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Preface Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability traces the relationship between environmental discrimina- tion, race, and class. The idea for the book originated with ABC-CLIO’s editorial board. It is directed at anyone who has an interest in social jus- tice and environmental issues, but it is especially designed for high school students in advanced placement courses as well as college undergradu- ates. Readers will receive an enhanced understanding of how poor and minority people are affected by environmental crises ranging from chem- ical pollution to floods spawned by hurricanes made worse by climate change. Environmental racism and the pursuit of justice against it intertwines ecology with issues of race and class, involving poor, often racial minority communities whose residents are subjected to a disproportionate level of many kinds of toxicity, while being denied ecological benefits such as clean water and air, as well as sustainable use of resources for a decent and dignified standard of living. This work is organized into five background essays, which provide an overview of the subject, followed by case studies grouped by regions in the United States and Canada, including the eastern half of the United States, the western half of the United States, and Canada. We have extended the scope to Canada because quite a number of environmental law and racism issues (often those involving Inuit and other indigenous peoples) stem from there. Some of these are quite important on a global basis, for example, the toll that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been taking on the Inuit. Often they can’t eat fish or seals, staples in their traditional diet. Eating food flown in from lower latitudes is not only cul- turally out of character, but very expensive. Inuit mothers cannot breast- feed their babies because toxins such as dioxin biomagnify up the food