ESSAY IN SUPPORT OF APPLICATION FOR THE MASTERS’ COURSE IN

ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Trinidad and Tobago, 6th July 2017

In what ways might cities in the global south be environmentally unjust? What could
be some ways of addressing this injustice? Outline any challenges you might
foresee.

SHINELLE DELICE HILLS

 1

The rising of the sun reveals a thick blanket of smog cloaking the city. The

environmental protection agency issues several warnings. Citizens are advised to

avoid breathing in the toxic fumes, as the fires continue to burn at the Beetham

Landfill. Despite the announcements, many people act impervious to the billowing

clouds of smoke. Life continues as it always has and people continue to fulfill the

drudgery of their daily routines. A street sign that was once brightly colored, now

muted by dirt and film, cheerily greets visitors stating, “Welcome to Port of Spain.”

Some almost 3000 kilometres south, this scene is being mirrored in another

city in the Global South. The administrative region of Estrutural, Brasilia is built in and

around what is the largest Landfill in South America. Recent fires in the landfill have

left the air quality dangerously compromised, with the state government advising

residents against venturing into the landfill especially during these times. Many

people live and work in the waste, risking their health to scavenge for meager

earnings. These people expose themselves to toxins and fumes that drastically

increase their chances of being diagnosed with cancer or contracting communicable

diseases and dying.

The similarity in both stories is that these scenes take place in cities, which

were once ruled by nations of the North. Both stories represent the impact of man on

the environment and on each other. Both stories represent a depreciation in the

quality of life of those who live and work in these regions. Both stories represent

forms of environmental injustice in the Global South.

The concept of environmental injustice has not been static, but has morphed

over time to be more inclusive of various forms of ecological inequality and

unfairness, being witnessed throughout the world and experienced by a variety of

groups. The definition which most accurately summates environmental injustice, is

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the one being posited by Carmen Gonzalez in her paper, “Environmental Justice,

Human Rights, and the Global South” (2015)1. It states that, “environmental injustice

includes, but is not limited to distributive injustice, and must be expanded to include

procedural injustice, corrective injustice and social injustice.” Environmental injustice

has historically been a challenge for nations throughout the world, but particularly so

for nations of the Global South.

The term Global South, has a general applicability to what is termed as lesser-

developed nations. However, it is the definition by Atapattu and Gonzalez, which

uniquely summates all that the term encompasses. In their 2015 article2, they state

that the Global South is comprised of

“the generally less prosperous nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The Global South shares a history of Northern economic and political

domination, that prompted Southern nations to join forces as a negotiating

bloc (the Groups of 77 plus China) to demand greater equity in international

trade law and international environmental law.”

Historically, when one examined environmental injustice in the Global South, it

was often articulated as Northern dictatorship and exploitation, being visited upon the

vulnerable and less empowered nations of the South. However, modern exploration

of “environmental injustice” articulates the rising practise of “environmental self-

immolation” being practiced by the nations of the Global South. As articulated in

Atapattu and Gonzalez (2015)3, the Global South is within itself stratified into social,

economic and political classes, which dictates the distribution of wealth and how its

citizenry impacts upon and are affected by the environment. They go on to state that
1. GONZALEZ, Carmen. 2015. “Environmental Justice, Human Rights and the Global
South.” 13 SANTA CLARA J. INT’L L.151 Pg. 155 Seattle University School of Law Digital
Commons, Seattle. [online] Available from http://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/faculty/631
[Accessed 19 June 2017]
2. ATAPATTU, S. GONZALEZ, C. 2015. “The north–south divide in international
environmental law: Framing the issues” Pg. 2 Cambridge University Press, London.
[online] Available from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298705963_The_north-
south_divide_in_international_environmental_law_Framing_the_issues [Accessed 03 July
2017]
3. See ATAPATTU, S. GONZALEZ, C. supra note 2
 3

“This chapter recognizes… the heterogeneity of the countries that comprise

the global South; the existence of an elite economic and political class in

the South (the North in the South)… and the growing South-South

economic and environmental conflicts, including disagreements over

climate policy and over foreign acquisition of Southern agricultural lands

(the so-called "land grabs").” (Atapattu and Gonzalez, 2015)4

In the cases of both the Beetham Landfill in Trinidad and the Estrutural Landfill

in Brazil, we are able to witness how social, economic and political stratification

within both nations, impact negatively on the lives of those at the “lower end of the

totem pole.” In Trinidad, those who are forced to live and work within the immediate

vicinity of the Beetham Landfill are disproportionately poor, uneducated and are at

higher risk for diseases and health challenges. They are less upwardly mobile, have

less political and socio-economic clout and are often ignored when it comes to the

creation of polices. As articulated in the Trinidad Express in the article entitled, Some

causes of Poverty in East Port of Spain5,

“…..our study indicates that the Laventille area and its “diaspora” in

Beetham Gardens….are peopled mainly by dysfunctional one parent

(mostly female-headed) families, houses that are poorly appointed and

which are poorly provisioned with basic utilities and toilet facilities. In terms

of human capital, the community is possessed of a considerable number of

delinquent and illiterate youth with learning disabilities, incomplete

schooling, home environments that are characterised by violence, spousal

abuse widespread use of psychotropic drugs, high proportion of ex-prison

inmates, high mortality rates. The community is also deficient in terms of

social capital and financial capital.” (May 29, 2013).

