What Exactly Is Environmental Justice?

“Environmental Justice” connects environmental concerns with other social justice movements. Like other social justice movements that focus on structural oppression (racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, etc.), environmental justice recognizes a problem of power in society. Much like power in society has been misused to oppress various social groups (People of Color, women, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, etc.) power has also been misused to create vast areas of environmental devastation throughout the world and to thwart attempts at environmental reform and preservation. Today there is growing realization that negative environmental impacts disproportionately burden socially marginalized groups like People of Color in the United States and people in developing countries abroad. In the midst of the environmental movement, advocates for environmental justice speak for human rights and with special concern for people who have often been abused.

Proponents of environmentalism work to shift the dominant worldview that commodifies land and objectifies living things. Proponents of environmental justice, like most environmentalists, encourage a shift from viewing the environment as a resource to exploit to seeing it as a web of interconnected living things, and the source of life itself. But environmental justice proponents go one step further, by prioritizing the needs of low income people, People of Color communities, and other oppressed groups, who disproportionately lack access to nutritious food, clean air and water, parks, recreation, health care, education, transportation, safe jobs, etc.

Self-determination, participation in decision-making and gaining control over land and resources are also key components of environmental justice for many People of Color. Justice making activities not accountable to oppressed communities tend to perpetuate the very oppression they try to fight, becoming paternalistic at best and oppressive at worst. A good example is the current “green” movement in the U.S. to move toward biodiesel to replace petroleum as an energy source; while this idea has its merits, the demand for corn as a biofuel causes food shortages abroad and rising food prices in the US, which disproportionately harm both poor people and people of color.

 

Questions for Individual/Group Reflection

1. What is the difference between environmentalism and environmental justice? What happens when social justice issues and environmental issues are kept apart?

2. In order to participate in environmental justice work, what do we need to understand about social oppressions like poverty, neo-colonialism, racism, classism, and sexism?

3. Reflect on the following quote from Van Jones in a interview with "Grist."

"The other thing to keep in mind is that people who have a lot of opportunity, the affluent, love to hear about this big crisis. Oh my god, global warming, we're all going to die. For people who have a lot of crisis already, they don't want to hear about another big crisis. They've got sick parents, no health care, all that kind of stuff -- they don't want to hear about it. The rhetoric has to change. For people with a bunch of opportunity, you tell them about the crisis. For people with a bunch of crisis, you tell about the opportunities. ”

    Do the people of your community need to hear about the crises or the opportunities? Why?

4. As we discuss food issues, how can we bring our passion for environmental issues together with our social justice concerns?

 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Van Jones’s Ware Lecture

www.uua.org/events/generalassembly/2008/commonthreads/115749.shtml

Van Jones is an American civil rights and environmental advocate and attorney. His first book, The Green Collar Economy (2008), reached #12 on the New York Times Best Seller list.  This video captures his 2008 Ware Lecture, which received a standing ovation for several minutes from over a thousand Unitarian Universalists at their national convention. It is possible, he stressed, to fight pollution, poverty, and crime at the same time by “greening the ghetto first” and overcoming “eco-apartheid,” which leaves millions of already vulnerable people to shoulder the worst effects of the environmental crisis. Jones described how “a green wave can lift all boats,” and told UUs that they need “insist on a green economy” and prepare to govern. He pointed out that in West Oakland, a city of 35,000 people, there are no grocery stores, but 43 liquor stores. He called for urban farms, rooftop gardens, and other “ways to lift people up.” He reminded delegates that Martin Luther King's speech was not “I Have a Complaint,” “I Have a Critique,” or “I Have a Long List of Issues.” The country isn't looking for critique but needs our beautiful dream to be made real. With humor and conviction, humility and courage, Van Jones charges Unitarian Universalists to live with Environmental Justice. An excellent introduction to Environmental Justice in general, in this discussion, it will be most effective when paired with resources that focus on the relationship between environmental justice and food ethics, or combined with resources available on the website of an organization that Van Jones co-founded, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

 

