What is environmental justice?
Most people don’t know what environmental justice is. It’s not something that’s talked about or discussed very often. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s not important and that it doesn’t play a major role in the climate crisis.
Dr. Dorceta Taylor, Professor of Environmental Justice at the Yale School of the Environment, explains that, “Environmental justice is really concerned with documenting and understanding the disproportionate and unequal environmental burdens that certain communities face.” In the United States and around the world, low-income Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian people are seen to be living in places where environmental hazards, extreme natural and human-made disasters, and environmental degradation occur more often. The term ‘environmental justice’ comes from the 1990s following the results of a study of the placement of federally mandated hazardous waste sites, which concluded that the majority of the toxic areas were located in African American communities.
A potential explanation as to why people may not pay as much attention to environmental justice as they do with other issues is the fact that environmental justice is really centered around two very complex issues: equality for all and climate change. These two issues alone can be very intricate and complicated, and combining them seems to push people away and make them feel like they don’t want to deal with them at the same time.
What are the causes and effects of environmental injustices?
Gerald Torres, Professor of Environmental Justice at the Yale School of the Environment and the Yale Law School, explains that environmental injustices often occur due to what is called “process failure” in the political decision making of cities. This simply means that certain communities are intentionally kept out of the environmental decision making process, or that concerns about environmental justice don’t even make it onto the political agenda in the first place.
According to Taylor, research has shown that it is much cheaper for a corporation to pollute or dump in low-income communities or communities where there are more individuals of color than it is for them to do so in a white, middle-class, community.
Taylor also mentions how it is not just the environmental burdens that are unequally shared, but also the environmental amenities. “These very same low-income communities and communities of color are in a deficit from the positive benefits of the environment,” Taylor says. “They tend to have fewer trees, parks, open spaces, playgrounds, and less access to healthy, nutritious food.”
Due to these conditions, environmental injustices can play a significant role in the well-being of a person. For instance, in communities where there are a lack of trees, it is more likely that people will acquire respiratory conditions, as well as mental health and development issues. Not surprisingly, environmental injustices will make these communities more prone to the COVID-19 virus.
How is climate change related to environmental justice?
Statistics show that if you look globally or domestically, the communities that are located on the most marginal land, typically communities that are poor and of color, will be the ones that are by far the most harmfully and quickly affected.
These areas and communities are more likely to be prone to flooding and sea level rise, which will naturally become more prevalent as the frequency and strength of storms will increase. These conditions pose a major threat to the residents of these areas and their infrastructure, which is also said to be less resilient. “If you layer that on top of the pre-existing environmental injustices, it really just compounds the injury,” Torres says.
Natural disasters and weather conditions are expected to become more severe in coming years, which means that environmental racism will undoubtedly create more disparities for certain communities.
What are some things individuals can do to help?
There are many things people can do to help advance environmental justice. First, it is always best to start by learning. Take the time to learn about local and global environmental injustices as well as the policies, decisions, and institutions that are trying to combat these issues. Torres says, “Getting ourselves educated is important so that phrases like ‘systemic racism’ and ‘systemic injustice’ actually have content and aren’t just slogans.”
Once you have taken the time to educate yourself about these issues, the next step would be to get more involved in your community and really start advocating for environmental decisions to become fully transparent. “This can be anything from permitting and land use decisions, policy design and enforcement, to grant awards. It should be a requirement that environmental justice concerns get a spot on the agenda and are completely visible,” Torres says.
In addition to all of this, a great way to help combat environmental injustices is to donate funds, volunteer your time, or simply amplify the work of environmental justice organizations and impacted community members through any platform you have. “We can all be allies in the movement, even if we’re not actually suffering the same kinds of environmental burden,” Torres says. “The way to help is to make sure that these issues don’t get lost.”
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