Climate Justice Must Be Anti-Patriarchal, Or It Will Not Be Systemic

Abstract

The chapter positions the discussion of climate justice within the context of the call for “system change not climate change.” It highlights that as the global effects of climate change become clearer and more tangible, those in dominant positions of power are seeking to escape the consequences of what we are doing, without changing what we are doing. The call for justice must be grounded in who is most affected and who shoulders the costs of the current system, and we must build alternatives, truly rooted in justice. In this context of systemic crisis, how do we begin to break down these foundations, to center other ways of relating to each other, to ourselves, and to the “natural world?” The system is capitalist as much as it is patriarchal.