I hope that environmental justice is addressed nationally by firstly informing as many people as possible about the subject and making information more attainable by a larger group of people. It is very easy to generalize a topic, especially one of such magnitude as environmental justice.
During this new year of 2021, I truly hope to see more clarity in the definition of environmental justice. The definition should be created by a diverse set of stakeholders that ensure community concerns and needs are balanced with economic considerations. This, in turn, will hopefully lessen the number of disadvantaged communities.
In 5 years, I hope to see more action to protect the underrepresented groups that are directly affected by pollution. This may be in the form of scientific and legal action. Specifically, more studies can be done to determine and verify the direct effects of close contact with pollutants, especially in more impoverished communities. In terms of legal action, I hope that there will be a more effective usage of current resources, such as making the EJ executive order have more legal ability and processing Title VI complaints quicker. And on top of that, there needs to be expansion upon these resources to better achieve environmental justice goals. There also needs to be implementable tools for communities to exercise their rights.
Finally, in 10 years, I hope to live and experience a society in which everyone is aware of the issues within our environment. We need to remember that environmental justice is not a destination, rather, a goal. There is no way to reach a set destination in this matter, but we can work towards more improvements. Like diversity, which oftentimes was identified as an isolated issue is now embedded in all things. The idea would assist in the recognition of environmental justice in all that we do, rather than an isolated issue. This would help aspects of society such as access to sanitation. This goal is to factor in environmental justice in all of our decision making and identify it as an imperative and integral part of society.
It all starts with humanizing the issue rather than generalizing it. Science should be incorporated in the important aspect of decision making rather than inflation and fear.
During this new year of 2021, I truly hope to see more clarity in the definition of environmental justice. The definition should be created by a diverse set of stakeholders that ensure community concerns and needs are balanced with economic considerations. This, in turn, will hopefully lessen the number of disadvantaged communities.
In 5 years, I hope to see more action to protect the underrepresented groups that are directly affected by pollution. This may be in the form of scientific and legal action. Specifically, more studies can be done to determine and verify the direct effects of close contact with pollutants, especially in more impoverished communities. In terms of legal action, I hope that there will be a more effective usage of current resources, such as making the EJ executive order have more legal ability and processing Title VI complaints quicker. And on top of that, there needs to be expansion upon these resources to better achieve environmental justice goals. There also needs to be implementable tools for communities to exercise their rights.
Finally, in 10 years, I hope to live and experience a society in which everyone is aware of the issues within our environment. We need to remember that environmental justice is not a destination, rather, a goal. There is no way to reach a set destination in this matter, but we can work towards more improvements. Like diversity, which oftentimes was identified as an isolated issue is now embedded in all things. The idea would assist in the recognition of environmental justice in all that we do, rather than an isolated issue. This would help aspects of society such as access to sanitation. This goal is to factor in environmental justice in all of our decision making and identify it as an imperative and integral part of society.
It all starts with humanizing the issue rather than generalizing it. Science should be incorporated in the important aspect of decision making rather than inflation and fear.
Great post! I really like your idea of humanizing the issue of climate change to create more prevalent change in the future. I also found your emphasis on the legal action needed to move towards a climate change solution very insightful. I had never heard of Title VI before, and I will definitely look into it after reading this post!
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