Global Environmental Racism

The definition used in the overview noted the exclusion of environmental racism perpetrated, by the US or multinational corporations, against nations within countries outside the US. This section will thus explain the concepts paramount to understanding global environmental racism and will offer an example of its application in the real world.

Many factors play a pivotal role in comprehending these types of problems. They include nation-state conflicts and resource wars. Nations and states are two very different things. Nations, as defined by Barbara Johnston, are generally characterized by distinct language, culture, and history, territorial bases, and self-government that predates the creation of modern states. Many of them have been around for centuries, even millennia. States, in comparison, are in a stage of relative infancy, having been created after WWII. Statistics taken from Who Pays the Price? State that 6000 nations were contained within 190 states in 1994. Nations, typically much smaller than states, possess the ability to survive and organize far more efficiently within their own means than a state.

Though nations account for 10 to 15% of the world’s population, they have traditional claims to 25 to 30% of the earth’s surface area and resources (Johnston 21). This is a major source of conflict as they are seen as an obstruction to “progress” economically. Within the global economy in which we live there is an insatiable need for resources. States cannot attain these resources, whether they are land, water, minerals, or oil, unless they deny the rights of the indigenous groups or nations that have preserved and maintained the resource base over time.

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