Hello everyone! 🙂
As both my blog and the ENV1101 module (taught thoughtfully, conscientiously, and insightfully by Dr. Coleman) draw to a close, I thought it’d be apt to end off with a rather reflective piece. When I chose to write about environmental justice, I wasn’t expecting it to be such a key component of Dr. Coleman’s lectures at all. As time went on, it became very interesting and insightful when several blog entries of mine complemented or coincided with the module’s content. More importantly, as time passed, I was profoundly impacted. I’ve realised just how real environmental injustice issues are, and I found myself caring much more deeply about these issues.
Although we’ve covered quite a bit, there’s so much more I’ve yet to share or learn about. Many other issues, like land grabbing and degradation, other water issues, diverse natural hazards, and more, have yet to be discussed. Many other communities, like the Arctic or East Asian indigenous communities, the LGBTQ2S+ community, and more, have been affected by these issues, with many struggles unfortunately not brought to light. And with all other social justice issues, these injustices are experienced not just because of independent factors relevant to identity or status. It’s a matter of power between people with different starting points.
These realisations have led me to become more empathetic and curious. While researching and writing, I’ve felt discouraged, upset, and unsettled by the injustices. However, I’ve also felt inspired. The bravery and conviction of those who fought for their rights, land, and for some, even their lives, deeply moved me. Apart from the story of the Rubber Tappers shown in ‘A Fierce Green Fire’, this short film about an indigenous Filipino community fighting against a mining company also left me with a sense of hope, and a deep-rooted feeling of responsibility to help fight for environmental justice in the future.
While writing about the media, it became clear to me that empathy is crucial to this fight. As with climate action or social justice, the fight can only be done together, but without empathy in headlines, studies or conversations, people and perceptions are divided, and environmental justice is hard to achieve. Empathy drives understanding, however, and positively shapes worldviews, bringing people together.
Most of all, environmental justice is fundamental to sustainable development. Disproportionate impacts prevent mutual understanding of environmental issues among stakeholders, thereby discouraging those in power from taking action against any injustices.
Some cases, however, show that when communities are given the right to a high-quality environment, sustainability can be achieved. For example, the entrusting of some of Guatemala’s forests to local communities has been extremely effective in protecting the forest, unlike Guatemala’s state-owned forests. The video below outlines the ‘Our Land Our Forests’ program in the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
Although not all community-led environmental restoration projects are as successful, my hope is that these strategies can be adopted where suitable, and that principally, social and environmental justice, and environmental conservation, will go hand-in-hand for a sustainable future. Intersectional environmentalism, a recently populated concept, also presents similar ideas.
With that, I’d like to thank everyone who has commented on my blog for contributing to my learning, and of course, Dr. Coleman, for all your guidance. Hopefully you’ve all learned something new, just like I have!
– Hope 🙂