Environmental issues

Environmental conflict is a conflict caused over environmental degradation in the course of mismanagement of environmental resources.[11][12][13] Usually several parties are involved, including environmental defenders who want to protect the environment, and those who want to or are mismanaging the environment for something else, typically extractive industry.[11] The mismanager of the environmental resources may be causing overuse or extraction of a renewable resource (i.e. overfishing or Deforestation), causing overstrain on the ability of the environment to respond to pollution and other inputs, or degrading the living space for humans and nature.[14]

Frequently these conflicts focus on environmental justice issues related to the rights of indigenous people, the rights of peasants or threats to other livelihoods, such as those of fisherfolk or communities dependent on the natural resources of the ocean.[11] Environmental conflict, especially in contexts where communities have been displaced to create environmental migrants or geopolitical disputes, can amplify the complexity of other conflicts, violence or response to natural disaster.[15][13][14]

Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms associated with resource extraction, hazardous waste, and other land uses.[16] The movement has generated hundreds of studies establishing this pattern of inequitable exposure to environmental harms,[17] as well as a large interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes theories of the environment and justice, environmental laws and policy, sustainability, and political ecology.[16][18] The environmental justice movement began in the United States in the 1980s and was heavily influenced by the American civil rights movement.

The original conception of environmental justice in the 1980s focused on harms to certain marginalized racial groups within rich countries such as the United States and was framed as environmental racism. The movement was later expanded to more completely consider gender, international environmental discrimination, and inequalities within disadvantaged groups. As the movement achieved some success in developed and affluent countries, environmental burdens have been shifted to the Global South. The movement for environmental justice has thus become more global, with some of its aims now being articulated by the United Nations.

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Environmental law
Pollution control law
Environmental impact assessment Air quality law Water quality law Waste management law Environmental cleanup law
Natural resources law
Species protection Water resources law Mining law Forestry law Fisheries law Game law
Reference materials
Environmental journals International environmental agreements Environmental laws by country Environmental lawsuits Environmental ministries Supranational environmental agencies
Related topics
Administrative law Bankruptcy law Climate change litigation Earth jurisprudence Ecocide Energy law Environmental crime poaching Environmental personhood Environmental justice Insurance law International law Land law Land use Law of the sea Property law Public trust doctrine Rights of nature Right to a healthy environment War and environmental law Wild law

Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment.[19] A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the management of specific natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries. Other areas, such as environmental impact assessment, may not fit neatly into either category, but are nonetheless important components of environmental law.

The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advocate the just and sustainable management of resources and stewardship of the environment through changes in public policy and individual behaviour. In its recognition of humanity as a participant in (not enemy of) ecosystems, the movement is centered on ecology, health, and human rights.

The environmental movement is an international movement, represented by a range of organizations, from enterprises to grassroots and varies from country to country. Due to its large membership, varying and strong beliefs, and occasionally speculative nature, the environmental movement is not always united in its goals. The movement also encompasses some other movements with a more specific focus, such as the climate movement. At its broadest, the movement includes private citizens, professionals, religious devotees, politicians, scientists, nonprofit organizations, and individual advocates.