GLOBALIZATION AND SUSTAINABILITY
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Equity and Environmental Justice One of the major challenges with regard to environmental sustainability is the maintenance of equity and environmental justice. The environmental justice movement arose as result of the concerns about the health resulting from environmental degradation (Andrews 1999). The issue of equity is intertwined with environmental justice. The issue of equity has important implications. There are two types of equity: intra-generational and inter- generational equity. Inter-generational equity means that the use of resources should not be depleted, so the next generation lacks the resources to sustain life (Summers and Smith 2014; Nijaki 2015). Intra-generational equity, by contrast, refers to the use of the resources among the current population (Nijaki 2015). Intra-generational equity can imply the rich and the poor not only within a nation, but also between nations. The issue of lead poisoning in the water system of Flint, Michigan, in the United States led to allegations of environmental racism, since there was a disproportionate exposure of the black population in the area to polluted air, water, and soil. Poverty and segregation had forced many of the minorities to reside in the environmentally polluted areas and there was an allegation that most of the garbage incinerators are built in poor African-American neighborhoods because the minorities lacked political power. There were allegations that environmental racism led many of the poor African- Americans live in hurricane-prone areas. The water pollution was a result of a cost-saving decision to replace Detroit’s water system with the Flint River source. However, the government must not compromise the health and safety in the name of cost-saving. The other dimension of intra-generational equity involves regional and rural/urban issues. Environmental degradation can damage certain areas more than others, for example, the coastal areas of the United States. The people of these areas are more vulnerable to environmental calamities than other areas. Although environmental problems affect all people, some rural areas may suffer droughts and floods which threaten the livelihood of the people. Lal et al. (2011) show that the rural communities are more vulnerable than their urban counterparts because of demography, occupations, earnings, literacy, poverty incidence, and dependency on government funds. Moreover, the rural areas are primarily agricultural, supplying the food for the nations. The use of fertilizers comprises serious environmental problems. The government, therefore, has a responsibility to protect the people from natural calamities, and, simultaneously, make
