Nature reflects our nature k | ltlaDa
Environmental Justice , its dimensions , and how we decide what is just to do
?
Considering the view of the well-known philosopher of justice , John Rawls , in his book of 1971 — A Theory of Justice — he has claimed that : Justice is the first virtue of social institutions , as truth is of systems of thought . This means when we make decisions about how society is organized , our priority should ensure that any arrangements are just ; there is no reason to treat management of the environment as different . However , things seem inappropriate these days as environmental justice graves higher concern .
Justice in terms of the environment reflects how we look through the environmental issues , what must we choose to make just ; society or the environment ? Well , what is just thing to do is complex and it can be sorted if we look at the simple classification of environmental justice issues developed by David Schlosberg , which is still widely used . He classified the kind of justice claims into three ‘ dimensions of justice ’: distribution , procedure , and recognition . The picture below summarizes these three dimensions of justice :
Distributive justice concerns the distribution of benefits among individuals and groups ; however , it ’ s questionable if we take the example of the protected areas for biodiversity conservation . We see benefits due to conservation and injustice it ceased to local people due to restriction of use on resources ; it arises environmental conflicts as various stakeholders ( authorities and local people ) view things differently . Procedural justice is about how decisions are made and by whom ; it is concerned with governance and overall participation . It plays a val role in environmental justice as it might impact both dimensions . it might impact both dimensions .
Justice as recognition refers the respect for
difference and avoidance of domination . Often recognition injustice results due to discrimination where some people are treated as having a lower status
than others . Most of the discrimination matters arise from the rights allocated by formal institutions , informal cultural norms , and privileging some forms of knowledge over others ( modern scientific knowledge techniques over local knowledge systems .) These dimensions scope out the range of environmental justice issues and claims , but it says nothing about how we decide whether something is morally right or wrong . The ideas about justice are intractably plural if all three portions are included : Subject ( who do we care about morally ? Current harm to humans ?
To Future people ? To fauna ? To communities and ecosystem ?), Dimensions ( Is it just according to distribution , procedure , and recognition ?) and finally the principles we include . The principles are categorized on the main three traditions of ethical thinking : Duty or Right-based approaches , Utilitarian approaches , and virtue ethics . The Duty-based principles of justice are to identify what our duty is , to determine what is just . The important thing is that we try to do our duty — to do what is right . That means it is our intention that matters the most not the outcome . So how do we know what our duty is ? If we say concerning environmental issues , it is common to use existing human rights agreements as a basis for identifying the duties which should define the intentions .
Nature and Social Concern Society 97