Population is the term typically used to refer to the number of people in a single area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the size of a resident population within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and plants, and has specific uses within such fields as ecology and genetics.
Etymology
The word population is derived from the Late Latinpopulationem (a people, a multitude), which itself is derived from the Latin word populus (a people).
Use of the term
Social sciences
For the statistics of populations, see Demography.
In ecology, the population of a certain species in a certain area can be estimated using the Lincoln index to calculate the total population of an area based on the number of individuals observed.
In genetics, a population is often defined as a set of organisms in which any pair of members can breed together. They can thus routinely exchange gametes in order to have usually fertile progeny, and such a breeding group is also known therefore as a gamodeme. This also implies that all members belong to the same species.
If the gamodeme is very large (theoretically, approaching infinity), and
all gene alleles are uniformly distributed by the gametes within it,
the gamodeme is said to be panmictic. Under this state, allele (gamete) frequencies can be converted to genotype (zygote) frequencies by expanding an appropriate quadratic equation, as shown by Sir Ronald Fisher in his establishment of quantitative genetics.
This seldom occurs in nature: localization of gamete exchange –
through dispersal limitations, preferential mating, cataclysm, or other
cause – may lead to small actual gamodemes which exchange gametes
reasonably uniformly within themselves but are virtually separated from
their neighboring gamodemes. However, there may be low frequencies of
exchange with these neighbors. This may be viewed as the breaking up of a
large sexual population (panmictic) into smaller overlapping sexual
populations. This failure of panmixia
leads to two important changes in overall population structure: (1) the
component gamodemes vary (through gamete sampling) in their allele
frequencies when compared with each other and with the theoretical
panmictic original (this is known as dispersion, and its details can be
estimated using expansion of an appropriate binomial equation);
and (2) the level of homozygosity rises in the entire collection of
gamodemes. The overall rise in homozygosity is quantified by the
inbreeding coefficient (f or φ). All homozygotes are increased in
frequency – both the deleterious and the desirable. The mean phenotype
of the gamodemes collection is lower than that of the panmictic original
– which is known as inbreeding depression. It is most important to
note, however, that some dispersion lines will be superior to the
panmictic original, while some will be about the same, and some will be
inferior. The probabilities of each can be estimated from those binomial
equations. In plant and animal breeding,
procedures have been developed which deliberately utilize the effects
of dispersion (such as line breeding, pure-line breeding, backcrossing).
It can be shown that dispersion-assisted selection leads to the
greatest genetic advance (ΔG=change in the phenotypic mean), and is much
more powerful than selection acting without attendant dispersion. This
is so for both allogamous (random fertilization) and autogamous (self-fertilization) gamodemes.
According to the UN the world's population surpassed 8 billion on 15 November 2022,
a gain of 1 billion since 12 March 2012. According to a separate
estimate by the United Nations, Earth's population exceeded seven
billion in October 2011. According to UNFPA, growth to such an extent offers unprecedented challenges and opportunities to all of humanity.
According to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund
designated 12 October 1999 as the approximate day on which world
population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after the world
population reached 5 billion in 1987, and six years after the world
population reached 5.5 billion in 1993. The population of countries such
as Nigeria is not even known to the nearest million, so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates.
Researcher Carl Haub calculated that a total of over 100 billion people have probably been born in the last 2000 years.
The
years taken for every billion people to be added to the world's
population, and the years that population was reached (with future
estimates).
Population growth increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. The last 50 years have seen a yet more rapid increase in the rate of population growth due to medical advances and substantial increases in agricultural productivity, particularly beginning in the 1960s, made by the Green Revolution. In 2017 the United Nations Population Division projected that the world's population will reach about 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100.
PRB 2017 Data Sheet Largest Populations
In the future, the world's population is expected to peak,
after which it will decline due to economic reasons, health concerns,
land exhaustion and environmental hazards. According to one report, it
is very likely that the world's population will stop growing before the
end of the 21st century. Further, there is some likelihood that
population will actually decline before 2100.
Population has already declined in the last decade or two in Eastern
Europe, the Baltics and in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The population pattern of less-developed regions of the world in
recent years has been marked by gradually declining birth rates. These
followed an earlier sharp reduction in death rates. This transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates is often referred to as the demographic transition.
Human population planning is the practice of altering the rate of
growth of a human population. Historically, human population control has
been implemented with the goal of limiting the rate of population
growth. In the period from the 1950s to the 1980s, concerns about global
population growth and its effects on poverty, environmental degradation,
and political stability led to efforts to reduce population growth
rates. While population control can involve measures that improve
people's lives by giving them greater control of their reproduction, a
few programs, most notably the Chinese government's one-child per family
policy, have resorted to coercive measures.
In the 1970s, tension grew between population control advocates and women's health activists who advanced women's reproductive rights as part of a human rights-based approach.
Growing opposition to the narrow population control focus led to a
significant change in population control policies in the early 1980s.
In ecology, extinction debt is the future extinction of species due to events in the past. The phrases dead clade walking and survival without recovery express the same idea.
Extinction debt occurs because of time delays between impacts on a species, such as destruction of habitat, and the species' ultimate disappearance. For instance, long-lived trees
may survive for many years even after reproduction of new trees has
become impossible, and thus they may be committed to extinction.
Technically, extinction debt generally refers to the number of species in an area likely to become extinct, rather than the prospects of any one species, but colloquially it refers to any occurrence of delayed extinction.
Extinction debt may be local or global, but most examples are
local as these are easier to observe and model. It is most likely to be
found in long-lived species and species with very specific habitat
requirements (specialists).
Extinction debt has important implications for conservation, as it
implies that species may become extinct due to past habitat destruction,
even if continued impacts cease, and that current reserves may not be
sufficient to maintain the species that occupy them. Interventions such
as habitat restoration may reverse extinction debt.
Immigration credit is the corollary to extinction debt. It
refers to the number of species likely to migrate to an area after an
event such as the restoration of an ecosystem.
Extinction debt is also known by the terms dead clade walking and survival without recovery when referring to the species affected. The phrase "dead clade walking" was coined by David Jablonski as early as 2001 as a reference to Dead Man Walking, a film whose title is based on American prison slang
for a condemned prisoner's last walk to the execution chamber. "Dead
clade walking" has since appeared in other scientists' writings about
the aftermaths of mass extinctions.
Extinction debt is caused by many of the same drivers as extinction. The most well-known drivers of extinction debt are habitat fragmentation and habitat destruction. These cause extinction debt by reducing the ability of species to persist via immigration to new habitats. Under equilibrium conditions, a species may become extinct in one habitat patch yet continue to survive because it can disperse
to other patches. However, as other patches have been destroyed or
rendered inaccessible due to fragmentation, this "insurance" effect is
reduced and the species may ultimately become extinct.
Extinction debt may also occur due to the loss of mutualist
species. In New Zealand, the local extinction of several species of
pollinating birds in 1870 has caused a long-term reduction in the
reproduction of the shrub species Rhabdothamnus solandri, which requires these birds to produce seeds. However, as the plant is slow-growing and long-lived, its populations persist.
Jablonski recognized at least four patterns in the fossil record following mass extinctions:
(1) survival without recovery
also called “dead clade walking” – a group dwindling to extinction or relegation to precarious, minor ecological niches
(2) continuity with setbacks
patterns disturbed by the extinction event but soon continuing on the previous trajectory
(3) unbroken continuity
large-scale patterns continuing with little disruption
Jablonski found that the extinction rate of marine invertebrates was significantly higher in the stage (major subdivision of an epoch
– typically 2–10 million years' duration) following a mass extinction
than in the stages preceding the mass extinction. His analysis focused
on marine molluscs since they constitute the most abundant group of fossils and are therefore the least likely to produce sampling errors. Jablonski suggested that two possible explanations deserved further study:
Post-extinction physical environments differed from
pre-extinction environments in ways which were disadvantageous to the
"dead clades walking".
Ecosystems that developed after recoveries from mass extinctions may have been less favorable for the "dead clades walking".
