Environmental Justice

Beginning in the 1970s, there has been a multilayered and ongoing process between citizens and governmental agencies concerning basic questions as to how exactly to define “clean environment,” how to regulate and enforce a reasonably equitable distribution of environmental benefits and costs, and how to rectify gross environmental injustices. Historically, environmental protections and civil rights were instituted separately until social movements and individual advocates began to connect these concerns and demand what has become known as environmental justice. The goal of an environmental justice framework is twofold (1) to confront the inequitable distribution of environmental risk within society and (2) to identify and address the structural causes of discriminatory practices and environmental hazards.