Environmental Justice

The development, implementation, and enforcement of regulations to address environmental burdens are key to achieving environmental justice (EJ). The participation of all people, particularly those experiencing environmental harms, in cocreating environmental regulations is termed procedural EJ. To date, scant attention has been paid to the involvement of laypeople in environmental enforcement, thereby potentially impeding realization of procedural EJ. I turn to New York City (NYC) to examine how laypeople are included in air pollution enforcement. In NYC, as elsewhere, air pollution is a major public health and EJ issue. To enforce the city’s Air Code, the Citizens Air Complaint Program (CACP) permits laypeople to report commercial vehicles for idling in excess of the legal limit. Lay complainants receive one-quarter of each paid fine. The number of idling summonses initiated by laypeople increased from 9,070 reports in 2019 to 124,330 in 2024. The CACP’s involvement of laypeople in environmental enforcement of air pollution is laudable and should be replicated. However, several important barriers exist that prevent broader participation in the program, thereby directly inhibiting the realization of procedural EJ. I highlight four dimensions of the CACP—bureaucracy and transparency, technical, digital literacy, and temporal—that limit its ability to realize air pollution producer accountability.

Extreme heat events are increasing in frequency and intensity with global climate change, and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations are at heightened risk of negative health effects. Urban areas are especially vulnerable to heat due to urban heat island effects, but the degree of heat exposure within a single city can vary greatly. At the same time, the legacy of redlining practices across the United States has contributed to a variety of social outcomes and inequities that persist today, all of which influence community vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Here, we investigate whether redlined areas in Columbus, Ohio, experience unequal exposure and susceptibility to extreme heat at multiple times of the day. We combine redlining data, socioeconomic indicators, tree canopy data, and morning, afternoon, and evening heat index data from a single summer day at the census tract level. We employ spatial lag models to assess the relationships between these data and heat exposure. Results reveal that historically redlined neighborhoods in Columbus face significantly higher temperatures, especially in the morning and evening. The significance of socioeconomic indicators varied by time of day. Our results point to compounding vulnerabilities to extreme heat based on historic redlining, income, age, and housing characteristics. Results raise concerns about morning and nighttime heat exposure in addition to daytime. These point to the need for equity-centered solutions that account for historic injustice to address extreme heat within the city of Columbus.

For centuries, lead (Pb) pipes have been used to convey water for public consumption, resulting in widespread negative health impacts caused by lead-contaminated water. In 2022, after years of urging by environmental justice advocates, the U.S. federal government announced a plan to replace all lead service lines via the Biden-Harris Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan (LPPAP) funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and American Rescue Plan. This announcement was celebrated as a massive victory for environmental justice advocates and the thousands of communities impacted by aging lead service lines. However, it also raises a critical question—what will become of the lead pipes after removal? In this article, we connect the lead service line removal initiative with the concept of “waste colonialism,” asking: How does critical environmental justice provide a lens to complicate our understanding of the LPPAP? Drawing on initial findings from research conducted in the city of Pittsburgh, PA, and insights from critical environmental justice scholarship, we critique the notion of environmental justice ending at national borders and argue that it is imperative that government programs adopt a comprehensive approach to environmental justice, one that considers global impacts—as well as equity—in the implementation of remediation efforts.

Environmental justice (EJ) movements have long relied on a three-part vision of justice: distributive, participatory, and recognitional. Although distributive principles can get the most attention, participatory and recognitional ideas of justice suffuse many core EJ statements and movement principles. They have also been challenged as less effective for policymaking by some scholars, despite being seen by others as “foundational” to effective distributive actions. Given this debate, this article asks if and when EJ advocates emphasize recognitional or participatory arguments in shaping government policies, and seeks to begin understanding the effects of these participatory and recognitional arguments. Specifically, it examines the prevalence of claims related to just participation and recognition compared with those related to distribution in a prominent recent policy process: The U.S. Justice40 Initiative. The article finds a clear focus on participatory and recognitional arguments in the Justice40 process, especially in the context of trying to build longer-term distributional changes and reducing the threat of government bias in implementing EJ policies. Despite the dramatic reversals to Justice40 in 2025, the article notes the continued relevance of these procedural and recognitional claims in EJ policymaking in practice, and their continued importance in building better and more durable EJ policies.

Recurring climatic and non-climatic hazards, combined with state negligence, challenge resource security for communities already burdened by environmental injustices. Grounded in community-based participatory research (CBPR) and action research (AR) traditions, this article reports results from a 3-year partnership with local leaders in Corcovada, Puerto Rico, to understand the relationships between food, energy, and water (FEW) security and community health in the wake of compounding hazards and disasters. Here, and elsewhere in Puerto Rico, environmental deregulation and state abandonment forces local leaders and community-based organizations into becoming the first responders for community-scale FEW insecurities. We conducted a participatory mapping exercise with 16 community leaders to co-learn about local experiences and response efforts after recurring hazards and disasters between 2011 and 2021. Participatory mapping facilitated a horizontal learning process to understand and communicate the interconnections between FEW insecurities and physical and social infrastructures, developing opportunities for knowledge co-production, capacity-building, and education at these intersections. Our partnership continues to strengthen community leadership in local decision-making, disaster mitigation, and resource management and allocation—and contributes a problem-oriented AR case for supporting frontline communities.

Following World War II, the Cold War era witnessed widespread nuclear weapons testing by several nuclear-capable states. These tests, conducted in various regions around the world, caused long-term environmental degradation and serious public health issues for local populations. France, as one of the recognized nuclear powers, played a significant role in this process. Between 1960 and 1966, France conducted 17 nuclear weapons tests in Algeria—4 atmospheric and 13 underground—during the colonial and immediate postcolonial periods. These tests caused radioactive fallout, environmental destruction, and a range of chronic health effects among local communities. In addition to the immediate impacts, France pursued a controversial policy of burying nuclear waste in the Algerian Sahara. Crucially, French authorities have never disclosed the precise locations of these waste disposal sites. Reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency indicate that radiation from these buried materials continues to affect the region, further exacerbating ecological risks and human exposure. The enduring consequences of these nuclear activities—including radioactive contamination, ecological degradation, and the socioeconomic vulnerability of affected populations—raise serious questions regarding historical accountability and justice. Within the framework of corrective environmental justice, this case reveals systemic violations of key environmental rights, such as access to information, community participation, and the right to a healthy environment. The lack of transparency surrounding the location of buried nuclear waste hinders effective remediation and poses ongoing risks to public health and environmental safety. This study argues that France’s nuclear legacy in Algeria should be addressed through a corrective environmental justice approach that includes recognition of harm, disclosure of buried waste locations, and long-overdue compensation or remediation efforts.

Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related event in the United States, but it is not regarded with the same urgency as other natural disasters. By 2050, Los Angeles is expected to experience about three times as many extreme heat days compared to today, which will likely disproportionately affect environmental justice communities. One barrier to mitigating heat-related vulnerability in frontline communities is a lack of awareness of available resources and adaptation strategies. The Prioritizing Local Action for Climate Equity study aims to bridge this knowledge gap through the usage of maps and map-based presentations in three Los Angeles environmental justice neighborhoods: Pacoima, South Los Angeles, and Wilmington. Particularly, printout maps were utilized during the study’s “Heat and Health” workshops as educational and discussion tools. In addition, a collection of ArcGIS StoryMaps was created to share heat resources and information related to heat vulnerability online. These StoryMaps were developed through an iterative process that integrated feedback from community partners, ensuring that the created tools are relevant to and address the needs of residents. The printout maps proved to be useful discussion tools and enabled the team to gain a deeper understanding of what resources are utilized during heat events. While community partners thought that the StoryMaps were informative and can serve as an educational tool about extreme heat and mitigation strategies, they identified opportunities for improvement, such as enhancing their utility in emergency situations regarding length and display limitations of the StoryMaps on mobile phones.