Environmental justice

Key people

• Robert D. BullardAmerican sociologist known as the father of environmental justice
• Alexis Massol-GonzálezPuerto Rican environmentalist
• Gordon WalkerProfessor in the Department of Geography and Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University
• Charles LeeAmerican environmental justice activist

Timeline

• 1954From 1954 until 1968, the tribe leased land to mining companies who did not obtain consent from Navajo families or report any consequences of their activities.
• 1956Nigeria From 1956 to 2006, up to 1.5 million tons of oil were spilled in the Niger Delta, (50 times the volume spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster).
• 1970Bullard was asked to compile data from 1970 to 1979 addressing "all landfills, incinerators and solid waste sites" located in Houston, TX at that time.
• 1980The movement began in the United States in the 1980s.
• 1991However, during the 1991 Leadership Summit, its scope broadened to encompass public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, and other issues.

Read

• Hazards, vulnerability and environmental justiceSusan L. Cutter · 2006Book
• Environmental justiceGordon Walker · 2011Book
• What Is Critical Environmental Justice?David Naguib Pellow · 2017Book
• Environmental Justice for Climate RefugeesFrancesca Rosignoli · 2022Book

Watch

• What is Environmental Justice?UCLA EnvironmentVideo
• Environmental justice | Social Inequality | MCAT | Khan AcademykhanacademymedicineVideo
• Environmental justiceOECDVideo

Listen

• Agents of Change in Environmental JusticeAgents of Change in Environmental JusticePodcast
• Environmental JusticeEnvironmental Justice Podcast SeriesPodcast
• Physical Science Environmental justiceDavon GPodcast
• The Justice Corner: Environmental JusticeSor'et BraxtonPodcast

Voices to follow

• Giorgos Kallis@g_kallis · XGreek economist
• Heather Swan@beegood2bees · XAmerican literary scholar and poet
• Margarita Triguero-Mas@ItaTrigueroMas · XResearcher
• Sophia Rokhlin@SophiaRokhlin · XAuthor and nonprofit program coordinator

By the numbers

• 4.7CO₂ per person (t) — global, 2024 (World Bank)
• 31.1Forest area (% land) — global, 2023 (World Bank)

Debates

• Should environmental justice prioritize addressing current disparities or rectifying historical injustices?One view: Focusing on current disparities ensures immediate action to protect vulnerable communities from ongoing harm. · Another: Rectifying historical injustices is crucial for systemic change and true equity, acknowledging past wrongs.Open question
• Are market-based solutions, like carbon trading, compatible with environmental justice goals?One view: Market-based solutions can efficiently reduce overall pollution, potentially freeing up resources for justice initiatives. · Another: These solutions often allow pollution to continue in disadvantaged areas, exacerbating existing inequalities.Open question
• Who should bear the primary responsibility for funding environmental justice initiatives?One view: Governments should fund initiatives through taxes, as they are responsible for public welfare and regulating industry. · Another: Polluting industries should bear the cost, as they are directly responsible for creating environmental harms.Open question

Glossary

• Environmental justiceThe fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
• Environmental racismRacial discrimination in environmental policy-making, enforcement of regulations and laws, and the deliberate targeting of minority communities for toxic waste facilities.
• Disproportionate impactWhen a policy or practice has a significantly greater negative effect on one group compared to others, even if not explicitly discriminatory.
• Cumulative impactThe combined effect of multiple environmental stressors and social factors on human health and well-being in a community.
• Sacrifice zonesAreas, often low-income or minority communities, that bear a disproportionate burden of environmental pollution and industrial hazards.
• Green gentrificationThe process where environmental improvements or greening initiatives lead to increased property values and displacement of existing residents.

Careers

Roles this can lead toward

Student research

Published policy papers by One Young India delegates — every delegate leaves published under their own name.

• Judicial Singularity and AI-Powered JusticeMukund Bubna
• Pendency in the Legal Justice System - Case Study of IndiaPakhi Chamaria

Threads 5

Where this connects to other fields — and why it's worth knowing.

• Natural Hazards and Disaster Geography Geography

  The same size earthquake can kill dozens in a rich country and thousands in a poor one right next door. The ground shook the same; what differed was who could afford safe buildings and fast rescue. So a 'natural disaster' death toll actually measures human choices and inequality, not just geology.

• International Trade & Global Finance Economics

  Toxic waste and dirty factories tend to flow toward poor countries, and that's not a glitch, it's the math working as designed. Because harm is 'priced' cheaper where wages are low, the cold cost-benefit calculation quietly decides the poor should absorb the world's poison. Trade doing exactly what it was built to do can still be deeply unfair.

• Ethics and Moral Philosophy Philosophy

  A philosopher named Rawls had a test: design society without knowing who you'll be born as, rich or poor, before you're allowed in. Nobody playing fair like that would ever choose the pollution setup we actually have, where the poor breathe the worst air. Environmental unfairness is basically what happens when we forget to run that test.

• Slavery, Race & Rights History

  In the 1930s, officials drew maps marking Black neighborhoods as 'hazardous' so banks would refuse them loans. Those exact areas got fewer trees and more hot asphalt, and today they literally run hotter, by real degrees, on a summer day. A racist map from 90 years ago is now something you can measure with a thermometer.

• Electric Vehicles Technology

  An electric car has no tailpipe, but it doesn't erase pollution so much as move it. The dirty part shifts to the mines where its battery metals are dug up. Clean air on a rich city street, poisoned ground near a poor mining town.