You Can’t Fight For Environmental Justice Without Also Fighting For Social Justice
By: Barry Nerhus
Tags: Social Issues, Social Justice, Environment, Environmental Justice, Environmental Issues

We talk about justice for our planet and we talk about justice for humanity, but why do these deep-seated conversations usually happen independently of one another?

We can’t save the planet unless we’re fighting for fairness and equality. And we can’t liberate our society from injustices unless we’re working towards a more sustainable future for all. It’s like we forget that the state of our environment also impacts our way of life.

Environmental justice and social justice are interconnected. If we neglect this, we start believing that the Earth and humanity are separate from one another. Nurturing this estrangement between self and nature for too long will alter our perspectives on everything. We begin justifying the exploitation of the planet because we believe that certain factors are disposable. Like human lives.

People have always been collateral for ongoing environmental issues, and this will continue to happen unless we fight for environmental and social justice simultaneously. If you’ve never felt the impacts of this injustice, consider yourself lucky. You might have access to certain privileges and resources that allow you to sidestep these injustices, but your neighbors, other members of your community, and entire populations don’t.

When environmental justice or social justice are in conflict with one another, our planet and its people are in jeopardy. Let’s unpack this.

Money is the root of all evil

Every injustice that exists today is protected by wealth and power.

Experts “conservatively estimate” that climate change claims around 250,000 lives every year, and it’s marginalized populations that will suffer the most. Climate change exists because of billionaires, and it’s sustained because of billionaires. The wealthy profit off the fossil fuel industry and will protect them at all costs. This usually means pouring millions of dollars into blocking attempts to reduce carbon emissions.

More Americans live in poverty today because of the U.S.’s unlivable wages, and it has nothing to do with the state of our economy. Instead, giant corporations like Apple and Amazon continue to report higher earnings and knowingly choose to funnel that money back into the pockets of their shareholders and CEOs rather than raise employee wages. They can get away with this because our laws and policies allow them to take advantage of their employees.

Even the current pandemic illustrates the connection between environmental and social justice as it’s disguised by wealth and power. African American communities are four times more likely to die from COVID-19 than any other community. They are more disproportionately affected because of what they earn and where they live. Make no mistake, systematic racism has placed this population in areas where they struggle to find employment, purchase homes, and have access to hospitals and other healthcare facilities on purpose.

We’ve romanticized wealth and power as a society when we really should be dismantling it. The demands of the rich threaten humanity and the environment. We must be careful when we’re told that ‘new wealth’ will help us fight against these social injustices. The people that start these conversations are often wolves in sheep’s clothing. Instead, we must fight for the redistribution of wealth to eradicate and rebuild our world so that when we fight for environmental justice, we’re also fighting for social justice at the same time.

Beyond conscious consumerism and social advocacy

If you’re paying attention to the state of the world, you’ve read the ominous headlines of our planet crossing a dangerous ‘tipping point’ because of climate change. This news frightened a lot of people (as it should) and has metamorphosed entire generations into conscious consumers (as it should).

These save-the-planet consumers want to make the world a better place so they’ve changed their entire lifestyles. They ride their bicycles to work. They only shop from eco-friendly brands. They limit their waste and recycle more. But here’s the thing about conscious consumerism: it’s well-intentioned, but it’s not going to save the world.

A sustainable future isn’t possible if we’re just making small lifestyle changes, it’s about confronting larger issues like poverty, racial discrimination, and affordable, accessible healthcare. In order to save the planet, society’s needs need to be taken care of first. But this is bigger than one person becoming a social advocate. You can join Black Lives Matter protests, volunteer for a local soup kitchen, and donate your money to a charitable organization, but real change is more nuanced than that.

Be a conscious consumer and a social advocate, but don’t stop there. In order to achieve environmental and social justice, we can’t continue working under our current system. We need to stop participating in the cycle of taking things away from the system (think: buying sustainable products or receiving diplomas from universities) without also putting our resources, our knowledge, and our voices back into the system. One of the ways we can give back is by inciting change from the top-down, and where better to start than at the very top: our government.

The United States has the lowest rate of youth voter turnout than any other country. But it’s not because millennials and Gen Zers are too lazy or self-absorbed to vote — quite the opposite, actually. Younger generations don’t show up to vote because they’re confused about the process, they don’t feel as informed as they should, and they’re lacking confidence.

I’ve learned that it’s critical to educate the youth about everything that’s wrong with the world so that they can arm themselves with the knowledge and resources to fix it. They know our current system’s are ruining the environment, and their travel experiences have inspired them to want to protect the Earth. They’ve witnessed society’s inequalities and bias first-hand, and this experience has motivated them to advocate for change. And now, they’re recognizing how interconnected environmental and social justice really are.

We cannot continue to nurture the separation between people and planet. It’s this division that has made environmental and social injustices as bad as they are today. Mending the damage that’s already been done isn’t possible when we focus on one over the other; the two must be dealt with at the same time.