Time scale
The time to "payoff" of extinction debt can be very long. Islands that lost habitat at the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago still appear to be losing species as a result. It has been shown that some bryozoans, a type of microscopic marine organism, became extinct due to the volcanic rise of the Isthmus of Panama. This event cut off the flow of nutrients from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean
3–4.5 million years ago. While bryozoan populations dropped severely at
this time, extinction of these species took another 1–2 million years.
Extinction debts incurred due to human actions have shorter
timescales. Local extinction of birds from rainforest fragmentation
occurs over years or decades, while plants in fragmented grasslands show debts lasting 50–100 years. Tree species in fragmented temperate forests have debts lasting 200 years or more.
Theoretical development
Origins in metapopulation models
Tilman et al. demonstrated that extinction debt could occur using a mathematical ecosystem model of species metapopulations. Metapopulations are multiple populations of a species that live in separate habitat patches
or islands but interact via immigration between the patches. In this
model, species persist via a balance between random local extinctions in
patches and colonization of new patches. Tilman et al.
used this model to predict that species would persist long after they
no longer had sufficient habitat to support them. When used to estimate
extinction debts of tropical tree species, the model predicted debts
lasting 50–400 years.
One of the assumptions underlying the original extinction debt model was a trade-off between species' competitive
ability and colonization ability. That is, a species that competes well
against other species, and is more likely to become dominant in an
area, is less likely to colonize new habitats due to evolutionary
trade-offs. One of the implications of this assumption is that better
competitors, which may even be more common than other species, are more
likely to become extinct than rarer, less competitive, better dispersing
species. This has been one of the more controversial components of the
model, as there is little evidence for this trade-off in many
ecosystems, and in many empirical studies dominant competitors were
least likely species to become extinct.
A later modification of the model showed that these trade-off
assumptions may be relaxed, but need to exist partially, in order for
the theory to work.
Development in other models
Further
theoretical work has shown that extinction debt can occur under many
different circumstances, driven by different mechanisms and under
different model assumptions. The original model predicted extinction
debt as a result of habitat destruction in a system of small, isolated
habitats such as islands. Later models showed that extinction debt could
occur in systems where habitat destruction occurs in small areas within
a large area of habitat, as in slash-and-burn agriculture in forests, and could also occur due to decreased growth of species from pollutants.
Predicted patterns of extinction debt differ between models, though.
For instance, habitat destruction resembling slash-and-burn agriculture
is thought to affect rare species rather than poor colonizers. Models
that incorporate stochasticity, or random fluctuation in populations, show extinction debt occurring over different time scales than classic models.
Most recently, extinction debts have been estimated through the use models derived from neutral theory.
Neutral theory has very different assumptions than the metapopulation
models described above. It predicts that the abundance and distribution
of species can be predicted entirely through random processes, without
considering the traits of individual species. As extinction debt arises
in models under such different assumptions, it is robust to different
kinds of models. Models derived from neutral theory have successfully
predicted extinction times for a number of bird species, but perform
poorly at both very small and very large spatial scales.
Mathematical models
have also shown that extinction debt will last longer if it occurs in
response to large habitat impacts (as the system will move farther from
equilibrium), and if species are long-lived. Also, species just below
their extinction threshold,
that is, just below the population level or habitat occupancy levels
required sustain their population, will have long-term extinction debts.
Finally, extinction debts are predicted to last longer in landscapes
with a few large patches of habitat, rather than many small ones.
Detection
Extinction
debt is difficult to detect and measure. Processes that drive
extinction debt are inherently slow and highly variable (noisy), and it
is difficult to locate or count the very small populations of
near-extinct species. Because of these issues, most measures of
extinction debt have a great deal of uncertainty.
Experimental evidence
Due
to the logistical and ethical difficulties of inciting extinction debt,
there are few studies of extinction debt in controlled experiments.
However, experiments microcosms of insects
living on moss habitats demonstrated that extinction debt occurs after
habitat destruction. In these experiments, it took 6–12 months for
species to die out following the destruction of habitat.
Observational methods
Long-term observation
Extinction
debts that reach equilibrium in relatively short time scales (years to
decades) can be observed via measuring the change in species numbers in
the time following an impact on habitat. For instance, in the Amazon rainforest, researchers have measured the rate at which bird species disappear after forest is cut down.
As even short-term extinction debts can take years to decades to reach
equilibrium, though, such studies take many years and good data are
rare.
Comparing the past and present
Most
studies of extinction debt compare species numbers with habitat
patterns from the past and habitat patterns in the present. If the
present populations of species are more closely related to past habitat
patterns than present, extinction debt is a likely explanation. The
magnitude of extinction debt (i.e., number of species likely to become
extinct) can not be estimated by this method.
If one has information on species populations from the past in
addition to the present, the magnitude of extinction debt can be
estimated. One can use the relationship between species and habitat from
the past to predict the number of species expected in the present. The
difference between this estimate and the actual number of species is the
extinction debt.
This method requires the assumption that in the past species and
their habitat were in equilibrium, which is often unknown. Also, a
common relationship used to equate habitat and species number is the species-area curve, but as the species-area curve arises from very different mechanisms than those in metapopulation based models, extinction debts measured in this way may not conform with metapopulation models' predictions.
The relationship between habitat and species number can also be
represented by much more complex models that simulate the behavior of
many species independently.
Comparing impacted and pristine habitats
If
data on past species numbers or habitat are not available, species debt
can also be estimated by comparing two different habitats: one which is
mostly intact, and another which has had areas cleared and is smaller
and more fragmented. One can then measure the relationship of species
with the condition of habitat in the intact habitat, and, assuming this
represents equilibrium, use it to predict the number of species in the
cleared habitat. If this prediction is lower than the actual number of
species in the cleared habitat, then the difference represents
extinction debt. This method requires many of the same assumptions as methods comparing the past and present.
Examples
Grasslands
Studies
of European grasslands show evidence of extinction debt through both
comparisons with the past and between present-day systems with different
levels of human impacts. The species diversity of grasslands in Sweden appears to be a remnant of more connected landscapes present 50 to 100 years ago. In alvar grasslands in Estonia that have lost area since the 1930s, 17–70% of species are estimated to be committed to extinction. However, studies of similar grasslands in Belgium, where similar impacts have occurred, show no evidence of extinction debt. This may be due to differences in the scale of measurement or the level of specialization of grass species.
Forests
Forests in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, show evidence of extinction debt remaining from deforestation that occurred between 1775 and 1900. Detailed modeling of species behavior, based on similar forests in England
that did not experience deforestation, showed that long-lived and
slow-growing species were more common than equilibrium models would
predict, indicating that their presence was due to lingering extinction
debt.
In Sweden, some species of lichens show an extinction debt in fragments of ancient forest. However, species of lichens that are habitat generalists, rather than specialists, do not.
Insects
Extinction debt has been found among species of butterflies living in the grasslands on Saaremaa and Muhu
– islands off the western coast of Estonia. Butterfly species
distributions on these islands are better explained by the habitat in
the past than current habitats.
On the islands of the AzoresArchipelago, more than 95% of native forests have been destroyed in the past 600 years. As a result, more than half of arthropods on these islands are believed to be committed to extinction, with many islands likely to lose more than 90% of species.
Vertebrates
Of extinction from past deforestation in the Amazon,
80–90% has yet to occur, based on modeling based on species-area
relationships. Local extinctions of approximately 6 species are expected
in each 2500 km2 region by 2050 due to past deforestation. Birds in the Amazon rain forest continued to become extinct locally for 12 years following logging that broke up contiguous
forest into smaller fragments. The extinction rate slowed, however, as
forest regrew in the spaces in between habitat fragments.
Countries in Africa are estimated to have, on average, a local extinction debt of 30% for forest-dwelling primates. That is, they are expected to have 30% of their forest primate species to become extinct in the future due to loss of forest habitat. The time scale for these extinctions has not been estimated.
Based on historical species-area relationships, Hungary currently has approximately nine more species of raptors than are thought to be able to be supported by current nature reserves.
