E
Terms: Environmental Justice, Equality, Equity, Ethnocentrism
Environmental Justice
Phonetic Pronunciation: uhn-vai-urn-men-tl juh-stuhs
Definition:
"Environmental justice" is a movement that seeks fair and meaningful inclusion of affected people and ensures equal sharing of benefits and costs when making decisions about the environment. It recognizes and addresses that Indigenous, racialized, and marginalized communities faced inequities throughout the decision-making process (1).
History:
Environmental justice can be traced back to the 1980s, when it was initiated by the African American community in Warren County, North Carolina. In that year, their community had been designated as a hazardous polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) landfill. In response, 500 activists protested and were subsequently arrested. Although the protest failed to halt the landfill construction, it served as a catalyst for the Environmental Justice Movement (2).
Current Usage:
Currently, environmental justice is widely accepted to be categorized into 3 dimensions: procedural justice (the meaningful inclusion of the affected group in decision-making), recognitional justice (the acknowledgement of the well-being, knowledge, and perspectives of affected groups as valued members of society), and distributive justice (the distribution of costs, risks, and benefits) (3).
Examples:
A situational example is: Aamjiwnaang First Nation lives closely to an area called "Chemical Valley", which is filled with more than 60 chemical plants and oil refineries. This is approximately 40% of Canada's petrochemical industry (4). The people there are exposed to high levels of benzene, which puts them at higher risk of cancer (5).
A sentence example is: "One way to achieve environmental justice is by limiting industrial development near residential neighborhoods."
Perspective:
Other perspectives of environmental justice include "corrective justice", which means that if harm has been done, attempts must be made to restore the victim to the condition they were in before the unjust activity occurred (6).
Environmental justice is also considered to be a human right because, as the UN Human Rights Council declared in 2022, everyone has the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment (7).
Did You Know?
A recent development in environmental justice in Canada is the passage of Bill C-226, National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act, to become law. This mandates the development of a “national strategy to promote efforts across Canada to advance environmental justice and to assess, prevent, and address environmental racism.” (1)
Sources:
Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism
History of Environmental Justice
Defining and conceptualizing equity and justice in climate adaptation
Living in the shadow of Chemical Valley
How Ontario could have cracked down on Chemical Valley pollution — but chose not to
A Taxonomy of Environmental Justice
In historic move, UN declares healthy environment a human right
Resources:
EJAtlas - Global Atlas of Environmental Justice
Canada Confesses Database: Environmental Justice
Equality
Definition:
“Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources and opportunities, regardless of their circumstances. In social and racial justice movements, equality can actually increase inequities in communities as not every group of people needs the same resources or opportunities allocated to them in order to thrive.” United Way
Sources:
United Way Equality vs Equity 2021
Resources:
United Way Equality vs Equity 2021
Equity
Definition:
“Equity, in its simplest terms as it relates to racial and social justice, means meeting communities where they are and allocating resources and opportunities as needed to create equal outcomes for all community members.
Equity recognizes each person has different circumstances and needs, meaning different groups of people need different resources and opportunities allocated to them in order to thrive.
Equality, on the other hand, is giving everyone the exact same resources across the board, regardless of individual or groups of people’s actual needs or opportunities/resources already provided to them.” United Way
Example:
“If one house is on fire in a neighborhood and a firefighter comes and sprays water on that house, it would be ridiculous for a neighbor to say, “Well what about my house?!” It doesn’t mean that the other houses don’t matter; it just means that one specific house is in danger and needs attention.” Our House is On Fire: Why Black Lives Matter Now and Always, Your Teen Magazine
Sources:
United Way Equality vs Equity 2021
Your Teen Magazine Why Black Lives Matter 2020
Resources:
Ethnocentrism
Definition:
“It is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture. The view of things in which one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.” The Anti-Oppression Network
Sources:
Resources:
Ethnocentrism In Canada Essay - 527 Words | Internet Public Library