Module 1: How to Understand Environmental Injustice
Prof Ilan Kelman
University College London
Featuring:
Prof Ilan Kelman at University College London speaks with us about defining Air pollution as a planetary crisis.
Ilan shares insights as a professor of Disasters and Health on what structurally contributes to this planetary crisis plus some suggestions on what changes and interventions are needed.
Key Learnings: Definitions
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A crisis is classically characterised as a stage where decisive change is needed to avoid undesired consequences. Crises can exist in any combination of social, economic, political, or medical scales and require interventions.
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Derive from the English term of "commons" referring to grazing land not owned by one entity, global commons is a legislative and scientific term for spaces, such the oceans and the air, that aren't specifically owned but impacts and is impacted by the global public.
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Local interaction around the world, meaning how local communities and infrastructure learn from, share, and influence each other in their practices.
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The idea that there are not enough resources for all to be healthy, so we must compete with each other.
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The planetary crisis is the interconnected and critical result of human global impact requiring intervention. The UN identifies a triple planetary crisis consisting of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
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The process of reducing the growth of the global population. Population stabilisation often looks at social and environmental justice to address excessive global consumption trends, particularly by wealthier nations, that pressure the resources available to all as well as who has access to them.
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Making connections in local nodes across the world which can lead to reimagined identities outside of imposed boundaries, such as nation states.
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The interaction between local and national or global domains. Working together from planetary scale to street level through legislation and movements.
Key Learnings: Our Thoughts
Translocalism is a pathway to correlating our local behaviours and values with other local communities around the world and the global commons that connects us.
Air pollution is both a symptom and a cause through the global commons. A symptom of a planetary crisis where many entities do what they want without regards for the global commons. A cause because of the resulting conditions that affect the health of people and planet.
Climate is just an impartial calculation. This is a "people emergency," not a "climate emergency," and thus we need to respond as people and our activities.
We need a reframing on how values translate into governance structures, acts of democracy, and consumption behaviours that protect people and the planet.
What in this lesson stood out for you?
Debate Questions
These questions are framed to help you apply your own experience and perspectives to points raised in this lesson.
What would be the main negative contributor to the global commons where you live?
What are 1-3 negative impacts of the extractivist, supremacist, and/or individualist approach to health that your health justice advocacy addresses?
What are ways to articulate current environmental injustices and goals of environmental justice outside of the colonial notion of justice?
How To…
Develop a translocalist approach to environmental injustice
What type of community do you believe would learn from a healthy form of governance, consumption, or contribution to the global commons? How could this sharing healthily and ethically take place?
What type of community do you believe could teach your community a healthy form of governance, consumption, or contribution to the global commons? How could this sharing healthily and ethically take place?
What is one commitment you and your community can make to improve your impact on the global commons?
Next Lesson:
Module 1 Lesson 5