Applications to conservation
The existence of extinction debt in many different ecosystems has important implications for conservation. It implies that in the absence of further habitat destruction or other environmental impacts, many species are still likely to become extinct. Protection of existing habitats may not be sufficient to protect species from extinction. However, the long time scales of extinction debt may allow for habitat restoration in order to prevent extinction, as occurred in the slowing of extinction in Amazon forest birds above. In another example, it has been found that grizzly bears in very small reserves in the Rocky Mountains are likely to become extinct, but this finding allows the modification of reserve networks to better support their populations.
The extinction debt concept may require revision of the value of
land for species conservation, as the number of species currently
present in a habitat may not be a good measure of the habitat's ability
to support species (see carrying capacity) in the future.
As extinction debt may last longest near extinction thresholds, it may
be hardest to detect the threat of extinction for species that
conservation could benefit the most.
Economic analyses have shown that including extinction in
management decision-making process changes decision outcomes, as the
decision to destroy habitat changes conservation value in the future as
well as the present. It is estimated that in Costa Rica, ongoing extinction debt may cost between $88 million and $467 million.
Environmental justice or eco-justice, is a social movement to address environmental injustice, which occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed.
The goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency
for marginalised communities in making environmental decisions that
affect their lives. The global environmental justice movement arises
from local environmental conflicts in which environmental defenders
frequently confront multi-national corporations in resource extraction
or other industries. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly
influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks.
Low-income workers in Ghana recycling waste from high-income countries, with recycling conditions heavily polluting the Agbogbloshie area
Environmental justice is typically defined as distributive justice, which is the equitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits. Some definitions address procedural justice, which is the fair and meaningful participation in decision-making. Other scholars emphasise recognition justice, which is the recognition of oppressionand difference in environmental justice communities. People's capacity to convert social goods into a flourishing community is a further criteria for a just society. However, initiatives have been taken to expand the notion of
environmental justice beyond the three pillars of distribution,
participation, and recognition to also include the dimensions of
self-governing authority, relational ontologies, and epistemic justice.
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.
Environmental justice is also discussed as environmental racism or environmental inequality.
Joan Martinez-Alier's influential concept of the environmentalism of the poor
highlights the ways in which marginalized communities, particularly
those in the Global South, are disproportionately affected by
environmental degradation and the importance of including their
perspectives and needs in environmental decision-making.
Martinez-Alier's work also introduces the concept of "ecological
distribution conflicts," which are conflicts over access to and control
of natural resources and the environmental impacts that result from
their use, and which are often rooted in social and economic
inequalities.
There are various ways everyone can enjoy environmental justice, which includes:
The same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and
Equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.
The origins of the environmental justice movement can be traced to
the Indigenous environmental movement, which has roots in over 500 years
of colonialism and ongoing struggles for sovereignty and land rights. Use of the terms 'environmental justice' and 'environmental racism' began in the United States with the 1982 PCB protests in Warren County, North Carolina.
Dumping of PCB contaminated soil in the predominately Black community
of Afton sparked massive protests, and over 500 people were arrested.
In response to these protests, the Commission for Racial Justice
studied the placement of hazardous waste facilities in the US and found
that race was the most important factor predicting placement of these
facilities.
These studies were followed by widespread objections and lawsuits
against hazardous waste disposal in poor, generally Black, communities. The mainstream environmental movement
began to be criticised for its predominately white affluent leadership,
emphasis on conservation, and failure to address social equity
concerns.
Emergence of global movement
Throughout
the 1970s and 1980s, grassroots movements and environmental
organizations advocated for regulations that increased the costs of
hazardous waste disposal in the US and other industrialized nations.
However, this led to a surge in exports of hazardous waste to the Global
South during the 1980s and 1990s. This global environmental injustice,
including the disposal of toxic waste, land appropriation, and resource
extraction, sparked the formation of the global environmental justice
movement.
The formalization of international environmental justice
commenced with the First National People of Color Environmental
Leadership Summit in 1991, held in Washington, DC. Attended by over 650
delegates from various countries, the summit adopted 17 principles of
environmental justice, which were later disseminated at the 1992 Earth
Summit in Rio. Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development emphasized individuals' rights to access information on
environmental matters, participate in decisions, and seek justice.
Initially, the environmental justice movement focused on
addressing toxic hazards and injustices faced by marginalized racial
groups within affluent nations. However, during the 1991 Leadership
Summit, its scope broadened to encompass public health, worker safety,
land use, transportation, and other issues. Over time, the movement
expanded further to include considerations of gender, international
injustices, and intra-group disparities among disadvantaged populations.
Scope
Environmental justice has evolved into a comprehensive global
movement, introducing numerous concepts to political ecology, including
ecological debt, environmental racism, climate justice, food
sovereignty, corporate accountability, ecocide, sacrifice zones, and
environmentalism of the poor. It aims to augment human rights law, which
traditionally overlooked the relationship between the environment and
human rights. Despite attempts to integrate environmental protection
into human rights law, challenges persist, particularly concerning
climate justice.
Scholars such as Kyle Powys Whyte and Dina Gilio-Whitaker have
extended the discourse on environmental justice concerning Indigenous
peoples and settler-colonialism. Gilio-Whitaker critiques distributive
justice, which assumes a capitalistic commodification of land
inconsistent with Indigenous worldviews. Whyte explores environmental
justice within the context of colonialism's catastrophic environmental
impacts on Indigenous peoples' traditional livelihoods and identities.
Environmental discrimination and conflict
The environmental justice movement seeks to address environmental discrimination and environmental racism associated with hazardous waste disposal, resource extraction, land appropriation, and other activities. This environmental discrimination results in the loss of land-based traditions and economies, armed violence (especially against women and indigenous people) environmental degradation, and environmental conflict. The global environmental justice movement arises from these local place-based conflicts in which local environmental defenders
frequently confront multi-national corporations. Local outcomes of
these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national
environmental justice networks.
There are many divisions along which unjust distribution of
environmental burdens may fall. Within the US, race is the most
important determinant of environmental injustice. In some other countries, poverty or caste (India) are important indicators. Tribal affiliation is also important in some countries. Environmental justice scholars Laura Pulido and David Pellow argue that recognizing environmental racism as an element stemming from the entrenched legacies of racial capitalism is crucial to the movement, with white supremacy continuing to shape human relationships with nature and labor.
Environmental racism
Environmental
racism is a pervasive and complex issue that affects communities all
over the world. It is a form of systemic discrimination that is grounded
in the intersection of race, class, and environmental factors.
At its core, environmental racism refers to the disproportionate
exposure of certain communities, mostly those that are marginalised, to
environmental hazards such as pollution, toxic waste, and other
environmental risks. These communities are often located near industrial
sites, waste facilities, and other sources of pollution that can have
serious health impacts.
Environmental racism has a long and troubling history, with many
examples dating back to the early 20th century. For instance, the
practice of "redlining" in the US, which involved denying loans and
insurance to communities of colour, often led to these communities being
located in areas with high levels of pollution and environmental
hazards.
Today, environmental racism continues to be a significant environmental
justice issue, with many low-income communities and communities of
colour facing disproportionate exposure to pollution and other
environmental risks. This can have serious consequences for the health
and well-being of these communities, leading to higher rates of asthma,
cancer, and other illnesses.
Addressing environmental racism requires a multifaceted approach that
tackles the underlying social, economic, and political factors that
contribute to its persistence. More particularly, environmental justice
scholars from Latin America and elsewhere advocate to understand this
issue through the lens of decolonisation.
The latter underlies the fact that environmental racism emanates from
the colonial projects of the West and its current reproduction of
colonial dynamics.
Hazardous waste
As
environmental justice groups have grown more successful in developed
countries such as the United States, the burdens of global production
have been shifted to the Global South where less-strict regulations make
waste disposal cheaper. Export of toxic waste from the US escalated
throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Many impacted countries do not have adequate disposal systems for this
waste, and impacted communities are not informed about the hazards they
are being exposed to.
