The Geography of Injustice

Environmental injustice is correlated with other social and economic injustices, suggesting that most injustice results from human actions.  However, there is a global pattern of injustice imposed by environmental conditions that is rarely discussed. Poverty and many other social, economic, and environmental problems are severe within the tropics, and improve with distance away from the tropics.  The problem with “”tropical paradise” is that deficient soil nutrients in areas with abundant rainfall, or deficient rainfall in areas with higher nutrients, severely limit agricultural productivity.  Low agricultural productivity is the root cause of much of the poverty, and related problems of malnutrition, disease and environmental injustice that are concentrated within the Earth’s tropical belt.  Efforts to reduce environmental and social injustice and achieve a healthy and sustainable future for humanity will continue to fail until we recognize and address this natural global inequality in the food resources for all life on Earth.