'Environmental justice' refers to the human right to a healthy and safe environment, a fair share of natural resources, access to environmental information and participation in environmental decision-making. Some analysts have argued that environmental justice is undermined by the political economy of capitalism. This paper builds on this analysis by evaluating the environmental justice situation in Cuba, a country where there is little capitalist influence. Evidence is based on participant observation and interviews in Cuba, as well as secondary quantitative data. The research findings suggest that Cuba fares relatively well in terms of environmental justice, but still faces a number of challenges regarding the quality of its environment and some aspects of the environmental decision-making process. However, many of its ongoing problems can be attributed to global capitalist pressures.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
301 p., Brings together scholarship bridging ecocriticism and postcolonialism. Includes Sabine Wilke's "South America and the Caribbean. Performing tropics : Alexander von Humboldt's Ansichten der natur and the colonial roots of nature writing" and Bonnie Roos' "Rewriting Eden in Walcott's Omeros : a sea change of stories in visible silence."
