A Global Environmental Justice?: The challenge of transferring a US movement to countries outside the US

Abstract

With the help of authors such as Wolfgang Sachs (1999 and 2002), this paper examines the possibility of expanding the US concept of environmental justice to a global scale. Through the body of literature reviewed, the paper concludes that the US environmental justice concept can be applied outside its borders. However, the concept will need to be molded into new forms that are tailored to the countries in which it is applied. The elements, which promote a critical, community-concentrated and bottom-up approach are those which will be most useful when expanding environmental justice beyond the US borders. In addition, as referred to in Wolfgang Sachs’ 2002 article, a focus on “lowering the top” to bring resource-usage to more sustainable levels is something which will only benefit environmental justice and its success in the future.