Our environmental circumstances have been influenced by economic, political, and social systems that focus on exponential growth and individualism—or, as we described in the last section, frontier and anthropocentric mindsets. We see the devastating consequences of climate change, from extreme wildfires to deadly hurricanes to health crises. These repercussions are not coincidental; they are related to the ways that we exploit natural resources.

As we described in the Environmental Inequity section, the use and benefits of these resources are unequally distributed. And while all of us will experience the aftermath of climate change, not all people will experience it equally. People of color, especially Black and Indigenous people, and other marginalized communities are often on the frontlines of climate change and experience the highest intensity of its effects.

As progress is being made to improve how we interact with nature, environmental justice movements are growing in potency and scope to address these inequities. Environmental justice is defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income concerning the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Movements for environmental justice are based on the principles that all people have a right to be protected from environmental issues and to live in and enjoy a clean and healthful environment. They are also based on the assumption that environmental problems cannot be solved without unveiling practices that maintain social injustices.

Members of global environmental justice movements represent a multitude of roles and backgrounds. They include academics who have conducted hundreds of studies that demonstrate how exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed. They include members of organizations focused on training leaders and empowering activists to make change locally or globally. Often the aim is to elevate voices of color, including members of Indigenous communities. This builds more diverse inclusive movements. It also makes them more effective and fair, as room is made for those who live with the bulk of the environmental impacts to identify ideas for solving them.

Issues that environmental justice actors address include environmental racism and discrimination associated with hazardous waste disposal. They also often work on human rights violations that leaders of companies commit as they remove or manipulate resources. Environmental justice actors will confront corporations involved in land grabs, noting the detriment to health and local economies and the loss of land-based traditions that occur as a result. They also seek to expand the scope of human rights law, which historically has not been able to adequately address the relationship between the environment and human rights.

Environmental Justice in the United States

It is widely recognized that a kickstart to the U.S. Environmental Justice Movement occurred in the early 1980s in North Carolina. In 1978 a local Transformer Company had begun an illegal scheme to dump toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) near an African-American community in Warren County. PCBs are highly toxic and carcinogenic chemicals. Exposure could result in a suppressed immune system and may cause cancer, among other negative health impacts.

To avoid paying to dispose of the chemicals legally, people who ran the company discharged the toxic waste along roadsides after dark. They deposited it over a 250-mile stretch across several counties. By 1982, the local community had learned of the dumping and began to protest. Their actions were heavily influenced by the U.S. civil rights movement. They included civil disobedience, and a Baptist church provided a central organizing spot. Leadership in this protest included the Reverend Ben Chavis, who became known in the United States as the “godfather of the environmental justice movement” (Atwater 2022) (figure 10.42).

In 2022, Reverend Chavis spoke at Duke University in North Carolina and shared what developed after the protests:

…because over 500 people were arrested 40 years ago in one county—it brought national attention. And because it brought national media attention we discovered that what was going on in Warren County was not isolated. The same thing was happening…in other parts of our nation…

So we not only had to allege racial discrimination, we had to prove it statistically. So we ordered the first study—every ZIP code in the United States. And in 1987 we published the report “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States,” which was a landmark study that is still referenced today by the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] (Chavis 2022).

Initially, the U.S. environmental movement focused on cases like Warren County, addressing the harm that toxins create for marginalized racial and ethnic groups. Then, topics expanded to include public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, and other issues. Exports of hazardous waste to the Global South escalated through the 1980s and 1990s and became part of this movement as well.

A good place to get information on issues surrounding environmental justice is the Racial Equity Tools site and the Environmental Justice Page [Website] found there (figure 10.43). Spend a few minutes browsing through the resources and projects there. In what ways do you see researchers, activists, and organizations addressing environmental justice?

Environmental Justice: Global

In many ways, the issues that are addressed by environmental justice advocates in other countries mimic those addressed in the United States. As we’ve discussed in several chapters of this book, colonization has been a fundamental method for Western countries to establish values across continents. They include the values we’ve discussed in this chapter that have led to environmental degradation. Colonization is an ongoing process that creates and emphasizes biases, such as environmental racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. All of these biases intersect with climate-related and resource-use issues.

Currently, just one-fifth of the global population is consuming three-quarters of the earth’s resources. If the remaining four-fifths were to exercise their right to grow to the level of the rich minority, it would result in ecological devastation. So far, global income inequalities and lack of purchasing power have prevented poorer countries from reaching the standard of living (and also resource consumption and waste emission) of the industrialized countries.

