SOCI 30263 Environmental Justice
Prerequisites: SOCI 20213 or 20223 or ANTH 20623 or CRES 10103 or 20003. Black, Indigenous, other people of color, working class, immigrant, women, and other marginalized groups bear the brunt of environmental problems in the United States and across the world, facing disproportionate impacts from things like air and water pollution, toxic chemicals, climate change, industrialization, and biodiversity loss. Why are certain groups systematically exposed to greater environmental burdens and fewer environmental amenities while other groups have access to clean air and water? What effect does this have on people's health and well-being? Who benefits from these inequalities and who makes decisions about environmental policies? This course draws on the work of sociologists and interdisciplinary scholars to examine how social, political, and economic systems create environmental injustices and health disparities across intersections of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. In turn, we explore how people work to remedy environmental problems. These lessons are applied to understanding, researching, and addressing contemporary environmental justice issues.