Overview

Studies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries demonstrated persistent trends in the US: race, income, and other factors predispose marginalized communities to higher toxic waste exposure and poorer quality of air, water, housing, and recreational spaces. In “Environmental Justice,” you’ll learn how these burdens have individual, interpersonal, and intergenerational effects and how environmental justice has helped mitigate these inequities In this course, you’ll learn about the historical events that have helped shape the environmental justice movements of today, and legislative victories, like the removal of lead from automotive fuels and the establishment of mandates within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to previous successes, this course will explore current work emerging in the field of environmental justice, including Indigenous sovereignty, conservation, climate and migration justice, affordable housing, policing, digital equity, disability rights, and more. This is a course within the “Green Skills for a Sustainable and Just Future," a course series dedicated to shaping the next generation of sustainable practices and leadership.

Syllabus

Introduction to the Course & Distributive Justice and the Birth of a Movement

In this module, we'll talk specifically about how the Environmental Justice movement gained momentum through community responses to the distributive justice problem of inequitable siting of waste facilities in residential areas where nonwhite Americans live. We will discuss the uneven distribution of waste burdens, the "not in my back yard" or NIMBY movements that came together in response to create the wider EJ movement and field of study. We'll scrutinize the socio-environmental implications of waste management, the quest for fairer consumptive and recycling practices, and outline the intricate relationship between activism, research and teaching, policy, and the pursuit of environmental equity.

Procedural Justice and Energy Equity as Environmental Justice

In this module, we will explore the concept of Procedural Justice in the context of EJ, and its institutionalization. Focusing on both Energy Justice Systems, we will discuss decision-making, political contexts and implications for the built environment and human experience. What role does energy access play in achieving Environmental Justice goals? We will have interviews with energy specialists Tony Reames, Deputy Director for Energy Justice at the U.S. Department of Energy and Rahul Agrawal Bejarano, Project Manager and Data Analyst at the Energy Equity Project, to examine cases from their work and assess relevant legislative and policy frameworks. We will also discuss tools for practitioners to incorporate procedural justice principles.

Retributive Justice: Carceral Economies, Punitive Modes for Individuals & Corporate Accountability

We define Retributive Justice in relation to EJ, and and aspects of Infrastructural and legal Justice in US carceral and criminal systems that punish those committing harm, contrasting them with the practices currently in vigor vis a vis responsibilities and actions of corporations. We scrutinize punitive approaches, costs and environmental impacts of imprisonment, compared with processes of corporate accountability in light of social and environmental injustices. Through critical analysis, we will engage with the ethics and pragmatics of holding individuals and corporations to account.

Restorative Justice and the Healing of Harms

Conceptualize the principles and practices of Restorative Justice as defined by the United Nations, and others, as they relate socially restorative practices in ever wider use to restoration ecology and its expansion at present. The module will not only consider the expanding use of restorative justice circles and related practices in households, schools, local communities and even entire nation states in post conflict settings, but will also consider the relationship between social justice process and the healing of environmental harms through ecological re-introductions and management.

Reparative and Relational Justice

This module discusses Reparative Justice, widely understood but still limited in practice. It also explores emergent justice frameworks, relying most on the frame of Relational Justice, an emerging term that captures a range of justice approaches that are less transactional or rooted in existing harms and more about harm prevention. We consider these practices in light of histories like slavery and colonial violence that undergird many modern nation states, and relate them to contemporary challenges for attaining climate justice. We review initiatives like the US "Justice 40" push to put funding for climate adaptation into frontline vulnerable communities, and explore their effectiveness in healing harms.

Course Coda

This module wraps up our course with a synthesis of the course and part 2 of the Interview with Paul Mohai. As a founding father of the EJ movement, it's fitting that our course began and is now ending with the Mohai interview.