroll Cruz suggests a possible link to the Song of Songs: “I am black but beautiful” (Duricy 2013). However, she also notes that accumulated residue from candles may have darkened the figures’ skin color. Similarly, Charles Broschart suggests that flames and smoke from a shrine fire darkened this image. If the Black Madonna was indeed Byzantine in style, maybe their skin color is similar to that of Byzantine people’s skin color (ibid.). Barham, Stephen Benko, and Gustafson all propose that black Madonnas resemble Earth and fertility goddesses, such as Artemis, Ceres (Demeter), Hecate, Kali, Isis, Medusa, and Rhea (Barham 326, 328; Duricy 2013; Gustafson 2009, 15). She might also represent the darkness of rich, fertile soil or serve to be “an icon of the mystery of life and death that defies definition and speaks to the deepest layers of the human soul” (Gustafson 18).

Conclusion
            Throughout Europe, there is hardly a more populated pilgrimage site boasting a “mass of avid, hopeful humanity” (Karafilly H2) than the Jasna Gora monastery, featuring an artistic gem at the altar. Everyone is pointing fingers at each other: Jesus points up to his mother, Madonna hand gestures toward her son, and pilgrims arriving at Jasna Gora are fingering towards Jesus and the Virgin Mary in starstruck awe. With a rather gloomy yet brave facial expression, the Black Madonna hints at and displays her generosity, resiliency, and humility. While these characteristics are some that Christians easily attach to Virgin Mary, she represents a variety of other meanings, too – many of which orbit outside the Christian and religious realm.

            Supplementing the debate of what Christian figures such as Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary looked like as humans thousands of years ago, there is plenty of debate as to why the Virgin Mary featured in the Czestochowa image has a relatively dark skin tone. Some theories are grounded in practicality: Madonna may resemble the physical appearance of Byzantine people (who lived in what is now the Middle East, Turkey, etc.), or maybe candle soot somehow contributed to the painting’s overall darkness. Other theories address spirituality: the Black Madonna is an Earth goddess, and/or she embodies the vitality that fertile soil gives to plants and consequently other life forms on Earth. Her importance is exemplified by the scintillatingly glamorous robe covering that she and a young Jesus may occasionally wear at Josna Gory monastery. Regardless of what the Black Madonna truly represents, Christian pilgrims come far and wide to pay their respects to the Virgin Mary in southern Poland.

Works Cited
Barham, Penny. “Black Madonnas.” Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain & Ireland School of Feminist Theology 11.3 (2003): 325. Academic Search Premier. Web.

Duricy, Michael P. “Black Madonnas — Our Lady of Czestochowa.” Black Madonnas. International Marian Research Institute, University of Dayton, 5 Feb. 2013. http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/olczest.html.

Gustafson, Fred. The Black Madonna of Einsiedeln. Einsiedeln: Daimon Verlag, 2009. Print.

Karafilly, Irena F. “Poland's National Icon: In times of trouble, Poles have often turned for help to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa - and today their faith and fervor are undiminished.” The Montreal Gazette: pgs. H 1-4. 1998.

“Poland: The Black Madonna of Czestochowa Vandalized.” Documentation Information Catholiques Internationales, 21 Dec. 2012. Web. http://www.dici.org/en/news/poland-the-black-madonna-of-czestochowa-vandalized/.

Rozanow, Zofia. "New Robes of Our Lady of Czestochowa." Sunday Catholic Weekly. Niedziela, 2010. Web. http://sunday.niedziela.pl/artykul.php?dz=polska&id_art=00164.

More Food Desert Studies: Let’s Make More Maps

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"Environmental Injustice Exacerbated by Zoning." GeoFact of the Day Blog. Wonderful World Blog Publishing, 2 July 2016. Web. http://geofactoftheday.blogspot.com/2016/07/more-food-desert-studies-lets-make-more.html.

