It’s Not Fair!

Introduction

Show students the image of blind justice e.g. Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Ask students what they think it represents. Ask if it is justice, why is it a woman? Why is she blindfolded?

Share: “Lady Justice is based on the Greek goddess Themis − honoured as clear-sighted − and the Roman goddess Justicia − honoured as representing the virtue of justice. She is blindfolded because justice is unbiased and should not be based on a person’s appearance or other outside influences.”

Ask: What could those outside influences be? (Wealth, position, religion, race, gender, level of education etc… ) Give examples where needed and say: All things which should not influence justice -not in our courts of law, and not in terms of exposure to environmental health hazards. This is called Environmental Health and Justice.

Share: “Europeans live well but some are more vulnerable. Compared to other world regions, Europeans enjoy good quality of life. EU policies and legislation, (such as the Seventh Environment Action Programme (7th EAP) and the Cohesion Policy), have led to economic growth and improvements in living conditions and environmental standards.” Source:
https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications

Say: The Environmental problems people live with though do not reflect ‘justice’. The area people live in, or the job they do exposes them to more or less environmental hazards that can affect their health.

Objectives

• To understand the concept of environmental justice
• To help students realise that even in Europe, people experience environmental issues to different extents
• To understand the concept of justice in relation to the environment
• To understand terms such as, ‘ social vulnerability’, ‘socio
  demographic’.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this learning scenario, students will be able to:

• Understand, and speak about how different sectors of society are
exposed more or less to environmental health threats
• Relate ‘justice’ and ‘injustice’ to the topic.
• Identify areas where people are exposed to environmental health
hazards in their own town (or nearby town if their own area is
lucky enough to be unaffected– watch out though for agricultural
hazards).
• Consider how vulnerable sectors can have more justice.