"Environmental justice or eco-justice, is a social movement to address environmental injustice, which occurs when poor and marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit."
This subfield examines the ways in which race and class influence exposure to environmental hazards, access to natural resources, and the distribution of environmental benefits and harms, and how to promote environmental justice.
Historical Context: A deep dive into the history of environmental justice, tracing its roots to the civil rights movement and analyzing the role of race and ethnicity in shaping environmental policies and practices.
Conceptual Framework: Understanding the basic concepts and paradigms that underpin environmental justice (e.g. distributive justice, procedural justice, recognition, intersectionality), as well as the critiques and challenges that have been raised against the theory.
Environmental Racism: Examining the patterns of environmental discrimination against people of color, low income communities, and other marginalized groups, and analyzing the causes and consequences of such disparities.
Health Disparities: Investigating the links between environmental pollution and health outcomes, particularly in vulnerable populations, and exploring the differential impact of environmental hazards on different communities.
Policy and Advocacy: Reviewing the various policy tools and strategies that have been used to promote environmental justice, including legislation, regulation, community organizing, and litigation, as well as the role of social movements and advocacy groups in advancing environmental justice agendas.
Environmental Education: Addressing the need for environmental education to include a critical and anti-racist perspective, and exploring the ways in which teaching and learning about the environment can promote environmental justice.
Climate Justice: Examining the interconnections between environmental justice and climate change, and analyzing the differential impact of climate change on different communities, particularly on low-income and marginalized populations.
Spatial Environmental Justice: This theory is concerned with mapping the disproportionate distribution of pollution and environmental hazards according to race and class, highlighting disparities in access to clean air, water, and land.
Procedural Environmental Justice: This theory seeks to ensure that communities of color and low-income communities have an equal say in the decision-making processes that impact the environment, including environmental regulations and land use decisions.
Distributive Environmental Justice: This theory focuses on the fair distribution of environmental benefits and harms, especially for communities of color and low-income communities who are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation.
Participatory Environmental Justice: This theory emphasizes the need for active community involvement in environmental decision-making processes, with the goal of promoting social empowerment, environmental education, and civic engagement.
Restorative Environmental Justice: This theory advocates for the restoration of damaged ecosystems and communities, with a focus on repairing the harm caused by environmental degradation, pollution, and exploitation.
Environmental Racism: This theory highlights the ways in which environmental hazards and pollution are unevenly distributed among racial and ethnic groups due to systemic racism, including historical and ongoing discriminatory policies and practices.
Climate Justice: This theory recognizes the disproportionate impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on marginalized communities, and calls for a just transition to a more sustainable and equitable society.
Intersectional Environmental Justice: This theory acknowledges the ways in which social inequalities such as race, gender, sexuality, and class intersect and compound each other, resulting in disproportionate environmental harm for marginalized individuals and communities.
"The movement began in the United States in the 1980s."
"It was heavily influenced by the American civil rights movement and focused on environmental racism within rich countries."
"The movement was later expanded to consider gender, international environmental injustice, and inequalities within marginalized groups."
"The movement for environmental justice has thus become more global, with some of its aims now being articulated by the United Nations. The movement overlaps with movements for Indigenous land rights and for the human right to a healthy environment."
"The goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for marginalized communities in making environmental decisions that affect their lives."
"The global environmental justice movement arises from local environmental conflicts in which environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations in resource extraction or other industries."
"Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks."
"Environmental justice scholars have produced a large interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes contributions to political ecology, environmental law, and theories on justice and sustainability."
"Environmental injustice, which occurs when poor and marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit."
"The movement began in the United States in the 1980s."
"The movement was heavily influenced by the American civil rights movement and focused on environmental racism within rich countries."
"The movement was later expanded to consider gender, international environmental injustice, and inequalities within marginalized groups."
"As the movement achieved some success in rich countries, environmental burdens were shifted to the Global South (as, for example, through extractivism or the global waste trade)."
"The movement overlaps with movements for Indigenous land rights and for the human right to a healthy environment."
"The goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for marginalized communities in making environmental decisions that affect their lives."
"Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks."
"Environmental justice scholars have produced a large interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes contributions to political ecology, environmental law, and theories on justice and sustainability."
"Exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed."
"As the movement achieved some success in rich countries, environmental burdens were shifted to the Global South."