Michael Barbella, Managing Editor02.14.22
Justice seldom forges a swift path.
It can take years for civil lawsuits and criminal cases to make their way to a jury, and even longer for wrongful convictions to be dismissed. A Boston man, for example, spent more than 47 years in prison before Massachusetts’ highest court vacated his sentence, while a Michigan father of two waited 45 years for his innocence to be revealed.
Environmental justice can be equally as sluggish. In 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially defined “environmental justice” and established an office devoted to the cause. Two years later, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order imploring all government agencies to consider environmental justice in their decisions.
Despite such actions, however, environmental justice remains more of a pipe dream than an achievable goal. Some of the worst cases of ecological abuse and neglect continues to impact communities throughout America, with corroded pipes leaking lead into drinking water sources, and natural gas burn-offs at fracking sites spewing pollutants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen o
It can take years for civil lawsuits and criminal cases to make their way to a jury, and even longer for wrongful convictions to be dismissed. A Boston man, for example, spent more than 47 years in prison before Massachusetts’ highest court vacated his sentence, while a Michigan father of two waited 45 years for his innocence to be revealed.
Environmental justice can be equally as sluggish. In 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially defined “environmental justice” and established an office devoted to the cause. Two years later, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order imploring all government agencies to consider environmental justice in their decisions.
Despite such actions, however, environmental justice remains more of a pipe dream than an achievable goal. Some of the worst cases of ecological abuse and neglect continues to impact communities throughout America, with corroded pipes leaking lead into drinking water sources, and natural gas burn-offs at fracking sites spewing pollutants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen o
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