4. GONZALEZ, Carmen. 2015. “Human Rights, Environmental Justice, and the North-South
divide”. In: GREAR, A. and Kotze, L.J. 2015 1st ed. [ebook] “Research Handbook on
Human Rights and the Environment”. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham,UK
5. Trinidad Express. Published on May 29, 2013. Some causes of poverty in East Port of
Spain. [online] Available from http://www.trinidadexpress.com/commentaries/Some-causes-of-
poverty-in-East-Port-of-Spain-209435071.html [Accessed 02 July 2017]
 4

The case of Estrutural City is quite the paradox, when one considers not only

the overall framework of environmental injustice, but in particular, procedural

injustice. The Estrutural Landfill is the cause of many health woes and infrastructural

inadequacies in Estrutural city, but it also represents the livelihood of many of the

residents and business people in that area. As of 2017, the Landfill officially stopped

receiving waste deposits which in turn caused a flood of protests from inhabitants of

the surrounding community. Those who are dependent on the operation of the landfill

for their economic survival have accused the Federal government and state

government of not including them in the decision making process to close the dump,

and in doing so, favouring political and private sector interests.

This behaviour is also mirrored in the case of the indigenous people of the

Amazon Rainforest. The Amazon rainforest spans many countries of South America,

and has been the focus of many forms of exploration such as mining, farming and

illegal logging. The indigenous people are the ones whom historically have borne the

brunt of these injustices. As MacLennan and Perch 20126 explain,

“The negative impact on local indigenous communities at the points of

extraction cannot be under-stated in regards to health, livelihood stability,

social disturbance, cultural resilience, and their critical importance and

adaptive capacity in the context of changing climatic patterns. Health-

related risks, in particular, can be created by lowered nutrition through

fewer or lower quality resources, declining fish stocks, the slow

regeneration of plant and animal species, droughts, increased rains, floods,

and natural disasters; all affecting indigenous livelihoods, a growing

unfamiliarity with their changing environments, and even increasing the

ease of land-grabbing in fringe areas of forests already destroyed.”

6. MACLENNAN, M. PERCH, L. 2012. “Environmental justice in Latin America and the

Caribbean: Legal empowerment of the poor in the context of climate...” [online] Available
from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282780481_Environmental_justice_in_Latin_America_a
nd_the_Caribbean_Legal_empowerment_of_the_poor_in_the_context_of_climate_changel
[Accessed 02 July 2017]
 5

The words of MacLennan and Perch also serve to connect the final thread of

the environmental injustice web which is social injustice “because environmental

degradation is inextricably intertwined with deeper structural ills such as poverty and

racism.” (Gonzalez 2015)7. The three aforementioned examples reflect a common

characteristic of the inhabitants of these communities, i.e. they are all low-income

communities and people of colour. The residents the Beetham are described as poor

and as descendants of slaves who abandoned the plantations. The residents of

Estrutural City are poor rural migrants generally from some of the poorest states in

North Brazil; and in the case of the indigenous people of the Amazon, they are often

not even considered citizens in their own countries since they do not subscribe to the

established system of national identification. Their lack of citizenship under the status

quo often exempts them from being recipients of environmental justice.

Scholars and advocates alike assert that in attempting to understand

environmental injustice, one must acknowledge the direct link between distributive

inequity, and the various aspects of environmental injustice. Simply focusing on one

aspect at the expense of others, or completely ignoring others, will not satisfy the

multiple and complex nature of injustice in the Global South. This plays a major role

in ascertaining lasting and impactful solutions, for environmental injustice.

Primarily, it is my belief that there needs for more applied research conducted

on critical environmental injustice issues, in countries of the Global South, and by

extension their cities. This must also work in tandem with stronger advocacy from

professionals not only in the environmental field, but also from the areas of health

and the legal field. These professionals can work alongside the grassroots

organizations in the over-burdened communities, as advisors and advocates, to

facilitate “training, technical assistance, and collaborative research, integrating

7. See GONZALEZ, C. supra note 1. Pg 155

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evidence-based data into action.” (Cifuentes and Frumkin, 2007)8. This multi-

disciplinary approach is vital to the multi-pronged approach needed in responding to

environmental injustices.

