7302. Environmental Justice

This course considers the meaning of justice in light of the unprecedent scale of current environmental destruction. It will begin by reviewing the origins of the U.S. environmental justice movement, which focused on unequal suffering from waste, pollution, and other harmful emissions. The course will then investigate other forms of unjust exposure to environmental harm, starting with large-scale extractivism and the building of hydro dams around the world. The course will then address challenges characterized by their global nature, in particular climate change and loss of biodiversity, discussing what environmental justice can mean when the effects of degradation are delayed and raise questions of global fairness between the so-called Global North and South. Finally, the course will look at remedies and the effect that rights can have in establishing justice, including the human right to a healthy environment and rights of nature.