Main content
Course: MCAT > Unit 14
Lesson 1: Social inequality- Social inequality questions
- Overview of social inequality
- Upward and downward mobility, meritocracy
- Intergenerational and intragenerational mobility social mobility
- Absolute and relative poverty
- Social reproduction
- Social exclusion (segregation and social isolation)
- Environmental justice
- Residential segregation
- Global inequality
- Prejudice and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, power, social class, and prestige
- Health and healthcare disparities in the US
- Intersectionality
- Class consciousness and false consciousness
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Environmental justice
Environmental justice explores how societal location affects exposure to environmental benefits and risks. Wealthier communities often enjoy more benefits like parks and green spaces, while poorer, often minority, communities face more burdens such as waste facilities and pollutants. This imbalance contributes to health problems like asthma and obesity in disadvantaged groups. Fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens is needed.
Created by Arshya Vahabzadeh.
Want to join the conversation?
Don't environmental benefits mentioned in this video only benefit when they are used? For example, what if someone made the argument that more affluent people could afford PS4 so their kids spent all day inside playing video games whereas less affluent children did not have video games and so spent more time outside playing. How would having un-used parks benefit the rich in this case?(2 votes)
You have to remember choice. Higher income, well-educated individuals with environmental benefits can choose whether they would like to ride a bike, go to a clean park, etc. Many individuals living in poverty or in polluted, congested areas do not have a choice regarding whether they live near a park, eat clean foods or hold a job that will not harm them. They either do not make enough money, aren't educated about the issues or are not welcome in the cleaner, less polluted places to live due to social exclusion and segregation (usually hidden). It is not solely their fault they live in areas with higher health risks. As addressed in the video, those with more power tend to improve their own situations - meaning the underrepresented, lower class individuals do not receive improvements such as clean air, parks, bike paths and reduced congestion.(34 votes)
There might be a confounding variable here. What if people with high SES status move away from areas with low environmental benefits/high environmental burdens?(5 votes)
That's a good point! I think the main idea behind environmental justice is that people who have less access to societal resources (social, economic, political, etc.) have less efficacy over where they are living. So you're right, people who have a high SES have the power to move away from these undesirable areas while people with a low SES are left in them since they don't have the resources to move away or fight against the negative change. Hope that helps!(6 votes)
In your video it seemed to really speak of the two extremes (either high poverty or high economically powerful). Would individuals in the middle class society experience both the benefits and burdens in "equal" proportional since they aren't technically economically powerful but also not considered in high poverty; thus placing them right in the middle of your "theoretically drawn line"?(2 votes)
I don't understand his argument. He's saying a lot of work still needs to be done in the area of "environmental justice". Obviously you are going to have a better quality of life if you are more wealthy. What's the purpose of climbing up the latter of success if you don't? If you live in a poor area you still have the opportunity to become a successful person, advocate changes, or simply leave.(0 votes)
I think you are completely missing the point of the video and the concept of social inequality as a whole. You mentioned that someone who is in a poor area should advocate for change or simply leave however this is easier said then done. A person living in a poorer community has considerably less access to societal resources such as education, finances and social power to make the same impact someone who has a high SES would be able to do. They are not only at a disadvantage environmentally based on their location but socially based on their class.(14 votes)
I may be misinterpreting the idea behind the environmental justice spectrum, but I do understand environmental justice. (Correct me if I am wrong - environmental justice is the equal or unequal distribution of benefits/burdens across all groups and is correlated to segregation and/or social exclusion.) My question is what or where is the line drawn between benefit or burden? As stated in the question below, when does a Benefit (PS4) become a burden (keeping one from the park and limiting social interaction)? The answer stated choice and availability, and yes, I see how availability relates to environmental justice, but does 'choice' have to do with environmental justice? Or is this another topic/idea altogether? [Does environmental justice also include the desire (choice) to utilize the surrounding benefits or stray from the surrounding burdens?](1 vote)- It's too absurd how low classes in America suffer from obesity which means they're way too higher than the absolute poverty line where here in Middle Eastern countries low classes suffer from severe malnutrition because they can't even access food.(1 vote)
