Oldal 214 [214]
212 GYULA NAGY
have the right to a life exempt from environmental hazards. The liberal view spells
out the rights of individuals and groups. This view holds that they have the right
to an environment that ensures the basic conditions for a healthy life (Fig. 3).
Both positions proclaim that it is indispensable to ensure an environment necessary
for a healthy, guality life, so the goals of the two views are identical in terms of
environmental justice. That said, they still differ in the interventions, actions, and
modes of realization necessary for environmental justice, which may have varying
efficiency in diverse social contexts, including ineffective intervention or even a
fiasco. One thing is certain: under both views, the right to a healthy environment
is based on reciprocity, that is, when someone causes damage to the environment,
he/she is obliged to remedy it or bear the costs of rehabilitation.
Libertarian Liberal
> Right to the <
environment
Environmental harms Liveable and good
and damage quality environment
Figure 2. Approaches to environmental justice. Source: author
This opposition of approaches is apparent in decisions concerning the environment
(Fig. 3). The liberal viewpoint accepts state intervention in the interest of social,
economic and political welfare. It is, however, an important proviso that state
intervention may not result in any restriction of the rights. However, it admits
that owing to the vulnerability and uniqueness of nature, intervention or other
activities in the present may generate unexpected effects in the future, in which
case the responsibility is to be borne by the state. Consequently, interventions may
not be taken for something permanent and generally valid (Weston 2008; Becchi
2012). One of the many reasons why the state’s involvement is necessary is for
guaranteeing the common good in a changing context and environment. However,
there are various ideas as to what warrants adequate rights for everyone and what
serves the common good. These depend on the local norms of law and justice, on
the institutional system, and on the typical processes. Prior to the intervention, it
is necessary to have a so-called social contract, which defines the ideological concept
of justice in a legal and moral sense (Weston 2008). The libertarian position allows
for the least possible state decision in the interest of eliminating inequality, because
the market mechanisms are there to solve it. Whichever view one sides with, one
must admit the subjectivity of justice and injustice and the process of perceiving
the alleged or real environmental hazards and risks.
Libertarian Liberal
Decision makin
limited assumption process . a:
of responsibility accepting responsibility
Equalizing mechanism State intervention
of the market
Figure 3. Attitudes to interventions affecting the environment;
“orientation” of the decisions. Source: own construct