Environmental Justice

Feb 28

“Our ability to control what happens to our bodies is constantly challenged by poverty, racism, environmental degradation, sexism, homophobia, and injustice in the United States.” - Loretta Ross

Environmental Justice is Reproductive Justice

Without access to clean air or drinking water, protections against and efforts to stop the ongoing effects of climate change, or addressing the real environmental racism that our country continues to be built on, people aren’t able to meet one of the core principles of Reproductive Justice: to raise healthy children.

There are many ways that the (literal!) environment and its changes impact people, from moving shorelines to massive wildfires. As with economic justice, each of these individual pieces have cascading effects - where and how people live, what jobs and resources are available. And, as with so many issues, it presents unique threats to marginalized communities, who often face the greatest and most lasting impacts. For instance, Black, Indigenous, and poor communities tend to live in neighborhoods with more pollution, fewer green spaces and unsafe drinking water, which have cumulative effects on health. Access to all healthcare, up to and including abortion access, can also be disrupted by environmental crises - flooded streets, grounded planes, and snow in Texas all literally stop people from being able to get to and from their appointments.

That’s where Environmental Justice comes in. It is a social justice framework and movement that names that it is a human right to live in safe, sustainable, and healthy living environments. Environmental Justice groups advocate for federal, state, and local policy and educate the public on why this is so important. They work to ensure that all people, regardless of racial, class, or gender identity, have equitable access to healthy living spaces.

This is why Environmental Justice and Reproductive Justice are so deeply intertwined - both acknowledge and work to address the ways that the physical environment impacts reproductive decisions and choices. All people deserve safe living conditions for themselves and for their children.

Landfills, chemical waste facilities and power plants are more often built in poor and minority communities, which don't have the power or money to advocate for themselves.

Communities of color in Memphis, Tennessee, are seeing in an increase in health problems due to an influx of industrial plants in the area — now these activists are fighting for environmental justice