Sacrifice Zones

Across the United States, thousands of people, most of them in low-income or minoritycommunities, live next to heavily polluting industrial sites. Many of them reach a point at whichthey say "Enough is enough." After living for years with poisoned air and water,contaminated soil, and pollution-related health problems, they start to take action--organizing,speaking up, documenting the effects of pollution on their neighborhoods. In SacrificeZones, Steve Lerner tells the stories of twelve communities, from Brooklyn to Pensacola,that rose up to fight the industries and military bases causing disproportionately high levels ofchemical pollution. He calls these low-income neighborhoods "sacrifice zones." And heargues that residents of these sacrifice zones, tainted with chemical pollutants, need additionalregulatory protections.

Sacrifice Zones goes beyond thedisheartening statistics and gives us the voices of the residents themselves, offering compellingportraits of accidental activists who have become grassroots leaders in the struggle forenvironmental justice and details the successful tactics they have used on the fenceline with heavyindustry.

Steve Lerner is Research Director of Commonweal, a health and environment research institute. He is the author of Eco-Pioneers: Practical Visionaries Solving Today's Environmental Problems (1998) and Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana's Chemical Corridor (2005), both published by the MIT Press.