          Studies about the lack of food access in both urban and rural areas have generally increased each year, with citations including but certainly not limited to Gallagher (2006), McEntee and Agyeman (2010), Mundorf et al. (2015), Smith and Morton (2009), Thomson (2011), and Walker et al. (2010). All of my citations in this paper give credit to scholarly articles written within this millennium. I cited relatively recent sources of information because there is in-depth analysis and data collection regarding food access (i.e. Gordon et al. 2011 analyzing relationship between demographic variables and food store indices), and there are some specific case studies about particular cities or rural areas (i.e. Smith and Morton 2009 focusing on Iowa and Minnesota). Also, these recent studies utilize a variety of sources and research measures to evaluate food access, including the following examples: census data, focus groups, food use inventory, GIS and cartography, interviews, and surveys (Walker et al. 878). The study of food deserts in both urban neighborhoods and rural settings is proliferating since the beginning of this millennium, and the mapping of food access should play an important role in future case studies for valuable visual insights.

About Food Deserts
          Announced by President Obama in 2010, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative coordinates with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to research food access and help local markets sell healthy food in so-called food desert areas. The HFFI defines that a food desert is a low-income census tract area (20% or greater poverty) in which at least one-third of local residents have low and especially difficult access to markets, supermarkets, or grocery stores. Low access is defined as urban residents living more than a mile from a supermarket or grocery store, as well as rural residents living more than 10 miles from a supermarket or grocery store (Economic Research Service, USDA). Before the official food desert definition came into existence, Mari Gallagher brought the term into mainstream usage after examining the effects of someone’s Chicago neighborhood location on his or her food access (Gallagher 2006, 6). Gallagher’s study became a standard-bearer for future food access research because it contains maps, tables, and graphs – all visual aids which help convert sometimes confusing data into a form that readers can likely understand.

Food Deserts Search Results
          To explore how much research about food deserts is available, I used a comprehensive, centralized database feature that combines all sorts of research documents from multiple databases. “Full text online,” “scholarly & peer-reviewed,” and “peer-reviewed” filters were turned on so I can find accessible and quality-assured resources. A total of 1,462 results contain the exact term food desert – surrounded by quotation marks to keep thisdu phrase exact and intact within search results. The graph below shows how many search results per year were generated. There is a clear increase in search results up until the year 2014, although there is a drop in 2015 and so far in 2016. This graph visually reveals that food desert research grew in the last decade – and at least may be at a sustained level for future study of this subject.

          Since about 75% of census tracts in the United States are urban food deserts (Thomson 8), it would be logical to believe that more research has been done regarding urban food deserts compared to rural ones. This assertion is backed up by my search results – although not to the extent I originally hypothesized. I searched urban food deserts as well as “urban food deserts” (quotation marks to keep this phrase intact) – bringing up 15,460 search results and 82 results, respectively. Meanwhile, a rural food deserts search and a “rural food deserts” search resulted in 12,437 and 55 possible sources to research within. Before this search, I initially hypothesized that there would be about three times as many urban food desert articles as rural food desert ones, matching up with the ratio of urban to rural food deserts. Therefore, at least these search results imply that there is already more research about rural food deserts than I initially thought.

Analyzing Food Access in a Variety of Ways
          Despite the relatively pleasing amount of search results pertaining to rural food access, some scholars nevertheless note the urgent importance of doing more to study rural areas lacking satisfactory food access. For example, Lucan et al. criticizes Hartley et al. for saying that the study of food access and food deserts in rural is “less meaningful.” Lucan et al. comments that some rural residents face burdensome issues such as an inconsistent food supply, lack of transportation, and inconvenient location from stores selling a variety of produce (Lucan et al. 2012, 484-5). Some researchers comment that previous quantitative and data-based studies focused mostly on urban food deserts (McEntee and Argyeman 2010, 166). Smith and Morton implies more research into rural food deserts should be completed, so that better community planning and more incentives for rural grocery and market owners can lead to improved food access (Smith and Morton 185).

