COVID-19 Exposes Environmental Injustices
By: The People S Lobby
Tags: Coronavirus, Chicago, Covid 19, Climate Change, Environmental Justice

By Lina Avalos, Leader with The People’s Lobby’s Environmental Justice Task Force

The current COVID-19 crisis has been hard on everyone, from all ends of the world. Like all crises at this level, it is exposing the fundamental issues in our systems and government. One in particular is environmental racism, an issue that is often forgotten about or pushed to the side because it is ‘not a priority.’ These past few months have shown exactly why it is a priority, and why it is necessary that we act on this issue immediately.

As of April 5th, 2020, in Cook County, there have been 183 confirmed deaths from COVID-19, and 86 recorded deaths in Chicago. That means that while black residents make up 29% of Chicago’s population, they are making up around 70% of Chicago’s COVID-19 deaths. There are many issues that contribute to this disparity; be it lack of access to health care, biased health care or that black and brown people are more likely to be essential workers. However, a big contributing factor is environmental racism. In Chicago, the biggest environmental burden is carried by the areas around the neighborhood of Little Village and around the Southeast Side. What do these areas have in common? They are historically black and brown communities, and have been treated as dumping zones for pollution from dirty industries. Doing this has put these communities at risk of rare cancers and asthma, both health issues that put you at a higher risk for COVID-19.

A big part of why I got involved in environmental work is because I live in the southeast side which is neglected by Chicago in many ways, including environmental issues. We have soil pollution, air pollution and other issues that have had severe consequences on the health of my community, all because of where we live. I have seen the harmful effects of environmental injustice directly, with my grandmother who has a liver disease as a direct result of the pesticides that she breathed in growing up on the farm fields in Texas. This is environmental racism, and it is happening every day. This is environmental racism, and it is happening every day.

Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and our Federal governments have the responsibility to put communities like these, communities that have been put at greater risk, first. Our government must be making the environment a top priority at all levels, and ensuring that black and brown communities have a seat at the table in addressing this, especially during this moment of crisis. A first priority must be restarting all EPA enforcement, which was stopped by the Trump administration in a very backwards response to COVID-19. Now is not a time to be allowing dirty industries to be polluting our air and water more, which does nothing but put vulnerable communities even more at risk and lets the fossil fuel industry off without punishment.

We must also incorporate Environmental Justice into all of our practices. Climate action without environmental justice is useless, and only perpetuates the unjust systems that already exist.

We must hold our politicians accountable, and call out the obvious racism that continues to happen in decision making. Our personal practices cannot only be telling our friends to switch to oat milk and eat less red meat, as good as those options may be. Our personal practices around environmentalism must look like voting for anyone that is not an advocate for environmental injustice out, participating in civil disobedience when possible, and making space for black and brown people at all decision-making tables. Environmentalism cannot be environmentalism without black and brown people.