Many residents of northeast Portland, an industrial area near the I-5 freeway
corridor, have a lower-than-average income. Residents of the area have a rate
of asthma higher than the state and national averages (about 14 percent compared
to about 7 percent), according to a survey conducted by researchers from Lewis
and Clark College.
There are some differences in the surveys used to establish asthma rates for
the various areas, so more research is underway, said Bruce Podobnik, the Lewis
and Clark sociologist directing the Portland project. Still, air pollution does
cause, or at least contribute to, the disease.
The concern about asthma in northeast Portland is tied to "social equity,"
an issue some believe is an obstacle to sustainability. Social equity refers
to fairness among people who live on the earth right now and to those who will
live here in the future.
"Research shows that people of color and those with lower incomes are more
likely to be affected by environmental hazards," said Jeri Sundvall, director
of the Portland-based Environmental Justice Action Group. "Environmental
justice embraces the principle that all people are entitled to a healthy and
safe environment in which to work, live and play.
"Residents of north and northeast Portland are often impacted more heavily
by these issues than people in other Portland neighborhoods," she said.
Some issues that may affect the health of the community in north and northeast
Portland:
Fairness, or social equity, has implications for the health of Oregon’s
economy, environment and social systems.
For example, having children and adults among us who are struggling unsuccessfully
to make ends meet will be a sustainability roadblock if we fail to address the
situation effectively, said Kim Thomas, public policy manager for the Oregon
Food Bank, which distributes donated food to nonprofit agencies helping low-income
Oregonians.
"I don’t believe many low-income Oregonians have the time and luxury
to think about sustainability much," said Thomas. "They are more interested
in getting or keeping a job, any job, so they can feed their families and keep
a roof over their heads. Shoring up the safety net so low-income families can
stabilize and move beyond crisis management may be the first step to educating
them on the benefits of sustainability."
A major challenge to increasing sustainability is that it often involves some
kind of redistribution of resources, said Denise Lach, a sociology professor
at Oregon State University who is co-director of the university’s Center
for Water and Environmental Sustainability.
"But we do accept different kinds of equity in our lives," noted Lach.
"We tend to distribute things equally in a family, maybe in another way
in a job situation—the more you contribute, the more you get out of it—and
sometimes, usually in an emergency or disaster, we’re willing to give everything
to the most needy."
With sustainability, there are other immediate challenges linked to social equity.
For example, what if global warming linked to human activities is causing significant
changes? What if in the decades ahead sea levels rise a few inches and flood
the lower parts of some countries? Climates change, altering the agriculture,
forestry, fishing and other industries in various countries in various ways.
These are pieces of a social equity puzzle. Sorting it out is more complex than
simply identifying winners and losers. It means answering questions like who
contributed, in what percentages, to the problem? Who, if anyone, deserves compensation?
Do developed countries, whose industries may have profited from activities that
produced pollution and contributed to global warming, have the right to tell
developing countries that want to create jobs and raise their standard of living
that they should sacrifice to save the environment?
There are longer range social equity concerns.
"What world is handed down [to the next generation] when biological diversity
is diminished?" said Jack Dymond, a retired oceanographer who lives in
Corvallis. "No salmon, no wolves, grizzlies, etc.?"
Lew Bowers, manager of neighborhoods, housing and community development for
the city of Eugene, is looking at the future, too.
"We need to be looking at how we can improve the quality of life for everyone,
not just the upper income residents," he said. "So when we talk about
the kinds of jobs we want to create for the future, we need to recognize the
need for entry-level jobs for people who do not have the education and experience
for other kinds of employment. In these smaller, denser cities we talk about,
how does everyone make a living—not just the highly trained and educated?"
Demographics can cause other kinds of social equity problems. America’s
huge generation born after World War II is an example.
"The Baby Boomer generation has just sort of moved through the world and
mowed down everything in its way," said OSU’s Lach, "and it isn’t
clear what life will be like for the smaller generations that follow. This is
a question of intergenerational equity."
Many social equity challenges seem to be about tradeoffs: society developing
acceptable methods of making tradeoffs among people who live on adjoining blocks,
in adjoining communities, in different states and countries—and generations
who will never live on this earth at the same time.