The Khian Sea waste disposal incident
was a notable example of environmental justice issues arising from
international movement of toxic waste. Contractors disposing of ash from
waste incinerators in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania illegally dumped the
waste on a beach in Haiti after several other countries refused to
accept it. After more than ten years of debate, the waste was eventually
returned to Pennsylvania. The incident contributed to the creation of the Basel Convention that regulates international movement of toxic waste.
Land appropriation
Countries
in the Global South disproportionately bear the environmental burden of
global production and the costs of over-consumption in Western
societies. This burden is exacerbated by changes in land use that shift
vast tracts of land away from family and subsistence farming toward
multi-national investments in land speculation, agriculture, mining, or
conservation.
Land grabs in the Global South are engendered by neoliberal ideology
and differences in legal frameworks, land prices, and regulatory
practices that make countries in the Global South attractive to foreign
investments.
These land grabs endanger indigenous livelihoods and continuity of
social, cultural, and spiritual practices. Resistance to land
appropriation through transformative social action is also made
difficult by pre-existing social inequity and deprivation; impacted
communities are often already struggling just to meet their basic needs.
Water
Access to
clean water is an indispensable aspect of human life, yet it remains
very unequal, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities
globally. The burden of water scarcity is particularly noticeable in
impoverished urban settings and remote rural areas where inadequate
infrastructure, limited financial resources, and environmental
degradation converge to create formidable challenges. Marginalized
populations, often already grappling with systemic inequalities,
encounter heightened vulnerabilities when it comes to securing safe and
reliable water sources. Discriminatory practices can further compound
these challenges.
The ramifications of limited water access are profound, permeating
various facets of daily life, including health, education, and overall
well-being. Recognizing and addressing these disparities is not only a
matter of justice but also crucial for sustainable development.
Consequently, there must be efforts towards implementing inclusive water
management strategies that prioritize the specific needs of
marginalized communities, ensuring equitable access to this fundamental
resource and fostering resilience in the face of global water
challenges. One way this has been proposed is through Community Based
Participatory Development. When this has been applied, as in the case of
the Six Nations Indigenous peoples in Canada working with McMaster
University researchers, it has shown how community-led sharing and
integrating of science and local knowledge can be partnered in response
to water quality.
Resource extraction
Resource extraction is a prime example of a tool based on colonial dynamics that engenders environmental racism.
Hundreds of studies have shown that marginalized communities, often
indigenous communities, are disproportionately burdened by the negative
environmental consequences of resource extraction. Communities near valuable natural resources are frequently saddled with a resource curse
wherein they bear the environmental costs of extraction and a brief
economic boom that leads to economic instability and ultimately poverty.
Indigenous communities living near valuable natural resources face even
more discrimination, since they are in most cases simply displaced from
their home.
Power disparities between extraction industries and impacted
communities lead to acute procedural injustice in which local
communities are unable to meaningfully participate in decisions that
will shape their lives.
Council
member Debora Juarez gives a speech at the designation of May 5th as
Seattle's Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and
Girls.
Studies have also shown that extraction of critical minerals, timber,
and petroleum may be associated with armed violence in communities that
host mining operations. The government of Canada found that resource extraction leads to missing and murdered indigenous women in communities impacted by mines and infrastructure projects such as pipelines. The Environmental Justice Atlas,
that documents conflicts of environmental justice, demonstrates
multiple conflicts with high violence on indigenous populations around
resource extraction.
Unequal exchange
Unequal
exchange is a term used to describe the unequal economic and trade
relationship between countries from the Global North and the Global
South. The idea is that the exchange of goods and services between these
countries is not equal, with Global North countries benefiting more
than the others.
This occurs for a variety of reasons such as differences in labor
costs, technology, and access to resources. Unequal exchange perceives
this framework of trade through the lens of decolonisation: colonial
power dynamics have led to a trade system where northern countries can
trade their knowledge and technology at a very high price against
natural resources, materials and labor at a very low price from southern
countries.
This is kept in place by mechanisms such as enforceable patents, trade
regulations and price setting by institutions such as the World Bank or
the International Monetary Fund, where northern countries hold most of
the voting power.
Hence, unequal exchange is a phenomenon that is based on and
perpetuates colonial relationships, as it leads to exploitation and
enforces existing inequalities between countries of the Global North and
Global South. This interdependence also explains the differences in CO2
emissions between northern and southern countries: evidently, since
northern countries use many resources and materials of the South, they
produce and pollute more.
Health impacts of disparate exposure in EJ communities
Environmental
justice communities that are disproportionately exposed to chemical
pollution, reduced air quality, and contaminated water sources may
experience overall reduced health.[46]
Poverty in these communities can be a factor that increases their
exposure to occupational hazards such as chemicals used in agriculture
or industry.
When workers leave the work environment they may bring chemicals with
them on their clothing, shoes, skin, and hair, creating further impacts
on their families, including children. Children in EJ communities are uniquely exposed, because they metabolize and absorb contaminants differently than adults.
These children are exposed to a higher level of contaminants throughout
their lives, beginning in utero (through the placenta), and are at
greater risk for adverse health effects like respiratory conditions,
gastrointestinal conditions, and mental conditions.
Fast fashion
exposes environmental justice communities to occupational hazards such
as poor ventilation that can lead to respiratory problems from
inhalation of synthetic particles and cotton dust.
Textile dyeing can also expose EJ communities to toxins and heavy
metals when untreated wastewater enters water systems used by residents
and for livestock. 95% of clothing production takes place in low- or middle-income countries where the workers are under-resourced.
One
of the prominent barriers to minority participation in environmental
justice is the initial costs of trying to change the system and prevent
companies from dumping their toxic waste and other pollutants in areas
with high numbers of minorities living in them. There are massive legal
fees involved in fighting for environmental justice and trying to shed
environmental racism.
For example, in the United Kingdom, there is a rule that the claimant
may have to cover the fees of their opponents, which further exacerbates
any cost issues, especially with lower-income minority groups; also,
the only way for environmental justice groups to hold companies
accountable for their pollution and breaking any licensing issues over waste disposal
would be to sue the government for not enforcing rules. This would lead
to the forbidding legal fees that most could not afford. This can be seen by the fact that out of 210 judicial review cases between 2005 and 2009, 56% did not proceed due to costs.
Emissions of the richest 1% are more than twice that of the poorest 50%. Compliance with the Paris Agreement's
1.5°C goal would require the richest 1% to reduce emissions by at least
30 times, while per-person emissions of the poorest 50% could
approximately triple.
Though total CO2
emissions (size of pie charts) differ substantially among high-emitting
regions, the pattern of higher income classes emitting more than lower
income classes is consistent across regions. The world's top 1% of emitters emit over 1000 times more than the bottom 1%.
Scaling the effect of wealth to the national level: richer (developed) countries emit more CO2 per person than poorer (developing) countries. Emissions are roughly proportional to GDP per person, though the rate of increase diminishes above average GDP/pp of about $10,000.
Climate change and climate justice
have also been a component when discussing environmental justice and
the greater impact it has on environmental justice communities.
Air pollution and water pollution are two contributors of climate
change that can have detrimental effects such as extreme temperatures,
increase in precipitation, and a rise in sea level. Because of this, communities are more vulnerable to events including
floods and droughts potentially resulting in food scarcity and an
increased exposure to infectious, food-related, and water-related
diseases. Currently, without sufficient treatment, more than 80% of all
wastewater generated globally is released into the environment.
High-income nations treat, on average, 70% of the wastewater they
produce, according to UN Water.
It has been projected that climate change will have the greatest impact on vulnerable populations.
Climate justice has been influenced by environmental justice, especially grassroots climate justice.
The head of "Ocean Collectiv" and "Urban Ocean Lab", marine biologist, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
describes ocean justice as: "where ocean conservation and issues of
social equity meet: Who suffers most from flooding and pollution, and
who benefits from conservation measures? As sea levels rise and storms
intensify, such questions will only grow more urgent, and fairness must
be a central consideration as societies figure out how to answer them"
In December 2023 Biden's administration unveiled a whole strategy to improve ocean justice. The main targets of this strategy:
Repair past injustice when people depending on the ocean and
contributing very little to environmental destruction, suffered from the
impacts of this destruction on the oceans. Those include Indigenous peoples, African Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans.
