134-628: The " disadvantaged " is a generic term for individuals or groups of people who: In common usage "the disadvantaged" is a generic term for those "from lower-income backgrounds" or "the Disadvantaged Poor". The "economically disadvantaged" is a term used by government institutions in for example allocating free school meals to "a student who is a member of a household that meets the income eligibility guidelines for free or reduced-price meals (less than or equal to 185% of US federal poverty guidelines )" or business grants. The "disadvantaged"
268-510: A "poverty cycle" operating across multiple levels, individual, local, national and global. One-third of deaths around the world—some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day—are due to poverty-related causes. People living in developing nations, among them women and children, are over represented among the global poor and these effects of severe poverty. Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger or even starvation and disease, as well as lower life expectancy . According to
402-684: A basic standard of living . United Nations : Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one's food or a job to earn one's living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation. World Bank : Poverty
536-522: A completion rate below 60% exhibit gender disparity at girls' expense, particularly poor and rural girls. In Mauritania, the adjusted gender parity index is 0.86 on average, but only 0.63 for the poorest 20%, while there is parity among the richest 20%. In countries with completion rates between 60% and 80%, gender disparity is generally smaller, but disparity at the expense of poor girls is especially marked in Cameroon , Nigeria and Yemen . Exceptions in
670-598: A comprehensive global movement, introducing numerous concepts to political ecology, including ecological debt, environmental racism, climate justice, food sovereignty, corporate accountability, ecocide, sacrifice zones, and environmentalism of the poor. It aims to augment human rights law, which traditionally overlooked the relationship between the environment and human rights. Despite attempts to integrate environmental protection into human rights law, challenges persist, particularly concerning climate justice. Scholars such as Kyle Powys Whyte and Dina Gilio-Whitaker have extended
804-425: A concept David Pellow calls “Indispensability”. Joen Márquez introduces the concept of “racial expendability” in his book Black and Brown Solidarity , in which he argues that “black and brown bodies are, in the eyes of the state and its constituent legal system, generally viewed as criminal, deficient, threatening, and deserving of violent discipline and even obliteration.” Critical EJ builds on this work by countering
938-539: A conversation of equity. Bullard writes that equity is distilled into three board categories: procedural, geographic, and social. From his publication “Confronting Environmental Racism in the Twenty-First Century,” he draws our the difference between the three within the context of environmental injustices: Procedural equity refers to the “fairness” question: the extent that rules, regulations, evaluation criteria and enforcement are applied uniformly across
1072-474: A crossroads of all their identities, with privilege and marginalization in the intersection between their class, race, gender, sexuality, queerness, cis- or transness, ethnicity, ability, and other facts of identity. As David Nibert and Michael Fox put it in the context of injustice, “The oppression of various devalued groups in human societies is not independent and unrelated; rather, the arrangements that lead to various forms of oppression are integrated in such
1206-512: A day in 1996 US prices) and in 2015, it was updated as living on less than US$ 1.90 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $ 2 or $ 5 a day. Similarly, 'ultra-poverty' is defined by a 2007 report issued by International Food Policy Research Institute as living on less than 54 cents per day. The poverty line threshold of $ 1.90 per day, as set by the World Bank, is controversial. Each nation has its own threshold for absolute poverty line; in
1340-543: A far greater likelihood of having or incurring a disability within their lifetime. Infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis can perpetuate poverty by diverting health and economic resources from investment and productivity; malaria decreases GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations and AIDS decreases African growth by 0.3–1.5% annually. Studies have shown that poverty impedes cognitive function although some of these findings could not be replicated in follow-up studies. One hypothesised mechanism
1474-461: A flourishing community is a further criteria for a just society. However, initiatives have been taken to expand the notion of environmental justice beyond the three pillars of distribution, participation, and recognition to also include the dimensions of self-governing authority, relational ontologies, and epistemic justice. Robert D. Bullard writes that environmental justice, as a social movement and ideological stewardship, may instead be seen as
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#17327939924951608-554: A genocidal kind before federal recognition. Origins of the environmental justice movement can be traced to the Indigenous Environmental Movement, which has involved Indigenous populations fighting against displacement and assimilation for sovereignty and land rights for hundreds of years. The terms 'environmental justice’ and ‘ environmental’ racism ’ did not enter the common vernacular until residents of Warren County, North Carolina protested against
1742-400: A higher quintile. According to Chen and Ravallion, about 1.76 billion people in the developing world lived above $ 1.25 per day and 1.9 billion people lived below $ 1.25 per day in 1981. In 2005, about 4.09 billion people in the developing world lived above $ 1.25 per day and 1.4 billion people lived below $ 1.25 per day (both 1981 and 2005 data are on inflation adjusted basis). The share of
1876-663: A household: $ 27,133) have been found to be victims of violence, compared to 32% in Washington, DC (mean income for a household: $ 40,127). Studies have shown that poverty changes the personalities of children who live in it. The Great Smoky Mountains Study was a ten-year study that was able to demonstrate this. During the study, about one-quarter of the families saw a dramatic and unexpected increase in income. The study showed that among these children, instances of behavioral and emotional disorders decreased, and conscientiousness and agreeableness increased. Research has found that there
2010-419: A lack of human relationships. Relational poverty can be the result of a lost contact number, lack of phone ownership, isolation, or deliberate severing of ties with an individual or community. Relational poverty is also understood "by the social institutions that organize those relationships...poverty is importantly the result of the different terms and conditions on which people are included in social life". In
2144-406: A landfill designed to accept polychlorinated biphenyls in the 1982 PCB protests . Thirty-thousand gallons of PCB fluid lined 270 miles of roadway in fourteen North Carolina Counties, and the state announced that a landfill would be built rather than undergoing permanent detoxification. Warren County was chosen, the poorest county in the state with a per capita income of around $ 5,000 in 1980 , and
2278-406: A large interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes contributions to political ecology , environmental law , and theories on justice and sustainability . The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as: the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to
