Feminist Climate Justice (Week 2)

Feminist Climate Justice (Week 2)

This week's readings discussed various types of justice (environmental, climate, energy), together focusing on the concept that many communities, such as poor people of color, experience the brunt of the environmental consequences of the actions of the world as a whole. Environmental justice is intersectional in nature; it aims for solutions that not only fix the environmental problem but addresses to underlying social issues such as racism and classism.

The readings for this week remind me of a few readings I did for an environmental sociology class where we were asked "who should be held responsible for climate change?" which is a loaded question...there are various types of responsibility and various types of justice. These types of justice (environmental, energy, climate, procedural) are outlined in these readings.

I find these readings to be upsetting because these issues disproportionately affect different groups of people, and it is unsettling to think about how the fight for resources will escalate as conditions progress.

McCauley's journal about the "just transition" includes ideas about restoring the planet in a way that is just, which considers the unequal environmental burden while producing solutions. The just transition values self-determination, which includes affected communities in their own restoration.

Black Lives and Climate Justice  by S. Mersha debunks some false solutions for climate change, such as technofixes, which rely on technology to fix problems as they come without addressing the underlying social issues, and presents some valid solutions, including digital activism, renewable resources, and women's leadership.

Movement Generation's article outlines a just transition which is inclusive of people of color and other marginalized communities. It explains that we live in an extraction society, dependent upon exploiting resources for financial stability, rather than a regenerative one.

Sarah Hochstadt