Research Paper Sample on Climate Justice: An Ethical and Political Issue

Introduction

Climate justice is a term used to frame global warming as an ethical and political issue. It related the climate change to concepts of environmental justice and social justice, also examining topics such as equality, human rights, collective rights, and the historical responsibilities for climate change. Climate change concerns the issue of equity and fairness in the aspect of “common but differentiated responsibilities” (Jaakkola et al., 2018). It means that no one, and especially the developed countries, wishes to acknowledge the damage they cause to climate even though they understand that tackling climate change subject is a common challenge for every state. Richer countries have served as leading beneficiaries of emissions for decades, and they still want to be compared to the developing countries like India in the aspect of limiting emissions, hence the issue of equity and fairness.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Climate Relocation

Climate resettlement can be defined as the planned relocation or resettling entire communities who have been affected by climate change. There are several climate change issues that lead to relocation. An example is an increase in temperatures by 2° to 4°C in this century. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the increase in temperatures would render resettlement unavoidable in some places. The increase in temperature would lead to warming, which would result in changing sea levels, affect agricultural productivity, availability of water. It would lead to disasters such as avalanches and floods. They are the factors that would lead to relocations. An example is the climate resettlement in the Mekong River delta in Vietnam.

Other Current Solutions

Indigenous people have come at risk through a growing number of large-scale renewable energy projects, and they are facing an impending doom from people who want to make large profits through the green economy. Indigenous communities for many years have been exploited by fossil fuel extractors threatening their culture and livelihoods.

Large renewable energy companies do not have indigenous peoples’ well being when they build their projects. They have led to the displacement of indigenous people who inhabit the areas that are seen as green zones. The government does not shield these people, but in most cases, they partner up with the renewable companies to grab land. The people displaced are not compensated or relocated by the government, and in most cases, if not all, their pleas are not heard or acted upon.

Both solar, wind, and hydropower have benefits as they do not engage in the emission of greenhouse gases that lead to climatic change. However, their establishment leads to damages such as harming water quality, damaging the habitat of wildlife alongside that of indigenous people, obstructed fish migration, and majorly displacements of indigenous people. Some indigenous people rely on fishing and hunting; hence the fish migration and destruction of habitats would result in affecting them.

Possible Solutions to Climate Change

From the ancient scripts, jewelry, and handmade quilts, the Indigenous Americans have been featuring more than 60 artworks demonstrating the changes of the climate from the past 2,800 years (Burke et al., 2018). The art describes the changes in climate after the colonization period, where the natural resources were being exploited (Altman & Jordan, 2018). From the indigenous art, we can have a refresh and a clear image of how the climate change crisis has affected the indigenous people.

From the painting on the walls of the museum, voices of the indigenous activities help in the fight of protecting the climate. These voices include some of the works the indigenous people did in protecting the environment (Burke et al., 2018). For example, some indigenous communities made baskets from weaves even though this is still done by current indigenous communities.

Contemporary art has the ability to representing climate change issues meaningfully. Art always conveys information and in a novel way. An example is the explanation given by The Guardian while responding to backlashes that occurred in the 1990s against nuclear plants and fossil fuels (Jaakkola et al., 2018). However, a challenge arose after major companies, including art organizations, stepped in to effectively silence the artists who were focused on representing the environment. Thus both indigenous art and contemporary art can portray solutions for climate change; they inspire an emotional connection between the environment, global warming, and climate change.

Themes Regarding Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change

Survival

Indigenous people in the arctic experience direct impacts of climate changes such as health threats attributing from increased coldness or heat, storms, and floods. However, they do everything to survive, even though their mortality and morbidity are affected adversely.

Sustainability

Some individuals, such as Sheila Watt-Cloutier, perceive that some indigenous peoples such as the Inuit culture are based on snow. Their sustainability relies on coldness. By climate change bringing global warming, which results in ice melting, their sustainability is adversely affected.

Disaster Displacement

Climate change leads to global warming that results in the melting of ice in the arctic. Once the ice melts, disasters linked to avalanches and floods occur. The indigenous people living in the coastal areas, the ones that rely on fishing, get affected since there happens to be a rise in sea levels. Some of the fish migrate too after the water gets extra cold.

Climate Underestimation

Even though all countries, both developed and developing, acknowledge how severe the topic of climate change affects indigenous peoples, they neglect being responsible. They still argue on how to exercise and engage in safe practices that would result in less emission. Through that, there occurs climate change underestimation.

Why Climate Change Is Such an Important Topic

Climate change is an essential topic to indigenous peoples since it poses severe threats to their cultures, livelihoods, ways of life, and their identities. It is because indigenous peoples are well-known for their handy cultural relationship with the environment. Indigenous peoples are dependent on natural resources and land to raise their livelihood needs. Since climate change affects and disrupts all these, the topic is vital to the indigenous peoples.

Also, it is an essential topic for the indigenous peoples since they are the ones who help protect the environment. They build resilience when natural disasters occur and fight against climate change. Despite all these, their rights fail to be acknowledged and protected. They even face challenges related to climate change directly. They are concerned with the safeguarding of 80% of the biodiversity found globally. Thus, the topic is vital to the indigenous peoples. Additionally, they are concerned with the topic of climate change because after relocation; they face marginalization and exclusion. Due to climate change, they have to resettle in locations away from their cultural homes where they lack access to essential services and food. Hence, the topic is vital to the indigenous peoples.

In my perception, indigenous peoples should be included in discussions regarding their land use. When setting up hydropower, solar, or wind power plants in their lands, they should be represented and informed. It is because they lose much cultural land due to climate change; hence they should not be neglected in matters concerning their land. Due to losing their areas because of climate change or related factors such as displacements occurring in the essence of curbing climate change, they lack identity, source of food, and means of survival. In this context, they have to be consulted.

Their human rights alongside the law of protecting their rights to land should be observed keenly. This is evident from the example of Indian tribes in Brazil. They are waiting for their territories to be protected by law since 1993 (Jaakkola et al., 2018). It shows that their land rights are still flouted, leading them to face the severe challenges of climate change without help.

Conclusion

Public awareness should be created regarding the rights of indigenous peoples and how they are affected by climate change. It is a responsibility for everyone to acknowledge how their productivity, livelihood, and survival is affected by climate change. The gap between practice and policies should be linked. Famous cases regarding how indigenous peoples are affected by climate change, such as the Endorois case, are ruled by international courts (Jaakkola et al., 2018). However, they remain unimplemented. Therefore, to address how indigenous peoples are affected by climate change, all these should be observed and implemented.

References

Altman, J., & Jordan, K. (2018). Impact of climate change on indigenous Australians: Submission to the Garnaut climate change review.
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/148962.

Burke, M., Ockwell, D., & Whitmarsh, L. (2018). Participatory arts and affective engagement with climate change: The missing link in achieving climate compatible behavior change?. Global Environmental Change, 49, 95-105. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378017309421.

Jaakkola, J. J., Juntunen, S., & Näkkäläjärvi, K. (2018). The holistic effects of climate change on the culture, well-being, and health of the Saami, the only indigenous people in the European Union. Current environmental health reports, 5(4), 401-417.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40572-018-0211-2.pdf.