01/11/2006
Ellen Nicol

I want to talk about the importance of using the basket of new environmental legislation to fight environmental injustice.

To do so I must explain that environmental justice is about the fair distribution in society of environmental hazards and risks and access to natural resources.

Then I must explain why it is so important to address environmental injustice. This will not be new to you. You will know that environmental hazards disproportionately affect the health of people who already have compromised health and nutrition due to their place in society. The circle is obvious – poverty – bad health – less ability to work – poverty.

Lastly I should list and discuss various sections from relevant legislation, highlighting how they could be used to address the environmental wrongs that continue to contribute to the plight of the poor, preventing us from achieving the larger aim of sustainable development and the protection of every person’s environmental rights.

Talking to you about environmental injustice in this way would only tell you what you already know and will not give you greater insight than you already have in the tools provided by our environmental legislation. Even with a thorough understanding of the law, an improvement of air quality where it matters most is not guaranteed. For that reason I rather want to talk about the most effective way of showing teeth in the fight against environmental injustice - using dedicated and passionate officials who understand at a deep level the need to do active battle with environmental wrongs. Officials who are always mindful of the fact that the actual impact of environmental injustice is that real people get ill, die too early and have a bad quality of life.

A story is always the best way of talking of the great qualities needed in people who must bring about change. The story of “The Lorax” by Dr Seuss struck me as a good one in this context. Listen to the tale that the old Onceler tells those who want to know and I’ll add the untold parts:

The Once-ler’s story
Way back in the days when the clouds were still clean, the Once-ler came to a glorious place where the bright colored tufts of the Truffula Trees blew in the morning breeze. There lived the Swomee-Swans, the Brown Bar-ba-loots and the Humming-Fish in peace. The Once-ler immediately saw the potential of the beautiful Truffula Trees. He tells:

In no time at all, I had built a small shop.
Then I chopped down a Truffula Tree with one chop.
And with great skillful skill and with great speedy speed,
I took the soft tuft. And I knitted a Thneed!

The instant the Onceler had finished his Thneed, the Lorax appeared from the chopped trunk, announcing that he speaks for the trees and asking:

‘What’s that THING you’ve made out of my Truffula tuft?’

And the Onceler said:

‘Look Lorax, there’s no cause for alarm.
I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm.
I’m being quite useful. This thing is a Thneed.
A Thneed’s a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!’

and he explains how it could be used as a hat, sock, shirt, carpet, pillow, cover for a bicycle seat and much more.

The Lorax says:

‘Sir! You are crazy with greed.’

The next moment someone came along and bought the thneed. That settled it for the Once-ler. Dismissing the Lorax with a wave, the Once-ler set about contacting his entire family to say:

‘Listen here! Here’s a wonderful chance
for the whole Once-ler Family to get mighty rich!
Get over here fast!’

In no time at all the Once-ler had put up factory and was busily transforming Truffula trees into Thneeds.

Let us pause for a moment to allow me to tell you the Lorax’s part of the story thus far:

The Brown Bar-ba-loots, the Humming Fish and the Swomee-Swans were small, happy communities who lived good lives in the land of the Truffula Trees. When the Once-ler arrived and put up his factory, they were alarmed. They did not know what was going on and they saw how the Once-ler was damaging their environment. They asked the Lorax to represent them and to first of all find out what was going on.

The Lorax contacted the authorities of the area. The authorities took a long time before visiting the site of the Once-ler’s factory. Despite the fact that the Once-ler did not have the required permit, they did not stop him from chopping down trees and producing Thneeds. They did not give the Lorax and the communities much information either and when the Once-ler had been operating his factory for some time, they claimed that he had already invested capital in the project and it would be unfair to stop him, particularly since one factory chopping down trees in the whole area can not have much of an impact on the environment. The authorities claimed it was better to give the Lorax a provisional permit so that some controls were at least in place. They gave him a provisional permit and asked him to do an environmental impact assessment to confirm his permit.

The Once-ler did a quick environmental impact assessment. He did not consider project alternatives, stating that a market for Thneeds was well established and it was not economically viable to produce these items in another way. In considering the impact on air quality, the impact assessment assumed, on vague information provided by the manufacturers of the machinery used, that emissions of pollutants will comply with emission limits for the processes and thus found the impact on ambient air quality to be negligible. No health impact assessment was done. The EIA promised to right all with an environmental management plan to be submitted after approval of the permit.

The Lorax and the communities he represented submitted comment on the impact assessment. They pointed out that there was no information on raw material and chemicals going into the factory and that it was not reasonable to assume that the factory would operate compliant with emission standards for its type. They provided peer reviewed papers from international scientists to show that facilities with the pollution control equipment in the Once-ler’s factory, could never comply with emission standards. They required a proper mass balance and asked that an environmental management plan be included in the EIA so that the communities could comment on it.

