This chapter puts the idea of justice in environmental and natural resource management in a historical context, particularly since the rise of 'the environment' and the global era in the 1940s. It argues that the future is understood by different experts at different times, and that justice cuts across many sectors: prominent in law, history and governance, but also invoked by natural scientists concerned about the environment and resources. Key global ideas in environmental justice include human rights, sustainability and intergenerational equity, and the precautionary principle, all of which became important in global settings, but have specific local and national applications for natural resources such as water, forests and fisheries.