Environment, Climate, and Social Justice: Interdisciplinary Voices from the Global South

Abstract

The recent and growing scientific evidence strongly emphasizes that climate change is a global emergency, and it will continue to impact the livelihoods of millions of individuals in the twenty-first century, but it will do so unequally. Less and least developed nations, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), global climate change hotspot nations, landlocked nations, and post-conflict transition nations are widely recognized as more vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Most of these nations are in the Global South. Over the past few decades, the Global South has also been increasingly witnessing rapid environmental degradation, social inequalities, resource conflicts, and the resulting responses from many local communities in the forms of protests and movements. In the future, the growing climate crisis will more likely intensify the existing social and environmental conflicts, and generate new challenges to the marginal and vulnerable populations of the Global South. This chapter provides an outline of the book by briefly discussing the existing knowledge gaps to understand the growing challenges of the environmental and climate crisis, the reciprocal and dynamic interface between climate change, the natural environment, and social justice, and highlights the ways in which this book addresses those knowledge gaps and policy issues through interdisciplinary contributions. By providing a summary of all the chapters and organization of the book, the authors demonstrate how this book examines the interrelated challenges of climate change, environmental crises, and social justice more holistically and deeply.