          Focusing solely on urban food deserts in New York City’s Brooklyn and Harlem boroughs, Gordon et al. (2010) is noted for an empirical and quantitative approach to explain how food deserts have formed in the Big Apple. For example, these researchers performed a block-by-block assessment of “every establishment selling food and beverages” (Gordon et al. 697) in Brooklyn and Harlem, and studying the Upper East Side (affluent and directly adjacent to Harlem) for comparison. The authors “calculated descriptive statistics for demographic and food access variables and examined the relationship between the block group demographic variables, food desert index components, and the total ‘‘food desert index’’ score. They found that neighborhoods with predominantly African-American residents (especially in Harlem) had the least “most healthy” food stores and the fewest number of supermarkets in New York City. The opposite is true for predominantly Caucasian and Latino block groups (Gordon et al. 699).

          Providing a specific case study for another urban area, Mundorf et al. (2015) focused on studying the changes of food access disparities in New Orleans, before and after Hurricane Katrina. Like Gordon et al., these researchers quantitatively analyzed food deserts and food access – performing “HLM Poisson regression analyses,” to be exact (Mundorf et al. 605). They found that the food access situation for African Americans – relative to other New Orleans residents – positively improved by the year 2014. To be precise, Mundorf et al. note that there is no statistically significant difference in food access (ibid. 605). However, food access issues still remain issues in New Orleans and in cities across the country, as explained by various factors. For example, urban supermarket prices are generally higher than suburban ones, according to some studies (Walker et al. 881). Even if a neighborhood has an adequate number of markets and supermarkets, the temptation of fast food from an abundance of fast-food establishments may prevent families from eating fresh fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, etc. at the dinner table (Parsons 2012, 41). Some surveys and personal interviews show that many residents in food deserts are knowledgeable about healthy foods’ benefits and how to cook – mostly unhealthy food, though. However, cooking classes could help provide residents information on how to prepare healthy foods in convenient and tasty ways (Parsons 39; Whittmeyer 2014). Some researchers may overlook the fact that low-income residents may not visit stores that do not accept EBT cards, which could mean they would have to travel farther to visit a store that does accept those (Parsons 42). In summary, a variety of factors explain why some low-income and racial-ethnic minority residents are living in food deserts.

Mapping Food Access and “Food Deserts”
          While the task of exploring the factors that help create food deserts was initially studied qualitatively, the growing nature of this study means that more research papers are studying this subject quantitatively (McEntee and Agyeman 165). Containing data related to demographics, availability of markets, and food access, relevant GIS data sets are becoming increasingly available for food desert researchers (ibid. 165). These conditions mean that there is opportunity for researchers to gather more empirical data – a task Gordon et al. completed, as mentioned previously. In addition, more maps can be created to show the environment injustices of food deserts – especially highlighting the food deserts that have not been researched before.

          So far, researchers have conducted mapping activities for mostly urban but some rural case study areas, including Chicago; Lansing, Michigan; and the state of Vermont, which of course includes rural areas. One mapmaking-related study is particularly revolutionary for the study of food deserts: “Gallagher’s 2006 map of Chicago food deserts is credited with spurring Congress two years later to ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a national study of public access to affordable, nutritious food” (Thomson 9). As a result of her study, the USDA did file a report asserting that people located far away from fresh food stores and lacking transportation lived in “food deserts.” Likewise, professors at Michigan State University mapped pedestrian food access in Michigan’s state capital. They note that, over the past several decades, multiple supermarkets moved from inner-city to suburban areas and therefore decreased the access of food for urban residents (Goldsberry and Howard 2011). For the whole state of Vermont, McEntee and Agyeman mapped the “mean distance to food retailers within census tract[s].” The authors found that Vermont’s food deserts are scattered throughout the state and mostly in rural areas (McEntee and Agyeman 170-2). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service interactive map provides a nationwide analysis of food deserts. The agency’s publicly-accessible map might serve as the basis for food desert research paper’s geographic analysis. With its various layers depicting distance from food stores, the USDA’s map shows that plenty of food deserts exist in states with geographically large rural areas, such as Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Kentucky, and Idaho.

