Environmental Injustice in Ecuador: Endangered Indigenous Populations and Environmental Degradation

Nationally and globally there is a widening disparity between the rich and poor which is reflected at every level of society. Environmental injustice is a term to describe the unjust way that natural resources are allocated, and the very real phenomenon of a disproportionate amount of the negative consequences of environmental degradation being placed on those populations that are poor and underrepresented. This paper will address this situation in Ecuador, and specifically, the connection between the environmental degradation of one of the most biologically diverse places in the world, and the destruction of indigenous and repressed populations who have lived in and with that environment for generations. The modem prioritization of resource acquisition and the profit maximization tactics of institutions in the industrial global economy have driven extinction of these cultures and degradation of their environments. Affluent societies following the paradigm of 'manifest destiny' have fallen to trying to tame the wilderness and conquer the 'primitive' peoples who call it home in order to bring them in to the 'civilized', modem world, and moreover, exploit their land and its intrinsic values and services for monetary profit.