2412-542: A letter to the United Nations secretary general António Guterres and World Bank president Ajay Banga warning that "extreme poverty and extreme wealth have risen sharply and simultaneously for the first time in 25 years." In 2024, Oxfam reported that roughly five billion people have become poorer since 2020 and warned that current trends could postpone global poverty eradication for 229 years. The effects of poverty may also be causes as listed above, thus creating
2546-631: A long and troubling history, with many examples dating back to the early 20th century. For instance, the practice of "redlining" in the US, which involved denying loans and insurance to communities of colour, often led to these communities being located in areas with high levels of pollution and environmental hazards. Today, environmental racism continues to be a significant environmental justice issue, with many low-income communities and communities of colour facing disproportionate exposure to pollution and other environmental risks. This can have serious consequences for
2680-566: A result; when sea life suffers from exposure to toxins such as mercury, we find that human beings also endure the effects of mercury when they consume those animals; and the intersecting character of multiple forms of inequality is revealed when nuclear radiation or climate change affects all species and humans across all social class levels, racial/ethnic groups, genders, abilities, and ages. David Pellow applies his concept of Critical EJ towards modern-day movements in his publication Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies , in which he applied
2814-647: A series of “genuine solutions” that echoed the Bali Principles. Initially, the environmental justice movement focused on addressing toxic hazards and injustices faced by marginalized racial groups within affluent nations. However, during the 1991 Leadership Summit, its scope broadened to encompass public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, and other issues. Over time, the movement expanded further to include considerations of gender, international injustices, and intra-group disparities among disadvantaged populations. Environmental justice has evolved into
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#17327939924952948-449: A set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. This set standard usually refers to "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services." Having an income below the poverty line , which is defined as an income needed to purchase basic needs,
3082-557: A sharp drop in income. The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in large declines in GDP per capita, of about 30 to 35% between 1990 and the through year of 1998 (when it was at its minimum). As a result, poverty rates tripled, excess mortality increased, and life expectancy declined. Russian President Boris Yeltsin 's IMF -backed rapid privatization and austerity policies resulted in unemployment rising to double digits and half
3216-647: A significant contribution from movements in the United States, and recognized that economic inequality, ethnicity, and geography played roles in determining who bore the brunt of environmental pollution”. At the 2007 United Nations Climate Conference , or COP13, in Bali, representatives from the Global South and low-income communities from the North created a coalition titled “ Climate Justice Now! ”. CJN! Issued
3350-477: A sixteen-year period (1975 to 1991 in the US) only 5% of those in the lower fifth of the income level were still at that level, while 95% transitioned to a higher income category. Poverty levels can remain the same while those who rise out of poverty are replaced by others. The transient poor and chronic poor differ in each society. In a nine-year period ending in 2005 for the US, 50% of the poorest quintile transitioned to
3484-434: A small tent in an open field would be said to live in relative poverty if almost everyone else in that area lives in modern brick homes, but not if everyone else also lives in small tents in open fields (for example, in a nomadic tribe ). Since richer nations would have lower levels of absolute poverty, relative poverty is considered the "most useful measure for ascertaining poverty rates in wealthy developed nations" and
3618-479: A social movement addresses environmental issues that may be defined as slow violence and otherwise may not be addressed by legislative bodies. Slow violence exacerbates the vulnerability of ecosystems and of people who are poor, disempowered, and often involuntarily displaced, while fueling social conflicts that arise from desperation. Drawing on concepts of anarchism , posthumanism , critical theory , and intersectional feminism , author David Naguib Pellow created
3752-444: A student's focus and concentration. In general, the interaction of gender with poverty or location tends to work to the disadvantage of girls in poorer countries with low completion rates and social expectations that they marry early, and to the disadvantage of boys in richer countries with high completion rates but social expectations that they enter the labour force early. At the primary education level, most countries with
3886-407: A time. Life expectancy has greatly increased in the developing world since World War II and is starting to close the gap to the developed world. Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world. The proportion of the world's population living in countries where the daily per-capita supply of food energy is less than 9,200 kilojoules (2,200 kilocalories) decreased from 56% in
4020-612: A way that the exploitation of one group frequently augments and compounds the mistreatment of others.” Thus, Critical EJ views racism, heteropatriarchy, classism ,nativism, ableism, ageism, speciesism (the belief that one species is superior to another), and other forms of inequality as intersecting axes of domination and control. The organization Intersectional Environmentalism, founded by Leah Thomas in 2020, builds from this theory to argue that intersectional environmentalism means that “social [and] environmental justice are intertwined and environmental advocacy that disregards this connection
4154-449: Is Critical Environmental Justice that while “a molecule of carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide can occur in an instant, … it remains in the atmosphere for more than a century, so the decisions we make at one point in time can have dramatic ramifications for generations to come”. Pollution does not stay where it starts, and so consideration must be taken as to the scale of an issue rather than solely its effects. The third pillar of Critical EJ
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4288-419: Is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste , resource extraction , and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed. The movement began in the United States in the 1980s. It was heavily influenced by
4422-469: Is a greater opportunity cost imposed on the poor to tend to someone compared to someone with better financial stability. Increased access to healthcare and improved health outcomes help prevent individuals from falling into poverty due to medical expenses. It is estimated that 1.02 billion people go to bed hungry every night. According to the Global Hunger Index , Sub-Saharan Africa had
4556-471: Is a high risk of educational underachievement for children who are from low-income housing circumstances. This is often a process that begins in primary school. Instruction in the US educational system, as well as in most other countries, tends to be geared towards those students who come from more advantaged backgrounds. As a result, children in poverty are at a higher risk than advantaged children for retention in their grade, special deleterious placements during
