Justice-based approaches to environmental harm - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 5

The following synopsis of each justice-based approach provides initial
insight into the broad concerns of each. These will be discussed more
fully in subsequent chapters.
Environmental justice
Environmental justice refers to the distribution of environments among
peoples in terms of access to, and use of, specific natural resources in
defined geographical areas, and the impacts of particular social practices
and environmental hazards on specific populations (for example, ethnic
minorities). In other words, the concern is with humans, who are at
the centre of analysis. The focus is on human health and wellbeing
and how these are affected by particular types of production and
consumption. A distinction is usually made between environmental
issues that affect everyone, and those that disproportionately affect
specific individuals and groups (see Williams, 1996; Low and Gleeson,
1998). In some instances, there may be a basic 'equality of victims', in
that some environmental problems threaten everyone, as in the case,
for example, of ozone depletion, global warming, air pollution and acid
rain (Beck, 1996). However, as extensive work on specific incidents
and patterns of victimisation demonstrate, it is also the case that some
people are more likely to be disadvantaged by environmental problems
than others (Bullard, 1994, 2005a, b; Chunn et al, 2002; Julian, 2004).
Within the environmental justice framework, it is humans that matter.
Ecological justice
Ecological justice refers to the relationship of humans generally, to
the rest of the natural world, and includes concerns relating to the
health of the bio-sphere, and more specifically plants and animals that
also inhabit the biosphere (Smith, 1998; Cullinan, 2003). The main
concern is with the quality of the planetary environment (which is
frequently seen to possess its own intrinsic value) and the rights of
other species (particularly animals) to live free from torture, abuse and
destruction of habitat. Specific practices, and choices, in how humans
interact with particular environments present immediate and potential
risks to everything within them. Ecological notions of justice and
rights see humans as but one component of complex ecosystems that
should be preserved for their own sake, as supported by the notion of
the rights of the environment. In this framework, all living things are
bound together and environmental matters are intrinsically global and
trans-boundary in nature. Ecological justice demands that how humans