In the official document summarizing the new strategy, the
administration gave several examples of past implementation of those
principles. One of them is Mai Ka Po Mai a strategy for the management of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument near the Hawaiian Islands conceived after consultations with native communities.
Relative to general environmentalism, environmental justice is seen
as having a greater focus on the lives of everyday people and being more
grassroots. Environmental justice advocates have argued that mainstream environmentalist movements have sometimes been racist and elitist.
Many participants in the Reproductive Justice Movement see their
struggle as linked with those for environmental justice, and vice versa.
Loretta Ross
describes the reproductive justice framework as addressing "the ability
of any woman to determine her own reproductive destiny" and argues this
is "linked directly to the conditions in her community – and these
conditions are not just a matter of individual choice and access."
Such conditions include those central to environmental justice –
including the siting of toxic waste and pollution of food, air, and
waterways.
Mohawk midwife Katsi Cook
founded the Mother's Milk Project in the 1980s to address the toxic
contamination of maternal bodies through exposure to fish and water
contaminated by a General MotorsSuperfund site. In underscoring how contamination disproportionately impacted Akwesasne
women and their children through gestation and breastfeeding, this
project illustrates the intersections between reproductive and
environmental justice.
Cook explains that, "at the breasts of women flows the relationship of
those generations both to society and to the natural world."
Steps to accelerate environmental justice
Global acceleration of environmental rule of law:
The governments should respect, protect and fulfil the right to a clean
and healthy environment, which is key for sustainable development.
Strong national legal frameworks: To help spur equitable and
sustainable management of natural resources. These legal frameworks need
to incorporate vulnerable, excluded and marginalized communities to
access justice, information and participate in decision-making.
Transformation in the way we think: About the rights of
future generations and the rights to a healthy environment. It needs to
incorporate wide cross-sections of society in the design of
environmental policies and decisions.
Environmental justice campaigns have arisen from local conflicts all over the world. The Environmental Justice Atlas
documented 3,100 environmental conflicts worldwide as of April 2020 and
emphasised that many more conflicts remained undocumented.
Mining for cobalt
and copper in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has resulted
in environmental injustice and numerous environmental conflicts
including
Mining for gold and other minerals has resulted in environmental injustice and environmental conflict in Ethiopia including
Lega Dembi mine:
thousands of people were exposed to mercury by MIDROC corporation,
resulting in poisoned food, death of livestock and many miscairrages and
birth defects.
Kenya has, since independence in 1963, focused on environmental protectionism. Environmental activists such as Wangari Maathai stood for and defend natural and environmental resources, often coming into conflict with the Daniel Arap Moi
and his government. The country has suffered Environmental issues
arising from rapid urbanization especially in Nairobi, where the public
space, Uhuru Park, and game parks such as the Nairobi National Park
have suffered encroachment to pave way for infrastructural developments
like the Standard Gage Railway and the Nairobi Expressway. One of the
environmental lawyers, Kariuki Muigua, has championed environmental
justice and access to information and legal protection, authoring the
Environmental Justice Thesis on Kenya's milestones.
From 1956 to 2006, up to 1.5 million tons of oil were spilled in the Niger Delta, (50 times the volume spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster). Indigenous people in the region have suffered the loss of their livelihoods as a result of these environmental issues,
and they have received no benefits in return for enormous oil revenues
extracted from their lands. Environmental conflicts have exacerbated
ongoing conflict in the Niger Delta.
Under colonial and apartheid
governments in South Africa, thousands of black South Africans were
removed from their ancestral lands to make way for game parks. Earthlife Africa
was formed in 1988, making it Africa's first environmental justice
organisation. In 1992, the Environmental Justice Networking Forum
(EJNF), a nationwide umbrella organization designed to coordinate the
activities of environmental activists and organizations interested in
social and environmental justice, was created. By 1995, the network
expanded to include 150 member organizations and by 2000, it included
over 600 member organizations.
With the election of the African National Congress
(ANC) in 1994, the environmental justice movement gained an ally in
government. The ANC noted "poverty and environmental degradation have
been closely linked" in South Africa.
The ANC made it clear that environmental inequalities and injustices
would be addressed as part of the party's post-apartheid reconstruction
and development mandate. The new South African Constitution, finalized
in 1996, includes a Bill of Rights that grants South Africans the right
to an "environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being"
and "to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and
future generations through reasonable legislative and other measures
that
South Africa's mining industry is the largest single producer of solid waste, accounting for about two-thirds of the total waste stream. Tens of thousands of deaths have occurred among mine workers as a result of accidents over the last century. There have been several deaths and debilitating diseases from work-related illnesses like asbestosis.
For those who live next to a mine, the quality of air and water is
poor. Noise, dust, and dangerous equipment and vehicles can be threats
to the safety of those who live next to a mine as well. These communities are often poor and black and have little choice over the placement of a mine near their homes. The National Party
introduced a new Minerals Act that began to address environmental
considerations by recognizing the health and safety concerns of workers
and the need for land rehabilitation
during and after mining operations. In 1993, the Act was amended to
require each new mine to have an Environmental Management Program Report
(EMPR) prepared before breaking ground. These EMPRs were intended to
force mining companies to outline all the possible environmental impacts
of the particular mining operation and to make provision for
environmental management.
In October 1998, the Department of Minerals and Energy released a White Paper entitled A Minerals and Mining Policy for South Africa,
which included a section on Environmental Management. The White Paper
states "Government, in recognition of the responsibility of the State as
custodian of the nation's natural resources, will ensure that the
essential development of the country's mineral resources will take place
within a framework of sustainable development and in accordance with
national environmental policy, norms, and standards". It adds that any
environmental policy "must ensure a cost-effective and competitive
mining industry."
Noah Diffenbaugh and Marshall Burke in their study of inequality in Asia demonstrated the interactionalism of economic inequality
and global warming. For instance, globalization and industrialization
increased the chances of global warming. However, industrialization also
allowed wealth inequality to perpetuate. For example, New Delhi is the
epicenter of the industrial revolution in the Indian continent, but
there is significant wealth disparity. Furthermore, because of global
warming, countries like Sweden and Norway can capitalize on warmer
temperatures, while most of the world's poorest countries are
significantly poorer than they would have been if global warming had not
occurred.
China
Cattle in the River Ganges with pollution on the bank
In
China, factories create harmful waste such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur
dioxide which cause health risks. Journalist and science writer Fred Pearce
notes that in China "most monitoring of urban air still concentrates on
one or at most two pollutants, sometimes particulates, sometimes
nitrogen oxides or sulfur dioxides or ozone. Similarly, most medical
studies of the impacts of these toxins look for links between single
pollutants and suspected health effects such as respiratory disease and
cardiovascular conditions." The country emits about a third of all the human-made sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulates pollution in the world. The Global Burden of Disease Study,
an international collaboration, estimates that 1.1 million Chinese die
from the effects of this air pollution each year, roughly a third of the
global death toll." The economic cost of deaths due to air pollution is estimated at 267 billion yuan (US$38 billion) per year.
The Arun gas field where ExxonMobil's development of a natural gas export industry contributed to the insurgency in Aceh in which secessionist fighters led by the Free Aceh Movement
attempted to gain independence from the central government which had
taken billions in gas revenues from the region without much benefit to
the Aceh province. Violence directed toward the gas industry led Exxon
to contract with the Indonesian military for protection of the Arun
field and subsequent human rights abuses in Aceh.
Malaysia
Environmental justice movements in Malaysia have arisen from conflicts including:
Lynas Advanced Materials Plant: rare earth processing plant producing over a million tonnes of radioactive waste from 2012-2023.
World
Environment Day, 5th June 2011, tens of thouands of people rallied
around Australia to say Yes to a safe climate and in support of a carbon
price.
