There is something called “environmental justice.” It’s not just another clever catch phrase. It is a real, and growing concern.

When this release from Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) landed in my inbox recently, I saw this as a classic example of the struggle that citizens worldwide are engaged in for their environmental rights. And a struggle it is, sometimes lasting for years – as in the case of the bauxite company WINDALCO, fully owned by the Russian company UC Rusal. Over the past several decades this company has repeatedly polluted the once beautiful Rio Cobre river, endangering lives and the health of residents, destroying water quality, killing off biodiversity – and depriving thousands of fisherfolk and other citizens whose livelihoods depend on the river from earning a living. Over and over.

JET has…