ABSTRACT
Environmental Justice is a concept that connects environmental problems with social justice. It was constituted within the struggles against the unequal distribution of environmental burdens and benefits between different social groups. Environmental racism is one form of environmental injustice and the first one to become scandalized. As participation and claims of recognition increased in the environmental struggles, the importance of environmental issues resulted in a process of environmentalization of social conflicts. Deeply related to environmental justice, concepts such as energy justice, water justice and climate justice divide the broad topic of the environment into specific issues each with their own challenges. The country of South America that has received heavy US-American influence with regards to the environmental justice perspective has been Brazil. The environmental justice perspective is not only central for analyzing environmental conflicts, but also other social processes and interactions.