          While it can be argued that more mapping of food access can be done to visually highlight the issues affecting food desert areas, the aforementioned mapping research may lead to more researchers taking a cartographic approach in analyzing food desert issues. Providing optimism that there is plenty of mapmaking-related research, Walker et al. notes that cited studies in the authors’ paper (nine of them) mostly used GIS technology – compared to other methods of analysis – for their food desert papers (Walker et al. 878). Also, some researchers note that the “spatial analysis of consumer behavior” can play an important role in reevaluating and strengthening local food production and distribution networks (Gatrell et al. 1196). Therefore, the use of cartography and GIS data in food desert research can provide interesting and new insights about how government officials and residents can properly address food access issues.

Conclusion
          Regardless of extensive rural and urban food desert research, more researchers ideally should study more rural communities and relatively high-populated cities because not much research has been done for certain areas. Despite Indianapolis being ranked by Walk Score as the worst American city for convenient food access (Whittmeyer 2014), researchers have not conducted many studies about the city’s food deserts. Searching through Google Scholars and and a database reveals no such research for Indianapolis. However, the study of food deserts in urban and rural areas is relatively new – opportunities abound for case studies of “new” areas. The current research has proposed a variety of factors explaining why some areas are so-called food deserts: lack of transportation (sometimes unaffordable), inconsistent food supply from hunting and gardening, inconvenient location of stores, racial-ethnic and socioeconomic demographics (especially pertaining to low-income and African-American residents), high urban supermarket prices, many drive-through restaurants, and few or no local stores accepting the use of EBT cards. Researchers such as Gallagher (2006), Goldsberry and Howard (2011), and McEntee and Agyeman (2010) have already understood the beneficial, visual insights that mapping and GIS data usage can bring to the study of food access in the United States. I propose that more researchers should follow in their footsteps to study other food desert areas.

Works Cited

— Economic Research Service (ERS). “Food Access Research Atlas.” U.S. Department of Agriculture. Web. ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas.aspx.

— Gallagher, Mari. “Examining the impact of food deserts on public health in Chicago.” Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group (2006): 4-39. Web. marigallagher.com/projects/4.

— Gatrell, Jay D., Neil Reid, and Paula Ross. “Local Food Systems, Deserts, and maps: The Spatial Dynamics and Policy Implications of Food Geography.” Applied Geography 31.4 (2011): 1195-6. Web.

— Goldsberry, Kirk and Phil Howard. “Mapping urban food deserts.” ScienceDaily (3 March 2011). sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110303141557.htm.

— Gordon, Cynthia, et al. “Measuring Food Deserts in New York City's Low-Income Neighborhoods.” Health and Place 17.2 (2011): 696-700. Web.

— Lucan, Sean C., Alison Gustafson, and Stephanie B. Jilcott Pitts. “The Concept of ‘Rural Food Deserts’ is Still Meaningful.” Childhood Obesity 8.5 (2012): 484-5. Web.

— McEntee, Jesse, and Julian Agyeman. “Towards the Development of a GIS Method for Identifying Rural Food Deserts: Geographic Access in Vermont, USA.” Applied Geography 30.1 (2010): 165-76. Web.

— Mundorf, Adrienne R., Amelia Willits-Smith, and Donald Rose. “10 Years Later: Changes in Food Access Disparities in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.” Journal of Urban Health 92.4 (2015): 605-10. Web.

— Parsons, Sarah. “An Evaluation of the Food Desert Definition in Durham, North Carolina.” Diss. Duke University, 2012. Duke University Libraries, 25 Apr. 2012. Web.

— Smith, Chery, and Lois W. Morton. “Rural Food Deserts: Low-Income Perspectives on Food Access in Minnesota and Iowa.” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 41.3 (2009): 176-87. Web.

— Thomson, Susan C. “Food Deserts: Where Poor Nutrition Thrives.” Health Progress 92.6 (2011): 8-9. Web.

