The principle of environmental justice as originally conceived states that regardless of race, culture or income, all people should enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards. This idea emerged from the thinking of grassroots activists and academics in the United States in the 1970s, in response to increasing evidence that minorities and the poor in the United States were disproportionately affected by certain types of environmental harms. It was later adopted by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a principle to guide domestic environmental regulation.
As global trade and investment has risen dramatically over the past two decades, the concept of environmental justice has taken on international significance as well, for with the growth of trade overseas has come the transfer of polluting industries, wastes, and ecologically destructive practices from developed countries to the less developed world. In these cases, the potential violation of justice is even greater because those who receive disproportionately large shares of environmental harms have even less financial ability to benefit from the processes that cause these harms.
In recent G8 summit , it was asked for the developing countries to make effort , on aligning themselves on Global climate concerns . Yes , the developing countries should be aligned to it . But they are the victims of the enviromental injustice done by developed countries .
Is it an just system, to ask the victim, to pay for the evils which is done by the violators ? Obviously , if the word justice is put out from this context , it could be somewhat better !!
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