ABSTRACT
We noted in chapter 4 that distributive issues lie at the heart of environmental problems. There are a variety of different dimensions of inequality associated with environmental change. Environmental goods and harms are distributed unevenly across class, ethnicity and gender, within and across national boundaries, within and between generations, and between species. However, much of the discussion has centred on distributive problems concerning equity over time. As we noted in chapter 4, this focus on possible inter-generational equity in the distribution of environmental goods and harms can draw attention away from pressing problems of environmental injustice within current generations. However, there are understandable reasons for this focus, since problems of inter-generational equity are brought into greatest relief by specifically environmental change. Many of the environmental harms caused by our current practices will fall upon those who will follow us, while the benefits fall upon some (although by no means all) of those who live now. The problem of intergenerational equity has been addressed within the environmental literature primarily in terms of the concepts of ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’. Whether this approach clarifies or muddies the discussion of intergenerational equity is a moot point and one we will consider further in this chapter.
