Environmental Justice is something that is relevant in the world today, even if the first world countries make it something as an afterthought. It is hard to talk about environmental justice while living in the United States, the largest consumer of material goods. Environmental justice requires me to find a middle ground in the spectrum between the environmental rights and human rights. This is because of the disparity between the northern hemisphere (with the majority of 1st world nations) and the southern hemisphere. As the environment continues to be negatively impacted by the consumption of the world, more and more countries are enforcing stronger environmental regulations. This is controversial because while they try and make their highly developed country more sustainable they continuously tell 2nd and 3rd world countries to do the same. The countries in the southern hemisphere that haven’t had a chance to develop are asking for their turn to develop. The northern countries have had the opportunities to industrialize causing most of the environmental issues today. This is the moral dilemma with environmental justice, allow the 2nd and 3rd world to develop to 1st world levels and continue to degrade the environment, or restrict them from developing into a better standard living and continue to imprison them in their current state. It is hard for me not to want to help the little guy, since the consumption of trivial goods here in the states is almost disgusting. I feel that giving a country the opportunity to develop sustainable food and water sources for themselves is worth the risk to the environment. But alas, I doubt it will happen soon, especially since the new ipad was released, and we all know how people will choose what to support. It is pretty difficult to turn down a screen that has that much resolution!!!
