Environmental improvement is considered by many to be a simple question of using the right technology to clean-up and reduce pollution. It is not instantly obvious that such a clean-up could be the cause of a problem somewhere else. It is therefore important to understand the manner in which society is divided and to track the most socially and economically disempowered social group to find the invisible trace of the shift.
Human existence is caught in a power play of hierarchical social structures.
The questions relating to the environment and basic issues of resource usage and resource distribution, as well as the human interdependencies this creates are interlinked. If environmental change does not recognize and question the inequity of such hegemony, then at best it may effect a pocket of change, while at the same time pushing the problem to another place. Environmental interventions have to be examined not only through their immediate visible impact, but also in the larger context of how they change the lives of those who may not be directly visible. Action needs to be driven by a strong understanding of what is just and fair and not merely serve to transfer risk from one social group to another. At the same time, one must examine the nature of decision-making in the environmental change process.