Environmental justice and harm to humans - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 34

The main focus of this chapter is to explore how environmental
harm is constructed in relation to specific groups of people. In other
words, the concern is with matters of social justice in relation to
environmental harm. This is a motivating factor for activists to take
action. The overarching political and theoretical framework can
usefully be described therefore as environmental justice , an approach to
environmental harm that has a specific interest in harm to humans.
This is different from a broader concept of the environment and justice
that incorporates harm to specific eco-systems and plant and animal
species. The activist defense of environmental justice takes the form
of the environmental justice (EJ) movement.
Since human health and wellbeing are at the centre of EJ movement
activism, as informed by social justice principles, the concept of rights
is central to the development of the overall environmental social justice
perspective or approach.
Contentious concepts: environmental justice
This section presents the concepts which underpin analysis and action
in regards to the pursuit of environmental justice. These include the
idea of social justice, and the notions of environmental rights, justice,
equity, discrimination and racism. The precautionary principle is then
discussed, as is environmental victimisation.
Key elements of social justice generally include dignity and respect for
the person, and protection of human rights; economic egalitarianism
and social equality, such that each person enjoys the same rights,
opportunities and services as all other citizens; and active engagement
in social institutions, and in decision-making that affects individuals
and the groups or collectivities of which they are a part (White, 2008c:
50). Environmental justice applies these general propositions to the
relationship between specific groups and the environment, including
issues pertaining to the quality of environmental amenities and access
to healthy environments.
Environmental rights are seen as an extension of human or social rights,
because they see the goal as one of enhancing the quality of human life
(for example, access to clean air, water, space and a sustainable supply
of natural resources valued in relation to human health and amenity).
This is reflected, for example, in the 1972 Stockholm Declaration on
the Human Environment (see Thornton and Tromans, 1999).