Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2008

Abstract

In 2004, in response to an article titled Death of Environmentalism, many in the environmental community engaged in a debate about whether the environmental movement was capable of adequately inspiring the public to effectively respond to climate change. This Article examines the strand of this debate that centered upon responses from environmental justice actors to the larger environmental community. Specifically, the ensuing conversations raised questions about who, precisely, is the environmental community, what is its historical legacy, how should the environment be conceptualized to promote more effective climate policy, the role of technocratic solutions, and the need for transformative coalition building. This Article argues that there is much to draw upon from the experience of the environmental justice community in the project of building a more inclusive and coherent response to climate change. The Article concludes with the need to focus upon methods for building stable coalitions of diverse constituencies, a focus that requires an examination of privilege, diversity, interdependency, and distributional concerns.

Publication Title

Environmental Law

Volume

38

Issue

2

First Page

457

Comments

Special Issue on Environmental Justice

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