Environmental justice and harm to humans - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 47

be warranted, especially in the light of the anthropogenic causes for
much of this harm (Williams, 1996; Shiva, 2008).
Developing countries play host to a disproportionate number of
environmental victims due to the influence of international trade
regimes and natural resource extraction at the hands of multinational
companies (MNCs). Not everyone within developing countries
suffers or loses out under such arrangements, however. Disparities in
environmental justice also exist within these countries: 'Within many
developing countries, indigenous peoples and other vulnerable and
impoverished communities including subsistence peasants, fishing
communities, and nomadic groups generally bear the brunt of negative
environmental change that is mostly caused by the resource extractive
operations of MNCs' (Adeola, 2000: 688-9). Study of environment
related conflicts in the Amazon involving subsistence farmers,
agribusinesses, mining companies and governments confirm how social
inequalities are reflected in the 'winners' and 'losers' in such conflicts
(see Boekhout van Solinge, 2010a, b).
Ecological imperialism is not just about foreign transnational
corporations. As suggested above, it also involves local elites and, in
some cases, war lords. It can also involve 'tribal' divisions and social
divisions that are perpetuated precisely because they give advantage
vis-à-vis resource extraction. Such appears to be the case, for instance,
in Nigeria.
The three critical elements germane to internal colonialism
in Nigeria include (a) an ethnic-centered political hegemony,
tactically used to control and exploit the natural resources
of oil-rich minority communities for the benefit of the
dominant ethnic groups; (b) the union between the core
ethnic groups, MNOCs [multinational overseas companies],
political elites, the military, and other state enterprises
that generally represses the opportunity structures for the
minorities; and (c) devastating ecological disruption and the
subsequent destruction of the basic modes of subsistence of
the minority groups. (Adeola, 2000: 693-4)
Empirically, this is demonstrated by the political and economic
administration, and destructive environmental condition, of Ogoniland,
a situation in which the ethnic minorities have seen their human and
ecological rights eroded to the point of crisis.
Against these trends international NGOs are putting pressure
on governments and companies worldwide to uphold human and