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Social
Work Speaks Abstracts
Environmental Policy
People share
a common need for and a right to a fair share of the Earth’s resources,
including a clean, safe, and healthy environment. Today, human
beings are at risk of life-threatening consequences, including
many health problems, from environmental degradation. The consequences
of environmental neglect and harm will continue for generations
to come. Environmental exploitation violates the principle of social
justice and is a direct violation of the NASW Code of Ethics.
Environmental
discrimination is evident in critical decisions such as managing
waste in low-income urban neighborhoods and rural areas; locating
factories and industrial plants that pose a potential danger to
surrounding communities; and the disproportionately high rates
of diseases, such as asthma, suffered by some population groups.
Moreover, global justice cannot exist when a minority of people
in technologically developed countries consume a disproportionate
share of the available resources. Therefore, social workers have
a professional interest, beyond the personal vested interest everyone
shares, in the viability of the natural environment, including
the noxious effect of environmental degradation on people, especially
oppressed individuals and communities, and they have a professional
obligation to become knowledgeable and educated about the precarious
position of the natural environment.
NASW supports:
- vigorous
enforcement of existing environmental protection laws
- strict
international environmental standards
- alternative
sources of energy
- affordable
food that is chemical- and pesticide-free for all
- funding
to promote research into prevention and treatment of environmentally
related diseases such as multiple chemical sensitivity, asthma,
allergies, and emphysema, and the enforcement of the rights
of people afflicted with environmental diseases
- reasonable
accommodation at work sites, schools and public facilities
for the growing number of people suffering from multiple chemical
sensitivity (MCS).
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