What Is Justice?
When talking about social and environmental movements (essentially one and the same), the word ‘justice’ gets conflated with ‘equity’ and ‘equality’. While related, they’re not actually the same. Looking at their distinct meanings can be helpful to decipher how we bring about meaningful change for the planet as a whole – in practice. So, here we go…
Environmental equity is a reformed climate-come-social movement that focuses on "fair" distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, which have always unfairly slanted in favour of the Western mainstream. Many have stressed the critical importance that any just transition towards this goal be facilitated by policies which are mindful of these existing disparities and marginalisations, instead of simply overhauling the current system indiscriminately and assuming everyone will be fine, when history shows… they won’t. Not everyone has the same protective barriers in society to help maintain their stability.
Equity, therefore, is the desired outcome of environmental justice, and justice is necessary in the process of achieving equity. Make sense? OK, it’s a little convoluted on paper. But basically, the call for equity explicitly acknowledges the different levels of need among individuals and communities, rather than assuming everyone benefits from receiving the exact same treatment, as in equality (meaning: no real justice served). A progressive framework for justice must factor in existing injustices to be authentic, and implement checks and balances at every stage, every level of change.
Environmental Elitism
Maybe that all seems obvious, but activism sadly has a history of competition between causes; each believing theirs to be the most important – often then, at the expense of others. Environmentalism is no exception. Elitism within the movement has often placed efforts in opposition to universal justice so as to make headway, but this is simply a reiteration of the current (patriarchal) socio-political model, that instinctively prizes individual achievement over collective well-being; resultant damages be damned.
Historically, environmentalists have lobbied—both indirectly and overtly—to place social justice issues on the backburner to fast-track green policies, like promoting the shutdown of polluting factories despite the inevitable job-loss this causes for many blue-collar employees – themselves dependent on that monthly wage to survive. Green jobs must first be created. Just because action is taken in the name of planetary well-being, it doesn’t get to bypass other rights. What happens to all those jobless people? Are they on the receiving end of justice? If this were the case, then every movement would be right to trample on all others for its own sake, and we’d all continually be at war with each other, fought atop grounds paved entirely with good intentions, no-less.
Breaking The Binary
As well as this, whitewashing green campaigns both disregards long standing Indigenous contributions to environmentalism, embedded in their cultures, and also exacerbates the struggles of disenfranchised or low-income communities, who may be systemically prohibited from climate activism owing to various socioeconomic disadvantages.
It has therefore been labelled a “privileged” movement, as those able to take part are majority middle-class, white, western people, who cannot comprehend the intersectional inequalities faced by others, nor rightly judge their subsequent lack of participation, which may indeed be contrary to their survival. These voices need to be included.
Furthermore, the idea that a 1.5°C warming cap will provide equal stability is, frankly, myopic, exposing a privileged view of the near future. It’s a number agreed upon by elite nations, which is (just about) manageable among said well-resourced countries, but not the global poor, who are most at risk. It’s they who are already facing the worse effects of the crisis. Many based in the less-developed Southern Hemisphere lack access to environmental defences, such as flood protection, while also being prey to neo-colonialism and extractivism, which rob them of land and livelihood, or pollute what little they have left.
Solidarity
The development of a green economy must be bound up with social justice. It’s inconsistent to speak of rescuing humanity and the living world while simultaneously sacrificing many people’s welfare in the process. Compassion needs to be at the core of this process if it is to facilitate positive, widespread, and sustainable change.
The only way for Climate Justice to be worthy of the name is if participants within the movement act in solidarity with other areas of injustice beyond this specific category. They can’t be divvied up anyway: climate change and inequality are interrelated crises, each reinforcing the other. Both stem from the same self-seeking, aggressive attitudes that have resulted in the failure of proper (i.e., universal) democratic institutions and produced widespread exploitation. Justice can’t be a singular issue, or it isn’t justice at all.
What Equity Looks Like
To build a better future, we must learn from past mistakes. Reparations are a vital step towards reconciling the ongoing wrongs of the past, meaning that disadvantaged communities must be compensated for both past and future losses—to land and human rights—so they can have equal opportunities and access to resources.
Decolonisation, for example, would actively bring about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life. This comes down to practical initiatives that ensure the renaturisation of land and return to Indigenous sovereignty.
If environmental equity is a fundamental human right, then justice is the process of protecting that right. Climate action won’t ensure peace and security, but setting peace and security as the necessary preconditions for climate action can create a sustainably just future. It won’t be a “one and done” shift, but will require an ongoing, grassroots, inclusive journey towards free and fair living standards for all. Equity is the North Star, while justice—continued checks and balances—provides the means of navigation.
