Ecological Justice for Sustainable Future: Towards Sustainable Indonesia
Ecological justice is an important concept regarding the distribution of natural resources,
environmental burdens, and benefits for individuals and communities. All living things have
the right to have a healthy and sustainable living environment. Indonesia was created as a
country rich in natural products and must face many challenges to achieve ecological justice
for a sustainable future. These challenges have occurred in recent years, where there have been
many natural disasters, climate change, erratic weather, and loss of animal and plant habits.
These events impact human health and well-being. This challenge highlights this is where
ecological justice matters and the need for the future.
One of the most significant challenges currently occurring is the uncertainty of climate
change due to greenhouse gas emissions. Since long ago, we have announced that we should
be careful about greenhouse gas emissions which will cause global warming. However, due to
a lack of awareness in the past, we are now reaping the effects. According to REDD data (2005),
Indonesia contributes 2.05 Giga tons of greenhouse gas emissions. This fact places Indonesia
as the third largest carbon emitter in the world after America and China. The greenhouse effect
occurs because of the large number of greenhouse gases produced on earth, in the form of
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide, and other gases which are industrial natural
reactions. It can also occur due to illegal logging, excessive use of fossil fuels, seawater
pollution, and household waste. So that it has an impact on the earth, namely the emergence of
global warming, air pollution, melting of polar ice, damage to ecosystems and high levels of
ocean acidity, depletion of the ozone layer, and others.
The principle of justice according to Aristotle is that one another has similarities and must
be treated the same, if they are different they must be treated differently. It can be concluded
that justice is the context of the same portion for anyone. Meanwhile, the law is a system that
has order, a complete unity to achieve certain goals (Purwendah, 2019). It can be concluded
that ecological justice refers to environmental justice, especially concerning environmental
rights and benefits fairly among races, classes, and people's incomes (Collin, 2008). Bullard
(1994) identified five basic elements of environmental justice, including individual rights to be
protected from pollution, preferences for pollution prevention, shifting of the burden of proof
to those who dispose of waste or waste, waste/emissions do not provide different treatment,
and differences in risk sharing. addressed by action and target resources. Each living system
communicates with other living systems and even shares resources. Therefore, it is necessary
to have a sustainable human community to uphold ecological principles to create justice.
Apart from focusing on the environment, ecological justice also discusses how to
overcome the causes of environmental problems, which are often associated with
socioeconomic inequality and systemic injustice. For example, people living near waste sites
often have low incomes. Therefore, overcoming this problem requires an approach between
environmental, social, and economic aspects. Of course, it cannot work alone, from the many
ideas that are owned by the general public and scientists, support from the government, society,
and the private sector is still needed. In conclusion, ecological justice is an important concept
for a sustainable future for the needs of all living things. Achieving ecological justice requires
the active participation of society and cooperation with governments, the private sector, and
international organizations. With that, Indonesia can continue to preserve nature while meeting
the needs of society in a sustainable future.
By: Noveran Abigail Purba, MCU Master’s Program in Science Psychology.
Reference:
Majid dan Ghozali. 2015. Analisis Faktor-Faktor yang Mempengaruhi Pengungkapan Emisi
Gas Rumah Kaca Pada Perusahaan di Indonesia. Journal of Accounting, 4(4).
Purwendah, Elly K.. 2019. Konsep Keadilan Ekologi Dan Keadilan Sosial Dalam Sistem
Hukum Indonesia Antara Idealisme Dan Realitas. Jurnal Komunikasi Hukum, 5(2).