Australia has suffered from a number of environmental injustices,
which have usually been caused by polluting corporate projects geared
towards extracting natural resources. For example, discriminatory siting
of nuclear and hazardous waste facilities.
These projects have been detrimental to local climates, biodiversity,
and the health of local citizen populations from poorer economic areas.
They have also faced little resistance from local and national
governments, who tend to cite their ‘economic’ benefits. However, these
projects have faced strong resistance from environmental justice
organizations, community, and indigenous groups. Australia has a
prominent Indigenous population, and they often disproportionately face
some of the worst impacts of these projects.
WestConnex Highway Project, Sydney and New South Wales (NSW)
The WestConnex Highway Project emerged as an answer to Sydney's lack
of infrastructure to cope as a fast growing city. The highway project is
currently under construction, covers 33 km of new and improved highway,
and will link up to the city's M4 and M5 highways.The newest WestConnex
toll roads opened in 2019. The NSW government believe that the highway
is the ‘missing link’ to the city's problem of traffic congestion, and
has argued that the project will provide further economic benefits such
as job creation.
The WestConnex Action Group (WAG) have said that residents close
to the highway have been negatively affected by its high levels of air
pollution, caused by an increase in traffic and unventilated smokestacks
in its tunnels. Protesters have also argued that the close proximity of
the highway will put children especially at risk.
The highway has faced resistance in a variety of forms, including
a long-running occupation camp in Sydney Park, as well as
confrontations with police and construction workers that have led to
arrests. The WAG has set up a damage register for people whose property
has been damaged by the highway, in order to document the extent of the
damages, and support those who have been affected. The WAG have done
this through campaigning for a damage repaid fund, independent damage
assessment and potential class action.
Yeelirrie Uranium Mine, Western Australia
The Yeelirrie Uranium Mine was facilitated by Canadian company
Cameco. The mine aimed to dig a 9 km open mine pit and destroy 2,400
hectares of traditional lands, including the Seven Sisters Dreaming
Songling, important to the Tjiwarl people. The mine has faced strong
resistance from the Tjiwral people, especially its women, for over
decade.
The mine is the largest uranium deposit in the country, and uses
nine million litres of water, whilst generating millions of tonnes of
radioactive waste. Around 36 million tonnes of this waste will be
produced whilst the mine is operational, which is set to be until 2043.
A group of Tjiwral women took Cameco to court, to initial
success. The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) halted the mine
because it was very likely to wipe out several species, including rare
stygofauna, the entire western population of a rare saltbush, and harm
other wild life like the Malleefowl, Princess parrot and Greater bilby.
The state and federal authorities, however, went against the EPA and
approved the mine in 2019.
SANTOS Barossa offshore gas in Timor Sea, Northern Territory (NT)
In March 2021, South Australia Northern Territory Oil Search (SANTOS)
invested in the Barossa gas field in the Timor sea, NT, to great
reception from the NT government, saying that it will provide jobs for
the local area. The move was condemned by environmental justice
organisations, saying that it will have grave impacts on the climate and
biodiversity. Crucially, they stressed that the Tiwi people, owners of
the local islands, were not adequately consulted, and were worried that
any spills would damage local flatback and Olive Ridley turtle
populations.
This disregard for the Tiwi people sparked protests from a number
of groups, including one in front of the SANTOS Darwin headquarters
demanding an end to the Barossa gas project. In September 2021, a
coalition of environmental justice organisations from Australia, South
Korea and Japan, united under the name Stop Barossa Gas to oppose the
project. In March 2022, the Tiwi people filed for a court injunction to
stop KEXIM and KTIC (Korean development finance institutions) funding
the project with almost $1bn. The Tiwi people did this on the basis of a
lack of consultation from SANTOS, and the detrimental environmental
impacts the project will have. In June 2022, the Tiwi people filed
another lawsuit for the same reasons, but this time directly against
SANTOS.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) reports that exposure to environmental harms such as pollution is correlated with poverty,
and that poorer countries suffer from environmental harms while higher
income countries produce the majority of the pollution. Western Europe
has more extensive evidence of environmental inequality.
Romani peoples
are ethnic minorities that experience environmental discrimination.
Discriminatory laws force Romani people In many countries to live in
slums or ghettos with poor access to running water and sewage, or where
they are exposed to hazardous wastes.
Sweden became the first country to ban DDT in 1969.
In the 1980s, women activists organized around preparing jam made from
pesticide-tainted berries, which they offered to the members of
parliament. Parliament members refused, and this has often been cited as an example of direct action within ecofeminism.
Whilst the predominant agenda of the Environmental Justice movement
in the United States has been tackling issues of race, inequality, and
the environment, environmental justice campaigns around the world have
developed and shifted in focus. For example, the EJ movement in the
United Kingdom is quite different. It focuses on issues of poverty and
the environment, but also tackles issues of health inequalities and social exclusion. A UK-based NGO, named the Environmental Justice Foundation, has sought to make a direct link between the need for environmental security and the defense of basic human rights.
They have launched several high-profile campaigns that link
environmental problems and social injustices. A campaign against
illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing highlighted how 'pirate' fisherman are stealing food from local, artisanal fishing communities. They have also launched a campaign exposing the environmental and human rights abuses involved in cotton production in Uzbekistan. Cotton produced in Uzbekistan is often harvested by children
for little or no pay. In addition, the mismanagement of water resources
for crop irrigation has led to the near eradication of the Aral Sea. The Environmental Justice Foundation has successfully petitioned large retailers such as Wal-mart and Tesco to stop selling Uzbek cotton.
Building of alternatives to climate change
In France, numerous Alternatiba events, or villages of alternatives, are providing hundreds of alternatives to climate change
and lack of environmental justice, both in order to raise people's
awareness and to stimulate behaviour change. They have been or will be
organized in over sixty different French and European cities, such as Bilbao, Brussels, Geneva, Lyon or Paris.
North and Central America
Belize
Environmental justice movements arising from local conflicts in Belize include:
The government of Belize began granting oil concessions without consulting local communities since 2010, with offshore oil drilling
being allowed without consultation with local fishermen or the tourism
sector, which are the main economic activities in the area, and
affecting Mayan and Garifuna communities. Environmental advocacy group, Oceana,
collected over 20,000 signatures in 2011 to trigger a national
referendum on offshore oil drilling, however, the government of Belize
invalidated over 8,000 signatures, preventing the possibility of an
official referendum. In response, Oceana and partner organizations
organized an unofficial "People's Referendum," which resulted in 90% of
Belizeans voting against offshore exploration and drilling. Belize's
Supreme Court declared offshore drilling contracts issued by the
Government of Belize in 2004 and 2007 invalid in 2013, but the
government reconsidered initiating offshore drilling in 2015, with
possible new regulations allowing oil and gas exploration in 99% of
Belize's territorial waters. In 2022, Oceana began collecting signatures
for another moratorium referendum.
The Canadian company Pacific Rim Mining Corporation operates a gold
mine on the site of El Dorado, San Isidro, in the department of Cabañas.
The mine has had hugely negative impacts on the local environment,
including the reduction of accessibility to fresh water due to the water
intensive mining process, as well as the contamination of the local
water supply, which negatively affected the health of local citizens and
their live stock. Also, Salvadorian investigators found dangerously
high levels of arsenic in two rivers close to the mine.
The operations of the mine has caused conflicts, increased
divisions in the community, and prompted threats and violence against
opposition to the mine. Following the suspension of the project in 2008
due to resistance from local groups, this violence escalated. As of
today, at least half a dozen deaths among local group opposing the mine
have been related with the presence of Pacific Rim. The strength of
opposition to the mine contributed towards a national movement against
the project. In 2008 and 2009, both the incumbent and elected
Salvadorian presidents agreed publicly to deny the extension of the
licence to Pacific Rim to connote its operations. More recently, the new
president Sanchéz Cerén stated “mining is not viable in El Salvador.”
