In
1998, Christopher Foreman provoked national debate and
controversy with the publication of The Promise and
Peril of Environmental Justice. In this book,
Foreman argues for the reformulation of the debate on
the real stakes of minority and low-income communities
in environmental policy. He maintains that the real
issues in environmental justice should be concrete
quality-of-life improvements and the role of personal
behavior; too often, these issues are blurred by ideologically motivated environmental justice activists.
Four
years after the publication of The Promise and Peril
of Environmental Justice, where does debate stand on
this issue? What progress has been made, and what
priorities continue to be ignored? Christopher Foreman
will share his views on the achievements and pitfalls of
environmental justice at this event. He will
additionally address how we must sharpen our national
dialogue concerning the environmental stakes of the
minority populations and develop realistic public health
approaches.
Christopher Foreman is a non-resident senior fellow of the Governmental Studies Program at The Brookings Institution. He is also a University of Maryland School of Public Affairs professor. In addition to The
Promise and Peril of Environmental Justice, he has authored Plagues, Products, and Politics: Emergent Public Health Hazards and National Policymaking
(Brookings, 1994) and Signals from the Hill: Congressional Oversight and the Challenge of Social Regulation (Yale, 1988).