GEOG 39 Environmental Justice
Around the world, people suffer because of environmental degradation, from sickening industrial pollution to unnatural disasters to disruptive climate change. This course examines how environmental harms are unequally experienced, as well as how communities organize to protect themselves. We will discuss the concept of “environmental justice” as it has developed through social movements in the United States and elsewhere. We will also explore it as an analytical category that (a) explains how inequality manifests environmentally and (b) enables critical thinking about concepts like the “environment” and mainstream environmentalism and environmental policy. Drawing from Anthropology, Geography, History, Sociology, and other disciplines, we will focus on the lived experiences of environment justice and injustice around the world.