Environmental justice

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section needs to be revised: Numerous tendentious formulations, hardly any individual references, but a long list of literature. In addition, the formatting gives the impression that the creation of the article got stuck halfway (ellipses, sections of the wikilinks are completely missing).
Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

Environmental justice is the usual German translation of the term "environmental justice", which in the United States has been a problem at the intersection of environmental , social and health policy since the early 1980s . It is primarily about the different environmental pollution of different social or ethnic groups and the places where they live. Questions in this context are, for example: Do poorer and socially disadvantaged people experience a higher level of environmental pollution? Why? What are the economic, political, social, psychological and health consequences? What can be done about it?

Problem background

In the FRG, justice has been a problematic issue again since the early 2000s . It is mostly related - positively or negatively - to equality. This means that inequality should 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 justice is also related to the environment in the USA.

Environmental justice has been discussed in the USA since the 1980s and describes the equal treatment and inclusion of all residents of a certain area in the decision-making process of an environmentally harmful project (e.g. waste incineration plant , refinery, etc.) regardless of their skin color, ethnicity, income or their level of education. Topics are above all the social and spatial (socio-spatial) distribution of environmental loads and environmental goods (aspect of distributive justice) and the making of decisions that impose more environmental pollution on certain places and social groups (aspect of procedural justice). EJ programs promote the protection of human health and the environment by helping them participate in public negotiation processes. They do this in particular through the dissemination of environmentally relevant information and targeted training of affected communities and residential areas.

Examples

Experience shows that environmental pollution is unevenly distributed in terms of social space:

  • Accumulation of factories, power stations, tank farms, refineries in commercial areas, surrounded by social housing
  • Construction of new motorways, expressways, railway lines, high-voltage roads across lower-class, but not upper-class districts
  • Management of the approach and departure lanes of airports in such a way that celebrity quarters are not touched if possible
  • on contaminated sites, possibly building social housing estates, but not golf courses
  • Placement of risky facilities such as hazardous waste dumps, nuclear interim and final storage facilities in structurally weak areas in which socially disadvantaged people and ethnic minorities live.

Synonyms

In the USA, in addition to the most commonly used term “environmental justice”, other terms with a similar meaning are used: “environmental inequity” (politically weakening), “environmental discrimination” and “ environmental racism ” (politically reinforcing). In terms of content, there are relationships to “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 "Umweltrechte"; in addition, “environmental justice” is also used. “ Ecological justice ” (as a translation of “ecological justice”) has a broad and heterogeneous range of meanings in that, in addition to social distributive justice, it also includes the rights of all living beings and describes the relationship between man and nature; the concept of ecological justice is directed against an externalizing treatment of nature and must not be confused with “environmental justice”.

history

The US environmental justice movement has two roots: on the one hand, the “black” civil rights movement, which discovered (often hidden) racism in many environmentally relevant decisions and practices; on the other hand, the “white” anti-toxic waste movement (Szasz 1994), which opposed the toxic legacy of the booming US chemical industry being more or less legally “disposed of” in water, soil and air.

Historical triggers were well-known cases of socially discriminatory environmental pollution, such as Love Canal, Warren County or Woburn. The tidal wave triggered by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, which claimed many victims, especially among the Afro-American population - who tend to live in flood areas - was seen as renewed evidence of ongoing environmental injustice.

But not only such historical environmental scandals are cause for problematization, but also the "normal" accumulation of highways, factories, power plants, wind farms, tank farms, scrap yards, sewage works, pig fattening facilities etc. in / next to the residential areas of poor and "ethnic minorities" is considered scandalous Discrimination.

research

Scientific studies on environmental justice ask e.g. B. according to the following: the distribution of certain environmental pollution in different places (with different population structure); the emergence of socially discriminatory inequalities in environmental pollution; sharing the costs and benefits of pollution ; the incidence of environmental diseases among different social groups.

