Environmental Justice - Essay Example

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A LENS TO FACTORIES AND POLLUTION Name Course Date Environmental justice has multifaceted definitions that converge to explain the phrase as the fair treatment and beneficial inclusion of people of different backgrounds in the establishment and enforcement of laws and policies regarding the environment (Banzhaf 2012). Additionally, environmental pollution also refers to the quest for equal protection from environmental as well as health hazards in every society. Due to economic differences, many developing countries have suffered environmental injustices. Developed countries, especially in Europe and the United States, have continued to violate the need to protect the global environment from pollution (Schlosberg 2007). The approach of discussing environmental justice as a lens to factories and pollution also provides a clear revelation of the injustices that exist in a global scale. It discloses how some economic powers have disguised their environmental injustices through the establishment of factories in developing countries. Further, it shows how people have protested against unfairness in environmental justice. It is therefore necessary to study the different perspectives used by developed countries to encourage industrial pollution in other states. Studies indicate that environmental injustice and inequality is common in many countries. Private developers and government institutions continue to establish factories near people's premises and ultimately subject them to pollution and its effects. There is evidence that the location of such factories rely on certain loopholes that exist or are created by private entrepreneurs and/or state organs. Despite negative reactions from the affected residents expressing their dissatisfaction, relevant authorizes ignore or suppress such voices. In some cases, suppression occurs through the undermining of press freedom and the use of military forces to subject the demonstrators into silence. Research indicates that the "socially excluded groups" are more vulnerable to environmental injustices (Pace 2005). The groups include the poor, illiterate and certain races. In the United States of America, for example, many factories are located at the neighborhoods of the black, Hispanic, Asian and native American races. The government, through establishment of industries near or within their premises, renders them vulnerable to the effects of pollution. Chucker (2005) explains that the search for environmental justice has continued in the US among the minority races who have become victims of pollution. By extension, it appears that the state is aware of the environmental dangers that it exposes to the people and hence select the group that have limited rights. Chucker (2005) further comments how the poor communities in the state have suffered from strange and chronic diseases because of the exposure to pollutants. Many health victims have suffered cancer and respiratory diseases such as asthma. According to the researcher, the state authorities have ignored the complaints raised by the victims because they do not want to interfere with the capitalistic interests gained from industrialization. The researcher warns that if the situation will continue for more centuries, it will lead to an environment crisis when pollution will destroy some races considered inferior. Similarly, the capitalistic interests have supported the reasons why the United States established many of its factories in densely populated parts of the cities. Research indicates that the investors establish industries in such places disguising that they are creating employment opportunities for the residents. Since the poor are in desperate need for employment, the owners of the industries enjoy business proceeds with little concern on environmental protection. The factor is increased by the fact that the poor do not have power to challenge the established policies and structures. Moreover, illiteracy also renders the people vulnerable to environmental injustice. Since many residents do not have knowledge regarding the health effects of allowing the establishment of industries in their vicinity, they become victims of pollution. Illiteracy has thus prevented people from understanding the nature of products that the industries are manufacturing. According to Walker and Bickerstaff (2009), it amounts to "toxic economic blackmail." While the owners of the industries are receiving profits, the factories emit toxic substances to the surrounding environment and negate the livelihood of the people (James 2006). Cross communication has also encouraged many company owners to deny the right to access of information to the public. Some industries communicate in a language that is different for that which the people in the site of factory speak. The aspect ensures that vulnerable people assume that they are protected. For example, the manufacturers label their precautions on the use of particular toxic chemicals in a foreign language that the users cannot access. Chemical products destined to developing countries may have such labels in foreign languages. Notably, pollution through the release of greenhouse gases also destroys the ozone layer leading to climatic change. Gases such as carbon dioxide end up to the atmosphere where they accumulate and execute damages that are long term in nature. However, since many people are not adequately informed about climate change and its effects, people remain silent as many industries are established round them. Deceptively, the developed countries take advantage of the developing nations to relocate their industries to such