Week 2 Feminist Climate Justice

Lindsay Harris

COMM 3824-01

1/21/19

Comm 3824 Reflection 2

The readings for this week built further upon last week’s readings and the theme of “Feminist Climate Justice.” I found the most informative of the readings to be the one from Movement Generation as it provided a plethora of facts and definitions about the basics of climate justice. Additionally last week the term “just transition” was briefly  touched upon, however in the journal article written by McCauley and Heffron goes into great detail about what a just transition is, why it is important, and what we can do to obtain it in the coming future. Furthermore, the article written by Sara Mersha was incredibly eye opening into the viewpoint of female activists of color.

While reading Mersha’s article there was one quote that stood out to me throughout the entirety of the time I spent reading it. This quote was “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and protect each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” This stuck out to me primarily because of the last line referencing what little black activists at the time had to lose, since then this quote has expanded to being used by many different racial activists and minority groups. People are more motivated to fight for what is right when they are oppressed because truthfully it can’t get much worse, losing one’s “chains” would come as a win for those fighting. This thought process can be beneficial for most groups of people who feel as though their rights are limited; from women fighting for their right to choose how to handle their reproductive systems to environmentalists who are fighting to improve living conditions for all people.