Environmental justice

Environmental Justice is the usual German translation of the term " environmental justice ", which since the early 1980s in the United States shall designate a problem at the intersection of environmental, social and health policy. It 's mostly about the different environmental impact of different social and ethnic groups and the places / regions on / in which they live. Questions in this area noisy example: Did the poor and socially disadvantaged more pollution? Why? What economic, political, social, psychological and health consequences? What can we do about it?

Problem Background

In the FRG is problematized more strongly since the early 2000s justice. It will take most - positively or negatively - based on equality. This inequality would be relevant for justice, which is widely accepted for social inequality, but not for health or environmental inequality. From a German point of view it is therefore unusual that is also related to environmental justice in the United States.

Environmental Justice is being discussed in the U.S. since the 1980s, and it describes the equality and inclusion of all residents of a given area in the decision making of an environmentally detrimental to the project (eg waste incineration plant, refinery, etc.) regardless of their race, their ethnicity, their income or her level of training. Topics are mainly the social and spatial ( socio-spatial ) distribution of environmental burdens and environmental goods ( aspect of distributive justice ) and the adoption of decisions, the specific locations and social groups more to environmental pollution expect ( aspect of procedural justice ). EJ programs promote the protection of human health and the environment by helping them to participate in public processes of negotiation. You do this particular through the dissemination of environmental information and targeted education of affected communities and residential areas.

Examples

Environmental burdens are distributed according to experience social spatially unevenly

• Accumulation of factories, power plants, tank farms, refineries in commercial areas, surrounded by social housing and allotments
• Construction of new highways, expressways, railways, high -voltage power lines across bottom layer, but not upper class districts
• Leadership of the arrival and departure corridors of airports so that celebrities district are not affected as possible
• On contaminated sites possibly construction of social housing estates, but not by golf courses
• Placement of risk assets, such as hazardous waste sites, nuclear intermediate and final storage in structurally weak areas, where lack of jobs with higher acceptance expected in the population.

Synonyms

In the U.S., in addition to the most commonly used term " environmental justice " other words of similar meaning are used: "environmental inequity " ( politically weakening ), "environmental discrimination" and "environmental racism" ( politically reinforcing ). Content relationships exist with " environmentalism of the poor" ( Martinez - Alier 2005) and "popular environmentalism " ( Carruthers 2008). The English term "ecological justice" or " eco -justice " comes from a different theoretical tradition ( " deep ecology " ) and means something very different.

The usual German translation of " environmental justice " is " Environmental Justice "; next to it is also called " environmental justice " used. " Environmental justice " ( as a translation of "ecological justice" ) has a wide and heterogeneous range of meanings and should not be confused with " environmental justice."

History

The environmental justice movement in the U.S. has two roots: on the one hand the "black" civil rights movement, which also discovered in many environment-related decisions and practices an (often hidden ) racism; other hand, the "white" anti - toxic waste movement ( Szasz 1994), which, however, resisted, that the toxic legacy of the booming U.S. chemical industry was more or less legal " disposed of" in water, soil and air.

Historical trigger was widely known cases of socially discriminatory pollution, such as Love Canal, Warren County or Woburn. The tidal wave caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in New Orleans, which especially in the African-American population - who lives more in flooded areas - many casualties, was seen as further evidence of continued environmental injustice.

But not only those historical environmental scandals are cause to problematize, but also the " normal" accumulation of highways, factories, power stations, wind farms, fuel depots, scrap yards, sewage treatment plants, pig equipment, etc. in / next to residential areas of arms and " ethnic minorities " is considered scandalous Diskrminierung.

Research

Scientific studies on environmental justice, for example, ask according to the following: the distribution of certain environmental impacts to different locations ( with different population structure); the emergence of socially discriminatory unequal distributions of pollution; the sharing of costs and profits of pollution; the incidence of environmentally related diseases among different social groups.

The concept of environment is broadly defined to understand and can be as different as the things my breath as a global public good or the very next environment of your own living space. The adjective " environmentally friendly " describes a behavior or process that is in harmony with the environment. On the other hand emphasizes the noun " environmental justice " includes reference to humans and is therefore anthropocentric.

In Berlin, there is now a successful Koopperationsprojekt of one hand two Senate administrations ( SenGUV, SenStadt ) with the other hand, several universities (including HU Berlin, TU Berlin, University of Leipzig ), the Environmental Justice in Berlin on the subject has ( Klimeczek 2010).

Interpretation and implementation of the results

Empirical evidence of environmental, justice - related distribution and procedural shortcomings can - if there is political will - to consequences in environmental, economic, transport, construction policies, lead etc..

Other consequences

Reflections on environmental justice often include the polluter pays principle with a. Who is responsible for environmental damage, shall bear his disposal and any resulting additional costs themselves and not be left to address the general public, that is subject to environmental liability. As an example of this principle, the rules of the European Union is to call, the express reference in the Directive 2004/35/EC on it.

From these viewpoints can be, for example, say that low income earners who live in poor housing, environmental justice nor learn how people in developing countries that are particularly badly affected by the global warming, but they have hardly caused with.

For the purposes of justice theoretical argumentation can also be demanding that people or companies that benefit in a special way of natural resources, to fully involve the general public in this profit. The rationale is that the natural environment is not to be regarded as normal goods and can also include anyone as exclusive property. This component of environmental justice is found for example in the debate on biopiracy again, in which a point of conflict is the granting of patents on individual genes.