L7- social justice

Question 1

how is climate and social justice linked

Answer 1

• climate crisis and the unsustainable consumption of natural resources are issues of social justice
  1- industrialised nations contribute most to the problem
  2- people that have contributed the least are worst impacted (across generation, between nations, within nations)
  3- worst affected people have least power to shape solution
  4- risk of nations, groups and individuals being left behind in transition to future low carbon economy

Question 2

what is the critique to the term “anthropocene”

Answer 2

concept of the Anthropocene inadequately represents power relations, “anthropos” implicate all of humanity, whereas the causes and consequences of climate change are inequitable among people

Question 3

how has recognition of injustice led to revised attribution of responsibility for climate crisis

Answer 3

• define a safe c02 limit to avoid dangerous climate breakdown (350ppm), calculate a “fair share” of co2 emissions for each nation according to consumption of goods (rather than production), attribute responsibility according to emissions overshoot for each country beyond its fair share
• western nations are responsible for 92% of emissions beyond safe limit, could be reffered to as a process of atmospheric colonisation, a small number of high income countries have appropriated sustantially more than their fair share of atmospheric commons, just as they relied on the appropriation of labour and resources from the global south for their own economic growth, they have also relied on the appropriation of global atmospheric commons, with consequences that harm the global south disproportionately

Question 4

what is the inequalities between nations

Answer 4

worst impacts are for those who are least responsible
-consumption in western countries generates an employment footprint in distant countries

• urban heat exposure, heat exposure in 175 largest urban areas in the usa, greater exposure in households living below the poverty line, and in black and Hispanic that in white populations
• ethnicity effect is independent of social deprivation

Question 5

what is outsourcing of labour

Answer 5

international difference in wage costs have arguably been an important driver for rapid globalisation, consumption-based accounting can be applied to the social issues associated with this labour, calculate employment footprints

• ratio of domestic wages to the wages of foriegn workers that are embodied in international trade

Question 6

what is accidents at work?

Answer 6

imports and exports of non-fatal accidents embodies in international trade, agri-food industry has significant social impacts, low-skilled, forced, hazardous, child labour

Question 7

what is the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA)

Answer 7

framework for evaluating social and socio-economic impacts embodied in products, analogous to life cycle assessment (LCA) for energy, carbon, environmental damage
formalised by the UN via internation standards for methodology used

Question 8

what is the IPCC perspective on equity is that it should be :

Answer 8

• intergenerational (fairness between generations)
• international (fairness between states)
  -national (fairness between individuals)
  … involving
  procedural justice ( participation in decesion making)
  distributive justice ( how costs and benefits of actions are distributed)

Question 9

is western culture sustainable

Answer 9

no, but,

• basic phyisical needs for everyone can be met within earths limits, ie nutrition, sanitation, access to energy, basic income

however
other goals more challenging - life satisification, life expectency, education, social support, equality

Question 10

what is indigenous environmental justice

Answer 10

for many indigenous american peoples, climate impacts are the lastest in a series of injustices arising from European colonisation. Indigenous peoples reject the natural world being regarded as a commodity, property or resources. Instead call for traditonal understandings where the earth has agency and rights, humans, non-humans and earth have reciprocal rights and duties. Fundmentaly different way of thinking to the perspective of western societies

Question 11

what is difference between western and indigenous culture

Answer 11

western
- land may be owned as private property, and nature often viewed as a commodity that can be exploited, eg terms “natural resources”, “ecosystem services”, psychological distance- tend to view human as separate from nature, most biomes on land are anthropogenic- very little land is uninhabited- people are part of nature

indigenous culture
- for many north and south american indigenous cultures, humans are an integral part of nature and people dont own land, earth has agency and humans, non-humans and earth are inter-related, with reciprocal rights and duties, goes beyond sharing natural resource equitably toward seeking justice for nature

Question 12

what are the rights of nature

Answer 12

legal rights given to nature that are equivalent to human rights and must be upheld, earth centred laws such as the universal declaration of the rights of mother earth, written in law in ecuador and bolivia

rights of nature aim to move from exploitive relationship with nature to one that recognises interconnectedness of people and the natural world
- rejects the privitisation and commodification of nature, inc deforestation, large-scale mineral and oil extraction, carbon offsets

• this is gaining increasing traction in legal protection for nature