Perspective
US Civil Rights Tools Are Failing the Most Polluted Black Communities
An abandoned EPA probe in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” shows why the US needs human rights principles to combat gaping pollution disparities.
The Denka factory in Louisiana’s "Cancer Alley."
Photographer: Emily Kask / AFP via Getty Images
In 2022, the United Nations declared that access to a safe and healthy environment, free of pollutants and toxic waste, is a universal human right. The resolution provides a legal foundation for international challenges to environmental injustice; it should also provide an impetus for nations like the US to enforce their own environmental protections.
Without more clearly defined rights, some of the greatest environmental injustices may continue to be mired in politics.