The concept of the environment is to be understood broadly and can mean things as diverse as the air we breathe as a global public good or the immediate vicinity of one's own living space. The adjective "environmentally friendly" describes a behavior or process that is in harmony with the environment. In contrast, the noun “environmental justice” emphasizes the reference to humans and is therefore anthropocentric .

In Berlin, there is now a successful cooperation project between two senate administrations (SenGUV, SenStadt) and several universities (including HU Berlin, TU Berlin, Uni Leipzig), which deals with environmental justice in Berlin (Klimeczek 2010).

Interpretation and implementation of the results

Empirical references to environmentally-relevant distribution and procedural deficiencies can - with the appropriate political will - lead to consequences in environmental, economic, transport, building policy, etc.

Further consequences

Considerations about environmental justice often include the polluter pays principle . Anyone who is responsible for environmental damage should bear their own removal and any additional costs incurred and should not be left to the general public to remedy, i.e. be subject to environmental liability . An example of this principle is the set of rules of the European Union , which explicitly refers to it in Directive 2004/35 / EC.

From this point of view, z. For example, say that low-wage earners who have to live in poor housing experience just as little environmental justice as people in developing countries , who suffer particularly badly from global warming , but hardly contributed to it.

In the sense of argumentation based on the theory of justice, it can also be demanded that people or companies that benefit in a special way from natural resources should share this profit fully with the general public. The idea behind this is that the natural environment is not to be regarded as a normal commodity and therefore cannot belong to anyone as exclusive property. This component of environmental justice can be found, for example, in the debate on biopiracy , in which one point of conflict is the granting of patents on individual genes .