Scholsberg (2007)9 affirms that “these concepts of injustice are intricately

linked, and must be addressed simultaneously.” A simultaneous approach can be

quite daunting, because this involves many stakeholders, each desiring to press their

own agenda to the foreground. Nevertheless, the main actor on this stage needs to

be the government, but the actual solutions will require more than just government

input.

One challenge to this, however, can be the expanding notion of justice itself,

since “environmental justice has implications for collective and individual rights and

responsibilities.” MacLennan and Perch (2012).10 The case of the indigenous people

is such as example since there is an ever increasing push to establish what the

authors call “club rights”, which refers to the rights of a specific group within a specific

region. They go on to explain this stating,

“The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples estimates that there are

approximately 370 million indigenous people in about seventy countries

who have retained “social, cultural, economic and political characteristics

that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live”,38

thus constituting a specific group with distinct needs and experiences.”

Another means of combating these injustices lies in the strengthening of the

existing legislation, or enacting new legislation. The legislation should be “rights

based” since many advocates see an increasing overlap between environmental

legislation and human rights legislation. One such perspective is seen the

8. CIFUENTES, E.and FRUMKIN, H. 2007 “Environmental injustice: case studies from the
South” Environ. Res. Lett. 2 045034. Pg. 6 [online] Available from
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/2/4/045034/pdf. [Accessed on June 22 2017]
9. SCHOLSBERG, David. 2007. “Defining Environmental Justice”. 1st ed. [ebook] Oxford
University Press Inc., New York [Electronic Book version from NOOK]
10. See MACLENNAN, M. PERCH, L. supra note 6. Pg.294
 7

International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Political Rights, that, according to

MacLennan and Perch (2012)11

‘suggests that the following guarantees must be secured by the state for its

peoples, including the right to exploit resources for their own benefit:

“All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth

and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of

international economic co-operation, based upon the principle of mutual

benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its

own means of subsistence.” ’

This can present a challenge since in there lies the clash of rights between the

collective, such as the indigenous peoples right to occupation of land versus the

rights of the farmer to develop the land and pursue a livelihood.

The existence of organizations such the Inter-American Commission/Court for

Human Rights (IACHR), part of the Organization of American States12, has been an

advocate for human rights in the region of the Americas, and has historically been at

the forefront of addressing rights based issued in relation to environmental justice.

However, this does not guarantee environmental justice at a national level, because

by nature these laws and international conventions are voluntary. Thus, if a particular

government does not sign on to the treaty, there is no real way to enforce

international legislation, if it is not recognised at a national level to begin with.

Another aspect of addressing these environmental injustices is by also

recognising that “A major driver of environmental justice claims in Latin America and

the Caribbean has been the surge of extractive sector investments meant to serve

rising local and global demands.”13 Therefore a legislative approach to these

11. See MACLENNAN, M. PERCH, L. supra note 6. Pg. 294

12. See MACLENNAN, M. PERCH, L. supra note 6. Pg. 300
13. The United Nations Development Programme. “Environmental Justice Comparative
Experiences in Legal Empowerment” [online] Available from
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Democratic%20Governance/Access%20to%20Justi
ce%20and%20Rule%20of%20Law/Environmental-Justice-Comparative-Experiences.pdf
[Accessed on June 22 2017.] Pg.21
 8

developments must also address the issues of more transparency, and the creation

of a system of permitting, compliance and enforcement. Policy initiatives must be

official and legally binding, and these would be by way of governmental regulatory

standards. This legislation must not only encompass operations regulations, but also

include revenue and distribution reform.

With this revenue distribution, more resources can invested in enforcement,

thereby addressing the issues of pollution and public health burdens resulting from

environmental law violations in communities long over-burdened by them. A system

of compliance evaluation needs to be strictly adhered to, so that actions and

settlements arising from enforcements directly benefit these communities.

One must be mindful that these regulations are only as strong as the agencies

that enforce them. Lack of political will, neglect and corruption are recurring problems

that have hampered the environmental justice movements in the past, continue to do

so in present times, and probably will be an ever present challenge in the future.

Some cases of environmental injustice may be so detrimental, that there may

be a need to completely abandon the industrial activities in that particular area. The

profits from industrial activities often blind the government of the day to the greater

good, and this unchecked greed continues to be an aspect of the politics of the

Global South exploited by the Global North. This being said, there is a deeper

implication in the Global North - Global South relationship. This relationship is

reflective of the historic colonial past of these nations of the Global South, and the

current economic market structure that favours the Global North. This in its own way

facilitates the perpetuation of the aforementioned environmental injustices.

Acknowledging the complex relationship the four aspects of environmental

injustice have with each other is crucial to understanding how to combat this
 9

problem. Being overly focused on a single aspect to the detriment of the others, has

historically been proven to not provide long term benefits to the over-burdened

communities. As was stated earlier, a multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary approach is

necessary if any real progress is to be made in improving the lives of those who bear

the brunt of environmental injustice.

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