CLIMATE CHANGE/CLIMATE JUSTICE MOVEMENTS
"There will be no nature without justice. Nature and justice, contested discursive objects embodied in the material world, will become extinct or survive together."
- Donna Haraway,"The Promises of Monsters."
Climate change is arguably the most pressing problem of the age because it threatens every human on the planet and every other living creature on the earth. And climate change is not something to worry about in the future; it is already happening with devastating impact. But the impacts are not felt evenly. They are far worse on certain populations and in certain regions of the globe.
That is why a Climate Justice movement has arisen in support of those people currently most effected and those most likely to be most adversely effected in the near future. As for the present, the impacts of climate change include increasing the amounts of forced migration, a fact that has in turn helped fuel the vicious anti-immigrant movements in the Global North (cf. the Trump regime and Brexit).
Poorer populations in general lack the resources to defend against the impacts of climate change, and certain places like the far north and the south seas have already seen their lands drastically transformed. Deadly heat waves, increasingly intense and destructive storms, more intense forest fires, the desertification of parts of Africa and the Middle East have already cost thousands of lives, and have played a role in new migrations and the rise of terrorism as a desperate response to these conditions.
Likewise, the assault on scientific knowledge that has had a variety of negative impacts was largely started by the climate change deniers funded by the fossil fuel industry. This has led to increasing assaults on truth that lay behind the rise of right-wing authoritarianism in points around the globe.
The sites below name just some of the many and varied efforts to awaken awareness of the climate crisis and put forth viable strategies -- political, economic, cultural and technical -- to help avert the worst impacts of this crisis. But regardless of your political orientation, you can find some group here to which you can contribute time, money or other resources.
Increasingly, political actions like the Global Climate Strike (Sept 20-27, 2019) will prove crucial.
[See also our related site on Environmental Justice Culture.]
Featured Site: Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion has become the most exciting Climate Justice movement group to emerge in some time. The fact that it is led largely by young people underscores the failure of previous generations to deal with the growing crisis, and represents the hope that those who will bear the brunt of climate change have the will and commitment to inspire a massive change in thought and practice.
Featured Site: Earth to Table
Extremely rich site on the growing global food justice movement. As the curators express it: "Climate crises, a global pandemic, food riots, diet-related diseases – all are telling us that the industrial food system threatens our health and the survival of the planet, and deepens systemic inequities, racism, and poverty."
Featured Artwork: Coral Reef Crochet Project. 
An imaginative use of exquisitely beautiful crocheted corals to draw attention to the environmental devastation of the coral reefs vital to sea life and symbolic of the larger crisis of life on this planet. The worldwide network of coral artists is open to anyone interested in bringing their needle skills to bear on the climate crisis.
Movement Groups and Resource Sites
350.org Longtime advocate of changes that go far beyond the Paris accords on climate change.
Climate Justice Alliance Coalition of local, grassroots environmental/climate justice non-profits in US.
Climate Action Network Coalition of over 500 non-governmental organizations.
Climate Justice Now! Global coalition of activists working on climate change issues.
Extinction Rebellion Youth-led major, global direct action campaign to reverse climate change.
Greenpeace Climate Justice Longtime environmental activist group's work on climate justice.
Hip-Hop Caucus Multi-issue organization with a strong focus on climate justice.
Indigenous Environmental Network
International Institute of Climate Action and Theory Site with links to movement groups and many important informational works.
Journeys for Climate Justice Innovative Australia-based group approaching climate justice issue in the Asia-Pacific region.
Pan African Climate Justice Alliance Seeks to unite voices across African in the fight for climate justice.
Power Shift Youth-led North American coalition of folks linking climate change and related social justice issues.
Rebuild the Dream Grassroots US-based movement linking climate change to a host of socio-economic changes that can be made from the ground up.
Sunrise Movement Inspiring US-based youth-led movement for climate justice with "hubs" all across the nation.
Useful Non-fiction Books and Articles
- Extinction Rebellion, This is Not a Drill: The Extinction Rebellion Handbook (Penguin, 2019)
- Rob Nixon, Slow Violence (Harvard UP, 2013).
- David Pellow, What is Critical Environmental Justice? (Polity 2017)
- Geoffrey Pleyers, Climate Justice in the Global Age (ISA-Sage, 2015)
- Mary Robinson, Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018)
- Dominic Roser and Christian Seidel, Climate Justice: An Introduction (Routlege, 2013).
- Henry Shue, Climate Justice: Vulnerability and Protection (Oxford University Press, 2016)
- Brian Tokar, Toward Climate Justice (Communalism Press, 2010)
Climate Change Novels
Fiction and film have both played key roles in helping folks imagine some of the impacts unmitigated climate change will bring. Below are just a few key examples.
The Maddaddam Trilogy, by Margaret Atwood
The Windup Girl, by Palo Bacigalupi
The Drowned World, by J.G. Ballard
Clade, by James Bradley
Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
Gun Island, Amitav Ghosh
Always North, Vicki Jarrett
The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemison
Stillicide, Cynan Jones
Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver
The Wall, John Lancaster
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
The Overstory, by Richard Powers
New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Stone Gods, Jeanette Winterson
The Swan Book, Alexis Wright
Fiction Films about Climate Change
The quality of analysis varies in these films, but each gives a taste of what a changed climate future might look like.
"2012"
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"
"Blade Runner"
"The Colony"
"Day After Tomorrow"
"Elysium"
"Interstellar"
"Mad Max: Fury Road"
"Mutafukaz"
"The Road"
"Snowpiercer"
"Waterworld"
Climate Change Documentaries
"Before the Flood"
"Beyond Borders"
"Chasing Coral"
"Climate Change Denial Disorder"
"Climate Refugees"
"Flow"
"Ice on Fire"
"An Inconvenient Sequel"
"Sisters on the Planet"