New Environmental Movements and Just Global Climate Action

• In Event: Reimagining Virtue, Rights, and Masculinity in Environmental Political Theory

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a rise in literature discussing the need for an inclusive and global discourse on climate justice that facilitates fair and just climate action (E.g.Schlosberg and Collins 2014, Farhana 2022). This paper zooms in on new environmental movements in the West, such as Extinction Rebellion, Fridays For Future and the Sunrise Movement, and critically analyzes how these contribute to this global discourse. Drawing from critical political ecology (Eckersley 2004, Krause 2020), the paper demonstrates that they can contest environmental domination and further eco-emancipation by underlining the need to reimagine existing political institutions and center a concern for environmental harm on both a local and global level. However, the paper demonstrates that these movements also risk perpetuating neocolonial tendencies, specifically by drawing from the philosophies and experiences of marginalized communities, without actively including these in the process of developing their strategies, aims and discourses. To truly achieve eco-emancipation, the paper therefore argues that radical climate action requires a global form of “democratic reflexivity” which centers constant critical reflection and the inclusion of a diverse set of voices in any form of environmental protest (Eckersley 2004). The paper argues that only this way, we can translate the interests of those underrepresented and at the margins into political change and truly achieve climate justice.

Author

• Rebecca Marwege, Columbia University