大象传媒

Do we have a fundamental right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and eat safe food? The idea of environmental human rights is worldwide, driven by our global ecological crisis. But the United States has lagged behind in  and in successfully furthering them.

While this may seem like an issue for legal scholars, it has very real importance for regions like , where I work. Coal mining has caused widespread ecological and health damage here for more than a century, alongside other industries such as chemical manufacturing and, recently, natural gas production.

Many Americans elsewhere view Appalachia’s environmental health conditions with ambivalence or outright , and some have written us off as a “.” But our environmental struggles echo conflicts over the , the oil fields, and other places that are trying to limit harms from extractive industries.

In and in a recent Oxford Human Rights Hub , I have proposed reframing Appalachia’s concerns as a struggle for “”—the idea that all people are entitled to a healthy environment. Characterizing these problems as violations of environmental human rights can open up new and . It also means that environmental harms will be viewed more vigorously as . We view them that way at new , which is working to secure a better future for our region.

A new legal frontier

The idea of environmental human rights dates back to the of the 1960s and 1970s. It follows other, more established conceptions of human rights, such as and , and often is classified as part of a so-called of “newer” human rights.

Few explicitly refer to environmental human rights. At the national level, however, more than around the world have constitutions that enshrine environmental rights to some degree, including and .

Only some U.S. states, including and , have constitutions that explicitly incorporate environmental rights. What is more, these provisions were largely established  and have had in their enforcement.

Appalachia’s environmental challenges

Appalachia is a classic exemplar of the “”—a theory developed by social scientists to explain why some places that are rich in extractable resources fail to develop. According to this view, outside capital interests that control these resources——wield vast power, and often “,” or co-opt, regulatory agencies.

The coal industry has profoundly and . The most extreme example is mountaintop removal mining—blasting off mountaintops to reach coal seams, and then dumping refuse materials into valleys. Across Central Appalachia, mountaintop removal has obliterated .

Mountaintop removal produces numerous pollutants, including selenium, arsenic, and airborne pollutants released during coal extraction and processing. Studies have associated it with serious environmental health risks, including higher rates of , , and .

Coal mining is not the only challenge. Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale has been . The 2014 , which left 300,000 Appalachian citizens without potable water for up to nine days, spotlighted our aging industrial infrastructure and weak state regulation of industry.

Climate change also threatens our region. Many observers believe it played a role in historic  and in 2016. It also may be contributing to the spread of infectious diseases such as .

Human rights and the environment in Appalachia

There are two categories of rights: . The core idea of environmental human rights is that people are entitled to live in a healthy, clean, and safe environment. Typically, societies honor these rights by passing laws that . We also expect, particularly in democracies, that people should be able to obtain information, participate in decision-making, and seek legal remedies for environmental harms such as toxic waste spills.

Of course, laws and regulations are of little use if they are not robustly enforced. Pennsylvania adopted an amendment to its constitution in 1971 stating that “ It also requires the state to act as trustee of public natural resources “for the benefit of all the people.” For years Pennsylvania courts gave relatively light weight to this provision.

But in June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of the environmental amendment in an oil- and gas-related matter. This decision in a case that challenged the lucrative business of fracking was a , and shows the value of advocating for the people’s right to a healthy environment.

Seeds of resistance

Much media coverage of Appalachia is classist and . For example, during the 2016 presidential campaign the region was portrayed as a unified bloc of “,” although it actually is much more .

In fact, a of grassroots activists and ordinary Appalachian citizens has environmental injustices, exemplified by the long and bitter fight against Big Coal. But these efforts seldom are acknowledged in the national media or leveraged into real and lasting .

Appalachia is not some “other America”: we are fundamentally interlinked with the United States.

However, local campaigns have won some important victories. Vigorous activism in the 1960s and 1970s to passage of the of 1977—the first major federal law regulating the environmental impacts of coal mining. More recently, have fought to secure at least partial federal court enforcement of environmental laws against mountaintop removal operations.

Appalachia is well-suited for a bottom-up, approach that focuses on human rights at the grassroots level. Discussing rights at the local level will give people opportunity to describe specific harms they have experienced from activities such as mountaintop removal and fracking. It also will help to promote for citizens who have long been denied real self-determination.

should be a central theme of this effort. As  environmental harms are not distributed evenly in society. Instead, marginalized groups typically suffer more heavily. In Appalachia and across the United States, environmental harms , , , and .

Working together

The at West Virginia University will produce scholarship, conduct policy advocacy, and offer direct legal services and outreach to Appalachian communities. Our goal is to help people in our region that actually guarantee the right to a healthy Appalachian environment.

Pursuing environmental human rights in Appalachia challenges  about our region’s supposed isolation. Appalachia is not some “”: we are fundamentally interlinked with the United States and the wider world ecologically, economically, and socially.

Our challenges reflect the profound ills of a global economic regime that values perpetual growth over environmental and social justice. Advocating for environmental human rights in Appalachia can help reveal this essential truth and build a more just and healthy future.

This article was originally published by . It has been edited for 大象传媒 Magazine.