4690-476: Is a poor, crime-laden district in which deteriorated, violent, even warlike conditions and underfunded, largely ineffective schools promote inferior academic performance, including irregular attendance and disruptive or non-compliant classroom behavior. Because of poverty, "Students from low-income families are 2.4 times more likely to drop out than middle-income kids, and over 10 times more likely than high-income peers to drop out." For children with low resources,
4824-532: Is also discussed as environmental racism or environmental inequality . Environmental justice is typically defined as distributive justice , which is the equitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits . Some definitions address procedural justice , which is the fair and meaningful participation in decision-making . Other scholars emphasise recognition justice , which is the recognition of oppression and difference in environmental justice communities . People's capacity to convert social goods into
4958-474: Is also happening unevenly, with people of color, the poor, indigenous peoples, peoples of the global South, and women suffering the most.” Pellow further contextualizes scale through temporal dimensions. For instance, how does the emergence and use of coal-fired power plants and petroleum-based economics develop and change over historical periods, and in turn unveiling the social causes of our ecological crises. Pellow observes in his 2017 publication What
5092-446: Is also referred to as primary poverty . The "dollar a day" poverty line was first introduced in 1990 as a measure to meet such standards of living. For nations that do not use the US dollar as currency, "dollar a day" does not translate to living a day on the equivalent amount of local currency as determined by the exchange rate . Rather, it is determined by the purchasing power parity rate, which would look at how much local currency
5226-425: Is argued to be a factor in entrenching poverty. William J. Wilson's "concentration and isolation" hypothesis states that the economic difficulties of the very poorest African Americans are compounded by the fact that as the better-off African Americans move out, the poorest are more and more concentrated, having only other very poor people as neighbors. This concentration causes social isolation, Wilson suggests, because
5360-473: Is even more of a divide between the classes today than in the 1920s, meaning that the disadvantaged are becoming more economically disadvantaged. Many governments use Disadvantaged area as a designation for various "problem" areas. In the UK "disadvantaged area" is a term used for an area where there is a need "to stimulate the physical, economic and social regeneration" by attracting development and encouraging
5494-473: Is harmful and incomplete.” The second pillar of Critical EJ is a focus on the role of scale in the production and possible resolution of environmental injustices. Critical EJ embraces multi-scalar methodological and theoretical approaches order to better comprehend the complex spatial and temporal causes, consequences, and possible resolutions of EJ struggles. Julie Sze writes, “thinking globally and acting locally also demands that people more fully comprehend
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5628-449: Is most crucial during the first 6–24 months of infants' lives and helps them develop a wider range of healthy emotions, including gratitude, forgiveness, and empathy. Enrichment through personalized, increasingly complex activities". In a 1996 survey, 67% of children from disadvantaged inner cities said they had witnessed a serious assault, and 33% reported witnessing a homicide. 51% of fifth graders from New Orleans (median income for
5762-474: Is needed to buy the same things that a dollar could buy in the United States. Usually, this would translate to having less local currency than if the exchange rate were used. From 1993 through 2005, the World Bank defined absolute poverty as $ 1.08 a day on such a purchasing power parity basis, after adjusting for inflation to the 1993 US dollar In 2009, it was updated as $ 1.25 a day (equivalent to $ 1.00
5896-400: Is often applied in a third world context and typically relate to women with reduced " upward mobility " suffering social exclusion and having limited access to natural resources and economic opportunities. They are often landless or marginal farmers operating on the most unproductive land. According to Paul Krugman in an October 2002 article titled "about the distribution of wealth ", there
6030-409: Is paramount in a poor household; otherwise they go in an endless loop of negative income trying to treat diseases. Often when a person in a poor household falls ill it is up to the family members to take care of them due to limited access to health care and lack of health insurance. The household members often have to give up their income or stop seeking further education to tend to the sick member. There
6164-476: Is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions . It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one's life. European Union (EU): The European Union's definition of poverty
6298-673: Is seen that children perform better under the care of their parents and that children tend to adopt speaking language at a younger age. Since being in poverty from childhood is more harmful than it is for an adult, it is seen that children in poor households tend to fall behind in certain cognitive abilities compared to other average families. For a child to grow up emotionally healthy, the children under three need "A strong, reliable primary caregiver who provides consistent and unconditional love, guidance, and support. Safe, predictable, stable environments. Ten to 20 hours each week of harmonious, reciprocal interactions. This process, known as attunement,
6432-751: Is significantly different from definitions in other parts of the world, and consequently policy measures introduced to combat poverty in EU countries also differ from measures in other nations. Poverty is measured in relation to the distribution of income in each member country using relative income poverty lines. Relative-income poverty rates in the EU are compiled by the Eurostat , in charge of coordinating, gathering, and disseminating member country statistics using European Union Survey of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) surveys. Absolute poverty, often synonymous with ' extreme poverty ' or 'abject poverty', refers to
6566-529: Is that financial worries put a severe burden on one's mental resources so that they are no longer fully available for solving complicated problems. The reduced capability for problem solving can lead to suboptimal decisions and further perpetuate poverty. Many other pathways from poverty to compromised cognitive capacities have been noted, from poor nutrition and environmental toxins to the effects of stress on parenting behavior, all of which lead to suboptimal psychological development. Neuroscientists have documented
6700-548: Is the "most prominent and most-quoted of the EU social inclusion indicators". Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of the population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. This is a calculation of the percentage of people whose family household income falls below the Poverty Line . The main poverty line used in the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and
6834-597: Is the view that social inequalities - from racism to speciesism - are deeply embedded in society and reinforced by state power, and therefore the current social order stands as a fundamental obstacle to social and environmental justice. Pellow argues in his 2017 publication What is Critical Environmental Justice that social change movements may be better off thinking and acting beyond the state and capital as targets of reform and/or as reliable partners. Furthermore, that scholars and activists are not asking how they might build environmentally resilient communities that exist beyond