— Walker, Renee E., Christopher R. Keane, and Jessica G. Burke. “Disparities and Access to Healthy Food in the United States: A Review of Food Deserts Literature.” Health and Place 16.5 (2010): 876-84. Web.

— Wittmeyer, Sarah. “Indianapolis Ranks Worst in the Nation for Food Deserts.” Indiana Public Media. 30 May 2014. Web. https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/indianapolis-ranks-worst-nation-food-deserts-67800.php.

Environmental Injustice Exacerbated by Zoning

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A variety of community factors – political processes, residents lacking political authority, zoning rules, etc. – are consequential to the effectiveness of governments and activists addressing environmental injustice. One example of such consequences involves Chester, Pennsylvania residents telling company and government officials (allies supporting each other with monetary deals and permits) the community’s concerns about waste facilities – but failing to reach their objectives since many hazardous Chester facilities still operate (Cole and Foster 38). The negative consequences of zoning on environmental injustice are sometimes not explained in detail (e.g. with case study analysis) in various scholars’ work. While authors such as Bullard et al. (“Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007”) do not explain unjust zoning practices with the support of case study analysis, these authors and others (Cole and Foster; Ferraro and Peller) do contribute helpful suggestions and ideas to resolve environmental injustice.

Two authors who do describe the consequences of zoning ordinances on environmental injustice – and include a case study to provide a real-world example – are Cole and Foster (From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement). The authors include a specific section analyzing the premises of zoning ordinances and their effects on environmental injustice/racism. Cole and Foster comment that residents with African heritage have seen their communities be “re-zoned as industrial [areas] by white planning boards” (Cole and Foster 69) – in a similar fashion to government officials encouraging (with easy permits, tax incentives, etc.) hazardous waste disposal facilities to move in and transform Chester into an industrial district (Cole and Foster 38). Authors of the United Church of Christ’s “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007” report would support Cole and Foster’s argument by saying that “more than nine out of ten [planning and zoning board] members are white” (Bullard et al. 135). More research could be done to find valid statistics and ordinance actions to support a statement that planning/zoning boards with mostly white members ignore or exacerbate (intentionally or not) environmental injustice.

Cole and Foster quote a scholar’s concise – but arguably generalized – point about zoning’s environmental injustice (“expulsive zoning”). Yale Rabin’s notion that “zoning decisions are not made with reference to race” (quoted in Cole and Foster 69) could arguably be disputed; this is because intent or lack of intent could be difficult to prove especially if case-by-case political factors of communities are ignored or generalized. However, opponents of this argument might agree with Rabin in saying that the zoning decisions’ impact “has profound racial implications” (ibid. 69). Therefore, this discussion of zoning and its consequences relating to environmental racism could have been inserted immediately before or after the Chester, Pennsylvania case study. I suggest this so readers can essentially “connect the dots” – understanding that municipal zoning actions can be a force for environmental injustice. After all, the Chester Residents Concerned for Quality of Life (CRCQL) activist group wanted to pressure the City Council to amend the zoning ordinance for addressing concentrated sitings of hazardous waste disposal facilities (ibid. 49).

In summary, Cole and Foster explain the zoning-environmental injustice connection with support from the Chester case study and academic thought from urban planner and civil rights activist Yale Rabin. Meanwhile, Bullard et al. does not provide case study evidence of discriminatory zoning ordinances, especially in saying this statement: “Historically, exclusionary zoning has been a subtle form of using government authority and power to foster and perpetuate discriminatory practices—including environmental planning. … Local land use and zoning policies are ‘a root enabling cause of disproportionate burdens and environmental injustice’ in the United States” (Bullard et al. 135). Kim Ferraro of the Hoosier Environmental Council and Dr. Julie Peller agree with the idea of zoning being discriminatory, saying that “people of color and those who did not own land” did not have the political authority nor encouragement from government representatives to participate in land use decision-making (Ferraro and Peller 6). This disenfranchisement of citizens was negatively consequential because a strong, robust environmental justice movement of citizen activism could prevent the “siting of even more industrial facilities in their neighborhoods” (ibid. 6). An active environmental justice movement led by citizens of Northwest Indiana communities similarly might pressure officials to revise zoning ordinances – discouraging the location of large polluting industrial districts adjacent to residential areas with rules encouraging mixed-use and/or energy-efficient urban developments.

