Pick an environmental issue and analyse that issue from within the framework of at least two of the discourses of environmental - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages ound environmental governance. Given the threats of environmental degradation and their potential risks to the survival of mankind, the need for sound governance of the environment is urgent. Cole and Foster reported that “many observers point to protests by African Americans against a toxic dump in Warren Country, North Carolina, in 1982, as the beginning of the movement.”6 By the word “movement,” Cole and Foster were referring to the Environmental Justice Movement. Most likely the report is inaccurate because peoples all of the world probably have their own respective histories of struggles for environment justice. Most important, peoples all over the world have their own respective movements for a green economy and society. For example, several authors have been claiming that indigenous peoples have visions of societies that are one with nature, societies that are environment-friendly, societies that are green. Environmental racism, of course, is a valid concern. Cole and Foster have an ample discussion on this point.7 For example, one of the Cole and Foster’s most important discussions on environmental racism revolved on the experience of Chester residents along Delaware River in Philadelphia. In the Cole and Foster narrative, “Chester is a small enclave of people of color within the predominantly white Delaware County.” 8 According to Cole and Foster, the “toxic assault” on the people of color of Chester began in the late 1980s in which “hundreds of truckloads of trash” were being brought to Chester every day.9 In many parts of the world today, a similar situation has been happening. Yet, the victims have been irrespective of color. The common denominator on why many people are living close or within the garbage dumps is that they are poor rather than the color of their skin. Thus, following the Cole and Foster logic and analysis, the participation of people irrespective of their economic status in life in environmental governance is a crucial element towards the realization of Environmental Justice. II. Green Economy It should be emphasized that the assaults that the Cole and Foster struggles have occurred because governance has not been green in the first place. If governance has been green, the issue of environmental justice may not have existed in the first place. Thus, the title of the book Van Jones (with Ariane Conrad) had been appropriately titled, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems. If an economy is green then there will be no environmental injustice in the first place. There would be no one from which to exact environmental retribution or justice ...Download file to see next pagesRead More