Transforming environmentalism : Warren county, PCBS, and the origins of environmental justice / Eileen McGurty

Object Details

Author

McGurty, Eileen Maura

Contents

The significance of Warren county -- Regulating toxic chemicals, PCBs, and hazardous waste -- The collective action frame of "not in my backyard" -- Constructing environmental racism: political opportunities, social networks, and collective action -- The environmental justice movement: maturation and limitations -- Warren county revisited -- Epilogue

Summary

"In Transforming Environmentalism, Eileen McGurty explores a moment central to the emergence of the environmental justice movement. In 1978, residents of predominantly African American Warren County, North Carolina, were horrified to learn that the state planned to build a landfill in their county to hold forty thousand cubic yards of soil that was contaminated with PCBs from illegal dumping. They responded to the state's plans with a four-year resistance, ending in a month of protests with over 500 arrests from civil disobedience and disruptive actions. McGurty traces the evolving approaches that residents took to contest 'environmental racism' in their community and shows how activism in Warren County spurred greater political debate and became a model for communities across the nation. Transforming Environmentalism explores how the specific circumstances of the Warren County events shaped the formation of the environmental justice movement and influenced contemporary environmentalism"--P. 4 of cover.

2007

C2007

Type

Case studies

Physical description

xi, 204 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm

Place

North Carolina

Warren County

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Environmental justice

Environmentalism

Polychlorinated biphenyls--Environmental aspects

Record ID

siris_sil_824434

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0