ABSTRACT
I begin with a couple of paradoxes that may be relevant. Some recent journalistic accounts in the United States have suggested that the environmental justice movement there is ‘sputtering’, that its hoped-for political potential is not being realized and that it is fading as a political force from the scene (Braile, 1997). On the other hand, rapidly proliferating conferences and writings indicate a booming theoretical and intellectual interest in the topic—particularly within the groves of academia. I am not sure this paradox really exists (and I certainly have no conclusive evidence for it), but the mere suggestion of it worries me. It has obvious implications for the question of an adequate environmental ethics for the twenty-first century. Will all the talking and all the conferences contribute to or detract from the empowered capacity for political action on the part of those who suffer most from environmental injustice?
