What is the detective story about?
It is not murder
But the restoration of order.
P. D. James
How can we protect communities, especially those of color, from environmental harms caused corporate polluters, lax oversight and poor enforcement of existing laws, particularly long-neglected ones?
This country urgently needs eco-detectives-trained employees and citizens who can detect and uncover pollution, poaching, or other eco-threats that threaten wildlife and humans.
As with most countries, the United States has never taken these crimes and assaults very seriously. This was particularly true during Trump’s administration, when enforcement of environmental regulations fell at an all-time low. However, this neglect was due to a systemic problem that sees environmental crime perpetrators receive little more than a handshake if they are prosecuted at all.
It is time to fix this, not only for the past four years of malfeasance by the previous administrations but also to correct a long history of injustice.
Let’s begin with the Environmental Protection Agency. They need more investigators to find and stop corporations poisoning our bodies, air, and water. Trump has seen the EPA cut thousands of staff and dramatically reduce its enforcement of existing laws. These people must be back on the ground. President Biden’s 2023 budget proposal aims at creating the equivalent of More than 1,900 full-time new positions. It’s a start. Only a few people can keep upFor the 1,500 jobs that the EPA lost during the first year and a quarter of the previous administration. Let’s double that number.
But that’s not all. We need more U.S. investigators. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and others agencies that protect wildlife and endangered species, our cultural heritage, from poachers and corporate development, climate change, and natural resources. The Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for approximately 250 Special agents investigating wildlife crimesMany of these require multiyear investigations, and the BLM has a number of solutions. Only 70 peopleCriminal investigations are our primary focus. It’s not enough to serve a country this size.
We also need more inspectors in our Ports with chronically low staffingborder patrols to help detect illegal wildlife trafficking, protect endangered species from exploitation, and protect us from introduced diseases. Border Patrols are used to accomplish this. History of racism and brutalityneed to be systematically converted into a future that is science-based and serves the public. It is not the only federal law enforcement branch that needs reform. I am looking at you, too. U.S. Park Police.
Once we find a crime, we must do something about it. We need more environmental prosecutors in the Department of Justice to ensure these types of crimes get punished. This is especially true right now, as the DOJ is already stretched to its limits by the prosecution of the more than 700 people arrested during the Jan. 6 rebellion. Again, Bidens 2023 budget proposes Some of theseThe DOJ will also receive $6.5 million to support the Environment and Natural Resources Division. But that is still far from being official. The EPA announced several initiatives, as did the DOJ. Address environmental justiceWe hope that May 5th will bring some momentum and help us get started.
It’s not all about the federal government. States need more environmental crime-busters in order to tackle local crimes that federal laws don’t cover. They must be punished if someone sells endangered animals, pollutes rivers, or cuts down forests, but they don’t have to cross state lines.
All of this is important, but there are more. We need more environmental journalists, especially in the most underserved areas, to help us address environmental crimes through our legal system. These watchdogs will be more useful as eco-detectives than ever before in the United States. More than 2,000 local newspapers were lostMany towns and communities have become news deserts since 2004. Living in a participatory democracy is dependent on a vibrant, free press. Studies have shown that newspapers die and local newspapers die. Fraud and abuse are on the riseLike in Coal countryFor example,
To better understand the crimes against the planet and its inhabitants, we need more scientists at every public-health agency. They can help uncover crimes by using satellites to detect emissions that have not been reported or pushing the legislatures towards regulation of threats such as the Health risks from PFAS chemical substances. These researchers must be able to live and work in every community. This means that we need more commitment from academia in order to integrate the ivory tower. We also need to commit to fighting racial injustice wherever it is.
This brings us back to the people most affected by environmental crime: the people. Because most environmental crime occurs in our communities, it is important to train citizens as citizen scientists to help them spot signs of damage. This is a long-standing tradition of volunteer efforts to detect pollution, declining wildlife populations, and other crimes or damages.
This requires more citizen activists and whistleblowers. There are also more laws to protect them when telling stories that wouldn’t be told without their eyes or ears. A rapid succession of laws has been passed in recent years by various states across the country. Anti-protest lawsrelated to fossil fuels projects, as well ag gag laws that shroud factory farm operations in secrecy and other regulations to minimize public participation. These laws must be repealed so citizens can monitor, publicize, and respond to the threats to their lives..
Importantly, all these people, the scientists, whistleblowers, detectives, prosecutors, and scientists, need to be heard by those in power. Many of the environmental crimes committed against these communities are legal. People have been speaking up for decades in Cancer Alley, and other environmental justice groups, without any changes to public regulations. We need another level of environmental crime-buster: politicians that will listen, act and finally pass the tougher laws we have been demanding for too long.
I don’t intend to erase the sins from the past, but nothing I propose here will. However, adding more eco-detectives at all levels of society to address environmental crimes would improve our present and help us all move toward a brighter tomorrow. They are essential to our future and we will continue to live in a polluted prison.
