The Future of Environmental Justice Research: A Response to Gould and Weinberg

In response to Kenneth A. Gould's & Adam S. Weinberg's comments on Krieg's research (all, 1998 [see abstracts 9813453, 9813470, & 9813457, respectively]) on toxic waste siting in greater Boston, MA, it is argued that most environmental justice studies tend to be descriptive & raise as many questions as they answer, indicating a need for wider-ranging methodologies. It is suggested that the rapid creation of toxic waste sites in recently industrialized regions suggests that communities with larger tax bases from commercial & industrial sources will be the future toxic hot spots. The implications for newly developing communities are profound, because areas less familiar with toxic wastes than historically industrialized communities may be more willing to accept polluting industries, resulting in contamination of a new class of communities. It is contended that research should focus on identifying those natural & social conditions most likely to encourage contamination. J. Lindroth