Environmental Justice

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The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, in environmental decision-making.

Definition of Environmental Justice: Understanding the basic concept and definition of what Environmental Justice is, and what it aims to do. Environmental Justice is a social movement that aims to address the unequal distribution of environmental burdens to marginalized communities.
Environmental Racism: Understanding the role of race in Environmental Justice, including how marginalized communities, particularly communities of color, are disproportionately affected by environmental harms.
Environmental Health: Understanding the connection between the environment and human health, including the impact of environmental pollution on public health.
Environmental Policy: Studying government policies and their impact on the environment, including how policy decisions can affect marginalized communities.
Sustainability: Understanding sustainable practices and policies that aim to reduce environmental harm and promote a healthy environment.
Environmental Science: Studying the scientific principles behind environmental problems, including climate change, pollution, and resource depletion.
Environmental Ethics: Understanding the philosophical principles behind environmental activism and advocacy, including the role of ethics in decision-making.
Environmental Law: Understanding the legal framework for Environmental Justice, including laws and regulations designed to protect people and the environment.
Environmental Economics: Understanding the economic principles that drive environmental decision-making and policy, including the costs and benefits of environmental protection.
Environmental Education: Studying the importance of environmental education and its role in creating more environmentally-aware citizens and communities.
Environmental Activism: Understanding the history and current efforts of environmental activism, including the role of youth-led movements and community-based organizations.
Environmental Impact Assessment: Studying the process of assessing the potential impact of development projects on the environment and surrounding communities, and exploring ways to mitigate the negative effects.
Environmental Health Disparities: Examining the unequal distribution of environmental health problems, including food deserts, lack of safe drinking water, and exposure to toxins and pollution.
Environmental Sustainability Practices: Implementing strategies to reduce waste, conserve natural resources, and promote sustainable living practices, including recycling, conservation of energy, and alternative modes of transportation.
Climate Justice: Understanding the unequal impact of climate change on marginalized communities, particularly those living in poverty or facing other forms of systemic oppression, and exploring ways to ensure that climate change solutions are equitable and just.
Racial Environmental Justice: This type of environmental justice relates to the fair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits to people of different races, ethnicities, and cultures. It challenges discriminatory practices that lead to the disproportionate exposure of minority groups to environmental hazards.
Climate Justice: Climate justice refers to the equitable distribution of costs and benefits related to climate change. It concerns the fair allocation of resources, mitigation policies, and adaptation strategies to alleviate the adverse effects of climate change on disadvantaged communities.
Environmental Health Justice: Environmental health justice focuses on the disproportionate burden of environmental risks and hazards on marginalized and vulnerable populations, including low-income communities, indigenous peoples, and people with disabilities.
Economic Environmental Justice: Economic environmental justice seeks to promote economic equity and sustainability by providing fair access to natural resources, employment opportunities, and adequate living conditions.
Transnational Environmental Justice: Transnational environmental justice emphasizes the interconnectedness of environmental problems across national boundaries and the need for global cooperation in resolving environmental issues.
Intergenerational Environmental Justice: Intergenerational environmental justice emphasizes the responsibility of the present generation to conserve natural resources and protect the environment for future generations.
Gender Environmental Justice: Gender environmental justice advocates for equal participation and representation of women and girls in decision-making processes related to environmental policies and conservation efforts.
Urban Environmental Justice: Urban environmental justice addresses the unequal distribution of environmental benefits and harms within urban areas, including access to green spaces, clean air, and safe drinking water.
Food Environmental Justice: Food environmental justice concerns the equitable distribution of healthy and sustainably produced food to all people, regardless of their socio-economic status or geographic location.
Water Environmental Justice: Water environmental justice is concerned with the fair distribution of water resources, including access to safe and clean water, and addressing environmental issues related to water contamination and scarcity.
"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."
"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."