Environmental (In)Justice in Rural Communities
Megan Munkacsy ·About the author
Megan Munkacsy
Megan Munkacsy is a master's student in the University of Maryland’s Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences, Environment and Society program. She works with Dr. Lisa Wainger of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. Meg is facilitating input from stakeholders throughout the Bay to develop a geospatial tool that presents a value-based hierarchy of policy options addressing the conflict between recovering submerged aquatic vegetation populations, an expanding oyster aquaculture industry, and other Bay uses.
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Comments
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Faith Taylor 4 years ago
I love the historical approach and refences to add context to the EJ movement
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Andrea M Miralles-Barboza 4 years ago
"Without this work, our coastlines and the communities they support will sink under the weight of hundreds of years of institutional neglect."
A powerful visual.
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Chelsea Richardson 4 years ago
Loved the addition of the "Land of Our Fathers" audio. Definitely a good listen! Good example of the racial injustice that occurred.
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Olivia Wolford 4 years ago
The statistic you shared on the declined percentage of farmland owned by Black Americans is such important context to understanding environmental precarity in rural spaces. It reminded me of an episode of a podcast called How To Survive the End of the World discussing the political power of Black-owned farms and land reclamation: https://www.stitcher.com/show/how-to-survive-the-end-of-the-world/episode/apocalypse-survival-skill-4-braiding-seeds-69075885.
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Taylor Gedeon 4 years ago
I really love how you described examples of environmental injustice from years ago and present day. Really cements the message that this is not new and has not been addressed.
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Katrina 4 years ago
Nicely done, Megan! Your blog highlights well the many different communities that meet at the impacts of rurality and sea-level rise. The words of elders like Mr. Cornish about the multifaceted role of many Black communities provide another reason for prioritizing the preservation and protection of these sites. Given the significance of the the church as well as Smithville to American history, I immediately wondered whether it had been nominated for or declared an historical landmark.
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Isabel Sullivan 4 years ago
This post well connected the past from the start of EJ to its current state. I also really liked your call to action at the end. As you convey, striving for EJ is a continuing struggle that should be met with unity now given the severity of sea-level rise.
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Peter 4 years ago
Yes, I agree! Climate change is a kind of environmental injustice. It stand on the shoulder of the natives and use their resources to do their own things. It is a sequence of part of people enforce another part of people.
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Peter 4 years ago
Yes, I agree! Climate change is a sequence of Environmental Injustice. It stand on the shoulder of natives and use their resources to do things. It is a responsibility of part of us but it is borne by all of us.
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Peter 4 years ago
I like the connection showed between climate change and EJ. Climate change is a sequence of 'standing on the shoulder of indigenous people' in some extent. It is a result of part of us but beared by all of us or beared another part of us.
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Amber Fandel 4 years ago
"80% of America’s national shoreline where non-oceanfront, non-white, poor, rural communities reside" - what a staggering statistic. This really emphasizes the significance of environmental injustices in rural areas and helps us understand why they have continued to be neglected, as those without political capital are rarely considered equitably.
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Jehnae 4 years ago
Nice work! I loved how you connect climate change to Environmental Justice. You tied the past to what is happening now!
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Amanda 4 years ago
I really enjoyed both the historical and contemporary framing. Thanks for all the resource links.
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Sarah 3 years ago
"Without this work, our coastlines and the communities they support will sink under the weight of hundreds of years of institutional neglect."
I noticed Andrea also posted about the concluding sentence and the power behind your words. The concluding sentence is one of my favorites to write as you want to make an impact on the reader before they leave the page. You did that magnificently. Well done!
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Ashley Silver 3 years ago
When you said the residents of Dorchester County, prides itself as being the birthplace of the Underground Railroad, that often white residents often omit the fact that Ms. Harriet Tubman was escaping the inhumane conditions of enslavement remind me of how the hundreds of years of slavery are brought up as foot notes in most history books.
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Shakira 3 years ago
Megan, I don't come across history and science being merged together too often, so I truly enjoyed you being able to do that in your blog. It was great that you proved how these issues are nothing new and have been repeated, in many ways, through out history. I also was able to access some of the articles posted, and those were also great reads. I appreciate you providing those sources.
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Imani Wilburn 3 years ago
This is such a great example of a blog! When I first read it I was extremely intimidated by how well this was written. I really love how you used history to describe the environmental justice issue. When you hear about the past, that is never the focus and it is often not thought of the way you have presented here. My favorite fact in this blog was how black Americans use to own 14% of farmland and now own 1.4% because of the actions of others trying to take away their land and rights. It is such a good connection made between the past and now and uses the past to make this issue more clear. I loved this!
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Nylah McClain 3 years ago
It does seem that tackling EJ in rural areas is hindered by the convenient avoidance of difficult truths and just the wide range of issues to look into. But you’ve been able to do it in a blog post by looking at the beginning of environmental injustice. If more established organizations wish to start implementing environmental justice, then I think that following your short example of looking into the environmental injustices is the right way to go.