Justice in and to the environment: Ethical uncertainties and political practices

Abstract

As the world moves towards increasing rather than reducing inequality, the question of justice forces itself on to the political agenda. But that agenda is also shaped today by people's growing fears for the future of the planetary environment. In this paper we explore the connection between just distributions of environmental values - justice in the environment - and the just relationship between humanity and nature - justice to the environment. We discuss current uncertainties about 'justice' as an ethical category. We conclude that justice cannot be dispensed with. But, in the face of postmodernist critique of 'totalising discourse', how can universal principles be reasserted? There is a ..