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#17327939924956968-655: The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil. The 17 Principles have a likeness in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. In the summer of 2002, a coalition of non-governmental organizations met in Bali to prepare final negotiations for the 2002 Earth Summit . Organizations included CorpWatch, World Rainforest Movement, Friends of the Earth International, the Third World Network, and
7102-646: The American civil rights movement and focused on environmental racism within rich countries. The movement was later expanded to consider gender, international environmental injustice, and inequalities within marginalized groups. As the movement achieved some success in rich countries, environmental burdens were shifted to the Global South (as for example through extractivism or the global waste trade ). The movement for environmental justice has thus become more global, with some of its aims now being articulated by
7236-559: The Great Recession , in particular among children from impoverished families who often reside in substandard housing and find educational opportunities out of reach. It has been argued by some academics that the neoliberal policies promoted by global financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank are actually exacerbating both inequality and poverty. In East Asia the World Bank reported that "The poverty headcount rate at
7370-591: The United Kingdom , the second Cameron ministry came under attack for its redefinition of poverty; poverty is no longer classified by a family's income, but as to whether a family is in work or not. Considering that two-thirds of people who found work were accepting wages that are below the living wage (according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ) this has been criticised by anti-poverty campaigners as an unrealistic view of poverty in
7504-574: The United Nations in 2015, are summarized in Sustainable Development Goal 1: "No Poverty" . Social forces, such as gender , disability , race and ethnicity , can exacerbate issues of poverty—with women, children and minorities frequently bearing unequal burdens of poverty. Moreover, impoverished individuals are more vulnerable to the effects of other social issues, such as the environmental effects of industry or
7638-674: The United Nations . The movement overlaps with movements for Indigenous land rights and for the human right to a healthy environment . The goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for marginalized communities in making environmental decisions that affect their lives. The global environmental justice movement arises from local environmental conflicts in which environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations in resource extraction or other industries. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks. Environmental justice scholars have produced
7772-548: The World Health Organization , hunger and malnutrition are the single gravest threats to the world's public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality , present in half of all cases. Almost 90% of maternal deaths during childbirth occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, compared to less than 1% in the developed world. Those who live in poverty have also been shown to have
7906-482: The impacts of climate change or other natural disasters or extreme weather events . Poverty can also make other social problems worse; economic pressures on impoverished communities frequently play a part in deforestation , biodiversity loss and ethnic conflict . For this reason, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and other international policy programs, such as the international recovery from COVID-19, emphasize
8040-994: The water crisis . Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of agricultural yields . Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded. Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals is the elimination of hunger and undernutrition by 2030. A psychological study has been conducted by four scientists during inaugural Convention of Psychological Science. The results find that people who thrive with financial stability or fall under low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to perform worse cognitively due to external pressure imposed upon them. The research found that stressors such as low income, inadequate health care, discrimination, and exposure to criminal activities all contribute to mental disorders . This study also found that children exposed to poverty-stricken environments have slower cognitive thinking. It
8174-514: The $ 2-a-day level is estimated to have fallen to about 27 percent [in 2007], down from 29.5 percent in 2006 and 69 percent in 1990." The People's Republic of China accounts for over three quarters of global poverty reduction from 1990 to 2005, which according to the World Bank is "historically unprecedented". China accounted for nearly half of all extreme poverty in 1990. In Sub-Saharan Africa extreme poverty went up from 41% in 1981 to 46% in 2001, which combined with growing population increased
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#17327939924958308-576: The 2015 population, about 347.1 million people (35.2%) lived in Sub-Saharan Africa and 231.3 million (13.5%) lived in South Asia . According to the World Bank, between 1990 and 2015, the percentage of the world's population living in extreme poverty fell from 37.1% to 9.6%, falling below 10% for the first time. During the 2013 to 2015 period, the World Bank reported that extreme poverty fell from 11% to 10%, however they also noted that
8442-462: The EPA. They rely on distributive justice , centered around the nature of private property. Native Americans do not fall under the same statutory frameworks as they are citizens of Indigenous nations, not ethnic minorities. As individuals, they are subject to American laws. As nations, they are subject to a separate legal regime, constructed on the basis of pre-existing sovereignty acknowledged by treaty and
8576-494: The Environmental Equity Work Group (EEWG) in 1990 in response to additional findings by social scientists that “racial minority and low-income populations bear a higher environmental risk burden than the general population’ and that the EPA's inspections failed to adequately protect low-income communities of color”. In 1992, the EPA published Environmental Equity: Reducing Risks for All Communities -
8710-608: The European Union (EU) is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 60% of the median household income. The United States federal government typically regulates this line to three times the cost of an adequate meal. There are several other different income inequality metrics , for example, the Gini coefficient or the Theil Index . Rather than income, poverty is also measured through individual basic needs at
8844-893: The First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, held in Washington, DC. The four-day summit was sponsored by the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice. With around 1,100 persons in attendance, representation included all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and the Marshall Islands. The summit broadened the environmental justice movement beyond its anti-toxins focus to include issues of public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, housing, resource allocation, and community empowerment. The summit adopted 17 Principles of Environmental Justice , which were later disseminated at
8978-577: The Indigenous Environmental Network. They sought to articulate the concept of climate justice. During their time together, the organizations codified the Bali Principles of Climate Justice , a 27-point program identifying and organizing the climate justice movement. Meena Raman, Head of Programs at the Third World Network, explained that in their writing they “drew heavily on the concept of environmental justice, with