Countries such as China, Brazil, India, and Malaysia are, however, catching up fast. In such a situation, global consumption of resources and energy needs to be drastically reduced to a point where it can be repeated by future generations. But who will do the reducing? Poorer nations want to produce and consume more. Yet so do richer countries: their economies demand ever greater consumption-based expansion. Such stalemates have prevented any meaningful progress towards equitable and sustainable resource distribution at the international level. These issues of fairness and distributional justice remain unresolved.

The Environmental Justice Atlas [Website] (figure 10.44) is a tool developed by professors in Spain that documents and catalogs social conflict around environmental issues around the world. It’s a resource for teaching, networking, and advocacy around concerns and action related to environmental justice. Take a few minutes to browse the atlas to get an idea of the kinds of environmental conflicts and issues they are tracking.

For example, the map illustrates a conflict in Iran. Members of Iran’s government have prioritized dam development near the Hawizeh Marshes, which is negatively affecting Indigenous Peoples who make a living there through fishing and agriculture. This conflict has larger consequences as the effects of the dam include the drying of wetlands, at times affecting a third of the country.

Going Deeper

The U.S. Navy, Hazardous Waste, and Hurricane Katrina in Puerto Rico

The island of Culebra in Puerto Rico was allocated to the U.S. Navy in 1901 to use for test landings and ground maneuvers, then later for bombing practice. Many armaments were moved there, and bombing practice lasted for decades. The U.S. Navy has since deposited many contaminants in the form of exploded and unexploded artillery on beach areas in Puerto Rico.

Locals protested nonviolently with marches and civil disobedience campaigns in the form of sit-ins and blockades, especially when the military attempted to evacuate the entire population in 1970 (figure 10.45 [left]). However, military exercises were also being conducted on the nearby island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. After more years of efforts of social movements and individuals across the political spectrum, the Navy agreed to phase out their use of the island as a testing ground.

After the base was closed, Vieques was designated a Superfund cleanup site. A Superfund site is a location designated by The U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to receive special environmental funding to protect communities from hazardous substances. Environmental groups and residents of Vieques expressed that the Navy caused “more damage than any other single actor in the history of Puerto Rico” (Herbert 2001:23). A 1977 survey by the Puerto Rico Health Department revealed that the cancer rate in Vieques was 27 percent higher than mainland Puerto Rico (Pelet 2016).

In 2021 the U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that the Department of Defense continues to clean the munitions and hazardous substances that have been left in Vieques and Culebra, with significant work still to be done. They estimate that by the time they have completed the cleanup, they will have spent nearly $800 million (U.S. Government Accountability Office 2021).

In addition to being a case study of social movements, Puerto Rico is a case study of environmental inequity of impact. The island was hit hard by Hurricane Maria in 2017 (figure 10.46). Residents had already been struggling due to crumbling infrastructure; outside investors purchasing property, land, and resources; and less access to opportunities for women (Babic 2022). Poverty in Puerto Rico is high. The 2021 U.S. Census measured the island’s poverty rate at 42 percent. In comparison, this is much higher than the U.S. national rate of 13.1 percent (“The United States Census Bureau Quick Facts: Puerto Rico” n.d.).

Licenses and Attributions for Environmental Justice Movements

Open Content, Original

“Environmental Justice Movements” by Aimee Samara Krouskop is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Open Content, Shared Previously

The third paragraph is adapted from “1.5 Environmental Justice & Indigenous Struggles” by Matthew R. Fisher in Environmental Biology, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

The second and third paragraphs of “Environmental Justice: Global” are adapted from “13. Sustainability” by Matthew R. Fisher in Environmental Biology, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Figure 10.42. Dr. Reverend Ben Chavis is on Wikipedia and licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (left).

Figure 10.45. “A Rusting Carcass of an M4 Sherman Tank” is provided by JohnnyPicture and published on Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 3.0 (right).

Figure 10.46. “Naval Aircrewman and Local Volunteers Unload Water” by U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jacob A. Goff is published on Flickr under CC BY-NC 2.0.

All Rights Reserved Content

Figure 10.42. Reverend Ben Chaviz on Environmental Activism by Keisha Okafor is is used with permission (right).

Figure 10.43. Screenshot from the Racial Equity Tools page is included under fair use.

Figure 10.44. Screenshot of the Environmental Justice Atlas is included under fair use.

Figure 10.45. Islanders of Culebra, Puerto Rico, confront the Navy is published on Global Voices and is a screenshot of the video, “Culebra 135-40,” licensed under the Standard YouTube License (left).