Not on my planet

Environmental justice is a way of making sure that the poorest communities do not become environmental fall guys. People in the most deprived 10 per cent of areas in England experience the worst air quality. Globally it’s the same. The poorest countries become toxic dumping grounds and big businesses apply less stringent environmental rules at their depots in the third world. Even in the US, if companies can get away with polluting a neighbourhood they may well try. Remember Erin Brockovich?

All over the world it tends to be the people with the least power and money that suffer most from weather events linked to pollution. In Africa, if you don’t have the means to find another piece of land away from a drought disaster zone your family will be starving. Even in Europe, record-breaking heat led to around 30,000 deaths in 2003, mainly elderly or poorer people who simply could not escape it. Whether it’s pollution (no clean air or water), poverty, an unfair share of resources (access to food), or coping with climate change, the impacts of environmental injustice always seem to fall disproportionately on the vulnerable.