Environmental Justice

Although there is not a standard definition of what constitutes environmental justice, the environmental justice movement grew out of the inequitable distribution of environmental hazards among poor and minority citizens. All people deserve to live in a clean and safe environment free from industrial waste and pollution that can adversely affect their health and well-being. Environmental justice seeks to bring this ideal state of the world into reality. A society that embraced environmental justice would ensure that all of the costs that accompany living in an industrialized nation were equally and fairly distributed among citizens and that a nation's minority and/or underprivileged populations were not facing inequitable environmental burdens. From a policy perspective, practicing environmental justice entails ensuring that all citizens receive the same degree ...