The Environmental Cost of Inequality

Published in Scientific American

Inequality in the distribution of wealth and power is a key driver of pollution and resource depletion. The wider the inequality, the greater the ability of the rich and powerful to inflict environmental costs on others, especially on low-income communities and racial and ethnic minorities, resulting in more environmental harm as well as systemic environmental injustice. Writing in the current issue of Scientific American, PERI Senior Fellow James Boyce documents the environmental cost of inequality.