See also

literature

  • J. Agyeman, Y. Ogneva-Himmelberger (Eds.): Environmental justice and sustainability in the former Soviet Union. MIT-Press, Cambridge (MA) 2009.
  • R. Anand: International environmental justice: a North-South dimension. Ashgate, Hampshire (UK) 2004.
  • Ecological justice. In: From Politics and Contemporary History . 24/2007. (PDF; 2.9 MB)
  • G. Bolte, A. Mielck: Environmental justice. The social distribution of environmental pressures . Juventa Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7799-1141-8 .
  • B. Bryant (Ed.): Environmental justice: Issues, policies, and solutions. Island Press , Washington (DC) 1995.
  • RD Bullard: Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality. 3. Edition. Westview Press, Boulder (CO), 2000.
  • RD Bullard: The quest for environmental justice: Human rights and the politics of pollution. Sierra Club, San Francisco 2005.
  • D. Camacho (Ed.): Environmental injustices, political struggles. Duke University Press, Durham (NC) 1998.
  • DV Carruthers (Ed.): Environmental justice in Latin America. MIT-Press, Cambridge (MA) 2008.
  • K. Dunion: Troublemakers. The struggle for environmental justice in Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, 2003.
  • J. Ebbesson: Access to justice in environmental matters in the EU. Kluwer, The Hague 2002.
  • HD Elvers: Environmental Justice - Integrative Paradigm of Health and Social Sciences? UFZ Environmental Research Center Leipzig-Halle Discussion Paper 14/2005. (PDF) ( Memento of February 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  • D. Faber: Capitalizing on environmental injustice: The polluter-industrial complex in the age of globalization. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham (MD) 2008.
  • J. Fairburn et al .: Investigating environmental justice in Scotland: links between measures of environmental quality and social deprivation. Sniffer, Edinburgh 2005.
  • FoE (Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland) (Ed.): Pollution and poverty: breaking the link. FoE, London 2001.
  • T. Fotopoulos: The Ecological Crisis as Part of the Multi-Dimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy. In: The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, vol. 3, no. 3, 2007. (online)
  • R. Hafner: Environmental Justice and Soy Agribusiness. Routledge, London, 2018. ISBN 978-0-8153-8535-6 . ( Online )
  • J. Heinrich among others: Social inequality and environmental diseases in Germany. Ecomed, Landsberg 1998.
  • C. Hornberg, A. Pauli (Ed.): Environmental justice - the social distribution of health-related environmental pollution. Bielefeld University, 2009.
  • IOM (Institute of Medicine) (Ed.): Toward environmental justice: research, education, and health policy needs. National Academy of Sciences, Washington (DC) 1999.
  • J. Jarre: Environmental pollution and its distribution among social classes. Otto Schwartz & Co, Göttingen 1975.
  • HJ Klimeczek: Environmental justice in the state of Berlin. Development and implementation of a practical concept for the investigation of the (urban) spatial distribution of health-related environmental pollution. SenGUV, Berlin 2010.
  • M. Kloepfer: environmental justice. Environmental Justice in the German Legal System. Duncker & Humblot Publishing House, 2006, ISBN 3-428-12134-1 .
  • H. Köckler et al.: Environmental justice and pollution using the example of the city of Kassel. (= CESR paper 1). Kassel University Press, 2008.
  • H. Kruize, AA Bouwman: Environmental (in) equity in the Netherlands. RIVM, Bilthoven 2004.
  • J. Martinez-Alier: The environmentalism of the poor. A study of ecological conflicts & valuation. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003.
  • W. Maschewsky: Environmental Justice, Public Health and Social City . VAS Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-88864-330-9 .
  • W. Maschewsky: Environmental justice - health relevance and empirical assessment . Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, 2004. discussion paper (PDF; 1.7 MB)
  • W. Maschewsky: Healthy public policy - using the example of policy on environmental justice in Scotland . Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, 2006. discussion paper (PDF; 240 kB)
  • W. Maschewsky: Environmental justice as a topic for public health ethics. In: Federal Health Gazette. 2, 2008.
  • D. McLaren et al .: The geographic relation between household income and polluting factories. FoE, London 1999.
  • A. Mielck, J. Heinrich: Environmental Justice (environmental justice): Fair distribution of environmental pollution among the various population groups . Action program Environment and Health NRW. Expert report on the topic, 2001. (PDF; 266 kB)
  • A. Mielck, J. Heinrich: Social inequality and the distribution of environment-related exposures (Environmental Justice). In: Healthcare. 64, 2002.
  • MUNLV (Ministry for the Environment and Nature Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection North Rhine-Westphalia) (Ed.): Environment and health at industrial stress points ("Hot Spots"). Environmental medicine impact studies in Dortmund and Duisburg. MUNLV, Düsseldorf 2004.
  • D. Naguib, L. Pellow, SH Park: The Silicon Valley of Dreams. Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy. New York University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-8147-6710-9 .
  • DN Pellow: Garbage wars: The struggle for environmental justice in Chicago. MIT-Press, Cambridge (MA) 2002.
  • C. Rechtschaffen, E. Gauna (Ed.): Environmental justice: Law, policy & regulation. Carolina Academic Press, Durham (NC) 2002.
  • R. Rosenbrock, W. Maschewsky: Prevention policy evaluation controversies in the field of environment and health. Science Center Berlin, 1998.
  • Wolfgang Sachs : Ecology and Human Rights . (= Wuppertal Paper No. 131.) 2003. (PDF) ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  • A. Szasz: Ecopopulism. Toxic waste and the movement for environmental justice. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1994.
  • Environmental Medicine Information Service: Environmental Justice - Environment, Health and Social Situation . UMID special issue, issue 2/2008 (PDF, 1 MB) ( Memento from October 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  • G. Walker, K. Bickerstaff: Polluting the poor: An emerging environmental justice agenda for the UK? Critical Urban Studies, University of London 2000.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert D. Bullard: Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality . Westview, Boulder, CO 1990.
  2. ↑ Environmental Justice , Deutsche Umwelthilfe , accessed in January 2018.
  3. ^ Website of the European Union: EUROPA - Glossary - Environmental Liability ( Memento of November 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive )