Environmental Justice: a Global Perspective

This chapter focuses on environmental justice from a global perspective. Chronological history of the development of the environmental justice movement will be provided. M. D. Edwards made three major points relevant to the environmental justice movement: there can be no sustainable development in the US without a sustained commitment to social justice. The points also include that ecologically sound and socially equitable development requires a transformation of the current operating paradigm, which juxtaposes economic development against environmental protection; and sustainable development in the US must uniformly occur. The chapter concentrates on the environmental justice movement in the US and focuses on examining environmental justice from a global perspective. It provides an overview of the history of the environmental justice movement. The recent literature on environmental justice has also been reviewed, and global environmental justice issues have been presented. Environmental justice is an issue of both civil rights and environmental rights.