Honduras
Honduras
has experienced a number of environmental justice struggles,
particularly related to the mining, hydroelectric, and logging
industries. One of the most high-profile cases was the assassination of Berta Caceres,
a Honduran indigenous and environmental rights activist who opposed the
construction of the Agua Zarca Dam on the Gualcarque River. Caceres'
murder in 2016 sparked widespread outrage and drew international
attention to the risks faced by environmental and indigenous activists
in Honduras.
Mexico
Environmental justice movements arising from local conflicts in Mexico include
In 2012, the Nicaraguan government approved the construction of the
Grand Canal, which will be 286 km long. A large section of the new canal
will run through Lake Nicaragua, which is an important source of fresh
water for the country. The canal will also have a width of 83 meters,
and depth of 27.5 meters, making it suitable for large-range ships.
Related infrastructures include two ports, an airport and an oil
pipeline.
Opponents to the construction of the canal, such as the
Coordinadora de la comunidad negra creole indígena de Bluefields
(CCNCB), fear the impacts it will have on the biodiversity, and
protected areas like Bosawás and the Bluefields wetlands. Opponents also
fear the impacts on the Indigenous and tribal people that the canal
would displace, such as the Miskito, Ulwa and Creole. To date, the
Nicaraguan government has not made public the results of various
viability studies.
Since the approval of the construction of the canal,
environmental justice and indigenous groups have presented petitions for
review to national courts, as well as one to the International Human
Rights Commission. In 2017, these groups suffered a setback, when the
National Court rejected the petition to refuse the "Law of the Grand
Canal”.
Definitions of environmental inequality typically emphasize either
'disparate exposure' (unequal exposure to environmental harm) or
'discriminatory intent' (often based on race). Disparate exposure has
health and social impacts. Poverty and race are associated with environmental injustice. Poor people account for more than 20% of the human health impacts from industrial toxic air releases, compared to 12.9% of the population nationwide.
Some studies that test statistically for effects of race and ethnicity,
while controlling for income and other factors, suggest racial gaps in
exposure that persist across all bands of income.
States may also see placing toxic facilities near poor neighborhoods as preferential from a Cost Benefit Analysis
(CBA) perspective. A CBA may favor placing a toxic facility near a city
of 20,000 poor people than near a city of 5,000 wealthy people. Terry Bossert of Range Resources
reportedly has said that it deliberately locates its operations in poor
neighborhoods instead of wealthy areas where residents have more money
to challenge its practices. Northern California's East Bay Refinery Corridor is an example of the disparities associated with race and income and proximity to toxic facilities.
In Seattle, Washington, the Duwamish River Community Coalition
(DRCC) was formed in 2001 in response to the designation of the Duwamish
River as a Superfund site.
DRCC works with local communities and both private and public
organizations to address the disparate exposure to air and water
pollution families of the Duwamish Valley face. Residents of the
Duwamish Valley are a population made of primarily South and Central
American immigrants of low income, indigenous peoples, and refugees.
African-Americans
African-Americans are affected by a variety of Environmental Justice issues. One notorious example is the "Cancer Alley" region of Louisiana. This 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River
between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is home to 125 companies that
produce one quarter of the petrochemical products manufactured in the
United States. The nickname was given due to the high rates of residents
diagnosed with cancer compared to the United States average. The United States Commission on Civil Rights
has concluded that the African-American community has been
disproportionately affected by Cancer Alley as a result of Louisiana's
current state and local permit system for hazardous facilities, as well
as their low socio-economic status and limited political influence.
Another incidence of long-term environmental injustice occurred in the
"West Grove" community of Miami, Florida. From 1925 to 1970, the
predominately poor, African American residents of the "West Grove"
endured the negative effects of exposure to carcinogenic emissions and
toxic waste discharge from a large trash incinerator called Old Smokey.
Despite official acknowledgement as a public nuisance, the incinerator
project was expanded in 1961. It was not until the surrounding,
predominantly white neighborhoods began to experience the negative
impacts from Old Smokey that the legal battle began to close the
incinerator.
More so, many African-American residents have experienced missed
or overlooked health issues that were cause by the environmental
disparity of their communities. Unfortunately, many of these
complications were overlooked by the healthcare industry and comprised
the health of those struggling with respiratory and heart problems. The
American Heart Association has compiled data analysis that shows the
relationship between air pollution exposure and cardiovascular illness
and death.
Indigenous Groups
Indigenous groups are often the victims of environmental injustices. Native Americans have suffered abuses related to uranium mining
in the American West. Churchrock, New Mexico, in Navajo territory was
home to the longest continuous uranium mining in any Navajo land. From
1954 until 1968, the tribe leased land to mining companies who did not
obtain consent from Navajo families or report any consequences of their
activities. Not only did the miners significantly deplete the limited
water supply, but they also contaminated what was left of the Navajo
water supply with uranium. Kerr-McGee and United Nuclear Corporation,
the two largest mining companies, argued that the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act did not apply to them, and maintained that Native
American land is not subject to environmental protections. The courts
did not force them to comply with US clean water regulations until 1980.
The Inuit community in northern Quebec have faced disproportionate exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Some of these pollutants may include pesticides used decades before in the United States. PCBs bioaccumulate and biomagnify
within the fatty tissues of organisms, so the traditional high-fat sea
animal diet of the Inuit has posed significant health impacts to both
adults and unborn infants. Although the production of PCBs was banned internationally in 2001 by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants,
they can exist in the environment and biosphere for decades or longer.
They pose a significant risk to newborns due to intrauterine exposure
and concentration within breast milk.
Latinos
The
most common example of environmental injustice among Latinos is the
exposure to pesticides faced by farmworkers. After DDT and other
chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides were banned in the United States in
1972, farmers began using more acutely toxic organophosphate pesticides
such as parathion.
A large portion of farmworkers in the US are working as undocumented
immigrants, and as a result of their political disadvantage, are not
able to protest against regular exposure to pesticides or benefit from
the protections of Federal laws.
Exposure to chemical pesticides in the cotton industry also affects
farmers in India and Uzbekistan. Banned throughout much of the rest of
the world because of the potential threat to human health and the
natural environment, Endosulfan
is a highly toxic chemical, the safe use of which cannot be guaranteed
in the many developing countries it is used in. Endosulfan, like DDT, is
an organochlorine and persists in the environment long after it has
killed the target pests, leaving a deadly legacy for people and
wildlife.
Residents of cities along the US-Mexico border are also affected. Maquiladoras
are assembly plants operated by American, Japanese, and other foreign
countries, located along the US-Mexico border. The maquiladoras use
cheap Mexican labor to assemble imported components and raw material,
and then transport finished products back to the United States. Much of
the waste ends up being illegally dumped in sewers, ditches, or in the
desert. Along the Lower Rio Grande Valley,
maquiladoras dump their toxic wastes into the river from which 95
percent of residents obtain their drinking water. In the border cities
of Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico, the rate of anencephaly (babies born without brains) is four times the national average.
Youth
Held v. Montana was the first state constitutional law climate lawsuit to go to trial in the United States, on June 12, 2023. The case was filed in March 2020 by sixteen youth residents of Montana, then aged 2 through 18, who argued that the state's support of the fossil fuel industry had worsened the effects of climate change on their lives, thus denying their right to a "clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations" as required by the Constitution of Montana.
On August 14, 2023, the trial court judge ruled in the youth
plaintiffs' favor, though the state indicated it would appeal the
decision.
South America
Environmental
justice struggles have been a significant feature of social and
political movements in South America, where communities have faced the
impacts of environmental degradation and resource extraction for
decades. In particular, mining in South America has led to conflicts
between mining companies, governments, and local communities over issues
such as land rights, water use, and pollution. Indigenous peoples in
particular have been disproportionately affected by mining, with many
communities experiencing displacement, loss of traditional livelihoods,
and negative health impacts from exposure to toxic chemicals and
pollution. A report by Global Witness identifies South America as the
most dangerous region in the world for environmental activists, with at
least 98 people killed in 2019.
