Interlinkage between Climate Change and Environmental Injustice - Infographic

A visual representation that shows that human activities are both the cause and effect of climate change, highlighting that our actions do impact our ecosystem and that we are responsible for the wellness of the planet and other beings.

*This infographic expands on the part of the written research and presents it visually to show the relationship between climate change and environmental justice, which is driven by human decisions and action. Part of the infographic is extracted from the research section, so to get a clearer, more detailed idea, please refer to that section of the blog.

Climate change-- “a long-term change in the average weather patterns that define Earth’s local, regional and global climate”--is undoubtedly impacted by and will impact all the living things that inhabit the planet. (1) For we, as one of the inhabitants, constantly interact with the environment. Whether it is through our utilization of natural resources for survival or just being part of the ecosystem’s transference of energy, humans are by no means the controller/owner of the plant. (2) Our society adapts and changes because of the changes in the environment. In many ways, the environment is inextricably part of our identity and experience of the world as human beings. (3)

But it isn’t just our interaction with our environment that contributes to climate change, but also the way we interact with each other. In many talks about climate change, I feel like we tend to pull ourselves away from the responsibilities of our action that caused the issue. We see the problem as something that is just recently created by machines and technology, but, in reality, it is the result of our history. According to Elizabeth Yeampierre, “climate change is the result of the legacy of extraction, of colonialism, of slavery...think about the slave quarters. I think about people who got the worst food, the worst health care, the worst treatment, and then when freed, were given lands that were eventually surrounded by things like petrochemical industries. The idea of killing black people of indigenous people, all of that has a long, long history that is centered on capitalism and extraction of our land and our labor in this country.” (4) For it is through the desire to gain absolute power and control raw materials that gave birth to slavery and colonialism. The usage of unpaid labor and exploitation of local communities is to maximize production efficiency and again as much capital as possible from the extraction process. (4) From stealing indigenous land to issuing removal acts, all these humanitarian destructions can be linked back to the race between Western countries for control over gold, extract fossil fuels, and cash crops. (4) And, as a result of this repeated, mechanized extraction, we have tipped the equilibrium of the planet’s ecosystem, which endangered many other species that share the planet with us.

Ironically, when the effect of climate change started to impact human activities, those who capitalize on extraction and are the main perpetrator of the planet’s health face little to no consequences. But on the other hand, those that were used for hard labor and contributed little to the damage must face unbelievable dire repercussions. (4) From the rise of sea level that causes famine and threatens the livelihood of native communities to the loss of lives from the more intense and frequent natural disasters, people with the least social mobility must bear all the consequences of those that gain capital and power from extraction. (4) As due to their low social mobility and opportunity, these communities do not have the privilege to gain access to help, better living conditions, or even a voice to raise their problem into government political agenda. (4)

This cycle of perpetration can be seen in Indonesia with the country’s problem with rising seawater. The problem started in the 1600s when the Dutch colonized Indonesia and segregated the ingenious people from the newly established Dutch settlers (5). And it is this separation that led to an unequal and unjust water piping system that excluded Indigenous Jakartans, forcing them to draw drinking water from underground aquifers (5). This problem, combined with the fact that the urbanization and population growth in Jakarta increased the demand for groundwater and reliance, as well as the accelerated sea-level rise in extreme weather events that break embankments and cause severe flooding to low-income areas that are already prone to flooding (5). Thus, many climate injustices are not just immediate consequences to human-related climate change, but also years of colonialism, neglect, and racism where colonizers destroy the colonized land by extracting their resources and then leaving them to deal with the problem alone after the signing of independence.

"A woman and her daughter stand in highly polluted seawater in the Muara Angke slum, north Jakarta. This district, one of the poorest in the city, is home to fishing families whose shacks stand on garbage and sewage arriving from Jakarta's waterways. The direct, current impact of the mismanagement of Dutch colonization and its pipelines." (PC: Elisabetta Zavoli)

"The climate talks and the entire debate about climate change is fundamentally about political economy. It's about determining the level of loss of lives and livelihoods in poor countries that rich countries are willing to accommodate." - Asad Rehman

Description Citations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XTQn0Z_tjbK6InSYxkA2wbhyHTN6efTV6feAix0iJZA/edit?usp=sharing

Infographic Citations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ANH1Dk0YjKvCoQxXJOlV9XsX9wZTgveTj9vREftS4PY/edit?usp=sharing