Noxious New York

Book discussion and signing with author Julie Sze.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ANNUAL BOOK LECTURE 2007

Tuesday, May 1, 2007  |  4 - 6 pm

East Conference Room
Memorial Union (MU)
University of California, Davis

Author Julie Sze will discuss her new book that touches on how racial minority and low-income communities often suffer disproportionate effects of urban environmental problems. Environmental justice advocates argue that these communities are on the front lines of environmental and health risks.

In Noxious New York, Julie Sze analyses the culture, politics and history of environmental justice activism in New York City within the larger context of privatization, deregulation and globalization. She tracks urban planning and environmental health activism in four gritty New York neighborhoods; Brooklyn’s Sunset Park and Williamsburg sections, West Harlem and the South Bronx.

In these communities, activism flourished in the 1980s and 1990s in response to economic decay and a concentration of noxious incinerators, solid waste transfer stations and power plants. Sze describes the emergence of local campaigns organized around the issues of asthma, garbage and energy systems, and how, in each neighborhood, activists framed their arguments in the vocabulary of environmental justice.