Health,Environmental and Social Justice

Health is a basic human right. Improving health requires social and environmental justice and sustainable development. The 'health for all' movement embraces principles shared by other social movements—in sustainable development, community safety and new economics. These principles include equity, democracy, empowerment of individuals and communities, underpinned by supportive environmental, economic and educational measures and multi-agency partnerships. Health promotion is green promotion and inequality in health is due to social and economic inequality. This paper shows how health, environmental and economic sustainability are inextricably linked and how professionals of different disciplines can work together with the communities they serve to improve local health and quality of life. It gives examples of how local policy and programme development for public health improvement can fit in with global and national policy-making to promote health, environmental and social justice.     

Health, Environmental and Social Justice

Health is a basic human right. Improving health requires social and environmental justice and sustainable development. The 'health for all' movement embraces principles shared by other social movements--in sustainable development, community safety and new economics. These principles include equity, democracy, empowerment of individuals and communities, underpinned by supportive environmental, economic and educational measures and multi-agency partnerships. Health promotion is green promotion and inequality in health is due to social and economic inequality. This paper shows how health, environmental and economic sustainability are inextricably linked and how professionals of different disciplines can work together with the communities they serve to improve local health and quality of life. It gives examples of how local policy and programme development for public health improvement can fit in with global and national policy-making to promote health, environmental and social justice.     

Environmental Justice in Canada

Lake Zapotlán is a small (1100 ha) lake in Jalisco state, western Mexico. Two communities are located within the basin (Ciudad Guzman, population ～93,000 and Gomez Farías, population ～12,000). The lake has a productive fishery (annual harvest between 200 and 570 tonnes) comprising tilapia and carp. Extensive beds of rooted and floating Typha latifolia are found in the lake and are used in local handicraft activities. The lake receives untreated sewage from both communities and, as a result, has elevated levels of nutrients and coliform bacteria. Local human health issues, as a possible consequence of this pollution, have been identified. This paper describes a process of identifying potential indicators of ecosystem health, to be used as a management tool in developing a sustainability plan for the lake and its basin.     

New York City Environmental Justice Alliance Waterfront Justice Project

This paper reviews key challenges and opportunities addressed by the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance's (NYC-EJA) Waterfront Justice Project, a citywide campaign to promote climate resilience and sustainability in urban industrial waterfront communities of New York City. NYC-EJA is a non-profit membership-driven network linking grassroots organisations from low-income neighbourhoods and communities of colour in their struggle for environmental justice. The Waterfront Justice Project is documenting community vulnerability in the context of climate change impacts, sources of industrial pollution, and demographic and socio-economic trends. This campaign is enabling community-based organisations, environmental justice communities, city planners, local and state government agencies, local business-owners, and other stakeholders to work in partnership to achieve community resilience while advocating for local jobs and promoting best practices in pollution prevention. New York City's waterfront policies ease the siting and clustering of public infrastructure, water pollution control plants, waste transfer stations, energy facilities, and heavy manufacturing uses in six areas designated as Significant Maritime and Industrial Areas (SMIAs). The SMIAs are located in environmental justice communities, largely low-income communities and communities of colour, in the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. New York City's local waterfront land use and zoning policies create cumulative risk exposure not only to residents and workers in the host waterfront communities, but also, in the event of storm surge or sea-level rise, to neighbouring, upland communities.     

跨流域调水的公正问题——基于环境正义的分析视角

水资源时空分布不均造成的水资源短缺问题已成为阻碍区域发展的重要因素。为了应对区域间的水资源短缺问题,跨流域调水工程作为不同流域水资源优化配置的一种手段,被广泛用于解决水资源分配不均和区域需水不平衡问题。调水工程虽然短期内缓解了水资源压力,平衡了区域间用水需求,但其建设和运营过程对工程所涉区域的地方经济、地理环境、人文环境以及生态环境也造成不同程度的压力。本文通过对当前世界范围内跨流域调水工程的文献回顾,围绕跨流域调水工程所引发的社会公平正义层面的争议,借助环境正义理论的分析方法,通过对国内外调水案例的实践分析,追踪相关环境不公的现象和争议,剖析当前社会—生态冲突的产生机制。最后从我国水生态文明建设实际出发,提出以建立健全水权交易市场,构建"赋权—认同—合作"参与机制和树立"人类命运共同体"理念的解决对策,以期降低调水工程对环境和社会所造成的负面影响,推进水生态正义体系的建设。     

