Synthesis and Analysis - Essay Example

Synthesis and Analysis Environmental pollution and social inequality are key issues that threaten stability in the world as well as the cause of major problems that comprise of global climate change, poverty and wars. In response to the above problems social and environmental justice movements have emerged to emphasize that current communal and environmental policies are harmful to the majority of people in the community, but are however maintained for the benefit of the few. In such a situation ,questions arise on how communal and environmental justice movements treat current social and environmental problems, what solutions they offer, what actions they suggest and whether communal and environmental justice are interrelated and what impact they have. In this regard, Warner and DeCosse in their research Lesson Five Environmental Justice explore current issues related to environmental justice as well as its correlation to communal justice, while Taylor in his study The Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm explores the role of environmental justice and its essence. Today, the rise of the environmental movement comes hand in hand with the progress of the social justice movement but views on communal and environmental justice are extremely diverse and operate with hypothetical premises rather than facts. Warner and DeCosse, the authors of Lesson Five Environmental Justice, are of the opinion that the environmental justice is the social justice expression of environmental facts. The two researchers thus argue that social and environmental justices are closely correlated and that environmental justice may be perceived as the derivative and manifestation of social justice. The researchers develop the idea that environmental justice stands on the same principles as social justice but refers to the field of environmental issues and environmental protection rather than to the field of social equality and fair policies. Thus they write,”Thus, environmental problems are seen as one dimension of many forms of racial injustice visited upon some low income communities of color. The environmental justice movement arose to criticize what they perceived to be unjust public policies, but also to critique conventional environmental organizations, which then employed few persons of color and reflected middle and upper class concerns. The leaders asserted the need for an alternative approach to environmental leadership, and they took the problem of toxic racism or environmental injustice and reframed it positively: environmental justice.”(Warner, DeCosse, 2009). Conversely, Taylor, the author of The Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm, develops the idea that the environmental justice is a master frame that uses environmental discourse as a mobilizing tool to; Raise the social movement to protect the environment or Achieve other environmental issues and goals of the environmental movement. Taylor is of the notion that environmental justice is a mere tool in hand of those who drive environmental movements. They use environmental justice to raise public awareness that environmental problems threaten all people. Thus according to Taylor, the leaders of environmental justice movements unite people in the struggle against current policies, which are dangerous for environment. Taylor implies that environmental justice framework is similar to social justice framework. In such a way, Warner and DeCosse view environmental justice as real, theoretically grounded concept. They argue that the environmental justice movement is an influential movement that unites many people and shapes a significant social group that struggles for the resolution of environmental problems (Warner & DeCosse 7).Instead, Taylor views environmental justice as a mere tool that is used by environmental movements to raise public support and mobilize the public to reach their goals. Taylor argues that leaders of environmental movements use environmental justice to shape the public opinion and gain the support (Taylor 537).Therefore it is possible to view environmental justice as a derivative of social justice but the environmental discourse is used as a mobilizing tool. In spite of the difference views of Taylor and Warner and DeCosse on environmental justice, they still view environmental justice as one of the mainstream movements which have a considerable impact on the development of the contemporary society and policy making process. At the same time, similarly to several other studies, the study conducted by Taylor (The Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm) and the one conducted by Warner and DeCosse (Lesson Five Environmental Justice) tend to operate with general concepts rather than the facts. The lack of factual support of findings made by the researchers in the course of their studies makes their conclusions and findings questionable. For instance, Taylor refers to environmental discourses selectively and does not offer any straightforward technique used on the ground by the researchers to select a particular discourse. Moreover, there is little factual correlation between environmental discourse, environmental justice and its mobilizing impact on the society. For example ,it is possible to presuppose that environmental justice movement raises the public awareness and makes people support environment-oriented policies, while leaders of environmentalist movements just mange those movements, instead of using environmental discourse to mobilize the public as Taylor believes. Hence, Taylor’s view on environmental justice framework and environmental discourse as a mere mobilizing tool is quite superficial. In this respect, Warner and DeCosse’s notion that environmental justice is the derivative of social justice is also, to certain extent, one-sided. For instance, they view environmental justice as the product of social justice(Warner & DeCosse,11).To put it more precisely, Warner & DeCosse narrow down to environmental justice to a derivative form of social justice. However, environmental justice is different from social justice and the researchers recognize the existence of such differences. Environmental justice is a unique movement. Even if it has some similarities to social justice movements, they are not identical at all. Environmental justice has distinct features such as prioritizing environmental issues over social ones, as social justice movements do while Warner and DeCosse almost annihilate the difference between social and environmental justice. Thus the analysis of existing research in the field of social and environmental justice reveal the fact that environmental justice develops within the framework of social justice and its discourse is often used as mobilizing tool. At the same time, researchers, who study the essence and development of environmental and social justice, tend to operate with general concepts and rely on hypothetical, theoretical assumptions rather than facts. The lack of factual back-up makes such studies as those conducted by Taylor, Warner and DeCose insufficient to understand the full scope of social and environment justice, that means that, further studies in this field are required. Works cited Dorceta, Taylor. "The Rise of Environmental Justice Paradigm." American Beahavioral Scientist (2008): pg 1-74. Warner Douglass, DeCosse David. Lesson Five:Environmental Justice. New York: Santa Clara University Press, 2009. Read More