Environmental Citizenship: A Model Linking Ecology with Social Justice Could Lead to a More Equitable Future

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IF YOU ARE reading this magazine, you likely have a sense of duty to help protect the environment. You probably recycle, seek out green forms of transportation, and perhaps you also exercise your political right to speak out about ecological issues.

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When a sense of duty or the existence of certain political rights conditions your actions toward the environment, your behaviour marries environmentalism with citizenship. The notion of "environmental citizenship," also referred to as "ecological" or "green" citizenship, has emerged in both academic debates and policy circles as a way to encapsulate and promote this powerful connection between environmental values and the formal relationships of political community.

Common concepts of environmental citizenship focus on how the environment is (or might be) included in the rights and obligations shared by citizens within existing political communities. While providing a useful starting point, this frame of reference leaves out the concepts of inclusion and recognition. With whom might you share environmental rights and responsibilities? Who is marginalized from environmental citizenship due to racism, sexism, economic inequality, arbitrary state borders, or by not yet being born? These kinds of questions explore the limitations of …