Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
ONE
Justice-based approaches to
environmental harm
introduction
How we understand the relationships between humans, the environment
and nonhuman species is crucial to defining and responding to
environmental issues. Embedded within different interpretations of
these (inter)relationships are particular notions of harm. These notions,
in turn, are reflected in specific conceptions of victimisation including
who or what is subjected to which kinds of harm.
This chapter elaborates on the three approaches that singly and
collectively contribute to and underpin an eco-justice perspective:
environmental justice, ecological justice and species justice. Eco-
justice is itself a complex notion that incorporates elements from
all three justice approaches. Fundamentally, applying an eco-justice
perspective involves weighing up the nature and degree of harm, in
specific situations, in relation to humans, eco-systems and nonhuman
species (including plants). Action outcomes and specific interventions
can and should only proceed on the basis of detailed knowledge and
discussion of these three types of injustice, and how they 'fit' together
and overlap in any given circumstance. This is both the starting point
and the end conclusion of the present topic. Why this is the case forms
the substantive contribution of the chapters that follow.
After briefly outlining these approaches, the main part of this chapter
explores the conceptual and methodological challenges associated with
defining and measuring 'harm', including environmental harm. The
purpose is to raise issues and provide a background framing for the
analysis of eco-justice concerns in subsequent chapters.
Components of an eco-justice perspective
Eco-justice conceptions of harm include consideration of transgressions
against environments, nonhuman species and humans (White, 2008a).
For this kind of analysis the first question to ask is 'what harm is there in
this particular activity?' rather than whether the activity is legal or not.
