Breathing Unequally: environmental justice and transport-related air pollution - Gordon Walker

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Breathing Unequally: environmental justice and transport-related air pollution - Gordon Walker
Breathing Unequally:
environmental justice and
transport-related air pollution

Gordon Walker
Lancaster Environment Centre
Lancaster University
Breathing Unequally: environmental justice and transport-related air pollution - Gordon Walker
THE RIGHT TO EQUAL AIR QUALITY

THE RIGHT TO GOOD ENOUGH AIR
QUALITY

THE RIGHT TO PROTECTION FROM
POOR AIR QUALITY FOR THE MOST
VULNERABLE

THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATION IN AQM
STANDARD SETTING AND DECISION
MAKING

THE RIGHT TO NOT BE EXPOSED TO
MORE POOR AIR QUALITY THAN YOU
ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR
Breathing Unequally: environmental justice and transport-related air pollution - Gordon Walker
   Environmental justice and air
    quality: politics and research
   Justice and evidence in claim
    making
   Social distribution of poor air quality
   5 ‘BUTS’
   Conclusions (and the Queen)
Breathing Unequally: environmental justice and transport-related air pollution - Gordon Walker
   Air quality key focus of EJ
    political campaigning in the US
    e.g. against
       new industrial facilities
       existing industrial plants and
        incinerators
       major transport routes
       transport depots

   Focused on health risks
    (asthma especially) and who is
    suffering from these; in racial
    terms in particular

   Substantial research and
    scholarship
Breathing Unequally: environmental justice and transport-related air pollution - Gordon Walker
   “Environmental justice is
    the idea that everyone has
    the right to a decent
    environment and a fair
    share of the Earth’s
    resources” (FoE Scotland)

   Including focus on air
    quality in relation to
    deprivation and poverty;
   Growing research base
“This book is about the intertwining of
environment and social difference. How
for some people and some social
groups the environment is an intrinsic
part of living a ‘good life’ of prosperity,
health and well being. While for others
the environment is a source of threat
and risk, and access to resources such
as energy, water and green space is
limited or curtailed. It is also about how
some of us consume key environmental
resources at the expense of others,
often in distant places, and about how
the power to effect change and
influence environmental decision-
making is unequally distributed. Most
fundamentally it is about the way that
people should be treated, the way the
world should be”.
Claim making
Claim making
Claim making
multivalent,                              multiple
many viable                               forms of
justice claims                            inequality,
and                                       overlapping
resolutions                               patterns

                 ought - is distinction
Socio-spatial patterns of exposure
to poor air quality

    Range of analyses undertaken in
     the UK – national, regional and city
     scales – for different pollutants (N02,
     PM10, CO, Benzene for traffic)
    Examining patterns in relation to
     deprivation, poverty
    Variety of outcomes –
     methodological and scale
     dependencies
Air quality                        Population
       data                              census
                                          data
Where AQ
                                                    Where
 is good
                                                people live of
 and bad
                                                   different
                      Geographical                 classes,
                  Information System            ethnicities etc

                  Socio-spatial
                                          Who lives with
                   distribution          good and bad air
                      of AQ                  quality
34

Mean annual NO2 (ug/m 3)   32

                           30

                           28

                           26

                           24

                           22
                                5      10         15         20         25        30         35   40

                                       Per cent households in poverty (Breadline Britain Index)

                                Annual mean NO2 concentration against deprivation for
                                British     wards in 1999. Source: Mitchell and Dorling 2003
45
Mean ward mean NO2 concentration             40

                                             35

                                             30

                                             25
                                   (ug/m3)

                                             20

                                             15

                                             10

                                              5

                                              0
                                                  1    2    3     4       5       6      7   8   9   10
                                                                      Deprivation decile

                                             Distribution of Nitrogen dioxide by Deprivation in
                                             England, 2001. Source Walker et al 2003.
45

Mean ward mean NO2 concentration
                                              40

                                              35

                                              30
                                   (ug/m 3)

                                              25

                                              20

                                              15

                                              10

                                              5

                                              0
                                                   1   2   3   4        5      6        7   8   9   10
                                                                   Deprivation decile

Figure 5.3: Distribution of Nitrogen dioxide in Wales by
Deprivation, 2001 (Source: Walker et al 2003)
Air quality – annual mean values for NO2 and
                               PM10:
                                                                 SCOTLAND:
                                                                 Fairburn et al 2008

                          30
annual mean value ug/m3

                          25

                          20

                          15

                          10

                          5

                          0
                                 1   2   3   4        5     6         7          8   9   10
                                                 Deprivation Decile

                                             Nitrogen dioxide             PM10
   An unevenness and an inequality in
    the social distribution of poor air
    quality
   an injustice?

