Environmental Justice

Abstract

Our species of homo sapiens has been around for about 200,000 years. For 50,000 years, our major traits have been fully developed, and our brains have barely changed. The earth, however, is almost 100,000 times as old. It has been through a turbulent history that included several mass extinctions. Let me mention a few highlights. According to the “giant impact hypothesis”, about four billion years ago the earth was hit by a Mars-sized body. The moon was created from debris that was left over from this collision. About 650 million years ago, our planet was covered by ice, an era known as “snowball earth.” About 250 million years ago, in a period called the “great dying,” most life perished in a brief moment of geological time. Massive volcanic eruptions may have been at fault. It appears that 65 million years ago, an asteroid the size of Mount Everest hit in the Gulf of Mexico, triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs that had been the dominant species for many millions of years. The biospheric conditions that made the ascent of our own species possible, and even the physical shape and composition of the earth, have resulted from a series of cataclysmic events and periods. In one way or another, the occurrence of natural disasters is a part of our lives.KeywordsClimate ChangeStrict LiabilityFuture PeopleHistorical EmissionStrong SustainabilityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.