RECOMMENDED SUPPORTING RESOURCES

  • Friedman, Thomas. Hot, Flat, and Crowded. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008. Thomas L. Friedman is a New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist. In this number one best selling book, he proposes that an ambitious national strategy of “Geo-Greenism” is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; but also what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.
  • Jones, Van, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, Harper Collins, New York, 2008. This book will provide deeper analysis of the issues raised by Van Jones in his Ware Lecture and more specific details of the solutions he proposes.
  • National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. The Principles of Environmental Justice. www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html A defining document for the environmental justice movement, the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice were drafted at the First “National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit” in Washington, D.C. in October 1991. The Preamble acknowledges the impacts of colonialism and oppression, and urges building a movement to fight the continued destruction of land, community and life, while securing political, economic and cultural liberation for oppressed communities.
  • Eco-Justice Notes www.eco-justice.org/e-list.asp This is a free, weekly e-mail newsletter. Each issue comments on a relevant theme or event from a distinctly non-dogmatic faith perspective. Covers broad eco-justice concepts as well as the justice implications of specific issues (including food/faith).
  • Eco-Justice Program Office of the National Council of Churches. www.nccecojustice.org The Eco-Justice Program office works in cooperation with the NCC Eco-Justice Working Group to provide an opportunity for the national bodies of member Protestant and Orthodox denominations to work together to protect and restore God’s Creation.
  • Green Faith www.greenfaith.org A New Jersey-based national organization that provides resources and consulting on faith and environmental issues for congregations, including food.
  • Oxfam International. “Another Inconvenient Truth: How biofuel policies are deepening poverty and accelerating climate change.” 2008. http://bit.ly/anotherinconvenienttruth This article describes an example of how environmental issues and the solutions are often defined by wealthy countries that created the problems in the first place, like the United States. Not only does the environmental problem negatively impact People of Color and poor people disproportionately, but the proposed solutions tend to exacerbate the harm. People of Color and poor people would define the problem and the solution differently but are often silenced and made invisible through dynamics of environmental racism. People of Color and poor people also do not have control or access to the resources needed to mitigate the problem and transform society. The current biofuel policies of rich countries are neither a solution to the climate crisis nor the oil crisis, and instead are contributing to a third: the food crisis. In poor countries, biofuels may offer some genuine development opportunities, but the potential economic, social, and environmental costs are severe, and decision makers should proceed with caution.
  • Yulsman, Tom. “Grass is Greener.” Audubon Magazine, Sept-Oct 2007, pp. 80-86. www.audubonmagazine.org/features0709/energy.html When corn was found to be a source for biofuel, demand for it exploded. Mexican and Central American cultures and cuisines that depend on corn have suffered as the price for this commodity have escalated. Is it ethical to transpose corn from a fuel to a biofuel if doing so undermines ancient corn cultures? This article argues that switch grass should replace corn as a source for biofuel, as it takes less energy to produce and would not undermine corn as food.
  • Shrader-Frechette, Kristin.Environmental Justice: Creating Equality, Reclaiming Democracy. University Press, 2002. Dr. Shrader-Frechette, a professor of public policy with a specialty in environmental justice, describes personal experiences of environmental projects and discusses the philosophical and historical issues surrounding the environmental justice movement.
  • Boff, Leonardo.  Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor.  Orbis Books, 1997. Systematic effort to link liberation theology with the urgent challenge of the environmental movement. 
  • Brown, Phil. Health Politics of Asthma: Environmental Justice and Collective Illness Experience.  Journal of Social Science Medicine, August, 2003. Demonstrates the disproportionate morbidity rates in communities of People of Color and the obstacles to addressing the issues. 
  • Sze, Julie and London, Jonathan. Environmental Justice at the Crossroads.   Outlines competing definitions of environmental inequality and identifies the relationship between local and global issues. 
  • Glave, Dianne and Stoll, Mark.  To Love the Wind and the Rain: African Americans and Environmental History.  University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. Invaluable book for its insights into environmental and racial history. 
  • Pellow, David and Brulle, Robert. Power, Justice and the Environment: A Critical Appraisal of the Environmental Justice Movement. Chapter 12 by Orrin Williams on Food and Justice is particularly relevant and informative. 

 

See more issues and resources:

     Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Water

     Animal Rights and Human Responsibilities

     Domestic Food Security

     Trade and Neo-Colonialism

     Global Hunger and Malnutrition

     Labor


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