Jerry Marx

Environmental Justice & Healthy Communities Jerry Marx

This book examines environmental justice in the context of healthy communities. The World Health Organization provides a list of "social determinants of health," which incorporates a set of environmental characteristics that together form healthy living environments. "Health" for individuals is indicated by health status factors such as physical, mental, and spiritual well-being; for communities, health is measured by such outcomes as average life expectancy, mortality rates, and morbidity rates. What do communities need to produce these health outcomes? Environmental justice is key. This book broadly presents the concept of environmental justice in terms of the human right to nutritious community food systems; affordable housing free of contaminated drinking water and toxic building materials; the right of workers to make a living wage in safe and humane work environments; the public need for parks and other urban open spaces; and ultimately, humanity's need for a stable climate. This book also addresses the question of what ordinary citizens can do together in their local communities to promote environmental justice. In the face of environmental threats such as water pollution, air pollution, and warming global temperatures, what strategies and tactics have proven successful for citizen activists? This book attempts to answer these questions using national survey research and real-life case illustrations of citizens taking action to protect and promote the health of their community - and it does so following the old maxim: "think globally, act locally."