What is environmental justice?13 April 2011
Environmental justice means:
- Quality of life for all
Everyone should have a safe and healthy place to live, work and play. - Enough for us - and the future
We need to make sure there are enough resources for all of us and future generations.
Unfortunately, there are many examples of environmental injustice.
It's usually poorer communities that suffer most from:
More pollution
In the UK, the worst factory pollution is found in the most deprived local authorities. And air pollution from traffic is also worst in these areas. Friends of the Earth is supporting community groups in Teesside and Longsight, Manchester. We are helping these groups to bring together residents and discuss environmental pollution and health issues with local decision makers.
Environmental injustice occurs on a global scale too:
In South East Asia, rainforests are being replaced by palm oil trees to supply the West with cheaper cosmetics and food ingredients.We are working with community groups and WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia) to help the community effectively voice their concerns about this.
Health problems
People in the Niger Delta, who live along the fenceline of refineries and depots owned by multinational oil companies, are experiencing health problems.
Friends of the Earth is supporting communities to understand and raise their concerns about gas-flaring and oil spills.
The developing world is most likely to feel its effects through flooding and drought.
But it is the industrialised nations that produce most of the polluting gases that cause global warming.
With Friends of the Earth International we are campaigning for targets to tackle climate change which are based on fair shares for the entire world's people.
Today's generation is even passing on environmental injustices to future generations, saddling them with problems like nuclear waste and contaminated inustrial wasteland.
We believe that everyone should live in a healthy environment. Richer countries should not use more than their fair share of the Earth's resources.
