Climate Justice

Catalog description

Climate change is a planetary crisis with unevenly distributed impacts. In this course, we will begin by establishing a foundation in the biophysical and social drivers and impacts of climate change, with particular attention to disparities and theories of justice. We will explore challenges related to attribution and accountability, and we will evaluate a range of proposals for climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience. We will then draw lessons from histories of environmental and climate justice resistance movements, including reviewing storytelling efforts by frontline communities and considering the transformational potential and underlying motives behind proposed climate solutions. In particular, we will critically evaluate proposed natural climate solutions related to soils, vegetation and land use, and we will explore case studies of greenwashing, false solutions, and tensions between technical potential and environmental justice. Finally, we will explore visions of just climate futures, drawing from climate fiction and environmental activism. Students will engage with scholarship from the environmental humanities, ecology, histories and anthropologies of environmental justice activism, policy proposals for addressing environmental and climate pollution, and climate fiction. Readings will include reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Ashlee Cunsolo Willox, Farhana Sultana, Robert Bullard, Julie Sze, and others.