The authorities approved the permit without giving reasons why it dismissed the arguments of the Lorax and communities or explaining why the conclusions of international scientists would not apply to the Once-ler’s factory. The environmental management plan was filed, but not opened for comment. It did not include detailed descriptions of how monitoring of pollutants would be executed. It listed a monitoring protocol for mercury which only measures mercury in particulates although mercury would be in vapor phase when it leaves the stack.

In the meantime

The Once-ler’s business grew and chopping one tree at a time was too slow. The Once-ler invented a

Super-Axe-Hacker which whacked off four Truffula Trees at one smacker.

Then the Lorax returned. First he came to tell the Once-ler that there were no more Truffula fruit for the Brown Bar-ba-loots and they had to go away in search of a new place to live. The Once-ler felt sad about this, but business had to grow. He explains:

I meant no harm. I most truly did not.
But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.
I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads.
I biggered my wagons. I biggered the loads

Again the Lorax returned, this time on behalf of the Swomee-Swans, saying:

Once-ler! You’re making such smogulous smoke!
My poor Swomee-Swans...why, they can’t sing a note!
No one can sing who has smog in his throat.

The Lorax also pointed out that the Gluppity-Glup and Schloppity-Schlopp, the leftover goo from making thneeds, were polluting the water so that the Humming Fish had to go off in search of

some water that is not so smeary.

The Once-ler reacts furiously at the accusations made by the Lorax:

And then I got mad.
I got terribly mad.
I yelled at the Lorax, ‘Now listen here, Dad!
All you do is yap-yap and say, “Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!”
Well, I have my rights, sir, and I’m telling you
I intend to go on doing just what I do!
And, for your information, you Lorax, I’m figgering
on biggering
and BIGGERING
and BIGGERING
and BIGGERING
turning MORE Truffula Trees into Thneeds
which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!

And with that outburst they heard the sickening smack of an axe cutting down the very last Truffula Tree of them all.

The Lorax’ story

When the authorities gave the Once-ler his permit, the factory had already started to pollute the environment. When the Lorax and the communities complained that the pollution was affecting their health, the authorities told them that it was better to wait for the results of monitoring that had to be done in terms of the permit before taking any further steps.

The Once-ler did not do monitoring according to the time frames specified in the permit. The authorities took no steps to enforce the permit conditions. The Lorax and the communities asked the authorities questions about the performance of the factory. The authorities refused to answer unless the questions were in the format required by the Promotion of Access to Information act. Then the authorities had to be compelled to respond to the application for information.

Finally a monitoring report was submitted. It was vague and meaningless, raising more questions than giving answers. The Lorax and the communities could not work out exactly what the factory was emitting into the air or releasing as effluent. They became sicker and sicker. They got no answers from the authorities and the authorities took no steps to enforce permit conditions or to review them when the Lorax and the communities pointed out that they were insufficient to protect the environment from the Thneed factory.

The Once-ler’s story

Of course, when the last Truffula Tree was chopped down, the Once-ler family left, leaving only the Once-ler with a rapidly decaying factory in an obliterated environment. The Lorax left, leaving behind a small pile of rocks with only one word ... “UNLESS”.

This is story of the Lorax and its sad end could not have been different.

UNLESS, when the Lorax and the communities first contacted the authorities, an official had immediately inspected the Once-ler’s activities and ordered him to stop immediately since he had no permit.

UNLESS an official had demanded a proper assessment of impacts, including the no-go option and other project alternatives.

UNLESS an official considering the impact assessment had done so with careful thought, seeking objective expert help if needed and had seen the point in the communities’ objection that air quality impacts can not be assessed on unsubstantiated assurances of manufacturers regarding likely emissions.

UNLESS an official had considered the management plan carefully and had noticed that it provides no assurances that monitoring will be done correctly.

UNLESS an official had listened to the complaints of the community and the Lorax about the impact the factory had on their health and has ensured that the factory complied with its permit requirements, taking active steps when it failed to do so to enforce compliance.

UNLESS an official had provided the affected Lorax and communities with timely and meaningful information about the factory and its non-compliance with the permit requirements so that the communities could take action to protect their right to an environment not harmful to their health.

UNLESS an official had been prepared to act with conviction and to take the steps necessary to protect the Lorax and his communities from the environmental risks and hazards of the Once-ler’s factory.

BECAUSE if there had been an official who had done all these things and who had realised that it is necessary to show teeth in the fight against environmental injustice, such a person would have made all the difference.

We are on the brink of the moment where new air quality officers have to go forth and implement the Air Quality Act. They have been trained, they understand the sections of the act which they can use to address many different air quality problems. Despite this there is a real possibility that for communities faced every day with the burden of air pollution nothing will change ... UNLESS.

For many years the Once-ler wondered what the meaning of that last message from the Lorax could be.

‘But now,’ says the Once-ler,
‘Now hat you’re here,
the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.