Comparing Scales of Environmental Effects from Gasoline and Ethanol Production

Understanding the environmental effects of alternative fuel production is critical to characterizing the sustainability of energy resources to inform policy and regulatory decisions. The magnitudes of these environmental effects vary according to the intensity and scale of fuel production along each step of the supply chain. We compare the spatial extent and temporal duration of ethanol and gasoline production processes and environmental effects based on a literature review and then synthesize the scale differences on space–time diagrams. Comprehensive assessment of any fuel-production system is a moving target, and our analysis shows that decisions regarding the selection of spatial and temporal boundaries of analysis have tremendous influences on the comparisons. Effects that strongly differentiate gasoline and ethanol-supply chains in terms of scale are associated with when and where energy resources are formed and how they are extracted. Although both gasoline and ethanol production may result in negative environmental effects, this study indicates that ethanol production traced through a supply chain may impact less area and result in more easily reversed effects of a shorter duration than gasoline production.     

流域环境司法机制的发展：从环境法庭到环境法院

为促进流域的司法保护,我国一些地方法院成立了专门的流域环境法庭。但从流域环境法庭和流域环境巡回法庭的实践情况来看,还不能满足流域整体性保护的需要,也不能适应流域法的发展需求。我国流域司法机制建设,宜从流域环境法庭逐渐转到流域环境法院。流域环境法院的建立在我国环境司法专门化进程中具有必要性和可行性。按照流域法的保护理念和环境司法专门化的要求,流域环境法院的建设首先要合理设置审判机构,其次要科学设计程序制度,为流域生态环境保护提供强有力的司法保障。     

环境公平:窥视环境问题的新视角

<正>面对当前日益严重的环境问题,如果将原因笼统地归咎于整个"人类",似乎过于抽象和宽泛。在整个抽象的"人类"概念下,掩盖的是社会内部的极端不平等,即并非所有的社会阶层、社会群体     

从环境司法实践看环保审判庭的困境与出路

自2007年底贵阳中院环保审判庭暨清镇法院环保法庭设立以来,环保审判庭即成为实践的热点问题。据统计,截至2011年2月底,包括13个省份的高级法院、中级法院和基层法院共设立专门环境审判组织60余个。基层法院的实践也得到了最高审判机构的认可,     

Where the Waters Divide: First Nations,Tainted Water and Environmental Justice in Canada

Abstract

We have survived Canada's assault on our identity and our rights … Our survival is a testament to our determination and will to survive as a people. We are prepared to participate in Canada's future—but only on the terms that we believe to be our rightful heritage.

Wallace Labillois, Council of Elders, Kingsclear, New Brunswick

This paper argues for a strengthening of the theoretical relationship between neo-liberalism and environmental justice. Empirical research involving First Nations communities in southwestern Ontario suggests that neo-liberal reforms introduced in the mid-1990s were particularly discriminatory against Canada's indigenous peoples, serving to exacerbate historical disparities in health, environment pollution, and well-being. In particular, under neo-liberal reform in Ontario, recognition of environmental injustices has become much more difficult for First Nations communities. Furthermore, this ‘new’ form of environmental governance has broadly reduced legitimate opportunities for First Nations to participate in environmental governance that affects their health and welfare. In short, this research supports a widening of the definition of environmental justice advocated by David Schlosberg and others (Environmental Politics, 13(3) (2004), pp. 517–540; Agyeman, Bullard and Evans 2003 Agyeman, J., Bullard, R. D. and Evans, B. 2003a. “Joined-up thinking: bringing together sustainability, environmental justice and equity”. In Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World, Edited by: Agyeman, J., Bullard, R. D. and Evans, B. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  [Google Scholar]; Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment, Research Advisory committee 1997; Di Chiro 1998 Di Chiro, Giovanna. 1998. “Environmental Justice from the Grassroots: Reflections on History, Gender and Expertise”. In The Struggle for Ecological Democracy: Environmental Justice Movements in the United States, Edited by: Faber, D. NY: Guilford.  [Google Scholar]) if we are to understand the subtle, complex and multiple ways that this new form of environmental governance is particularly harmful to marginalized groups, such as First Nations in Canada.     