9112-531: The Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice. The working group sought to address environmental justice in minority populations and low-income populations. David Pellow writes that the executive order “remains the cornerstone of environmental justice regulation in the US, with the EPA as its ventral arbiter”. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, grassroots movements and environmental organizations advocated for regulations that increased
9246-562: The PCB dumping after reading newspapers meant for their garden mulch, and days later he and Rev. Leon White led a “humane blockade” to prevent trucks from arriving at the landfill. After being arrested for the demonstration, Furriccio continued his defiance against the county by refusing to post bail and going on a nineteen-day hunger strike. Rev. Benjamin Chavis was serving for the United Church of Christ (UCC) Commission for Racial Justice when he
9380-511: The Russian population falling into destitution by the early to mid 1990s. By 1999, during the peak of the poverty crisis, 191 million people were living on less than $ 5.50 a day. In subsequent years as per capita incomes recovered the poverty rate dropped from 31.4% of the population to 19.6%. The average post-communist country had returned to 1989 levels of per-capita GDP by 2005, although as of 2015 some are still far behind that. According to
9514-681: The U.S. Constitution. Environmental justice to Indigenous persons is not understood by legal entities but rather their distinct cultural and religious doctrines. Environmental Justice for Indigenous peoples follows a model that frames issues in terms of their colonial condition and can affirm decolonization as a potential framework within environmental justice. While Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences vary from place to place, David Pellow writes that there are “common realities they all share in their experience of colonization that make it possible to generalize an Indigenous methodology while recognizing specific, localized conditions”. Even abstract ideas like
9648-528: The US escalated throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Many impacted countries do not have adequate disposal systems for this waste, and impacted communities are not informed about the hazards they are being exposed to. The Khian Sea waste disposal incident was a notable example of environmental justice issues arising from international movement of toxic waste. Contractors disposing of ash from waste incinerators in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania illegally dumped
9782-403: The US, race is the most important determinant of environmental injustice. In other countries, poverty or caste (India) are important indicators. Tribal affiliation is also important in some countries. Environmental justice scholars Laura Pulido and David Pellow argue that recognizing environmental racism, as an element stemming from the entrenched legacies of racial capitalism , is crucial to
9916-641: The United Kingdom. Secondary poverty refers to those that earn enough income to not be impoverished, but who spend their income on unnecessary pleasures, such as alcoholic beverages , thus placing them below it in practice. In 18th- and 19th-century Great Britain , the practice of temperance among Methodists , as well as their rejection of gambling , allowed them to eliminate secondary poverty and accumulate capital. Factors that contribute to secondary poverty includes but are not limited to: alcohol, gambling, tobacco and drugs. Substance abuse means that
10050-527: The United States, for example, the absolute poverty line was US$ 15.15 per day in 2010 (US$ 22,000 per year for a family of four), while in India it was US$ 1.0 per day and in China the absolute poverty line was US$ 0.55 per day, each on PPP basis in 2010. These different poverty lines make data comparison between each nation's official reports qualitatively difficult. Some scholars argue that the World Bank method sets
10184-662: The World Bank Group in 2020, more than 40% of the poor live in conflict-affected countries. Even when countries experience economic development , the poorest citizens of middle-income countries frequently do not gain an adequate share of their countries' increased wealth to leave poverty. Governments and non-governmental organizations have experimented with a number of different policies and programs for poverty alleviation , such as electrification in rural areas or housing first policies in urban areas. The international policy frameworks for poverty alleviation, established by
10318-466: The World Bank in 2014, around 80 million people were still living on less than $ 5.00 a day. World Bank data shows that the percentage of the population living in households with consumption or income per person below the poverty line has decreased in each region of the world except Middle East and North Africa since 1990: In July 2023, a group of over 200 economists from 67 countries, including Jayati Ghosh , Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty , sent
10452-588: The aforementioned pillars towards the Black Lives Matter movement and the problem of state violence. Pellow argues that within conventional studies, “the Black Lives Matter movement and the struggle against environmental racism … is a connection that many scholars might not make at first glance because police brutality and environmental politics would appear to be only tangentially related.” Following his four pillars of Critical EJ, his ties
10586-639: The amount needed to meet basic personal needs , such as food , clothing , and shelter ; secondly, relative poverty measures when a person cannot meet a minimum level of living standards , compared to others in the same time and place. The definition of relative poverty varies from one country to another, or from one society to another. Statistically, as of 2019 , most of the world's population live in poverty: in PPP dollars, 85% of people live on less than $ 30 per day, two-thirds live on less than $ 10 per day, and 10% live on less than $ 1.90 per day. According to
10720-478: The anarchist-inspired Common Ground Collective , which was co-created by Scott Crow to provide services for survivors of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast in 2005. Crow gave insight as to what change outside of state power looks like, telling Pellow: We did service work, but it was a revolutionary analysis and practice. We created a horizontal organization that defied the state and did our work in spite of
10854-442: The bar too high, others argue it is too low. There is disagreement among experts as to what would be considered a realistic poverty rate with one considering it "an inaccurately measured and arbitrary cut off". Some contend that a higher poverty line is needed, such as a minimum of $ 7.40 or even $ 10 to $ 15 a day. They argue that these levels are a minimum for basic needs and to achieve normal life expectancy . One estimate places
10988-728: The board and in a non-discriminatory way. Unequal protection might result from nonscientific and undemocratic decisions, exclusionary practices, public hearings held in remote locations and at inconvenient times, and use of English-only material as the language in which to communicate and conduct hearings for non-English-speaking publics. Geographic equity refers to the location and spatial configuration of communities and their proximity to environmental hazards, noxious facilities and locally unwanted land uses (Lulus) such as landfills, incinerators, sewage treatment plants, lead smelters, refineries and other noxious facilities. For example, unequal protection may result from land-use decisions that determine
11122-475: The classroom. Therefore, it is safe to state that children who live at or below the poverty level will have far less success educationally than children who live above the poverty line. Poor children have a great deal less healthcare and this ultimately results in many absences from school. Additionally, poor children are much more likely to suffer from hunger, fatigue, irritability, headaches, ear infections, flu, and colds. These illnesses could potentially restrict
