What do we want?
C stands for Climate Justice
What do we want? Climate Justice! When do we want it? Now!
We knew we wanted to do a month on climate justice when we started the newsletter but have been procrastinating on getting it out to you for two reasons. The first is that we are no experts, which is something we try and emphasise a lot on here. We are on a learning journey ourselves and we are inviting anyone who's keen, to join us. The second is that we are very aware of our own privileges as white, cis and heterosexual women living in the global north and that we don't want to appropriate the lived experiences of others. This is why our community Notion document is so important to us. It is an open document which everyone can add to and that contains notable people, experts, accounts, campaigns and much more to follow and take action on.
If you're asking when climate change is going to 'happen,' you're really asking when's it going to happen to 'me,' because it is already happening to many other people."
– Eric Roston, Climate journalist and author
Climate justice is not a solution
It is a theory and a movement. And there are many other things connected to it and words that are being used interchangeably: environmental justice, intersectional environmentalism, social justice and more. But before we go into the definition we need to have a look at "intersectionality". Admittedly, I hadn't even heard about this word until about three years ago when I attended a sustainability educator training at The Unschool in Portugal. The 4 day course consisted of lessons on experiential learning, pedagogic principles and systems thinking. As well as an entire day dedicated to intersectionality. I was clueless but curious. I had no idea what an eye opening, emotional and profound experience was ahead of me. And I can safely say it left not a single course attendant untouched.
It was a whole day filled with group exercises and conversations. It was emotional to say the least. One exercise stuck with me in particular. All of us were gathered in the middle of the room while our facilitator, a young black woman, pinned sheets of paper along the walls of the room. Each sheet of paper had a word on it. 'Class', 'Religion', 'Gender', 'Sexuality', 'Race' and 'Ability' were amongst them. We had some time to read them and then the facilitator asked: 'Which of these attributes do you have to think of on a daily basis? I want you to move to the sheet of paper you have to think about the most in your daily life. If you feel like you don't have to think about any of these then you can remain standing in the middle.' I scanned the labels. Class? I don't really think about that ever. Everyone I work with is middle class. It is rare that I come in contact with someone from a different socio economic class. Religion? I was raised catholic but I don't practice my faith nor is it visible. Aside from that I live in a country were catholicism is accepted. So no, I don't think about my religion either. Sexuality. I am a heterosexual woman, which is what most people assume anyway, so I never have to concern myself with questions about that either. Race? I am white. I thought about it for second. I don't think I ever had to think about the colour of my skin? Same with 'ability' – I don't have an impairment of any kind. So when an elevator is out of service I can take the stairs. I don't have to check routes or buildings for access. Everything is build for a body like mine.
And lastly, gender. I slowly made my way over to the corner of the room, where the piece of paper was put up. This was the only thing I got reminded of on the daily. Being a woman. Whilst I was having these thoughts I saw other people struggling to find their place in the room. They were tip toeing between multiple labels. One person remained in the middle, she felt like her mental illness was invisible to most but she faces obstacles daily. 'I don't know where to stand. I constantly get reminded that I am muslim, a woman and that my skin is brown.' a young woman to my right said. I felt guilty and all of a sudden I understood something that was never this clear to me before. Intersectionality. My lived experience as a white woman is vastly different to the lived experience of an immigrant muslim woman.
I suddenly remembered the phrase about how "we are all sitting in the same boat when it comes to climate change." And never has it been clearer to me how wrong this statement was. We're not all in the same boat. We might be facing the same storm but some of us are on super yachts while others are barely able to hold on to a float.
Okay, but you still haven't explained what climate justice is
'Climate justice links human rights and development to achieve a human-centred approach, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable people and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly. Climate justice is informed by science, responds to science and acknowledges the need for equitable stewardship of the world’s resources.' Mary Robinson
We're reading (in addition to this month's book club book – see below) Climate Justice by Mary Robinson in which she shines a light on the realities of marginalised and indigenous communities who are already experiencing climate change first hand. We're still talking about climate change as if it's in the future. But it's happening to the reindeer herders in Sweden, the farmers in Chad, the victims of hurricanes in the US. We need to listen to their stories, and take action now.
The best thing we can all do is to be aware of and listen to what is happening to communities around the world in the face of the climate crisis. These communities and tribes, that have mostly always lived in close proximity and harmony with nature, are, ironically, the very people who are experiencing the effects of climate change the most: from losing their home in a hurricane, to failed crops to losing family members. This month we are focusing our learning on black history and environmental racism, the impacts of climate change on marginalised groups and indigenous communities and what we, in the global North can do.
If you don’t know where to begin, then this podcast, Stories of Climate Justice, is a great place to start.
Join our next book club reading ‘What white people can do next’ by Emma Dabiri
What White People Can Do Next (from Allyship to Coalition), by Emma Dabiri is an incisive, radical and practical essay. In it, the author draws on years of research and personal experience to challenge us to create meaningful, lasting change. Not yet convinced? Then listen to this podcast where Emma discusses the topic with Otegha Uwagba. Tickets for our meet up are by donation through Eventbrite and the book is a short one so no pressure.
Reflecting on last month’s topic: Biodiversity
Last month was a great topic. It's always fun learning about the hunting process of dragonflies or finding out what species of beetle you've seen on a tree, or what the name of that bird is that suddenly appeared in your garden for the first time (in Tash’s case it was a goldfinch). Keeping our bugs and animals as wild as possible helps to maintain the equilibrium that nature has always managed to keep the planet, and its people, healthy and thriving. Spring is the perfect time to reflect on how biodiverse our planet still is. Scotland may have seen a huge snowfall yesterday, and people may have been swimming in the sea in Brighton on the same day, but now is a more important time than ever to appreciate and care for mother nature and her biodiverse world. Let’s take a walk in the woods, plant new and varied species of plants in our gardens, even trees, and generally green up the concrete jungles more of us live in than ever. We aren’t here to tell anyone how to make the impact they would like to see, your circumstances are more likely to reflect that, but we hope that last month and especially our book club read ‘Extraordinary Insects’ by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson inspired you to appreciate the wonderful world of insects because without them we wouldn’t have food on our tables and oregano wouldn’t taste like it does – who knew?
Topic B's book club is on 17 May so there's still time to join us for the conversation. Sign up here.
Want to make more time for action?
You care about the planet, people and taking action for positive impact, but you find it hard to make time for it and/or don’t know where to start? This is why we started Future Hour. It’s an hour where we meet up online every Friday lunchtime (1pm BST) to work on that project/campaign/<insert what applies to you> that we haven't found the time in the week to do. You can read more about it here.
And that’s a wrap! But actually this is only the beginning. You can follow our deep dive into climate justice on our social media channels: Instagram and Linkedin. If you have any questions please add a comment to this post, DM us on Instagram or send us an email to hello@andthefuture.com
Lisa & Tash ✨
A big thank you goes out to last month’s contributors to our Notion document 💚
Yay! Let me know what you think about Mary Robinson's Climate Justice book. 👀💚