states. The most destined places include Africa and Asia where there is higher vulnerability. The European nations and the US change their industrial location to the two continents in the pretext of investments. Hence, the two have continued to allow pollution to destroy their environment through emission of dangerous gases and other wastes. Establishment of industries such as carbide manufacturing factories exposes people to danger of inhaling the gas or fires during leakages and accidents. Beside the aforementioned dangers, such industries generally degrade the environment. Needless to say, many developing countries have allowed the creation of industries in their land with little regard to the present and future health effects. If it remains unchecked, developing nations will incur costs of reclaiming their environment from pollution loss when it is late (James 2006). Alternatively, developed nations establish industries that manufacture banned chemicals. They later transport their toxic products overseas for financial gains. Considering that such products are in high demand in the developing nations, the supplies of chemicals that pollute the environment continue to circulate. In many cases, the receiving countries do not carefully scrutinize the exported chemical products. Moreover, they do not research whether the products are used in the countries where they are manufactured. The approach of factories and pollution shows that the world can attain environment justice by destroying the obstacles preventing fairness. It further shows how certain issues that many societies have faced have become extended to environmental matters. Needless to say, environmental injustice dominates as a weapon used by the superior states or persons against those that they do not want to protect. Evidently, environment justice is racially, socially and economically determined. There is no possibility of attaining environmental justice unless the affected countries struggle to prohibit such forces. There can be no justice unless every state respect every race and treat them fairly. Thus, there is a need for the leaders to establish laws that empower the minority and ensure that the government and private agencies do not exploit them. Cases of racial sabotage should end through the establishment of legal structures. Environmental justice can also become attainable when class structures are disintegrated. The state should reconcile the rich and poor among other classes in existence. Globally, the world is known to have developed countries, developing and the underdeveloped ones. The developed nations take advantage of the other classes to use them as dumping sites of pollutants. There is need, therefore, for the relevant authorities to ban poisonous chemicals in order to protect the susceptible societies. Globalization that ought to unite countries across the world seems to fail to address obvious issues of the environment. The different countries have embraced egoistic nature of development. There is total insensitivity towards concern for other countries. For example, America and other European countries do not discourage their industries from selling banned chemicals to other countries. As a result, several developing countries have become avenues of their pollution. In essence, there is need for fair trading activities in order not to compromise environmental issues (Mascarenhas 2008). It appears that there is a need to sensitize the world on issues of environmental pollution especially in regard to the location of industries and distribution of their chemical products. Consequently, the development of consciousness among the numerous communities in the world will provoke protests against unfair provision of justice. For instance, many vulnerable groups, especially the African-Americans, and Hispanics in the United States have demonstrated against the location of factories near their homes. Through their protests, the state has remained keen on environmental impact assessment. In conclusion, pollution from factories reveals the inequality in the world. The establishment of industries has become a weapon that the developed nations use against developing nations. On one hand, the former develop at the expense of the environmental and health hazards of the latter. On the other hand, developed nations turn against their own societies by exposing toxic substances to the social groups they considered insignificant. As a result, it calls for increased sensitization and the call for change in every country. Developing countries should also consider the environmental dangers they expose their subjects to when considering the location of industries. Bibliography Banzhaf, H.S. (2012). The political Economy of Environmental Justice. Palo Alto, Stanford University Press. Chucker, M. (2005). Polluted Promises: Environmental Racism and the Search for Justice in Southern Town. New York, New York University Press. James, P, “Taking us for village idiots: Two stories of ethnicity, class and toxic waste from Sydney, Australia”, in Washington ,S., Goodall, H. and Roser, P. (eds) Echoes from the Poisoned Well: global memoires of environmental injustice, Lanham, Lexington Books, 2006,pages 271-284 Mascarenhas, M. (2008) “Environmental Inequality and Environmental Justice” Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, Oxford University Press Pace, D. (2005). Minorities Suffer from Industrial Pollution. NBC.News.Com, viewed on March, 24, 2015, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/10452037/ns/us_news- environment/t/minorities-suffer-most-industrial-pollution/ Schlosberg, D. (2007) Defining Environmental Justice, Oxford Scholarship Online. Bottom of Form Read More