Constructing Environmental (in)Justice: Transatlantic Tales

Abstract

In the US, there are two primary environmental justice arenas. One is the activism, which draws on the skills of a wide range of community, academic and professional actors. This partnership draws on the Civil Rights Movement and organises through the internet. The other arena is the courtroom where environmental justice lawyers try to prove 'racial intent'. In the UK, there is an emerging call for environmental justice, but there is no comparable Civil Rights movement, just a well organised if very unrepresentative environmental movement. However, in the UK, it is possible to discern at least three 'constructions' of environmental (in)justice: access to the countryside amongst those from ethnic minority groups; Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland's 'Pollution Injustice' campaign and Friends of the Earth Scotland's 'Campaign for Environmental Justice'. In the absence of a UK Civil Rights framework, there are indications that environmental and sustainability policy discourses are beginning to be re-framed around notions of justice, rights and equity. This is beginning to form a platform around which an embryonic environmental justice network is mobilising.