Environmental Justice (A Very Short Introduction)

Environmental justice is a relatively recent concept in the larger context of environmental protection. It has become a focus of US and European Union environmental policy, UN actions, and the activities of many nongovernmental environmental organizations. Environmental justice is an evolving idea representing many points of view. It encompasses not only traditional environmental issues like clean air and clean water, but also social issues such as employment, nutrition, and access to health care. Environmental justice communities, compared to others, likely do not enjoy tree canopy and parks, but they are more likely to suffer pollution from nearby factories. The development of environmental justice tracks our growing understanding of racism and wealth disparity, and our understanding of inequality between the global north and the global south. Environmental justice recognizes that environmental benefits and burdens have not been distributed fairly, and that the people making decisions often do not include those most directly affected: people of color, Indigenous populations, low-income communities, and those who are underserved and disenfranchised for other reasons such as age, gender, or disability.

Environmental Justice: A Very Short Introduction defines the term, identifies specific environmental justice populations, examines root causes of the issues, including racism, capitalism, and colonialism, and traces the history of the environmental justice movement and governmental responses to it.