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Top1. Introduction
There have been many global events that point to the existence of environmental racism, and the demand for environmental justice was both an acknowledgment of environmental racism and a demand for its resolution. In an American context, there is a consensus that racial minorities disproportionately bear environmental risks (Ruhl & Ostar, 2016; Besek, Robinson, & Rosenbloom, 2020). This is because racial minorities often occupy the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder (Williams, Priest, & Anders, 2016). It has been acknowledged that the most people vulnerable to environmental risks are racial minorities and people of low socioeconomic status (Ruhl & Ostar, 2016). This is because they have less access to amenities and the facilities that are needed for their basic survival. In a broader context, people in the Global South bear more environmental risks than the developed world as they are less-equipped to fight climate change and environmental pollution (Akanwa & Joe-Ikechebelu, 2020).
There has been a trend of toxic waste dumping in the Global South. In the form it currently occurs in, it is masked as trade, as used goods find their way from the Global North to the Global South. For instance, the increase in the flow of e-waste that goes to the Global South from the Global North has presented a significant cause for concern as it is poorly managed and often leads to environmental toxicity amongst local populations where there is an attempt to recycle it (Okafor-Yarwood & Adewumi, 2020). Environmental justice has developed as a concept to embrace the discourse on environmental relations from the period of racial segregation in the United States to time-frames far beyond that (Akanwa & Joe-Ikechebelu, 2020). One of the pillars of environmental justice is that there is meaningful involvement by all people regardless of their race, socioeconomic status and national origin. There is evidence to show that in some regions of the world, like Africa, many countries are not resilient enough economically and developmentally to cope with environmental crisis. For instance in 2019, Mozambique was devastatingly hit by Cyclone Idai, which caused an immense flooding, loss of lives and humanitarian challenges. Mozambique has been at the epicenter of climate change induced environmental problems in Africa, ranging from droughts, cyclones and great floods (Charrua, Padmanaban, Cabral, Bandeira, & Romeiras, 2021). Yet it is one of the many poor African countries that are quite vulnerable to the effects of climate change and environmental pollution. Asides climate change impacts on African countries, there is also the problem of environmental pollution. Fayiga et al., found that electronic waste recycling had the greatest impact on the soil in African countries (Fayiga, Ipinmoroti, & Chirenje, 2018). Despite this, electronic waste continues to find its way to Africa, without any sustainable strategy for its safe disposal (Okafor-Yarwo & Adewumi, 2020).
International trade has caused an exploitation of poorer communities of the world as more developed states shift their environmental and industrial burdens to lesser developed countries (Jorgenson & Hornborg, 2010). It has been argued that environmental degradation is significantly challenging for fragile states, as there is often much pressure on already weak institutional capacity to address the issues it presents (Wijeyaratne, 2009). In countries like Nigeria, climate change has worsened herdsmen and farmer clashes since drought has caused more southward migration of herdsmen to communities where farming is the subsistence (Imo, 2017). Also in Côte d’Ivoire, clashes between farmers and herders in Bouna that occurred in 2016 caused the displacement of thousands and the death of 27 people (Nnoko-Mewanu, 2018).