Environmental Justice:
Environmental Justice is the fairness and equality of who
benefits from green space and how and where our waste is distributed. That
these benefits and burdens will not be located based on social class, race, or
culture. That policies and regulations be made for the sake of all humans and
species that live on this planet. That we create a diverse world where we
embrace cultures from all around the world and respect their environment and
the land they live off of.
Environmental
Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA)
Environmental Racism:
Environmental Racism is a system where populations that hold
minorities or people of color are given the burden of living near toxic waste
sites that affect their water, air, and health. Policies and regulations purposely
discriminate when deciding where to locate hazardous waste facilities or
determining where to mine for resources. Included with this discrimination, is
also poor working conditions and homes or lack of safe quality schools and
education for minorities or high poverty communities.
Biju Boro/AFP via Getty Images India’s poverty and waste.
Environmental Equity:
Environmental Equity is the even distribution of
environmental risks and access to clean infrastructures and recreational areas
regardless of race, income, or culture. It means all communities will have an
equal voice when expressing concerns involving their environment and
communities. That clean and safe resources be available to everyone.
Illustration of Equality Vs. Equity
Climate Justice:
Climate Justice goes beyond protecting our wildlife and
conserving our lands and forests, it extends out to the humans that are being
affected by it the most. The climate justice uses the environmental justice
movement, to fight against environmental racism and environmental injustice. It
addresses civil rights abuse, by exposing the environmental crisis that politicians
and policy makers purposely avoid or distribute to the less fortunate or people
of color.
Climate Justice graph.
Conclusion:
Environmental Justice goes hand in hand with social and racial justice and civil rights. It has become abundantly clear over the decades how the first people to be affected by climate change or any type of environmental risk or health factor, the lower income class and people of color or minorities are the first to experience it. Their voice is not heard and because of their status and color they are ignored. To conserve our environment and promote climate health, we must start where the people are getting hurt the most. With civil rights leaders and organized social and racial justice groups, taking up issues like climate change, we can combine the two to make changes that will benefit everyone not matter the color of their skin, culture, or social status.
Beech, P. (2020). What is
environmental racism? World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/what-is-environmental-racism-pollution-covid-systemic/
Boro, B June 4 2018, A woman collects
fire wood as she carries her child in the Boragaon area of Guwahati, India,
Getty Images, accessed 29 April 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/International/150-million-people-set-fall-extreme-poverty-due/story?id=73497257
Climate Justice graph 2021, graph illustration, University of
Nebraska Omaha, accessed 29 April 2021, https://www.unomaha.edu/news/2020/02/how-you-can-support-climate-justice.php
Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical
Policy Reform (EJHA), digital photograph, Coming
Clean, accessed 29 April 2021, https://comingcleaninc.org/environmental-justice
Greenaction. (n.d.). Environmental
justice & environmental racism. https://bit.ly/3o6mAXA
Illustration of Equality Vs. Equity, illustration graphic,
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Accessed 29 April 2021, https://www.pca.state.mn.us/air/environmental-justice-and-air
Mobilize Green. (2021). Environmental Equity Vs.
Environmental Justice: What’s the Difference? https://www.mobilizegreen.org/blog/2018/9/30/environmental-equity-vs-environmental-justice-whats-the-difference
United Nations. (2019, May 31). Sustainable
Development Goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/climate-justice/
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