It may be useful to rethink the mapping less an outcome of environmental injustice on social communities but rather as a starting point to expand our theoretical understandings of "racialization." For example, how might this map provide an empirical example of what constitutes a "racial project?" Conversely, how might it serve as an emancipatory tool for political action?
The most appealing aspect of the image is related to its aesthetic. By using a color gradient that increases in darkness as the percentage of the Non-Hispanic White population decreases, it compellingly sends out two critical messages. The explicit conclusion shows a causal link between racialized groups and higher concentrations of toxic landscapes. More, implicitly is the near absence of toxic sites in predominantly white geographies which, mapped out as such, works to reinforce the notion of whiteness as a de-racialized category.
Perhaps historicization. a time-based mapping (overlays) of demographic change and the emergence (and remediation) of toxic sites determined by each decennial census since 1990 (1990, 2000, 2010, 2020? - forthcoming). Also, an added layer of land-use zoning adjustments, official comprehensive planning documents, remediation policies, variances granted by local planning authorities and litigation gathered from court cases.
Put simply, this visualization recenters geography as contested terrain for the rendering of specific places more toxic than others as they intersect with the inhabited spaces of racialized others.
The visualization and caption tell us how 'toxicity' influences cartographic representations of place. Limited by technologies of measure, that are juxtaposed with embodied measures of toxicity, allows us to rethink the politics of measurements that visualize space and map toxicity in specific places.
As someone who isn't familiar with Los Angeles County, is there more context that could be built around the specific neighbourhoods mentioned in the caption?
Pezzullo remarks that "the space of the toxic tour [in Louisiana] provides opportunities to negotiate a sense of community with those being toured and between those on the tour itself." It works through "naming, framing/elevation, enshrinement, mechanical reproduction, and social reproduction (Tourist 44–5) [...] and the particular importance of tour guides’ verbal performances to this transformative process" (2003, 228)
Following the lawsuit against Formosa Plastics, the Texas manufacturer Westlake Chemical has agreed to publically announce the amount of small plastic pellets they release (Douglas 2020).
Massive transportation infrastructure with super high density of personal cars and freight traffic. Oil and gas extraction alongside homes. Refineries. Miltary technology production. Active and abandoned military installations. Adjoining ports -- Long Beach and Los Angeles -- which are the top two busiest container ports in the United States. Rapidly expanding warehousing|distribution sector.
TOXMAP is a Geographic Information System (GIS) from the Division of Specialized Information Services of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) that uses maps of the United States to help users visually explore data from the United States Environmental Protection Agen