Unlike Bullard et al., Ferraro and Peller provide a specific example of discriminatory zoning at work in cities such as East Chicago, Gary, and Hammond: “…discriminatory land use practices including racially restrictive covenants were legally sanctioned through the 1950s to prevent African Americans from leaving heavily polluted communities and moving to ‘nicer,’ white neighborhoods” (Ferraro and Peller 6). While not stating the term “urban planning” at all, Ferraro and Peller’s zoning and land use discussion provides an interesting perspective combining environmental justice and the discipline of urban planning – in which zoning and land use practices are studied to determine their potential negative consequences on neighborhoods. The connection between zoning and environmental injustice is demonstrated in various case study examples – for example, residents of Little Village (Chicago) protested for zoning changes to encourage more green space areas and fewer places for factories. Urban planning’s perspective is important since its land use and historic geographic elements can help analyze how “separated land use” zoning ordinances might not provide environmental protection to residents, especially people of disadvantaged populations (poor, people of African descent, etc.). For example, (1) these types of zoning ordinances might have a grandfather clause – in which pre-zoning facilities can continue their operations as-is (Ferraro and Peller 6) – and/or (2) lead to a concentration of toxic facilities by establishing a geographically large, single-use industrially zoned area near neighborhoods.

While case studies can examine specific zoning policies, schemes, and actions intentionally or unintentionally contributing to environmental racism, Bullard et al. possibly wants to encourage researchers to “think big” in order to come up with broad, nationally standardized explanations of the zoning-environmental racism connection. Likewise, the fear of taking specific case study factors and generalizing them to other case studies is exemplified in Robert and Robin Collin’s testimonial in the “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007” document (Bullard et al. 103). On the contrary, though, broad theories might ignore pertinent case study factors, as addressed above on page 2. The authors mention broad but rather vague points regarding the effects of zoning on environmental injustice – but then again their national race and toxic wastes report may be meant to inspire other researchers to do the work of analyzing zoning practice with real-world case study examples in local areas.

Bullard et al. is more specific in providing suggestions and recommendations to help alleviate environmental injustice. Including recommendations in regards to congressional, executive branch, state, local, non-governmental organization (NGO), and industry actions (ibid. 156-160) is reasonable because readers might ask, “What can I do or what initiatives should I encourage to help alleviate environmental racism?” Ferraro and Peller would likely agree with Bullard et al.’s approach to providing solutions because they offer a specific solution of their own: an environmental justice clinic for Northwest Indiana (Ferraro and Peller 24). The authors’ specific description of what this hypothetical environmental justice clinic would offer – information about regulations and environmental concerns, legal expertise to encourage compliance of regulations, support to help residents conduct water, soil, etc. tests, etc. on residential properties – is useful because then readers across America (and possibly the globe) might be inspired to start up their own organization to address environmental injustice issues in their local area.

Works Cited

— Bullard, Robert D., Paul Mohai, Robin Saha, and Beverly Wright. “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007.” Toxic Wastes and Race. United Church of Christ, Mar. 2007.

— Cole, Luke, and Sheila Foster. “The Political Economy of Environmental Racism: Chester Residents Concerned for Quality of Life.” From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement. NYU Press, 2001. Web.

— Ferraro, Kim, and Julie Peller, comps. “Assessment of Environmental Justice Needs in Northern Lake County Communities.” Hoosier Environmental Council (2010). Web. http://www.hecweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/HEC-Assessment-of-EJ-Needs-in-Northern-Lake-County-Communities-FINAL-REPORT2.pdf.