Argentina
Environmental justice movements arising from local conflicts in Argentina include
Bajo de la Alumbrera mine, Catamarca, Argentina:
The Bajo de la Alumbrera mine is an open-pit copper and gold mine
located in the northwestern province of Catamarca, Argentina. The mining
project began in the late 1990s and has since been the center of a
significant environmental justice conflict. The mine is operated by
Glencore, which owns 50% of the stocks, while Canadian companies Goldcorp and Yamana Gold
hold 37.5% and 12.5% respectively. People have raised concerns over the
mine's potential environmental impacts, including water pollution,
deforestation, and the displacement of indigenous communities. The
mine's operators have also faced accusations of human rights violations,
including the use of excessive force against protesters and the
violation of workers' rights. Despite these concerns, the mine continues
to operate, and its expansion plans have been met with significant
resistance from local communities and environmental groups. After La
Alumbrera started operations, other mining projects were rejected in
Catamarca.
Brazil
Environmental justice movements arising from local conflicts in Brazil include
Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam, Para, Brasil: Belo Monte is a hydroelectric project on the Xingú River
in Brazil that began construction in 2011 and was completed in 2019. It
is currently the fifth-largest hydroelectric dam in the world, by
installed capacity. It is owned by a consortium called Norte Energia,
mostly owned by the government and funded primarily by BNDES, with
mining giant Vale owning around 5% of it. The project is the largest
infrastructure complex of the Brazilian government's plan to build over
60 large dams in the Amazon Basin over the next 20 years, which has
received numerous criticisms and open resistance from organizations,
public opinion, and inhabitants of the region. Its construction has been
highly conflictive, having been opposed by indigenous peoples, who were
not consulted before the authorization of construction. The project has
been criticized for lacking environmental impact assessments prior to
the start of the works. The Belo Monte Dam has diverted the flow of the
Xingu, devastating an extensive area of the rainforest, affecting over
50,000 people and displacing over 20,000. The dam threatens the survival
of indigenous tribes that depend on the river.
Ecuador
Notable environmental justice movements in Ecuador have arisen from several local conflicts:
Chevron Texaco's oil operations in the Lago Agro oil field
resulted in spillage of seventeen million gallons of crude oil into
local water supplies between 1967 and 1989. They also dumped over 19
billion gallons of toxic wastewater into unlined open pits and regional
rivers. Represented by US lawyer Steven Donziger, Indigenous people fought Chevron in US and Ecuadorian courts for decades in attempts to recover damages.
Green space disparities in Lima which has led to higher
environmental risks in coastal desert communities compared to wealthier
ones
Transnational movement networks
Many
of the Environmental Justice Networks that began in the United States
expanded their horizons to include many other countries and became
Transnational Networks for Environmental Justice. These networks work to
bring Environmental Justice to all parts of the world and protect all
citizens of the world to reduce the environmental injustice happening
all over the world. Listed below are some of the major Transnational
Social Movement Organizations.
Amazon Watch
- organization that campaigns for the protection of the rainforest, and
the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin in Ecuador, Peru,
Colombia, and Brazil.
Basel Action Network – works to end toxic waste dumping in poor undeveloped countries from the rich developed countries.
a network of activist-researchers that document environmental justice issues around the world.
Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) is a multinational project supported by the European Commission.
Civil society organizations and universities from 20 countries in
Europe, Africa, Latin-America, and Asia are building up case studies,
linking organizations worldwide, and making an interactive global map of
Environmental Justice.
GAIA (Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance)
– works to find different ways to dispose of waste other than
incineration. This company has people working in over 77 countries
throughout the world.
GR (Global Response) – works to educate activists and the upper working class how to protect human rights and the ecosystem.
Global Witness
- an international NGO that investigates and exposes environmental and
human rights abuses, corruption, and conflict associated with the
exploitation of natural resources.
Greenpeace International
– which was the first organization to become the global name of
Environmental Justice. Greenpeace works to raise the global
consciousness of transnational trade of toxic waste.
Health Care without Harm – works to improve public health by reducing the environmental impacts of the health care industry.
Indigenous Environmental Network
- a North American network of indigenous peoples' organizations that
work to protect the environment and promote sustainable development.
NDN Collective
- is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous,
supporting campaigns like ‘Land Back’, which aims to return Indigenous
lands back to Indigenous people.
PAN (Pesticide Action Network) – works to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with alternatives that are safe for the environment.
Global environmental inequality is evidence that vulnerable
populations are disproportionately victimized by environmental
degradation as a result of global capitalism and land exploitation.
Yet, studies prove these groups have pioneered the need for
intersection between human and environmental rights in activism and
policy because of their close proximity to environmental issues. It is important for environmental regulation to acknowledge the value
of this global grassroots movement, lead by indigenous women and women
of the global south, in determining how institutions such as the United
Nations can best deliver environmental justice. In recent years, the United Nations' approach to issues concerning
environmental health has begun to acknowledge the native practices of
indigenous women and advocacy of women in vulnerable positions. Further research by the science community and analysis of
environmental issues through a gendered lens are essential next steps
for the UN and other governing bodies to curate policy that meets the
needs of the women activists leading the environmental justice movement.
Outer space
Over recent years social scientists have begun to view outer space in an environmental conceptual framework.
Klinger, an environmental geographer, analyses the environmental
features of outer space from the perspective of several schools of
geopolitical.
From a classical geopolitical approach, for instance, people's
exploration of the outer space domain is, in fact, a manifestation of
competing and conflicting interests between states, i.e., outer space is
an asset used to strengthen and consolidate geopolitical power and has
strategic value. From the perspective of environmental geopolitics, the issue of sustainable development has become a consensus politics. Countries thus cede power to international agreements and supranational organizations to manage global environmental issues.
Such co-produced practices are followed in the human use of outer
space, which means that only powerful nations are capable of reacting to
protect the interests of underprivileged countries, so far from there
being perfect environmental justice in environmental geopolitics.
Human interaction with outer space is environmentally based since
a measurable environmental footprint will be left when modifying the
Earth's environment (e.g., local environmental changes from launch
sites) to access outer space, developing space-based technologies to
study the Earth's environment, exploring space with spacecraft in orbit
or by landing on the Moon, etc.
Different stakeholders have competing territorial agendas for this vast
space; thus, the ownership of these footprints is governed by
geopolitical power and relations, which means that human involvement
with outer space falls into the field of environmental justice.
Activities on Earth
On
Earth, the environmental geopolitics of outer space is directly linked
to issues of environmental justice - the launch of spacecraft and the
impact of their launch processes on the surrounding environment, and the
impact of space-based related technologies and facilities on the
development process of human society.
As both processes require the support of industry, infrastructure, and
networks of information and take place in specific locations, this leads
to continuous interaction with local territorial governance.
Launches and infrastructures
Rockets
are generally launched in areas where conventional and potentially
catastrophic blast damage can be controlled, generally in an open and
unoccupied territory.
Despite the absence of human life and habitation, other forms of life
exist in these open territories, maintaining the local ecological
balance and material cycles.
Toxic particulate matter from rocket launches can cause localized acid
rain, plant and animal mortality, reduced food production, and other
hazards.
Moreover, space activities result in environmental injustice on a
global scale. Spacecraft are the only contributors to direct
human-derived pollution in the stratosphere, which comes mostly from the
launch activities of rich economies in the northern hemisphere, while
the global north bears more of the environmental consequences.
Environmental injustice is further evidenced by the limited
research into the effects on downstream human and non-human communities
and the inadequate tracking of pollutants in ecological chains and
environments.
Space-based technologies
While space-based technologies have been applied to tracking natural disasters and the spread of pollutants,
access to these technologies and the monitoring of data is deeply
uneven within and between countries, exacerbating environmental
injustice. Further, the use of technology by powerful countries can even
lead to the creation of policies and institutions in less privileged
nations, changing land-use regimes to favor or disadvantage the survival
of certain human groups. For example, in the decades following the
publication of the first report on the use of satellite imagery to
measure rainforest deforestation in the 1980s, several environmental
groups rose to prominence and also influenced changes in domestic policy
in Brazil.
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