As stated by China Mieville in The Limits of Utopia, throughout a lot of our modern history, Environmentalism and Social Justice has been seen as mutually exclusive with many Environmental Movements working to protect the environment at the expense of the poor. However China argues that environmentalism and social justice are not and should not be mutually exclusive but should work together to make the world a better place. Environmental Justice is “acknowledging that there a no whole earth, no ‘we’, without a ‘them’. That we are not in this together”. Instead it is giving everybody an equal chance and opportunity at fighting unfair environmental policies as opposed to letting the poor be taken advantage of because they lack the resources to defend themselves.
While this way of thinking may be true in that the environmentalist movement has largely been a product of wealthy white individuals preserving nature for its “inherent value (to them)”, it creates two distinct factions between them and those in poverty who may need the land and who may not have the resources or freedom to take part in such movements.
In fact, this directly relates to the Catherine Flowers’ talk in which she states that the sewage system in his hometown of Alabama was a huge environmental concern, however due to the lack of infrastructure in the poor areas due to lack of funds and money to maintain these systems, the poor were unfairly punished.
That is why we should not put our own standards on others without understanding their circumstances. Although it may be true that some actions and environmental policies may be better for the environment, it may not be right for environmental justice and create an overall detrimental result. Therefore there is still hope for the future of not only the environment but also humanity as long as they work together because the two are not mutually exclusive.
