Climate Change and Global Justice

Climate change and the pursuit of global justice are vitally linked: Those who are most responsible for human-induced climate change are typically not those who are the most vulnerable and who experience detrimental impacts of those changes in the climate. [Page 353]Historically, environmental movements for global justice have sought to contest environmental degradation, as well as collective human disenfranchisement from the factors and institutions that give rise to, and perpetuate, unjust conditions. These movements have contested political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental factors that shape this uneven terrain: from colonial and imperialist legacies, to unequal power and protection, as well as access to resources and decision making. Specific to climate change, climate justice movements have challenged inequities regarding differential consumption of carbon-based energy and adverse impacts from that consumption. Moreover, these movements have raised questions regarding who is responsible, that is, who can and should take action to alleviate the detrimental impacts from human-induced climate change.

The climate on planet Earth is moderated by input from energy of the sun and the loss of this back into space. Incoming solar radiation enters the earth's atmosphere and is partly absorbed or trapped, while being partly reflected back to space. The composition of the atmosphere dictates the balance between these forces;this is called the planetary energy budget. Certain atmospheric gases are critical to this balance and are known as greenhouse gases (GHGs). These GHGs include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), tropospheric ozone (O3), halocarbons (CFCs, HFCs, HCFCs) and water vapor (H2Ov). Emissions of GHGs into the atmosphere cause climate changes, which include increases in temperature. There is both a natural greenhouse effect and an enhanced greenhouse effect. The natural greenhouse effect makes the world habitable. Without it, the Earth would, on average, be about 60° Fahrenheit (F) cooler, and the planet would be covered with ice. With this natural greenhouse effect, humans have been able to enjoy the benefits of a livable climate, as well as forest and food growth.

This unnamed lake is at the snout of the Jacobsen Glacier in British Columbia, at the north end of the Monarch Icefield south of Bella Coola. The whole lake was a glacier circa 1976. The snout has retreated about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers).

Source: Photo by Drew Brayshaw.

The terms climate change and global warming signify slightly different things. Climate change is a broader term, which accounts for changes in many climate characteristics, such as rainfall, ice extent, and sea levels. Global warming refers to a more specific facet of climate change: the increase in temperature over time. Clearly, temperature increases do not occur in isolation from other climate characteristics. Rather, many other sources and feedback processes contribute to changes across time and space. Partly due to these tightly bound connections, these terms have become commonly used synonymously in policy and popular discourse, despite the fact that global warming is a much more specific term. Temperature (particularly temperature increases) is seen as the most clear and distinguishable climate characteristic that indicates more general climate change. Moreover, many consider temperature to be climate change's “fingerprint.”Since 1900, the global average temperature has risen about 1.1°F and is projected to increase 2.5–10.4°F by 2100.

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