The difference in Peoples Social Status
Discussion on the difference in peoples social status.
In our reading for the module, we have learned that differences in people’s social status often play a role in how they experience environmental disasters, with people who are better off generally enduring less harm than those who are already less well off. Do you see any relationship between this environmental injustice and the role of human activity in causing harm to natural systems? In other words, is environmental injustice simply a reflection of human attitudes toward the natural world, or is environmental injustice a separate issue from environmental ethics? Support your position by discussing claims from arguments we considered in our readings.
The first two modules considered the difference between human actions and other kinds of events in the world, and the question of whether humans have moral obligations toward natural objects and nonhuman animals. There are many different ethical theories which can be applied to environmental issues. In this module, the focus is on environmental justice.
Environmental justice is defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” 1 An example of environmental justice is when the EPA worked to respond to a report by the U.S. General Accounting Office that showed hazardous landfills are much more likely to be located in poor and primarily black and Hispanic neighborhoods rather than in more affluent, mostly white neighborhoods.2
Proponents of environmental justice do not focus on issues solely within the United States. An example of an injustice outside the United States would be the different ways in which developed and undeveloped countries have been affected by climate change. A large population of people has been forced to leave their farmlands, which have been lost to desertification, soil erosion, or the destruction of villages by cyclones or tsunamis. As a result, a new category of people has emerged, called “climate refugees” or “environmental refugees.” This population tends to live in undeveloped countries that offer little support to citizens who suffer such plights.3
It is one thing to notice that these injustices occur. It is another to understand how to fix the problem. For example, how does one develop a solution in the case of hazardous landfills? Once they have been put in place, hazardous landfills cannot be moved. Should new hazardous landfills be placed in more affluent neighborhoods in order to make the situation fairer? Should the government pay to relocate families who live near hazardous landfills to new housing developments? Many questions arise when it becomes clear that they are often placed in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. It is crucial for this course to examine environmental problems caused by human agency.
1Environmental Justice. (n.d.). EPA. Retrieved March 07, 2014, from
http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/index.html
2Vaidyanathan, Gayathri. “EPA Developing Tool to Assist in Enviro Justice Initiative.” The New York Times. July 30, 2010.(http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/07/30/30greenwire-epa-developing-tool-to-assist-in-enviro-justic-11341.html)
3Kakissis, Joanna. “Environmental Refugees Unable to Return Home.” The New York Times. Jan. 3, 2010. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/asia/04migrants.html)
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