The Rise of the U.S. Environmental Health Movement

Kate Davies

Jun 2023 · Rowman & Littlefield

About this ebook

This book, named one of Booklist's Top 10 books on sustainability in 2014, is the first to offer a comprehensive examination of the environmental health movement, which unlike many parts of the environmental movement, focuses on ways toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents in the environment effect human health and well-being. Born in 1978 when Lois Gibbs organized her neighbors to protest the health effects of a toxic waste dump in Love Canal, New York, the movement has spread across the United States and throughout the world. By placing human health at the center of its environmental argument, this movement has achieved many victories in community mobilization and legislative reform. In The Rise of the U.S. Environmental Health Movement, environmental health expert Kate Davies describes the movement’s historical, ideological, and cultural roots and analyzes its strategies and successes.

About the author

Kate Davies has worked on environmental health and justice issues for thirty-five years in the United States and Canada. She has worked for numerous nongovernmental and governmental organizations including Greenpeace, the Canadian Environmental Health Organization, and the Sustainable Path Foundation. She is currently on the core faculty at Antioch College’s Center for Creative Change.