Anne Wessells Interview

This interviewee contends that environmental justice is about recognizing patterns of inequity connected to undesirable land use, as well as inequities that exist in how environmental goods and services are apportioned to urban communities. She states that communities of color and low income suffer the most from these patterns, and suggests that better regulatory policies and proactive management strategies are needed to correct this. She uses examples from her own research to emphasize the importance of clean waterways and healthy shorelines (“urban blue spaces”), stating that most of these areas are preserved for the benefit of white elites. The interviewee asserts that environmentalists must work harder to integrate human rights and social inequities into their efforts to better understand how wealth and privilege contribute to ecological decline. Her stance toward the topic of environmental justice is anthropocentric