In a very essential manner, Environmental Justice is about the junction of human rights, infrastructure and how people-rich and poor, living in countries that are developing or wealthy -equitably and sustainably access the resources and things they must survive and prosper.
Environmental Justice embraces the principle that individuals and communities are entitled to equal protection of our environment, health, employment, schooling, home, transportation and civil rights laws….Environmental Justice brings it all together under one tent.
The Environmental Justice movement has grown both in public knowledge, attitudes and actions considering that the signing of Executive Order 12898 was in 1994. Improvement was made, but is it a success? Many programs to enhance communities focus on little problems like parks, bike paths and pavements, but we still aim to send numerous coal export trains through site landfills and low income communities inside them.
The results are mixed, because there is constantly the other side of the tracks for the aged, the poor, the disabled, the homeless and those without access to automobiles or to transit systems. Poor communities wind up with a “disproportionate share of the bad items as well as a shortage of libraries, footpaths, parks and greenspace”.