GEO 210 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Most Americans do not think that Black people are any more likely to be affected by pollution than white people, despite significant evidence that racism is a root cause of environmental injustice in the United States, a survey has found.

The European Union aims to deliver a healthy environment to its citizens, with significant progress achieved in tackling key environmental stressors in recent decades. At the same time, significant risks to health remain from air, soil and water pollution, noise, chemicals and the impacts of climate change. High quality environments - such as urban areas rich in green and blue spaces - offer significant benefits to health. The unequal distribution of these risks and benefits across society.

Indigenous peoples globally have high exposure to environmental change and are often considered an “at-risk” population, although there is growing evidence of their resilience. In this Perspective, we examine the common factors affecting this resilience by illustrating how the interconnected roles of place, agency, institutions, collective action, Indigenous knowledge, and learning help Indigenous peoples to cope and adapt to environmental change.

While the last two decades have seen important theoretical, empirical, and policy advancements in environmental justice generally, much remains to be done regarding Native Americans. Unique political and cultural dynamics shape the study and pursuit of environmental justice (EJ) in Native American communities. This review summarizes Native American EJ issues based on a cross-disciplinary search of over 60 publications.

More than 40 years after a catastrophic famine struck the region, the Sahel has once again become the focus of global attention. Poor economic performance, growing instability, and deteriorating climate conditions have combined to produce a vicious circle of increased poverty, instability, and communal violence. By drying out sources of livelihoods for populations mainly dependent on natural resources, climate change reinforces long-existing rivalries and increasingly triggers violence. In this paper, we argue that while climate change is a proximate cause of violence, institutional failures and clientelism1 are the actual root causes.