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The movement for environmental justice in the United States represents a multi-racial, multi-issue response to the failure of the mainstream, predominantly white environmental movement to adequately address issues of social and economic justice. As early as 1972 Herbert Marcuse warned that divorcing equity and social justice concerns from the environmental agenda would leave environmentalists vulnerable to" effective, if unprincipled attack." 1 The quest for environmental justice has emerged as a consequence of environmental racism. Environmental racism has been described as:

Racial discrimination in environmental policy making and the enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of people of color communities for toxic and hazardous waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the life threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities, and the history of excluding people …