How do issues of environmental justice play out in conditions of cultural diversity? This question is explored using the case of the controversy surrounding the storage of nuclear waste on Orchid Island, Taiwan, the homeland of the Yami aborigines. It provides a contextualised example that reveals that the Yami tribe and Taiwanese migrants have multiple understandings of environmental justice, and explores the questions of how we might respond to these divisions and formulate environmental policy regarding nuclear waste dilemmas. Environmental pragmatism might provide a method for defusing tensions between groups of different ethical positions and could facilitate intercultural alliance-building for dealing with nuclear waste problems.
