Introduction - A region in danger ! - Justice between environmental and economic aspects

Linking the environment to the global economic system, in which the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) became the topmost priority regardless of the broader needs of communities and individuals, is extremely relevant to the issue of climate change. [...] Environmental deterioration affects the issue of social justice since through excessive encroachment upon nature, the promotion of privatization and globalization, and the prioritization of economic growth, the current economic system continues to undermine the principle of equality through allowing the concentration of money and influence in the hands of the few while marginalizing more segments. [...] Such discourse must tackle the relations between the North and the South in which the balance of power consolidates the dominance of the former while overlooking the needs of citizens and local specificities in the latter. [...] In the three countries, land is misused, and resources are depleted in order to serve the interests of the rich in the absence of laws that protect the people from the negative impact of investment projects. [...] Between 1991 and 2003, the draining of the marshes led to the destruction of agricultural lands, the migration of thousands of animal and bird species, the deterioration of marine life, and the disappearance of vegetation, hence robbing the region of the sustainable environmental and economic balance it managed to maintain for millennia and eventually contributing to the current climate crisis.