     THE RIGHT TO EQUAL AIR QUALITY
     Justice as equality in the distribution of
     air quality
‘BUT’ NO 1
   Does the variation in air quality
    matter?

THE RIGHT TO GOOD ENOUGH AIR
QUALITY
Justice as minimum standards for all in
the distribution of air quality
45

Mean ward mean NO2 concentration
                                              40

                                              35

                                              30
                                   (ug/m 3)

                                              25

                                              20

                                              15

                                              10

                                              5

                                              0
                                                   1   2   3   4        5      6        7   8   9   10
                                                                   Deprivation decile

Figure 5.3: Distribution of Nitrogen dioxide in Wales by
Deprivation, 2001 (Source: Walker et al 2003)
45
Mean ward mean NO2 concentration             40

                                             35

                                             30

                                             25
                                   (ug/m3)

                                             20

                                             15

                                             10

                                              5

                                              0
                                                  1    2    3     4       5       6      7   8   9   10
                                                                      Deprivation decile

                                             Distribution of Nitrogen dioxide by Deprivation in
                                             England, 2001. Source Walker et al 2003.
900
                                       Thousands of people

                                 800
 Population (thousands) in NO2
      exceedence ward            700

                                 600

                                 500

                                 400

                                 300

                                 200

                                 100

                                  0
                                       1    2    3    4     5      6     7   8   9   10
                                                       Deprivation Decile

Distribution of ward mean NO2 exceedences for England
(2001). Source: Walker et al 2003
‘BUT’ No 2
   Are all bodies equal?
     variation in sensitivity to exposure

     age, pre-existing health conditions

     accumulative and synergistic effects

     ‘double/triple jeopardy’ for vulnerable
      populations; poor socio-economic
      conditions interact with both poor
      health and a poor living environment
    THE RIGHT TO PROTECTION FROM POOR
    AIR QUALITY FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE
    Justice as care and protection of the most
    vulnerable
“whilst the triple jeopardy of deprivation,
increased potential for exposures to
environmental pollution and impaired
health certainly exists …the additive effects
of deprivation and environment on general
health status are usually not strong, and
not always negative” (Briggs et al 2008:
15)
‘BUT’ No 3
   Are air quality standards a good
    enough metric of significance?
      sub-threshold effects

      ‘average white male’

      peaks and variation not picked up by
       monitoring networks
      accumulative and synergistic effects

THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATION IN AQM
STANDARD SETTING AND DECISION MAKING
Justice as access to information, to decision
making processes, to research processes
‘BUT’ No. 4

    Does it matter who is responsible
     for creating the air pollution?
        Are the polluters suffering the
         consequences of their own actions
        Or those most exposed or vulnerable
         suffering from a problem caused by
         others?
THE RIGHT TO NOT BE EXPOSED TO MORE
POOR AIR QUALITY THAN YOU ARE
RESPONSIBLE FOR
Justice as ‘desert’ or proportionality
38

                           36
Annual mean NO2 (ug/m 3)

                           34

                           32

                           30

                           28

                           26

                           24

                           22
                                0   10     20       30        40        50   60   70
                                           Per cent households with no car

                           Annual mean NO2 concentration against car ownership
                           amongst potential drivers for British wards in 1999. Source:
                           Mitchell and Dorling 2003
Conclusion

   Value of distinguishing between
    inequality and injustice
   (in)Justice in air quality emerges as
    involved, multifaceted potentially
    accumulative
   The evidence – justice interrelation,
    in claim-making needs to be
    constantly at work
“We cant afford to cut pollution –
    Spelman “ (Guardian 28/2/11)
   Air pollution costs UK £10b/yr, 925,000
    people exposed over NO2 limit
   London has constant breaches of NO2
    and PM10 standards; linked to 1in 5 of
    all deaths
   Argued by government that too costly
    to achieve standards even by 2015
   There is a ‘Kensington’ effect; but does
    the interrelation of exposure,
    vulnerability, responsibility and mobility
    also make this a matter of injustice??
“We are most concerned with the most deprived
wards, as residents here are much more constrained
(economically), in their choice of residential location,
and hence unlike their more affluent counterparts,
are not able to flee the poor air quality, or trade it
off against other benefits of that location. By way of
illustration, consider the Queen. Whilst at
Buckingham Palace, she is resident in the ward with
the third worst air quality in England (excluding
unpopulated City of London wards). However, she
trades off this cost against the benefits of living at
the palace, and is also economically able to relocate
to areas with much better air quality (which she
does do for some of the year - e.g. to Balmoral in
the Scottish highlands)” (ibid: 104)

THE RIGHT TO REGULARLY ESCAPE POOR AIR
QUALITY BY MOVING OUT TO ONE’S COUNTRY
ESTATES
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