Should Being a Citizen Include Being Environmentally Just?

Answer: Yes

Now, I'm sure many people would disagree that it's everyone's obligation to be environmentally just, but let me explain to you why it's so crucial to being a citizen. But first, let me tell you about what environmental justice is.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency:

environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies ("Environmental Justice", par. 1).

So many communities are being affected by the lack of environmental justice, and there aren’t enough people standing up to make a change. Those being affected by environmental injustice are unable to make their struggles known, because they are not valued as citizens. This is likely due to the fact that those struggling are colored communities and the discrimination they have historically faced, and are currently facing. Natural disasters are also more likely to hurt communities of color or poor communities. During Hurricane Katrina, the impoverished, colored communities had no way to escape, and no way to prepare for the hurricane. There wasn’t aid from neighboring groups, and there was a delayed response of help from the government, especially during the flooding. There wasn’t an immediate response because those affected were colored and poor.  There was no access to emergency systems or structures for people in these poor colored communities, and there still isn’t relief today.

Climate change is most definitely affecting the globe, and the ones being harmed by it are colored communities who aren’t valued as citizens. Their voices refuse to be heard while they continue to likely breathe in polluted air and most likely continue to live near coal plants.  What’s worse is that there haven’t been enough efforts to make it stop.

But what can we do? How can this be stopped if it’s been going on for so long? We need to stand up as citizens and start fighting for more environmental justice. Start writing to your city hall and mayor. Make the issue more known in smaller communities until it gets bigger and bigger and it can’t be ignored by the government anymore. Each and every person deserves to be treated with respect, and each person deserves to have good quality of life and a stable environment. Danielle Allen speaks about the importance of a community in her book Our Declaration, and I believe that more people need to be made aware about the inequality that continues to be sewn in society.

source: “Environmental Justice.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 2 Apr. 2019, www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice.