Environmental Justice
By Jennifer Stauff
Environmental
Justice cannot be defined in one simple context, for it applies widely,
variably, and distinctly to the given populations whom are either adversely
or positively affected by the outcome. For most all involved, Environmental
Justice is non-existent, may be relatively unforeseeable, and would require
a drastic overhaul of society’s procedure and policy making process.
Due to the current regulations, laws and policies,
many people are left with residual confusion, implied bias, restriction,
confinement and a designated narrowness. In many cases, this may
result in a tightrope application for those who must abide by these binary
results. For those with little representation in the matters of implied
Environmental Justice, sufferance is sure to be an indemnity. The
future and the implications which shall ensue if we do not come together
within our processes of Environmental Justice will surely be deleterious.
Foremost,we must focus on social inequity, and the
change needed therein. Currently, we lack the definition of the whole.
Many people remain undefined within the policy making process, leaving
it just short of impossible to ascertain the real needs and/or detriment
of those individuals. Amazingly, the largest percentile
of the world's population falls just near or under the poverty line.
Yet we continue to make decisions at a hierarchal level of bureaucracy
which is unattainable to a large portion of the given population.
Our policy holders have accrued a natural assumption of our publics trust
as elected officials, by which they make policies, regulations, and laws,
either directly or indirectly negating the input of those who may be most
affected by these decisions. It is time to bring everyone to
the table, to give those a voice who felt they could not speak, and to
create a consummative system.
Further, we need to bring awareness to the disservice
of environmental injustice occurring and all of the populations at ill.
Too often, communities with the least ability to speak forth suffer the
worst outcomes in regards to health and economy. To further complicate
matters, our capitalistic society has become notorious for shipping our
environmentally damaging behaviors abroad, bringing sufferance to many
third world countries. In this attempt to relieve ourselves of environmental
damage, yet still prosper, lest we forget the world is circular.
Everything released into the air, land and water comes back in ways which
may remain obscured, yet will forever be unforgiving to the world's future
health and vitality.
Concluding, as humans, we evolve, to a large degree
dependent upon the development of technology. It is within these
technologies we need to focus the dire need of change. In order for
that to occur, a paradigm shift must occur within our cultural ideals,
this would consist of an overhaul of our entire social system. Technology
has been viewed as all-saving yet it is within that technological paradigm
which has caused so much damage. We must take into account all resulting
from technology, then begin the long, tedious yet worthy road to recovery.
The question is not "Can it be done" yet rather, "How can it be done, and
how soon?"
Local
Environmental Agencies and Information
Oregon
Ecology Reclamation
Heads-Up
PACE-EH
EJAG
International
Environmental Agencies and Information
Indigenous Environmental Network
Environmental
Defense
Ecological Debt
Environmental
Justice Worldwide
Green Justice
My
personal excerpt;
From this class I take away the understanding of working together, the
necessity of understanding and respecting diversity, and the importance
of not impressing personal agenda and bias upon one another. Trial
and error was of the utmost difficult in practice. From our stakeholder
interviews, we derived the simplest of ideas; work together, involve everyone,
leave personal agendas/biases behind, work for the greater whole, be open
to suggestion, listen, be respectful, and realize every action has a reaction.
Amazingly, as a class, we did not see the obvious, for the very tools we
were given by these stakeholders should have been applied within the classroom
spectrum. How could we overlook something so simple?
This class was not easy by any means, a challenge at best. Long hours,
lack of sleep, overdosing of caffeine, poor eating habits, lack of communication
and in some cases direction, personal baggage, and bias lead to much turbulence.
Not to negate car sickness, moody mornings and nights, name tags excessive
picture taking, and keys being lost to one of the transport vehicles.
Overall,
I conclude this was a VACATION! I doubt many if any of my cohorts
would agree. I figure if I can walk away relatively unscathed, with
more than I walked in with, and be able to laugh about it, I faired pretty
well.
"Equality - It's Not Just
a Noun!"
Our
Class Hard at Work!