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Environmental Justice: What is Environmental Justice?

How to Use This Guide

This guide is by no means exhaustive of all environmental justice (EJ) ideas or topics, but is an overview of some key issues, concepts, and terminology used by EJ educators, activists, and scholars. It contains lists and links to books, organizations, art, and documents relevant to EJ.

Definitions

 

Environmental Justice is the right to live, work, and play.

 

Environmental justice (EJ) is an ethic and movement that affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental self-determination of all peoples and beings. Generally, it is used as a broad term encompassing many different types of environmental-related issues, including climate justice, ethical land use, biodiversity and species protections, access to healthy and culturally-affirming food, and the right to clean water, air, and soil.

 

The EPA formally defines EJ as "the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of income, race, color, national origin, Tribal affiliation, or disability, in agency decision-making and other Federal activities that affect human health and the environment so that people." 

 

This guide overviews some of the major ideas, issues, and resources on EJ based in the U.S. 

 

There are many definitions of environmental justice. Please note that this guide is not meant to be comprehensive, and focuses on some of the major ideas, issues, and resources on EJ in the U.S.

 

 

Environmental racism is environmental injustice.


Black, Indigenous, and people of color currently (and historically), bear the brunt of environmental oppression.


Environmental racism refers to "any environmental policy, practice or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages (whether intended or unintended) individuals, groups or communities based on race or color. Environmental racism is reinforced by government, legal, economic, political and military institutions. This type of racism combines with public policies and industry practices to provide benefits for countries in the North while shifting costs to countries in the South" (Bullard, 2004, p.3).


People of color are leading the environmental justice movement. 

 

Scholar David N. Pellow writes, the EJ movement is "composed of people from communities of color, Indigenous communities, and working-class communities who are focused on combating environmental injustice—the disproportionate burden of environmental harm facing these populations. For the EJ movement, social justice is inseparable from environmental protection" (Pellow, 2016, p.222).

 


 

 

The 17 Principles of Environmental Justice are considered a foundational document for EJ grassroots activism.

 

The Principles were adopted by delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit (1991) in Washington, DC in the wake of landmark cases tracing toxic waste site placements in BIPOC and low-income communities. The summit was attended by approximately 1,100 people and funded by the United Church of Christ, a leading EJ grassroots organization at the time. The Principles directly challenge environmental racism, lack of meaningful involvement in policy, and ecocide (intentional and unintentional destruction of land, air, water, and species well-being)  

 

Many scholars and activists argue that we have yet to see a full realization of the Principles today.

 

17 Principles of Environmental Justice

  1. Environmental Justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction.

  2. Environmental Justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.

  3. Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.

  4. Environmental Justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food.

  5. Environmental Justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental selfdetermination of all peoples.

  6. Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.

  7. Environmental Justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decisionmaking, including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.

  8. Environmental Justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.

  9. Environmental Justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.

  10. Environmental Justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.

  11. Environmental Justice must recognize a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through treaties, agreements, compacts, and covenants affirming sovereignty and self-determination.

  12. Environmental Justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and provided fair access for all to the full range of resources.

  13. Environmental Justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people of color.

  14. Environmental Justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national corporations.

  15. Environmental Justice opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.

  16. Environmental Justice calls for the education of present and future generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.

  17. Environmental Justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth's resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to ensure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.