Principles of Environmental Justice
Before discussing some of the more controversial low-carbon electricity sources like hydroelectricity and nuclear, let’s recenter the perspectives of the environmental justice community. We’ll soon show why communities object to projects that might seem, from a reductionist viewpoint, like steps towards solving the climate crisis.
Climate justice requires holistic thinking. It requires listening carefully to communities that are or will be most affected by extractive industries, and who are not receiving an equitable share of benefits. It requires Free, Prior, and Informed Consent before engagement with Indigenous communities, as stated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Principles of Environmental Justice, written over 30 years ago as the foundational document for the environmental justice movement, serve as a lens with which we’ll evaluate the justice implications of some of the so-called clean energy strategies in the next chapters.
Principles of Environmental Justice
PREAMBLE
WE, THE PEOPLE OF COLOR, gathered together at this multinational People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, to begin to build a national and international movement of all peoples of color to fight the destruction and taking of our lands and communities, do hereby re-establish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our Mother Earth; to respect and celebrate each of our cultures, languages and beliefs about the natural world and our roles in healing ourselves; to ensure environmental justice; to promote economic alternatives which would contribute to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods; and, to secure our political, economic and cultural liberation that has been denied for over 500 years of colonization and oppression, resulting in the poisoning of our communities and land and the genocide of our peoples, do affirm and adopt these Principles of Environmental Justice:
- Environmental Justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction.
- Environmental Justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.
- Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.
- Environmental Justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food.
- Environmental Justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental self-determination of all peoples.
- Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.
- Environmental Justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision-making, including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.
- Environmental Justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.
- Environmental Justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.
- Environmental Justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.
- Environmental Justice must recognize a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through treaties, agreements, compacts, and covenants affirming sovereignty and self-determination.
- Environmental Justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and provided fair access for all to the full range of resources.
- Environmental Justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people of color.
- Environmental Justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national corporations.
- Environmental Justice opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.
- Environmental Justice calls for the education of present and future generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.
- Environmental Justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth’s resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to ensure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.
Connect
Many original documents from the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit are available for download online. This historic event was where the Principles of Environmental Justice were crafted.
- Watch a documentary on the 1991 summit, to see the participants’ speeches and work on writing the principles.
- Read the proceedings of the summit.
- Check out photographs and interviews about the summit the 30th anniversary website set up by the United Church of Christ, sponsors of the 1991 event. UCC members were present at the Warren County, North Carolina protests of toxic waste dumping in 1982, often referred to as the birth of the environmental justice movement. They also commissioned the 1987 report Toxic Waste and Race in the United States.
