Climate catastrophe presents us with many difficult ethical challenges. Perhaps one of the biggest is that the people least responsible for creating the catastrophe suffer, and will very likely continue to suffer, the most from it. And those least responsible who suffer the most are disproportionately low-income, and in turn disproportionately people of color, throughout the world. This, in a nutshell, is the impetus behind the climate justice movement.
Yet, from a narrow “technopolitical” perspective, “solving” the climate crisis—that is, ensuring that we maintain a livable climate of the kind that enabled human civilization to emerge in the past 10,000 years or so–means phasing out fossil fuels as our principal source of energy in favor of clean renewables such as battery or water-stored solar, wind, and electrified transportation, as well as more sustainable land use, including urban planning and agriculture, and ocean management by 2050 or earlier; that is, all of this in just one generation!
With the above in mind, draw on this week’s readings to argue for or against addressing the climate catastrophe from a technopolitical perspective that does not necessarily center climate justice. Sources (more are attached as files): https://www.google.com/books/edition/Climate_Crisis_and_the_Global_Green_New/PlT5DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 (You only need to read what is available on the preview) https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/environment/547144-first-black-man-to-lead-epa-reveals-personal https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7413658/ https://mlk50.com/2020/09/10/this-black-neighborhood-is-trying-to-stop-an-oil-pipeline-theyre-running-out-of-time/ https://medium.com/climate-conscious/environmental-racism-runs-deeper-than-memphis-water-source-2a82c66d98a3 https://mlk50.com/2021/03/14/al-gore-in-memphis-sunday-rallying-against-byhalia-pipeline/