Environmental Justice

Environmental justice has become a major urban issue in the last 50 years or so. With increased awareness of the detrimental impact that environmental degradation can have on humans, social movements led by environmentally conscious activists developed to demand government action. Environmental justice can be considered from both an amenity and a hazard perspective; the result is uniformly the same: where there is inequity, poorer and ethno-racial minority neighborhoods have less access to environmental amenities and are exposed to more environmental hazards, while affluent neighborhoods have more access to environmental amenities and are not exposed to environmental hazards. Most sustainable cities try to offer equitable access to environmental amenities, such as green open spaces, to all citizens; however, brownfields and other environmental hazards are still present in most urban areas.