BSPH 4402 - ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

[3 Credits]

Over recent decades, the merging of civil rights and environmental concerns has generated the Environmental Justice Movement. The field of environmental justice asks for fair treatment of all people regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, economic capacity, national origin, and education level with respect to environmental policies and their implementation. Drawing on a range of disciplines (including public health, environmental studies, critical race studies, cultural geography, and others), we will interrogate environmental policies and practices, the implications of these policies and practices for various groups of people, and the disproportionate adversity that environmental degradation has on already-disenfranchised communities. Our examinations will focus on issues such as the over-siting of industrial plants and landfills in predominantly low-income and indigenous areas; limitations of scientific studies evaluating linkages between environmental hazards and health impacts; role of economic policy in wealthy countries on climate change, environmental degradation in developing countries, and other conditions; the extent to which one’s access to power and privilege affects their access to clean and safe natural resources such as air and water; and the relationship between environmental injustice and larger systems of power and privilege in the contemporary world. We will also analyze how we as individuals have consciously or unconsciously contributed to environmental justice or injustice through everyday decisions and behaviors. Finally, we will consider how the environmental justice movement has responded-and continues to respond-to these conditions and issues.