Environmental justice and harm to humans - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 54

and scale of operation (Tailby and Gant, 2002; McMullan and Perrier,
2002; Lugten, 2005). Elephant poaching in Africa is very different to
bio-prospecting in South America, while the taking of 'bush meat' is
a distinctive African phenomenon very different to illegal fishing by
Indonesian fishers of the coast of Australia (Lemieux and Clarke, 2009;
UNEP, 2007; White, 2008a).
There are, then, issues that are specific to particular regions of the
world. Huge tropical forests are found in the Amazon, an area that
encompasses several different countries such as Brazil and Colombia.
Similarly forests also cover parts of South-East Asia, spanning Indonesia,
Malaysia, Thailand and Burma, among other countries. Africa is home
to elephants, reptiles, giraffe and other creatures, that are unique to
particular parts of that continent, and not the preserve of any one
country. Desertification and drought are phenomena associated with
the dry lands of northern Africa and the island continent of Australia.
Meanwhile, cross-border pollution in Europe, and between China and
Russia, are matters that demand a regional rather than simply national
response. Acid rain traverses provincial and state demarcations and can
affect environments, animals and humans many kilometers away. A
nuclear accident in the Ukraine makes its presence felt in Britain, as
well as the immediate vicinity of Chernobyl. An explosion at a nuclear
power plant in northern Japan transfers radioactive materials worldwide
via air and ocean currents.
The 'natural' and the 'social' are conjoined in very specific ways in
particular geographical contexts. The study of environmental justice
can be enhanced by appreciation of different types of spaces. These
are summarised in Box 2.1, which outlines features pertaining to
geographical, political economic, and globalising spaces. How and why
particular groups suffer from environmental victimisation is framed by
matters of location.
Geographical spaces are defined here by reference to key features of
the natural environment. These determine the kinds of environmental
harms that possibly and usually take place. For example, the nature of
local air currents will bring in and prevent the flow of acid rain into a
particular valley. Political economic spaces refer to features of the social
environment, within which a range of stakeholders go about their
business and live their lives. This includes such factors as transportation,
technological devices and regulatory apparatus in a particular locale.
Globalising spaces refers to the vertical integration of many different
relationships and processes across the local-global continuum. People
and places are interconnected in different ways, by social and business