Finding Common Ground: Environmental Ethics, Social Justice, and a Sustainable Path for Nature-Based Health Promotion (original) (raw)
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DESCRIPTION The importance of an ecological understanding of health Humans by virtue of our versatility have frequently been responsible for the hunting of particular species to extinction or the desertification of particular tracts of land. In the past we have always been able to move on to hunt other species or to relocate to new territories. We are however now entering a new era where we have reached and exceeded the planetary limits. In the 20th century our life expectancy doubled, our population size quadrupled and our production of CO2 and total economic output increased twelve- and twenty-fold respectively. We dominate the planet: we are responsible for 40% of the planets photosynthetic product, more nitrogen is fixed by human activity than by all natural terrestrial sources combined; more than half of all accessible fresh water is put to use by humanity; and about one-quarter of all bird species have been driven to extinction. By the end of the Twentieth century we had excee...
The Earth Perspectives, 2014
The recent shift towards the interdisciplinary study of the human-environment relationship is largely driven by environmental justice debates. This article will distinguish four types of environmental justice and link them to questions of neoliberalism and altruism. First, environmental justice seeks to redress inequitable distribution of environmental burdens to vulnerable groups and economically disadvantaged populations. Second, environmental justice highlights the developed and developing countries’ unequal exposure to environmental risks and benefits. Third, temporal environmental justice refers to the issues associated with intergenerational justice or concern for future generations of humans. In all three cases, environmental justice entails equitable distribution of burdens and benefits to different nations or social groups. By contrast, ecological justice involves biospheric egalitarianism or justice between species. This article will focus on ecological justice since the rights of non-human species lags behind social justice debates and discuss the implications of including biospheric egalitarianism in environmental justice debates.
Environmental Justice: an ecossocial health approach
Revista De Saude Publica, 2008
The paper addresses the risk of contemporary technologies in the light of our current technological paradigm, its perception and tolerability, as well as its unequal distribution across society. The fundamental hypothesis, which emphasizes Environmental Justice, refers to hazards that are disproportionately or unjustly distributed across more socially and economically vulnerable groups, which are generally the poor and the minorities affected by the environmental risks posed by modernity. Therefore, vulnerability and the different levels of deprivation act as drivers of the different levels of health across population groups. Although Environmental Justice has initially been observed as a grassroots movement in the United States, its principles showed compatibility with global and local geographical scales. Therefore, the aim of the study was to understand how the risks of contemporary technologies unequally affect the population under the perspective of Environmental Justice.
Health as dignity: political ecology, epistemology and challenges to environmental justice movements
Journal of Political Ecology, 2017
The article discusses conceptual and methodological issues related to environmental risks and health problems, in the context of environmental injustice and conflicts. In doing so, we use the conceptual frameworks of political ecology and what we call political epistemology. We propose a comprehensive vision of health that relates not only to illness and death, but also to life, nature, culture and fundamental human rights. We summarize this as health and dignity, echoing the voices of countless people who have been fighting for the right to life and the commons, and against the impacts of mining, agribusiness and the oil industry. Therefore our concept of health is intrinsically related to the capacity of affected communities and their democratic allies to face environmental conflicts (the exploitation of natural resources and the workforce with the systematic violation of rights related to work, land, environment and health). Mobilizations for environmental justice also struggle for the autonomy of communities, their cultures, and the right to maintain indigenous or peasant livelihoods. The way knowledge is produced plays a fundamental role in environmental justice mobilizations since issues of power are related to epistemological disputes and counter-hegemonic alternatives. Political epistemology is an alternative way of confronting crucial questions related to knowledge production, uncertainties and the manipulations of those who generate environmental injustices. Finally, we point to some strategies for strengthening the shared production of knowledge and the mobilization of communities that organize to confront environmental injustices. Key words: political epistemology, political ecology of health, health and dignity.
Environmental Ethics: Anthropocentrism, Biocentrism, and Ecocentrism
In Search of Moral Equilibrium and Wisdom, 2021
Sustainable practices such as conservation, protected species, renewable energies, green technologies, reforestation, eco-friendly, and fair treatments of non-human species, among others, have dominated research and debates in environmental ethics. The preceding approaches seek to address various environmental concerns that range from deforestation, climate change, global warming, drought, mining, famine, overpopulation, over-fishing, oil drilling, pollution, ozone depletion, green gases, carbon emission, and nuclear waste. In addition to discussing those concerns, this chapter will highlight various perspectives on environmental ethics, which feature biocentrism, utilitarianism, interdependence between humans and nature, and shared substance with nature. Overall, as the title suggests, the tensions in discourses on environmental ethics tend to, more often than not, revolve around human needs and the care of nature and other living organisms. Notably, answers to questions about human responsibilities and obligation toward non-human species and the environment have been as contested as they are divergent.
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EC EMERGENCY MEDICINE AND CRITICAL CARE , 2019
The poor state of environment can affect human health and maintaining a perfect environment requires considerable investment in staff, resources, good communication, willingness to dialogue and be flexible and listening on both side of the table. It is well known that the promotion of human health can also affect the environment. This cause harm to the environment, such as the increased use of fossil fuel, deforestation, pollution and biodiversity reduction. The relationship between the environment and human health creates complex ethical issues related to environmental regulations and health policy decisions. These ethical issues are aimed at increasing and generating emergence of environmental impacts of climate change and new technologies that can affect the environment, such as nanotechnology, genetically modified organisms and biofuels. While, government need to focus on educating its citizen about the importance of environmental health ethic. Promotion and education