Talking Environmental Justice
From The Gathering Under the Flightpath by Glasgow airport to the Environmental Justice Photo Project across communities on the frontline of climate change, poverty and pollution across the UK - environmental issues are being seen less as an abstract concern to an issue of justice.
Environmental injustice is a broad term that applies to all sorts of problems and situations faced by many people. Environmental justice means that everyone should have access to a safe, healthy environment and to environmental resources. This can mean things often considered “environmental”, such as green spaces and clean air, but also other things such as healthy food and warm and secure housing. All environmental justice struggles are also about social justice. People with more wealth and power are better able to prevent environmental problems in their area, or to move elsewhere.
Part of fighting environmental injustice is therefore addressing the social injustices that mean that some groups are better able to protect themselves than others. In the US, for example, Black communities are rising against the disproportionate placement of polluting industries in their neighbourhoods. This workshop will support communities in developing an understanding of the environmental injustice situation they are in and working out what to do about it. Root causes of environmental injustices include institutionalized racism; the co-modification of land, water, energy and air; unresponsive, unaccountable government policies and regulation and lack of resources and power in affected communities.
Photo credit: Harmit Kambo