Dictionary

ecoapartheid en · NOUN

Etymology

From eco- + apartheid.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A pattern in which poor and minority populations suffer more from environmental degradation than wealthy people.
   • Hence, the growing ecological sacrifice and segregation (“ecoapartheid”) of the world's people along economic and racial lines have led to charges of environmental racism and calls for environmental justice in countries as economically and socially disparate as South Africa and the United States. 2008, Daniel Faber, Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice, page 210:
   • Ecoapartheid is just a speed bump on the road to ecoapocalypse. 2016, Van Jones, “Making the Green Economy Work for Everyone”, in Green Festival Reader: Fresh Ideas from Agents of Change:
   • The conflict and contest between the two systems—one based on ecoimperalism, bioimperialism, and ecoapartheid, the other based on earth democracy and biodemocracy, will intensify over the next decade. 2015, Vandana Shiva, The Vandana Shiva Reader:
   • If these practices are not directed by and toward principles of equity, then they will almost certainly end up reinforcing patterns of ecoapartheid. 2011, Andrew Ross, Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City:

Forms