Climate Change and Social Justice by
The impacts of climate change can already be felt in society and on the Earth itself. As new evidence of the environmental impact of climate change is constantly emerging, we are forced to confront the significance of our political decisions about who will pay the price of responding to a changing climate. In the rush to avoid or reduce the repercussions of climate change, we need to ensure that the burden is evenly distributed or run the risk of creating injustice. Climate Change and Social Justice demonstrates that the problem of how to distribute the costs of climate change is fundamentally a problem of justice. If we ignore the concerns addressed this book, the additional burdens of climate change will fall on the poor and vulnerable. Jeremy Moss brings together today's key thinkers in climate research, including Peter Singer, Ross Garnaut and David Karoly, to respond to these important issues.
Fairness in Adaptation to Climate Change by
Providing a scientific and policy analysis on the challenges of ensuring that adaptation to global climate change doesn't place unfair burdens on vulnerable populations, this book argues that the key to adapting to climate change lies in recognising the equity and justice issues inherent in its causes and in human responses to it.
Environmental Justice by
Environmental justice has increasingly become part of the language of environmental activism, political debate, academic research and policy making around the world. It raises questions about how the environment impacts on different people's lives. Does pollution follow the poor? Are some communities far more vulnerable to the impacts of flooding or climate change than others? Are the benefits of access to green space for all, or only for some? Do powerful voices dominate environmental decisions to the exclusion of others? This book focuses on such questions and the complexities involved in answering them. It explores the diversity of ways in which environment and social difference are intertwined and how the justice of their interrelationship matters. It has a distinctive international perspective, tracing how the discourse of environmental justice has moved around the world and across scales to include global concerns, and examining research, activism and policy development in the US, the UK, South Africa and other countries. The widening scope and diversity of what has been positioned within an environmental justice 'frame' is also reflected in chapters that focus on waste, air quality, flooding, urban greenspace and climate change. In each case, the basis for evidence of inequalities in impacts, vulnerabilities and responsibilities is examined, asking questions about the knowledge that is produced, the assumptions involved and the concepts of justice that are being deployed in both academic and political contexts. Environmental Justice offers a wide ranging analysis of this rapidly evolving field, with compelling examples of the processes involved in producing inequalities and the challenges faced in advancing the interests of the disadvantaged. It provides a critical framework for understanding environmental justice in various spatial and political contexts, and will be of interest to those studying Environmental Studies, Geography, Politics and Sociology.