Environmental Justice

Environmental justice refers to the movements aimed at ensuring that people of color, low-income individuals, women, and indigenous communities are not disproportionately harmed by environmental risks and harm. Environmental justice has many historic roots but is seen as culminating in the 1980s and 1990s. Movements include the struggle of working-class communities and communities of color against environmental hazards from toxins and pollution, indigenous mobilization against the exploitation and commoditization of natural resources, farm workers organizing against pesticide exposure, and international struggles against the exporting of hazardous materials, rapid overindustrialization, and climate change, among others. Because of cultural inequities, women can face heightened risk and harm, but they also often take a lead in environmental justice struggles.

Environmental justice movements differ from the environmental movement in many ...