11256-537: The concept of Critical Environmental Justice (CEJ) in his work What is Critical Environmental Justice . Critical EJ is a perspective intended to address a number of limitations and tensions within EJ Studies. Critical EJ calls for scholarship that builds on research in environmental justice studies by questioning assumptions and gaps in earlier work in the field, embracing greater interdisciplinary, and moving towards methodologies and epistemologies including and beyond
11390-514: The concept to the Black Lives Matter movement and associated movements, demonstrating: (1) how attention to multiple categories of difference and inequality (including more-than-human species and the built environment); (2) an emphasis on the role of scale as a way of understanding the violence of racism and the promise of resistance movements; (3) a focus on linking the entrenched character of social inequalities with transformative, anti-authoritarian and anarchist perspectives; (4) and an application of
11524-506: The concepts of racial and socioecological indispensability can produce an enriched account of that movement's core concerns, its limitations, and its possibilities. The first pillar of Critical EJ Studies involves the recognition that social inequality and oppression in all forms intersect, and that actors in the more-than-human world are subjects of oppression and frequently agents of social change. Developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality theory states that individuals exist in
11658-422: The connected risks to family, health and well-being are major issues to address since education from preschool to high school is identifiably meaningful in a life. Poverty often drastically affects children's success in school. A child's "home activities, preferences, mannerisms" must align with the world and in the cases that they do not do these, students are at a disadvantage in the school and, most importantly,
11792-436: The connection of poverty alleviation with other societal goals. The word poverty comes from the old (Norman) French word poverté (Modern French: pauvreté), from Latin paupertās from pauper (poor). There are several definitions of poverty depending on the context of the situation it is placed in. It usually references a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for
11926-442: The costs of hazardous waste disposal in the US and other industrialized nations. However, this led to a surge in exports of hazardous waste to the Global South during the 1980s and 1990s. This global environmental injustice, including the disposal of toxic waste, land appropriation, and resource extraction, sparked the formation of the global environmental justice movement. Environmental justice as an international subject commenced at
12060-434: The current economic model, built on GDP , it would take 100 years to bring the world's poorest up to the poverty line of $ 1.25 a day. UNICEF estimates half the world's children (or 1.1 billion) live in poverty. The World Bank forecasted in 2015 that 702.1 million people were living in extreme poverty, down from 1.75 billion in 1990. Extreme poverty is observed in all parts of the world, including developed economies. Of
12194-529: The degree to which scholars should place emphasis on one or more social categories of difference (e.g., race, class, gender, sexuality, species, etc.) versus a focus on multiple forms of inequality; (2) the extent to which scholars studying EJ issues should focus on single-scale versus multi-scalar analyses of the causes, consequences, and possible resolutions of EJ struggles; (3) the degree to which various forms of social inequality and power—including state power—are viewed as entrenched and embedded in society; and (4)
12328-440: The development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socio-economic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal programs and policies Environmental justice
12462-666: The discourse on environmental justice concerning Indigenous peoples and settler-colonialism. Gilio-Whitaker critiques distributive justice, which assumes a capitalistic commodification of land inconsistent with Indigenous worldviews. Whyte explores environmental justice within the context of colonialism's catastrophic environmental impacts on Indigenous peoples' traditional livelihoods and identities. The environmental justice movement seeks to address environmental discrimination and environmental racism associated with hazardous waste disposal, resource extraction, land appropriation, and other activities. This environmental discrimination results in
12596-399: The distribution of resources and power in a society and recognizes that poverty may be a function of the diminished "capability" of people to live the kinds of lives they value. The social aspects of poverty may include lack of access to information , education , health care , social capital or political power . Relational poverty is the idea that societal poverty exists if there is
12730-555: The eighties you couldn't just say there was discrimination. You had to prove it.” Fighting for change, not recognition, is an additional factor of environmental justice as a social movement. In response to the Warren County Protests, two cross-sectional studies were conducted to determine the demographics of those exposed to uncontrolled toxic waste sites and commercial hazardous waste facilities. The United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice studied
12864-574: The environmental aftermath of war can be characterized as slow violence . The term “slow violence” was coined by author Rob Nixon in his 2011 book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor . Slow violence is defined as “violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all”. Environmental justice as
12998-405: The fight against extreme global poverty, which he asserts is "completely off track" and that nearly half of the global population, or 3.4 billion, lives on less than $ 5.50 a day, and this number has barely moved since 1990. Still others suggest that poverty line misleads because many live on far less than that line. Other measures of absolute poverty without using a certain dollar amount include
13132-669: The first time the agency embarked on a systematic examination of environmental risks to communities of color. This acted as their direction of addressing environmental justice. In 1993 the EPA founded the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC). In 1994 the office's name was changed to the Office of Environmental Justice as a result of public criticism on the difference between equity and justice. That same year, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 , which created
13266-461: The health and well-being of these communities, leading to higher rates of asthma, cancer, and other illnesses. Addressing environmental racism requires a multifaceted approach that tackles the underlying social, economic, and political factors that contribute to its persistence. More particularly, environmental justice scholars from Latin America and elsewhere advocate to understand this issue through
13400-423: The highest child malnutrition rate of the world's regions over the 2001–2006 period. Poor people spend a greater portion of their budgets on food than wealthy people and, as a result, they can be particularly vulnerable to increases in food prices . For example, in late 2007, increases in the price of grains led to food riots in some countries. Threats to the supply of food may also be caused by drought and
