On Intergroup Environmental Justice

Environmental justice appears with the further development of the western environmental protection movement, it becomes another environment thought after the environment ethics. In the practical problems that the practice of environment protection faces, environmental injustice is most striking which is caused by unequal rights and duties in environmental protection. Due to social stratification, the poor group and the rich group have asymmetrical status on environmental issues. The poor group become the main victims, but the rich group actually destroys the environment without taking corresponding responsibilities, thus giving rise to environmental injustice between them.Intergroup environmental injustice can mainly be identified in the uneven distribution of environmental benefits and environmental responsibilities, and in the great different ways of pursuing benefits and value. For one reason or another, the poor group has no choice but to guard environmental resources for others, becoming rare visitor of environmental resources, watchman of environmental benefits,and suffering harm from environmental pollution. But on the other hand, the rich group can use environmental resources at low cost, obtains lots of environmental benefit, and put environmental pollution onto the shoulders of poor group naturally. The essence of environmental injustice is the unequal environmental rights and environmental responsibilities for the poor group and the rich group. The poor group fulfills lots of obligations, but hardly enjoys symmetrical environmental rights. On the contrary, the rich group enjoys lots of environmental rights, but don't fulfill symmetrical environmental obligations. The environmental injustice between the poor group and the rich group is also a reflection of social injustice on environment. There are a great many reasons underlying the environmental injustice between the poor group and the rich group, including market factors, natural factors, and social factors. The main reasons lie in the contradiction of economic rationality and environmental human rights; the scarcity, the publicity and the externality of environmental resources and the uniqueness of the use of them; the injustice social system and its chain reaction.Intergroup environmental injustice seems like merely the problem existing in environmental field. But by further study, it can be identified as related to the three forms of traditional standard ethics: Deontology, Utilitarianism and Virtue ethics. To some extent, intergroup environmental injustice takes as the result of utilitarianism. In environmental issues, there is an trend overemphasis on the result, but ignoring the fair distribution of the environment benefit, violate the environmental rights of the poor group. At the same time, it has clear moral deficiencies, but also is queried by Virtue ethics.Environmental justice seeks equal rights on environment between people and groups. Environment is essential, irreplaceable for everyone. In order to achieve intergroup environmental justice, it is necessary to achieve equality in the distribution of environmental benefits by ensuring the achievement of civil environment rights and making all people share the development achievement; to achieve norm justice by improving the ecological compensation system and regulating the emerging environmental injustice; to achieve a fair return in the process of exchange of environmental resources by clearing property rights of environmental resources and formulating a reasonable price system of environmental resources.