Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice

by David Naguib Pellow

Examines the export of hazardous wastes to poor communities of color around the world and charts the global social movements that challenge them. Every year, nations and corporations in the “global North” produce millions of tons of toxic waste. Too often this hazardous material—inked to high rates of illness and death and widespread ecosystem damage—is exported to poor communities of color around the world. In Resisting Global Toxics , David Naguib Pellow examines this practice and charts the emergence of transnational environmental justice movements to challenge and reverse it. Pellow argues that waste dumping across national boundaries from rich to poor communities is a form of transnational environmental inequality that reflects North/South divisions in a globalized world, and that it must be theorized in the context of race, class, nation, and environment. Building on environmental justice studies, environmental sociology, social movement theory, and race theory, and drawing on his own research, interviews, and participant observations, Pellow investigates the phenomenon of global environmental inequality and considers the work of activists, organizations, and networks resisting it. He traces the transnational waste trade from its beginnings in the 1980s to the present day, examining global garbage dumping, the toxic pesticides that are the legacy of the Green Revolution in agriculture, and today's scourge of dumping and remanufacturing high tech and electronics products. The rise of the transnational environmental movements described in Resisting Global Toxics charts a pragmatic path toward environmental justice, human rights, and sustainability.

Genres: Sociology, Environment, Nonfiction, Ecology, Politics

356 pages, Paperback

First published August 10, 2007

Reviews

[Shin Furuya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-thought theoretical approach to the environmental (in)justice. Good thing is the author included several useful case description as well as analysis though I wished it goes deeper analysis with more practical kicks regarding these cases.



I particularly liked the part of the legacy of Green Revolution as well as high tech wastes. His emphasis on the racial and class divide was a great approach to force readers to recognize/recall that we often forget or don't realize the fact that most of these race/class lines are internalized among us and not think about the persistent discrimination at the bottom/core of the 'North' side.



In addition, I thought 'de-mystifying' the claim of high-tech industry as 'clean industry' is crucial to understand the dirty side of 'clean' business.

[Leah (Jane Speare) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read most of this during my Environmental Inequalities class this semester. While extremely dense, it’s very interesting. I wrote probably 10 pages of thoughts in total, but I won’t torture you with posting that in my review. I recommend if you want to learn how transnational justice organizations are able to work together to problem solve. How YOU can work with different stakeholders to make change, and often without getting caught in political dead ends. The case studies are inspiring (and also depressing) because you see groups of people actually DOING things. Even though you become instantly embarrassed for our country and other countries of the Global North. We are a terrible global example. Anyway. This is good.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapters 4 thru 6 are the most worthwhile parts of this book. Those chapters discuss the global links and oppositional movements, including some of their victories, around toxics as a part of capitalist globalization. This includes struggles against waste incinerators, dumping of toxic wastes in the third world, the growing problem posed by discarded and obsolete computer and consumer electronic gear, and the poisonous consequences of the "Green Revolution" in the third world.

The electronics and computer industry in the USA increasingly moved its hardware production offshore, beginning in the '80s and especially in the '90s. But there is also a problem with what happens to the computers and electronics gear when obsolete and discarded. There has been an increasing tendency to dump electronic waste in Asian countries, but also in some other 3rd world countries. Despite the electronics industry's "clean" image, in fact there are a lot of highly toxic substances used in electronics manufacture. These toxic substances present a problem both in the place where manufacturing takes place -- poisoning of workers and water contamination -- and also where the dumping or recycling happens. About 80 percent of electronic waste is sent to Asia.

Unfortunately much of the book is disfigured by excessive use of academic post-modernist jargon and endless acronymns. For example the author seems to find it hard to use the "c" word -- capitalism. So he substitutes "modernity" which seems to mean the same thing.

[Kate]

if you're going to read just one book on the topic- i recommend this book. pellow take a truly progressive approach to problem of hazardous waste dumping first on poor communities of color in the industrialized countries and then onto the global south. pellow takes the stance that the capitalist global political economy is flawed, and therefore small solutions to stymie the waste trade are cutting a weed at the stem rather than pulling out the root.

[Crystal-lee-m · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful book. If you are interested in learning more about the impacts of pesticides and other persistent chemicals (waste) on people of lower socioeconomic classes, this is an excellent read. Pellow clearly explains the sources of waste, the harm caused by waste, and the ways people have worked to change the system (organizations that are dedicated to finding solutions to these problems).