ABSTRACT
In the USA, environmental justice is used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the context of environmental laws and policies1 and has historically been concerned only with justice among people. ‘Environmental justice’ became popular in the 1980s as a response to the discrimination that resulted in toxic dumping, landfill and other land-use decisions that disproportionately impacted communities of colour. Humanity is facing a planetary crisis of a scale and severity that is unprecedented for our species and which will impact all areas of our lives, curtailing basic freedoms and rights and degrading our ability to house, feed, clothe and educate ourselves. The climate crisis has long been associated with environmental injustice, and for good reason. Governments can use regulation to safeguard the life support systems that our planet provides, or use it to unravel them.
