Historically marginalised communities have suffered disproportionately from environmental hazards such as waste dumps and polluting industries, In the US African-Americans are twice as likely to live next door to a polluting industry than their white counterparts. In the UK Friends of the Earth found that 90% of London 's polluting industries were located in low-income neighbourhoods and in England and Wales , the poorest families are twice as likely to have a polluting factory close by. Perversely, the international negotiations on climate change have globalised traditionally regional environmental justice issues in that Southern countries will now become a huge 'carbon dump' for wealthy industrialised nations.

Environmental justice in the USA The civil rights movement of the 1960s in the United States empowered people of colour, especially African-Americans, to use civil disobedience in their struggles. In 1982 the connection between environmental justice and racial justice became a movement. In Warren County, North Carolina a landfill site was created to dispose of PCB contaminated soil. Warren County is predominantly an African-American low income community. Many local civil rights and environmental rights activists began demonstrating, leading to the arrests of over 500 people and sparking dissent around what was soon called the Environmental Justice Movement in the US .

Studies followed including one by the US General Accounting Office showing that three out of four hazardous waste landfills were situated in 'minority' communities. The study also showed that African-Americans were the predominant population in areas with the highest number of toxic waste sites. Soon after this study took place, the National Law Journal found that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took 20% longer to prioritise abandoned sites in minority communities for clean-up, as compared to the time it took the EPA to prioritise sites in white communities. It was also noted that polluters of such communities paid fines 54% lower than polluters of white communities.

Environmental justice is also a major issue on and near Indigenous Lands which are consistently exploited for uranium mining, deforestation and toxic dumping. However, environmental justice goes far beyond the movements that began in the 1980s in the USA and more deeply into the inequalities borne from imperialism and colonialism. The issue itself is a global phenomenon. This is no longer seen as an experience in only specific racist dumping grounds but globally in the form of climate change driven by the similar roots of colonialism.

Durban Group for Climate Justice

Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative, USA

Friends of the Earth Scotland Environmental Justice campaign

Corporate Watch USA

Environmental Justice Resource Center

Friends of the Earth report on environmental justice in the UK

Study on sulphur trading and environmental injustice in the USA

Environmental Racism Greenpepper