For Immediate Release
Basic Energy Rights for Low-Income Populations Proposed in Environmental Justice Journal
Contact: Kathryn Ryan
914-740-2250
kryan@liebertpub.com
New Rochelle, NY, August 21, 2015—Low-income populations deserve basic energy rights to protect them from "energy insecurity" and the environmental and related health risks from living in "energy sacrifice zones" where energy is produced. The disproportionate burden these vulnerable communities bear across the continuum of energy supply and demand is discussed in a provocative article in Environmental Justice, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers. The article is available free on the Environmental Justice website until September 21, 2015.
In "Sacrifice Along the Energy Continuum: A Call for Energy Justice," Diana Hernández, PhD, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University (New York, NY) compares two U.S. communities: Dimock, PA, a rural township, and Detroit, MI, a major urban area. Dr. Hernández described Dimock, recognized as "ground zero" in the fracking debate over natural gas and oil production, as an energy sacrifice zone. In contrast, in Detroit, where more a third of low-income residents either have fallen behind on utility payments or experienced a utility shut-off, this vulnerable population endures energy insecurity.
“Dr. Hernández’s article addresses the challenges of ameliorating global climate change as we develop or change to alternative energy solutions,” says Environmental Justice Editor-in-Chief Sylvia Hood Washington, PhD, MSE, MPH, and a LEED AP, and Sustainability Director, Environmental Health Research Associates, LLC. "Environmental and climate justice will be achieved only when we are able to minimize the environmental costs in energy production and energy access to all vulnerable communities.
About the Journal
Environmental Justice is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly online with Open Access options and in print. The Journal encompasses study and debate on a broad range of environmental inequalities at the local, national, and global level tied to social, health, and economic equity. The Journal features studies that demonstrate the adverse effects on populations that are already at risk for health and environmental hazards, as well as the complicated issues inherent in remediation, funding, relocation of facilities that pose hazardous risk to health. Complete tables of contents and a sample issue may be viewed on the Environmental Justice website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science, medicine, biomedical research, and law, including Sustainability: The Journal of Record, Environmental Engineering Science, and Ecopsychology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.