13534-709: The human/nonhuman divide and their relationships to one another. Pellow expands writing in Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies that “racial indispensability is intended to challenge the logic of racial expendability and is the idea that institutions, policies, and practices that support and perpetrate anti-Black racism suffer from the flawed assumption that the future of African Americans is somehow de-linked from the future of White communities.” Traces of environmental injustices span millennia of unrecorded history. Indigenous peoples experienced environmental devastation of
13668-438: The ideology of white supremacy and human dominionism, and articulating the perspective that excluded, marginalized, and other populations, beings, and things - both human and nonhuman - must be viewed not as expensable but rather an indispensable to our collective futures. Pellow uses racial indispensability when referring to people of color and socioecological indispensability when referring to broader communities within and across
13802-463: The impact of poverty on brain structure and function throughout the lifespan. Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. 36.8 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 954,492 deaths in 2017. Poor people often are more prone to severe diseases due to the lack of health care, and due to living in non-optimal conditions. Among the poor, girls tend to suffer even more due to gender discrimination. Economic stability
13936-457: The importance of including their perspectives and needs in environmental decision-making. Martinez-Alier's work also introduces the concept of "ecological distribution conflicts," which are conflicts over access to and control of natural resources and the environmental impacts that result from their use, and which are often rooted in social and economic inequalities. The violence wrought by climate change, toxic drift, deforestation, oil spills, and
14070-507: The largely unexamined question of the expendability of human and non-human populations facing socioecological threats from states, industries, and other political economic forces. In his 2017 publication What is Critical Environmental Justice , David Pellow writes as an example of the four pillars working in-tandem: Where we find rivers dammed for hydropower plants we also tend to find indigenous peoples and fisherfolk, as well as other working people, whose livelihoods and health are harmed as
14204-503: The lens of decolonisation. The latter underlies the fact that environmental racism emanates from the colonial projects of the West and its current reproduction of colonial dynamics. As environmental justice groups have grown more successful in developed countries such as the United States, the burdens of global production have been shifted to the Global South where less-strict regulations make waste disposal cheaper. Export of toxic waste from
14338-420: The location of residential amenities and disamenities. The poor and communities of colour often suffer a “triple” vulnerability of noxious facility siting, as do the unincorporated—sparsely populated communities that are not legally chartered as cities or municipalities and are therefore usually governed by distant county governments rather than having their own locally elected officials. Social equity assesses
14472-570: The loss of land-based traditions and economies, armed violence (especially against women and indigenous people) environmental degradation , and environmental conflict . The global environmental justice movement arises from these local place-based conflicts in which local environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks. There are many divisions along which an unjust distribution of environmental burdens may fall. Within
14606-645: The mainstream, such as through the provision of relational care to those who are experiencing poverty. The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor", based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty. These include abuse by those in power, dis-empowering institutions, excluded locations, gender relationships, lack of security, limited capabilities, physical limitations, precarious livelihoods, problems in social relationships, weak community organizations and discrimination. Analysis of social aspects of poverty links conditions of scarcity to aspects of
14740-399: The majority (84% to 94%) of the world population was living in poverty. According to one study, the percentage of the world population in hunger and poverty fell in absolute percentage terms from 50% in 1950 to 30% in 1970. According to another study the number of people worldwide living in absolute poverty fell from 1.18 billion in 1950 to 1.04 billion in 1977. According to another study,
14874-495: The mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s. Similar trends can be observed for literacy, access to clean water and electricity and basic consumer items. Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships, experienced as social exclusion , dependency, and diminished capacity to participate, or to develop meaningful connections with other people in society. Such social exclusion can be minimized through strengthened connections with
15008-717: The movement, with white supremacy continuing to shape human relationships with nature and labor. Environmental racism is a pervasive and complex issue that affects communities all over the world. It is a form of systemic discrimination that is grounded in the intersection of race, class, and environmental factors. At its core, environmental racism refers to the disproportionate exposure of certain communities, mostly those that are marginalised, to environmental hazards such as pollution, toxic waste, and other environmental risks. These communities are often located near industrial sites, waste facilities, and other sources of pollution that can have serious health impacts. Environmental racism has
15142-423: The number of people living in extreme poverty from 231 million to 318 million. Statistics of 2018 shows population living in extreme conditions has declined by more than 1 billion in the last 25 years. As per the report published by the world bank on 19 September 2018 world poverty falls below 750 million. In the early 1990s some of the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia experienced
15276-482: The number of people worldwide estimated to be starving fell from almost 920 million in 1971 to below 797 million in 1997. The proportion of the developing world 's population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28% in 1990 to 21% in 2001. Most of this improvement has occurred in East and South Asia . In 2012 it was estimated that, using a poverty line of $ 1.25 a day, 1.2 billion people lived in poverty. Given
15410-499: The opposite direction are observed in countries with pastoralist economies that rely on boys' labour, such as the Kingdom of Eswatini , Lesotho and Namibia . The right to housing is argued to be a human right . Higher density and lower cost housing affords low-income families and first-time homebuyers with more and less expensive shelter opportunities, reducing economic inequality. The geographic concentration of poverty
15544-495: The placement of hazardous waste facilities in the US and found that race was the most important factor predicting placement of these facilities. These studies were followed by widespread objections and lawsuits against hazardous waste disposal in poor, generally Black, communities. The mainstream environmental movement began to be criticized for its predominately white affluent leadership, emphasis on conservation, and failure to address social equity concerns. The EPA established
15678-527: The poor typically spend about 2% of their income educating their children but larger percentages of alcohol and tobacco (for example, 6% in Indonesia and 8% in Mexico as of 2006). Poverty levels are snapshot pictures in time that omits the transitional dynamics between levels. Mobility statistics supply additional information about the fraction who leave the poverty level. For example, one study finds that in