Economicly speaking, isnt there a great monitary benifit to life in these more urban areas? Low SES areas are generally cheeper for all the reasons stated in the video. All else being equal and being force to choose between high and low SES areas, if someone starts with X amount of money and chooses to live in a low SES area wouldn't they be gaining a monitary benifit equal to that of the benifits that are not avalible in the low SES area? There is another comment mentioning confounding variables and I belive those varibles which are not mentioned in the video and should be are how personal economics force these sitiuations.(0 votes)- isn't environmental riches an excuse for the rich to waste finite resources?(0 votes)
It wouldn't make sense if environmental benefits and burdens were evenly distributed. If you've played any SimCity game, you'd know that the rich will only move into areas with low air pollution, lots of parks, etc, while the poor naturally get limited to the highly polluted areas. This is at least partially representative of real life. The rich choose to live in environmentally good areas, which also have high land values, so the poor have to live in the bad areas.(0 votes)
That is exactly why these burdens and benefits should be evenly distributed. If all the places to live had equal amounts of benefits and burdens, then the poor wouldn't be forced to live in the less hospitable areas.(1 vote)
Video transcript
- Where we live in
society plays a huge role in the environmental benefits and risks that we're exposed to. And, I'm gonna actually draw in different parts of
society by using this line which represents a spectrum of society. On the right hand side I'm gonna draw part of society that
experiences higher poverty and also incorporates
the often disadvantaged racial and minority groups. On the left hand side I'm gonna draw a much wealthier part of society. One of the things that we know is that living areas that experience high poverty and have a
lot of racial minorities often have few environmental benefits compared to the wealthier part of society. What do I mean by environmental benefits? I mean green spaces,
parks, recreational areas. What does that look like? Well let me draw it for
you, using this triangle. This is supposed to represent
environmental benefits. And one of the things we can see is that the wealthier part of society has much higher benefits
than the high poverty and racial minority part of society. And as I mentioned, those benefits include things like parks, bike paths, and other green spaces. So one part of society seems to be getting a lot of benefit while
another part of society seems to not be getting as much benefit. But what the high poverty
and racial minority part of society does get,
it does get something, and what it does get, it gets a lot of environmental burden. So what does that look like? This line is actually
supposed to represent increasing burdern. So compared to the high
income part of society the high poverty and racial minorities get increasing burden. And this includes things
like waste facilities, manufacturing and factories, energy production, and transportation
facilities such as airports. And one of the things we have to consider is that these are
disadvantaged populations, they are really at risk because they're
disadvantaged in many ways. They often have few alternatives in terms of where they
work and where they live. They may have little awareness of the risks they may face being exposed to various environmental risks
or pollutants or chemicals. They may also have other pressing issues, meaning that environmental issues are low on their agenda and let us contrast that to
the wealthier population. The wealthier population may very well be more politically powerful, they can also be economically powerful, literally being able to demand that the environmental
beneficial facilities are placed close to them, and the burdensome facilities
are placed far away. And being able to control things like laws and regulations to benefit them more so than the other communities. And they can also be better represented in environmental groups
or lobbying groups. Now this is all of significance when we consider that
the high poverty groups and racial minorities
may have health problems such as asthma or obesity, because we know conditions like asthma have
got strong correlations to environmental issues
such as pollutants, particles and ozones, and these are part of
the environmental burdens that these populations face. And also when we consider obesity, obesity can be thought of as a lack of access to safe recreational facilities where people can exercise. So a lack of access to
environmental benefits, and lack of access to affordable grocery and shopping facilities. The big concept here,
that I want to write down is the concept of environmental justice. And what this concept really looks at is that there is a fair distribution of the benefits and burdens, of the environmental benefits and burdens within society, across all groups. And as we can see here, that is clearly not happening at the moment, and much action still needs to be taken.