Environmental Justice in the College and University Curriculum: A Survey of the Literature

While the general public ethic upholds the notions of equality for all, protection from harm both natural and human-generated, and impartiality in the application of law, the ethic breaks down for many communities of color and poverty. Environmental injustice can be found in both urban and rural areas and is too often considered as simply part of the landscape. It was reasoned that this is in part due to a lack of knowledge about the issues of environmental justice within the general public. It was also reasoned that the American educational system, in particular higher education, is the most logical transmission venue for such information. This article reports the findings of an extensive literature review looking at if and how topics of environmental justice are being included in the curriculum and classrooms of higher education.