Linking Local Sustainability Initiatives with Environmental Justice

Beyond adopting sustainability as a feel-good slogan, many communities are trying to translate this general principle into specific and measurable terms. Community indicators are being introduced as a tool for analysis and community development in US cities from Seattle, WA to Jacksonville, FL. Most efforts acknowledge that sustainability ought to serve communities as a whole; rather than privilege certain elites, sustainability should build social equity. Using a web-based methodology, this research reviews sustainability efforts in 33 of the largest US cities to see which have addressed environmental justice as a dimension of sustainability. Five projects are identified and their programmes are summarised in terms of educational, policy and implementation content. KEE WARNER, Enlazando Iniciativas de Sostenibilidad Local con Justicia Ambiental . Más allá de adoptar la sostenibilidad como un lema para estar bien, muchas comunidades estan tratando de trasladar este principio general en términos específicos y medibles. Indicadores comunitarios esta´n siendo introducidos como una herramienta para el análisis y el desarrollo comunitario en ciudades americanas como Seattle, Washington a Jacksonville, Florida. La mayoría de los esfuerzos reconocen que la sostenibilidad tiene que servir a las comunidades como un todo; más que privilegiar ciertas élites, la sostenibilidad debe construir equidad social. Usando una metodolgía basada en la red, esta investigación estudia los esfuerzos para promover la sostenibilidad en treinta y tres de las mas grandes ciudades de los Estados Unidos para ver cual a dirijido justicia ambiental como una dimensión de sostenibilidad. Cinco proyectos son indentificados y sus programas son resumidos en términos de contenido educacional, político y de implementacio´n.     

Environmental Justice across the Rural Canadian Prairies: Agricultural Restructuring, Seed Production and the Farm Crisis

Much of the work completed thus far on environmental justice has focused on environmental issues that unfairly affect politically disenfranchised communities in the US. The farm crisis occurring across the Canadian Prairies is at a fundamental level, also a matter of social and environmental justice. Environmental justice, in an agricultural context, refers not only to the siting and operation of intensive livestock facilities but more broadly relates to the concerns of many about the contemporary reorganization of agriculture. Using a case study of recent developments in plant breeding and seed production, I will discuss some of the broad trends occurring across the Canadian prairies in agriculture and rural areas as issues of environmental justice.     

Environmental Justice across the Rural Canadian Prairies: Agricultural Restructuring,Seed Production and the Farm Crisis

Abstract

Much of the work completed thus far on environmental justice has focused on environmental issues that unfairly affect politically disenfranchised communities in the US. The farm crisis occurring across the Canadian Prairies is at a fundamental level, also a matter of social and environmental justice. Environmental justice, in an agricultural context, refers not only to the siting and operation of intensive livestock facilities but more broadly relates to the concerns of many about the contemporary reorganization of agriculture. Using a case study of recent developments in plant breeding and seed production, I will discuss some of the broad trends occurring across the Canadian prairies in agriculture and rural areas as issues of environmental justice.     

Environmental Justice,Local Knowledge,and Risk: The Discourse of a Community-Based Cumulative Exposure Assessment

While risk assessment continues to drive most environmental management decision-making, its methods and assumptions have been criticized for, among other things, perpetuating environmental injustice. The justice challenges to risk assessment claim that the process ignores the unique and multiple hazards facing low-income and people of color communities and simultaneously excludes the local, non-expert knowledge which could help capture these unique hazards from the assessment discourse. This paper highlights some of these challenges to conventional risk assessment and suggests that traditional models of risk characterization will continue to ignore the environmental justice challenges until cumulative hazards and local knowledge are meaningfully brought into the assessment process. We ask whether a shift from risk to exposure assessment might enable environmental managers to respond to the environmental justice critiques. We review the US EPA's first community-based Cumulative Exposure Project, piloted in Brooklyn, NY, and highlight to what extent this process addressed the risk assessment critiques raised by environmental justice advocates. We suggest that a shift from risk to exposure assessment can provide an opportunity for local knowledge to both improve the technical assessment and its democratic nature and may ultimately allow environmental managers to better address environmental justice concerns in decision-making.     

Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment of Land-Use Managers' Attitudes Toward Environmental Justice

This study examines the outcome of efforts to educate federal land-use managers about their roles in implementing the Executive Order in their respective districts. The managers participated in a 6-h Nominal Group Technique (NGT) workshop where they were instructed to weight environmental justice issues versus others associated with hazardous waste problems in their districts. Participant responses were quantified and analyzed through a series of rounds. After each round, participants received increasing amounts of information on environmental justice issues. It was hypothesized that the managers would come to a consensus that environmental justice is an important issue that should be seriously addressed. Prior to administering the NGT, the managers appeared to have limited knowledge of environmental justice issues and thus assigned relatively low rankings to such concerns. After being “educated” by viewing films on environmental justice and reading related literature, in general, managers' weightings decreased and a narrower consensus developed. The authors conclude that exposure to the issue may not be as effective as expected in convincing land-use managers to become sensitive to justice issues so that they may effectively implement the Executive Order.