The climate crisis raises many questions of fairness and justice. Who produces greenhouse gasses and other dangerous polutants from burning carbon, and who suffers first and most? This assignment involves creating a blog post on a specific climate justice issue, and posting on ClimateJusticeIssues.blogspot.com. You will receive an email inviting you to post.
our post will examine a specific climate justice issue, and connect that examination to related ideas and resources on the web. A blog is a "web log" -- in its most essential form, a commentary on other sites on the web, so you can make connections with related topics, organizations, and ideas. Once the topic is selected there is substantial room for choice, creativity, and exploration of your own thinking and analysis.
Writing on the blog is in a public voice, thoughtful and careful, appropriate not only to the academic project of the class, but mindful of the possibility that your writing is published to a world-wide audience.
Evidence of researching your climate justice topic and links to related sites on the web. Include at least 3 links. Don't just write the word "here" and make it a link or, at the other extreme, you don't need to write out the full URL of the source - instead, when you refer to it, make the link either to a few key words that capture the main idea of the article or to the title of the article and make either the key idea or the title a link to the full URL. When the links are there you don't need to have a separate bibliography.
Your post should be between 800-1000 words. You can use AI to help develop your post, but you will want to improve it, and research and include solid, relevant links. Of course, as with any AI assisted writing your post will need to include an AI statement explaining how AI was used.
Your post should be visually attractive. Each post needs to include at least two or more images.
I suggest drafting blog entries including AI text in your own word processing program before cutting and pasting into the blog. (It has happened that text written in the blog window has disappared before it is published. Using your own program protects you from losing text.) The blog is an easy-to-use space that allows you to incoporate text, images, and links, and to receive commentary by your classmates and other readers.
You are expected to read at least 10 of the blog posts of your classmates and reply to them. Replies should not just say "good job" but join in the conversation about the post, comment on specific points in the post, open dialogue, raise questions and ideas, and further the thinking.
1. Intergenerational Justice: Failing to maintain the earth and its ecosystems in a livable condition for future generations.
2. Environmental Racism: Examining the disproportionate impact of environmental issues on marginalized communities, such as the impact of fine particulates released by coal plants more likely located in poor communities and communities of people of color.
3. Climate Refugees: Addressing the displacement of people due to climate-related events such as rising sea levels, extreme weather, and resource scarcity. Militarizing of borders, failing to support and demonizing of climate migrants, refugees, and displaced people.
4. Global Climate Policy: Analyzing international agreements and policies aimed at mitigating climate change and adapting to impacts to understand their unequal impacts on vulnerable communities, rich vs poor countries.
5. Climate Denial and Delay: Examining the impact of powerful corporations and individuals to deny, downplay, minimize, or delay governmental action to address climate change.
6. Governmental Support of Fossil Fuel Development and Infrastructure: Supporting continued exploration, permitting, and subsiding of fossil fuels.
7. Governmental Failure to Protect Carbon Sinks and Natural Resources: Failure to protect forests, lakes, rivers, and ground water, marshland, coral reefs and other valuable resources absorbing carbon or endangered by climate change.
8. Governmental Regulation Failure: Failure to regulate greenhouse gasses due to pressure from fossil fuel companies, utilities, lobbyists.
9. Governmental Diplomacy Failure: Failure to make or commit to binding international agreements or to follow through on commitments already made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and/or support climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.
10. Renewable Energy Access: Ensuring that the transition to renewable energy is inclusive, providing affordable and accessible options for all communities.
11. Environmental Justice Movements: Exploring grassroots movements advocating for fair treatment and involvement in environmental decision-making.
12. Militarization of "Natural" Disasters: Using the police or the military to enforce control in the event of climate change caused disasters, storms, floods, fires, heat waves, etc. in ways that violate human rights.
13. Indigenous Rights and Land Stewardship: Recognizing the role of indigenous communities in sustainable land management and the protection of biodiversity.
14. Repression of Environmental Activists and Protestors: Using accusations of "terrorism" and "disruption" to aggressively police, prosecute, incarcerate, and harm environmental and climate protestors and gatherings engaging in non-violent and/or property damage protests. Failure to protect climate protestors.
15. Climate Education and Awareness: Promoting climate denial or delay education, or pro-fossil fuel education. Failing to provide quality and extensive climate education. Climate education that fails to consider urgency, questions of justice, politics, and impacts on vulnerable communities.
16. Failure of Academic Research and Advocacy: Academic traditions that stifle experts from recognizing risks, speaking publicly and clearly, addressing "political" or controversial questions, teaching the full truth, or engaging in protest.
17. Green Jobs and Economic Justice: Examining how the transition to a green economy can create employment opportunities and address economic disparities.
18. Carbon Pricing and Equity: Assessing the fairness of policies that aim to put a price on carbon emissions and their impact on different socioeconomic groups.
19. Food Justice: Addressing the impact of climate change on food security and equitable access to nutritious food.
20. Water Equity: Examining issues related to water scarcity, contamination, and access, with a focus on social justice.
21. Environmental Health Disparities: Investigating the unequal distribution of environmental pollutants, heat waves, and natural disasters and their health effects on different communities.
22. Community Resilience: Building resilience in vulnerable communities to cope with and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
23. Intersectionality in Climate Justice: Recognizing that climate justice issues are interconnected with other social justice issues, such as gender, race, and economic inequality.
24. Youth Activism: Highlighting the role of young activists defending their right to a livable future by advocating for climate justice and holding policymakers accountable.
25. Failure to Protect Nature: Destruction of biosystems and habitats, extinction of species, overuse of natural resources, and pollution.
26. Excessive Consumption: Extravagant lifestyles, private jets and luxury boats, excessive meat consumption, failure to attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
