PUBPOL 3590

Environmental Justice and Policy

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Environmental justice, as defined by the U.S. EPA, refers to the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all individuals—regardless of income, race, color, national origin, Tribal affiliation, or disability—in agency decision-making and federal activities that impact human health and the environment. This principle ensures that all people are protected from disproportionate and adverse effects on their health and environment, including risks related to climate change, cumulative environmental burdens, and the legacy of racism and systemic barriers. It also emphasizes equitable access to a healthy, sustainable, and resilient environment for living, playing, working, learning, growing, worshipping, and engaging in cultural and subsistence practices (U.S. EPA, 2024). This hands-on seminar course explores key topics, policies, and themes in environmental justice, focusing on the disproportionate impacts of climate change and related adaptation and mitigation efforts, particularly on vulnerable groups, communities of color, and Indigenous communities. Additionally, the course examines policy drivers and levers that can create opportunities for meaningful change in the future.

When Offered Spring.

Permission Note Primarily for: upper-level undergraduate students.

• Recognize and explain the connections and intersections between inequality (social, economic, political) and environmental quality/sustainability.
• Illustrate and express why certain social groups and geographic communities are systematically overburdened with pollution and other environmental hazards.
• Relate concepts like environmental (in) justice, environmental racism, and racial capitalism to real people and communities through in-depth readings, course discussions, and engagement with community organizations.
• Give examples of the root causes of environmental injustices.
• Understand the history of environmental justice and identify key questions and obstacles to meeting goals of environmental justice.

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