Environmental Inequality and Justice

Catalog description

(also ENV 2330 ) This course will explore some of the most challenging environmental and social problems facing our world today. Some of the key themes in environmental sociology students will study are: environmental attitudes; environmental movements; climate change; waste; and food. One prominent theme running throughout the course will be that of climate injustice, or the environmental injustices associated with climate change, from the burdens experienced by communities associated with coal and oil extraction, to the justice considerations within global climate policy. The poor, indigenous groups, and people of color have historically been exposed to a disproportionate share of environmental hazards. We will trace the origins of the uneven distribution of environmental problems across communities, examine ways to measure environmental inequality, and analyze how environmental problems—both manmade and natural—reflect and exacerbate social inequality.