Climate Thoughts with Brian

‘Climate Injustice’ by Dr Otto is an uncomfortable read for an audience in the Global North and reminds us of the truth- that if your neighbour’s house is on fire, you don’t argue about the price of your garden hose. You put out the fire.

This is not simply a book about more frequent extreme weather. Instead, ‘This book is about the weather and climate, but it’s also about poverty, sexism, racism, arrogance, ignorance and power.’

By titling the book ‘Climate Injustice’, Dr Otto logical starts by defining what climate justice is and then highlights examples from around the world where the disparity in power and the disparity in responsibility occur. ‘Climate justice means protecting the rights of those most at risk by sharing the burdens of climate change and its effects fairly and across all sections of society.’

When we have powerful Global North leaders who try to tell us that actually there is no fire, that the impacts we witness are ‘fake news’ and reduce their countries’ ability to act in positive directions, it is at this point that we must come to realise that it is their system which is under threat. It is their voices and their narratives that need to be minimised and a new story and a new ideology needs to emerge- one which listens to those who are impacted now by the climate crisis and one which amplifies their experiences. ‘We need constructive, powerful narratives that help us to dismantle traditional, institutionalized, structural inequality, rather than reinforcing it through the consequences of climate change’

Dr Otto leads us on a global tour and explores how climate change is killing the disadvantaged across the world and how existing political, cultural and social constructs are factoring into the impact. She challenges her readers to understand that colonialism and racism are hiding behind climate change. As a white male in the Global North, I questioned whether we needed yet another voice from my demographic to talk about the Global South and its problems through a review- the last thing the Global South needs is yet another ‘white saviour’. However, silence is even more dangerous.

As a result, we do need to talk and we do need to listen. We need to be a ‘we’. Social action can be a powerful tool to challenge and overcome a dominant narrative of injustice. And Otto emphasises that this has happened frequently in the past and therefore the capacity for this to happen again is within our choice. ‘Extremely powerful narratives have been changed throughout history.’

As Otto notes, ‘Similarly, climate change is no asteroid. It is a human-caused reality that escalates the inequality and injustice in our society. An injustice we consider so normal that often we don’t even talk about it. But we need to start talking. And we need to focus the debate on improving peoples’ lives here and now. To talk about climate change is, then, to talk about inequality and injustice- and about the system in which we live.’

Dismantling ‘colonial fossil narratives’

There is an early challenge in ‘Climate Injustice’, which asks the simplest of questions- How many deaths are we happy to live with? Identifying who they ‘we’ are in this question and understanding that it’s largely the Global North who are standing idly by while the death rate continues to grow elsewhere, aided and abetted by a ‘Colonial fossil narrative’, which serves a rich, powerful few, who are rarely, if ever, challenged over their role.

The inequality quickly becomes apparent, or as Otto frames the issue, ‘We aren’t all in the same boat, especially when it’s on fire.’

Why do extreme weather events in Pakistan receive less media attention and less ‘on the ground’ disaster management, than extreme weather events in Western Europe. In part, owing to the perception that it isn’t ‘us’ yet. Otto argues that this is owing to the ‘Colonialism Meets Capitalism’ embedded conflict. ‘While extreme weather in Europe makes headlines for weeks on end- not always the right ones- reports on weather extremes in Africa are practically nonexistent.’

As Dr Otto reminds us, ‘The formula is frighteningly simple: the richer we are and the more privileged our lives, the less susceptible we are to the physical consequences of global warming. To put it another way, those with the least suffer the most from the consequences of climate change.’

Climate justice concerns everyone.

It is this injustice, this well established and created imbalance of power and visibility, that Dr Otto explores in her book and argues that this structure is also one which needs to be addressed. ‘[W]e won’t be able to manage climate change unless we eliminate the historic dynamic of injustice, of domination and dependence, between the countries of the Global North and the Global South.’ She further makes the point that we can ‘unlearn’ the injustice and see it for what is- a strut to prop up an elite way of life. ‘Injustice is learned, and that means it can be unlearned.’

This focus on managing the hidden causes of climate change echoes strongly in the text, as Otto makes the point forcefully that we have all entered a new world. A world which could have been avoided and therefore untold suffering could have been avoided. ‘With warming of 1.2℃ (2.16℉), the Earth is warmer today than ever before in the history of human civilization- warmer than any world humanity has ever known.’

What are we doing here?

As I read this book, the parable of the drowning man resounded powerfully. The man who chooses not to heed repeated warnings that his house and his town is going to flood, because he believes God will save him. Various versions of this story exist, updated to reflect a more modern world, with radio messages, boats and helicopters coming to save the man. The end of the story remains the same- facing God in Heaven the man asks why God did not save him, only to be told that God had sent the radio message, the boat and the helicopter. The story ends with God asking the man, ‘What are you doing here?’

Dr Otto’s message feels a similar one- what are we doing here? We have had the scientific information for decades, we have failed to act and now we are casting around looking for someone to blame- while the colonial fossil narrative goes into overdrive, deflecting any challenge of accountability. ‘We could have and should have learned from these events, especially as we’ve known for years that advancing climate change could make weather phenomena more extreme.’

We have created an extremely unequal world. We have allowed dominant narratives to manipulate us, while political and social constructs continue to keep us repressed.

It is time for the colonial fossil narrative to be broken, so that we can reclaim equality and justice.