Environmental Justice. A Very Short Introduction
Reseña del libro "Environmental Justice. A Very Short Introduction"
Environmental justice is an important idea in the larger context of environmental protection. It has gained importance globally: the UN, governments, and nongovernmental organizations now regularly address it. Environmental justice concerns the unfair treatment of underserved and disenfranchised people. It challenges all of us to acknowledge the responsibilities of affluent populations and developed countries to correct the environmental harms, such as disproportionate industrial pollution and rising seas from climate change, that they have, unwittingly or not, inflicted on those who are less powerful. Relying on the latest scholarship and highlighting relevant events, this book provides readers with the foundational knowledge of environmental justice: what it is and its causes, as well as governmental and international responses to it.
Environmental justice is a relatively recent concept in the larger context of environmental protection. It has become a focus of US and European Union environmental policy, UN actions, and the activities of many nongovernmental environmental organizations. Environmental justice is an evolving idea representing many points of view. It encompasses not only traditional environmental issues like clean air and clean water, but also social issues such as employment, nutrition, and access to health care. Environmental justice communities, compared to others, likely do not enjoy tree canopy and parks, but they are more likely to suffer pollution from nearby factories. The development of environmental justice tracks our growing understanding of racism and wealth disparity, and our understanding of inequality between the global north and the global south. Environmental justice recognizes that environmental benefits and burdens have not been distributed fairly, and that the people making decisions often do not include those most directly affected: people of color, Indigenous populations, low-income communities, and those who are underserved and disenfranchised for other reasons such as age, gender, or disability. Environmental Justice: A Very Short Introduction defines the term, identifies specific environmental justice populations, examines root causes of the issues, including racism, capitalism, and colonialism, and traces the history of the environmental justice movement and governmental responses to it.
