Environmental inequity - as unequal distribution of environmental "bads" - e.g. pollution - over social groups and space - often has the following characteristics:
- individuals with high environmental exposure are also socially discriminated
- high environmental exposure correlates with health problems
- the distribution of new environmental hazards increases existing imbalances
- environmental clean-up varies with status of different social or ethnic groups.
Unequal distributions of environmental pollution over social groups and space may be caused by various processes:
- beforehand, by siting decisions of investors, operators, or authorities according to potential resistance of affected individuals and communities (discrimination effect)
- beforehand, by cost-benefit-comparisons of various possible sites (market effect)
- afterwards, by decline of housing and living quality in affected regions, communities, and neighborhoods, moving out of "normal population", and moving in of marginalized individuals (selection or drift effect).
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