Rewriting the narratives of climate change

Thinking about climate change and the environmental movement it is rarely seen as having a link to social justice. One person who is trying to address this is Lydia, PhD student in the Department of Politics and International Relations. Through her research on environmentalism, feminism and social justice in the UK and France, she is aiming to look beyond conventional narratives and explore some of the potentially devastating consequences of climate change through a different lens.

“I want to make the connections between environmentalism, social justice, race and racism more explicit, and contribute to the conversation that climate change is relevant and very much linked to these other struggles.” 

Going beyond the white middle-class narrative

Lydia’s research focuses on how the UK and France are framing conversations and action on climate change. As postcolonial nations dealing with ongoing issues of social justice, race and racism, the environmentalist movements seemed to be missing some key narratives.

Looking at national press, national movements like Extinction Rebellion and local community activity, there was a real lack of representation. This provoked Lydia to think more broadly about the connection between social justice and climate change.

 “When I first started thinking about my research, Extinction Rebellion activists were getting a lot of attention in the press. At the time, it struck me that they seemed to be missing a lot of narratives. I thought to myself that there was no way that there are only white middle-class people doing this work or affected by this issue. So, I started trying to find those stories and understand what those stories contained.

“There is clear evidence of racism in some areas of the media as well as within the environmental movement itself. There are some ways in which the discourses within the environmental movement are not sensitive to existing social justice issues.”

Climate change is a social justice issue

The issues that Lydia discovered made the need for her research even clearer. By exploring the link between social justice and climate change, Lydia realised just how intertwined these two areas are. In addition to the lack of representation within the movement, climate change itself has a disproportionate impact on certain populations.

“I’m always hesitant to separate the notion of environmental justice away from social justice. As well as systemic connections, we need to think about the way that we live in general. When it comes to climate change, who is going to be hit first and worst? It’s always going to coincide with those who are already struggling in our society or those who are being exploited to meet the needs of our unsustainable economy.”

As well as being hit hardest by climate catastrophes, leaders of developing nations and the Global South are rarely included in debates on climate action.

“We also need to consider representation on a more global level. Look at political representation and who is making the decisions and solutions. Are our proposed solutions to climate change those that will reinforce those social injustices? If we look at narratives around migration and how we talk about climate refugees, these are often used to scare people into acting on climate change. We need to look at what that means and what impact this negative rhetoric has on issues surrounding race and migration in general.” 

Imagining a better world

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, but with its link to social justice, Lydia feels it cannot be solved in isolation. Looking at the bigger picture across a spectrum of issues may be the way to move forward.

“For me, it’s crucial that we’re thinking about these issues now in a connected way. We can’t say that climate change is one thing, and poverty is another, or patriarchal oppression is something else. We need to think about these issues together and start to imagine a better world where we care about each other. It’s an opportunity to have those conversations around social justice.” 

Politics at Goldsmiths

At Goldsmiths the study of politics goes beyond voting systems, parliaments and the conventional arenas of power. It’s grounded in looking critically at real-world problems, and this is one of the reasons that Lydia chose Goldsmiths to study her PhD.

“At Goldsmiths there’s a culture of making your work embedded in the real world. If you’re going to be looking at the area of politics, I think your work has to be useful in a real way. My supervisor is Elizabeth Evans, and the way that she looks at things was really inspiring to me. It has given me a good lens to look at the environmental movement. She has been amazing!”

Find out more about the Department of Politics and International Relations, and its critical approach to the political world.