This special issue of the brennpunkt dwells on climate justice, but first let us define what climate justice aims to address: the climate crisis. The Glossary for Climate Justice (Latin American and Caribbean Platform for Climate, June 2022) describes the climate crisis as:
“The climate has always changed. However, modern anthropogenic activity, rooted in fossil-fuel-based energy consumption, has caused the collapse of the Earth’s system—leading to sudden, accelerated, and unforeseen changes in the climate due to global warming.
This notion of (climate) crisis refers to the unsustainability of human and nonhuman life on Earth due to the dominant patriarchal, racist, anthropocentric, androcentric, speciesist and colonial organization of modern social structures, to the detriment of biodiversity, water, soil, and other elements of nature. In recent years, this has accelerated and affected ecological cycles, leading to changes in ecosystems— some irreversible.
These multiple, linked crises—economic, health, political, and care, among many others—heighten the need for an approach to life that reorganizes, regenerates, repairs, and heals the bonds between humanity and Nature to halt the collapse.”
The world has changed dramatically in the last five years… Today, many governments and multinational corporations regularly talk about their commitments (non-binding and voluntary) to address the climate crisis. Nevertheless, they do not address the dynamics and the system behind this crisis.
This issue argues that in order to avoid the collapse of life as we know it, justice, climate justice (for the life –human and non-human– that is being exploited and disappearing), is essential. People on the front lines of climate justice share their perspectives on climate justice and climate crisis: Amelia Lovo (painter of the illustrations in the magazine), Fatima Ouassak, Edmundo Hoppe Oderich and Maria Rowena A. Buena. It is complemented by familiar voices of the global North from the ASTM because the global North will not be left untouched.
Dear reader, feelings of emotional and existential distress due to the climate crisis are real and tangible. Let us stay with them and acknowledge the loss and grief. So, with humility and sincere concern for collective action, let us grasp the tangible meaning of climate justice.
