Equity and environmental justice are having a moment.
It has long been acknowledged that climate change poses the gravest threats to those who did the least to cause it—people in poverty, socially and economically vulnerable populations, frontline communities. That said, “environmentalism” as such has remained a stubbornly white, wealthy endeavor. Equity and environmental justice call on environmentalists and environmentalism to go beyond matters of policy and reconceptualize what it means to “do” environmentalism or “be” an environmentalist. To acknowledge that the root causes of climate change are shared with those of other social ills like poverty, racism, and poor health outcomes. To build bigger, deeper coalitions and find allies that are representative of the communities worst affected. And to work for change. The “environment” is more than nature; it is where we work, play and live.
As Hurricane Katrina caused thousands of deaths and hundreds of billions in damages. As poor, minority neighborhoods are still decimated more than a decade later, even as wealthier, whiter neighborhoods have recovered.
As hundreds of unarmed Dakota Access pipeline protestors were injured after police used water cannons in below-freezing temperatures that caused bones to break and people to catch hypothermia.
As the Flint water crisis captured the nation’s attention by: demonstrating the extent to which the complaints of residents had been ignored, giving witness to thousands of children receive lead-contaminated water and people die of Legionnaire’s disease, and taking an astounding five years to resolve.
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit communities of color the hardest, due in large part to the disproportionate levels of harmful pollution in the air they breathe.
These issues (and many more) have compounded in our collective consciousness to forcefully, glaringly, and appallingly demonstrate how existing environmental policies fail to protect vulnerable and marginalized communities. As a result, equity and environmental justice are having a moment—and not a minute to soon, because equity and environmental justice are about basic human rights, fair treatment, meaningful involvement, and shared prosperity.
