The role of working-class communities and the slow violence of toxic pollution in environmental health conflicts

Analysing a sample of 3,033 environmental conflicts around the globe, we compared conflicts reporting no human health impacts to those reporting health impacts linked to toxic pollution. Our study suggests four main findings. First, health impacts are a key concern for working-class communities. Sec...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Navas Obando, Grettel|||0000-0002-4727-8259, D'Alisa, Giacomo|||0000-0001-9472-2837, Martínez Alier, Joan|||0000-0002-6124-539X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:251874
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/251874
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102474
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Environmental health conflicts (EHCs)
Working-class environmentalism
Slow violence
Statistical political ecology
EJAtlas
Descripción
Sumario:Analysing a sample of 3,033 environmental conflicts around the globe, we compared conflicts reporting no human health impacts to those reporting health impacts linked to toxic pollution. Our study suggests four main findings. First, health impacts are a key concern for working-class communities. Second, the long-term effects of toxic pollution undermine communities' ability to act preventively. Third, industrial activities, waste management and nuclear energy conflicts are more likely to report health impacts than other economic activities. Last, mobilising groups are reluctant to consider the closure of a polluting project a successful outcome because of the persistence of toxic pollution across time. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of what we have termed 'environmental health conflicts' (EHCs).