15812-726: The purchase of properties, in special provisions for Stamp Tax relief and for areas where health is an issue. In the United States the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act allowed qualifying hospitals to employ temporary foreign workers as registered nurses. Poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse environmental , legal , social , economic , and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in statistics or economics there are two main measures: absolute poverty which compares income against
15946-585: The rate of decline had slowed by nearly half from the 25 year average with parts of sub-saharan Africa returning to early 2000 levels. The World Bank attributed this to increasing violence following the Arab Spring , population increases in Sub-Saharan Africa, and general African inflationary pressures and economic malaise were the primary drivers for this slow down. Many wealthy nations have seen an increase in relative poverty rates ever since
16080-408: The relationship between the local and the global or, in other words, to consider scale”. Scale is deeply racialized, gendered, and classed. While the conclusions of climate scientists are remarkably clear that anthropogenic climate change is occurring at a dramatic pace and with increasing intensity. David Pellow writes in his 2016 publication Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies that “this
16214-478: The right to a clean environment, a human right according to the United Nations, contradicts Indigenous peoples understanding of environmental justice as it reflects the commodification of land when seen in light of property values. Joan Martinez-Alier 's influential concept of the environmentalism of the poor highlights the ways in which marginalized communities, particularly those in the Global South, are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and
16348-456: The risk factors are similar to others such as juvenile delinquency rates, higher levels of teenage pregnancy , and economic dependency upon their low-income parent or parents. Families and society who submit low levels of investment in the education and development of less fortunate children end up with less favorable results for the children who see a life of parental employment reduction and low wages. Higher rates of early childbearing with all
16482-533: The role of sociological factors (race, ethnicity, class, culture, life styles, political power, etc.) on environmental decision making. Poor people and people of colour often work in the most dangerous jobs and live in the most polluted neighbourhoods, their children exposed to all kinds of environmental toxins in the playgrounds and in their homes. In non-Native communities, where toxic industries and other discriminatory practices are disproportionately occurring, residents rely on laws and statutory frameworks outlined by
16616-402: The school's hours and not completing their high school education. Advantage breeds advantage. There are many explanations for why students tend to drop out of school. One is the conditions in which they attend school. Schools in poverty-stricken areas have conditions that hinder children from learning in a safe environment. Researchers have developed a name for areas like this: an urban war zone
16750-554: The site was set for the predominantly Black community of Afton. Its residents protested for six-weeks, leading to over 500 arrests. That the protests in Warren County were led by civilians led to the basis of future and modern-day environmental, grassroots organizations fighting for environmental justice. Deborah Ferruccio, a contributor to the protest, explained in an interview with The Warren Record that those present were ordinary people. Her husband Ken Ferruccio learned of
16884-523: The social sciences. Critical EJ scholars believe that since multiple forms of inequality drive and characterize the experience of environmental injustice, the EJ field would benefit from expanding in that direction. Differentiation between conventional environmental studies and Critical EJ studies is done through four distinctive "pillars". These include, in David Pellow's writing: (1) questions concerning
17018-431: The standard defined as receiving less than 80% of minimum caloric intake whilst spending more than 80% of income on food, sometimes called ultra-poverty. Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context . It is argued that the needs considered fundamental is not an objective measure and could change with the custom of society. For example, a person who cannot afford housing better than
17152-515: The state … not only did we feed people and give them aid and hygiene kits and things like that, but we also stopped housing from being bulldozed, we cut the locks on schools when they said schools couldn't be opened, and we cleaned the schools out because the students and the teachers wanted that to happen. And we didn't do a one size fits all like the Red Cross would do – we asked the communities, every community we went into, we asked multiple people,
17286-411: The state, but rather how they might do so with a different model of state intervention. Pellow believes that by building and supporting strongly democratic practices, relationships, and institutions, movements for social change will become less dependent upon the state, while any elements of the state they do work through may become more robustly democratic. He contextualizes this pillar with activist
17420-424: The street sex workers, the gangsters, the church leaders, everybody, we talked to them: what can we do to help your neighborhood, to help your community, to help you? And that made us different because for me, it's the overlay of anarchism. Instead of having one franchise thing, you just have concepts, and you just pick the components that match the needs of the people there. The fourth pillar of Critical EJ centers on
17554-431: The true scale of poverty much higher than the World Bank, with an estimated 4.3 billion people (59% of the world's population) living with less than $ 5 a day and unable to meet basic needs adequately. Philip Alston , a UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, stated the World Bank's international poverty line of $ 1.90 a day is fundamentally flawed, and has allowed for "self congratulatory" triumphalism in
17688-699: The very poor are now isolated from access to the job networks, role models, institutions, and other connections that might help them escape poverty. Gentrification means converting an aging neighborhood into a more affluent one, as by remodeling homes. Landlords then increase rent on newly renovated real estate; the poor people cannot afford to pay high rent, and may need to leave their neighborhood to find affordable housing. The poor also get more access to income and services, while studies suggest poor residents living in gentrifying neighbourhoods are actually less likely to move than poor residents of non-gentrifying areas. Environmental justice Environmental justice
17822-400: The world's population living in absolute poverty fell from 43% in 1981 to 14% in 2011. The absolute number of people in poverty fell from 1.95 billion in 1981 to 1.01 billion in 2011. The economist Max Roser estimates that the number of people in poverty is therefore roughly the same as 200 years ago. This is the case since the world population was just little more than 1 billion in 1820 and
17956-638: Was sent to Warren County for the protests. Chavis was among the 500 arrested for taking part in the nonviolent protests and is credited with having coined the term “environmental racism” while in the Warren County jail. His involvement, alongside Rev. Leon White, who also served for the UCC, laid the foundation for more activism and consciousness-raising. Chavis would later recall in a New Yorker's article titled “Fighting Environmental Racism in North Carolina” that while “Warren County made headlines … [he] knew in
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