Environmental Justice: Some Ecofeminist Worries About A Distributive M

Environmental Justice: Some Ecofeminist Worries About A Distributive Model ABSTRACT: Environmental philosophers, policy-makers and community activists who discuss environmental justice do so almost exclusively in terms of mainstream Western distributive models of social justice. Whether the issue is treatment of animals, human health or property, wilderness and species preservation, pollution or environmental degradation, the prevailing and largely unchallenged view is that the issues of environmental justice are for the most part distributive issues. I think this wholesale framing of considerations of environmental justice solely in terms of distribution is seriously flawed. Drawing on both ecofeminist insights into the inextricable interconnections between institutions of domination and Iris Young’s work on the inadequacy of distributive models of social justice, I argue for the twofold claim that a distributive model of environmental justice is inadequate and that what is needed is an additional nondistributive model to supplement, complement and — in some cases — take precedence over a distributive model. Introduction Environmental philosophers, policy-makers, and community activists who discuss environmental justice do so almost exclusively in terms of mainstream Western distributive models of social justice: Environmental justice is about the fair or equitable distribution of environmental goods, services, and "resources." I think this wholesale framing of environmental justice issues solely or primarily in terms of distribution is seriously problematic. Drawing on both ecofeminist insights concerning the inextricable interconnections between institutions of human oppression and the domination of the natural ... ...as helped me think through my own ecofeminist worries about how issues of environmental justice have been construed. So I use what I take to be the salient features of Young’s critique to sketch both the limitations of such a model for environmental issues and the reasons for saying that what is needed is a supplementary nondistributive model. (9) See, for example, my two essays, "The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism," Environmental Ethics, Spring 1990, vol. 12 (3): 125-146, and "A Feminist Philosophical Perspective on Ecofeminist Spiritualities," in Ecofeminism and the Sacred, ed. Carol J. Adams (New York: Continuum Press, 1993): 119-132. (10) Young: 18. (11) Young: 4. (12) Anthony Weston, Toward Better Problems: New Perspectives on Abortion, Animal Rights, the Environment, and Justice (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1992): 141.>