Climate Action, Hope, & Justice
Hope & Justice Series #10; Conclusion to Series`
If we ever were to attain all of justice it would only be the beginning of a just world, part of the abundant life. We seek justice precisely because it is lacking.
Justice is not simply the absence of bad stuff, or the lack of injustice.
Justice is the presence of good stuff.
It is making amends for wrongs. It is the creation of the good life that is the birthright of every person and the rest of nature. It is healing. It is wellbeing. It is the freedom to have a life well lived.
That’s why our vision, purpose, and Major Goal is to overcome climate change in ways that create a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything.
That’s why the three actions of justice are to stop bad stuff, set wrong right, and make things better. It’s part of our job to help find out what these actions should be in each situation.
Justice Manual? Nada
There is no manual of justice, a book that spells out how to achieve justice in each case, i.e., how to give everyone and everything their due in each situation.
Laws are not such a manual.
Laws prescribe what those in power think laws should be at certain moments in time. They may help us find justice — or not. It’s always worth remembering that just about everything Hitler did was legal.
To be clear: we are for the rule of law. No doubt about it. No ifs, ands, or buts. The absence of the rule of law is chaos or capricious tyranny. Neither existence will overcome climate change.
Being for the rule of law doesn’t mean you think every law is good. That’s why societies with some modicum of freedom have ways to change bad laws.
There are also times when we haven’t yet been able to change an unjust law or one that no longer contributes to the common good, and we choose to break one law to protest another unjust law by participating in civil disobedience. As John Lewis put it, we get into “good trouble.”
In this we are not working to overthrow the rule of law. Just the opposite! We are opposing certain laws or actions of governments — whether legal or illegal — by breaking certain other laws. And we are willing to submit ourselves to the legal system, the rule of law, to be arrested, to spend time in jail. In other words, we simultaneously break certain laws as we uphold the rule of law.
The rule of law avoids chaos, lawlessness, and tyranny. But it does not guarantee justice. Nor do laws automatically create justice.
To sum up: there is no manual of justice and laws can help or hurt in our striving for justice, i.e., to give everyone and everything their due.
But We Do Have Principles of Justice
If humanity has developed anything close to a manual, or, more precisely, to underlying ideas that should inspire and guide the actualization of justice, it is the articulation of principles of justice. Examples include The Principles of Environmental Justice and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But they don’t tell us how to secure these principles and rights. Nor are they self-enforcing. They are aspirational. One only has to look at much of the sorry history of the UN Commission/Council on Human Rights to see how if aspirations are not backed up with moral power and people power, those opposed — in this case national governments — can undermine them at every turn. And that’s exactly what they’ve done.
The same is true for Environmental Justice (EJ). There have been some victories. But not nearly enough. Even the victories are partial and can be reversed when the pressure is off, or when the government turns hostile, such as the Trump reversal and destruction of Biden EJ policies and programs.
And so we continue in our search for justice; we move forward in our struggle for justice.
We Do Have The Five Dimensions of Justice
To help guide The Climate Movement as we strive for justice, I have observed that there are five interrelated and overlapping dimensions of justice that are at the heart of our Movement and help fuel our passion for action:
These help us see in broad strokes our justice landscape and what we are working towards.
And We Do Have The Three Actions of Justice
So we have principles and ideas and dimensions and visions of justice to help guide us. They tell us, broadly, what to do. But in every circumstance we must determine what justice is.
How, then, do we begin to achieve justice? We do so by doing the three actions of justice: stop bad stuff, set wrong right, and make things better. And how do we know what these actions are in each situation?
In most cases the suite of possible actions to take are clear to people of good will who want to do them. We begin by asking and answering questions.
What is harming people and/or nature and creating an injustice? Then let’s stop doing that.
How can those accountable make amends? Help in some way to heal the harm? How can those harmed be restored and made whole by those accountable and/or society?
How can we help create the positive things everyone and everything is due so they can live the lives intended for them? Where all are thriving? Where wellbeing and realized potential are the hallmarks of lives well lived?
Then we discuss the range of actions to take and agree on what they will be in each situation — which, admittedly, could spark vigorous debate.
It’s hard to imagine that anyone or any group would be opposed to such actions, but injustice is as old as humanity itself. Those who don’t want justice may try to cloud the issue or simply undermine or oppose our justice actions.
How Do We Carry On?
Striving for justice is challenging. It can be a hard road. For a few of us it can even lead to the ultimate sacrifice. So how do we keep going? How do we refuel our staying power?
We do so by journeying together, inspired and guided by our Movement Values, beginning with the most important one, the L-word, Love. Love is the heart of justice. Love for our loved ones. Love for each other. Love for others. Love for nature. Love for God, or what you consider to be greater than ourselves. For most of us, without love there is no striving for justice. And without each other almost all of us will exhaust ourselves and fall by the way.
Love and each other. That’s the key. That’s our staying power formula.
Hope & Justice?
Ok, I’ve had this big long Series asserting that these two not only go with one another, but are a mutually beneficial symbiosis.
Yea, yea, yea.
But these words together — do they create a bit of cognitive dissonance or mental tension for you? Not as opposites, certainly, but as things that, well, don’t often go with each other. Do they seem odd together? Strange bedfellows? Fluffy versus Spiky? Or maybe just an unfamiliar pairing that you don’t quite know what to make of?
I hope if you have partaken of this Hope & Justice Series that any strangeness has been dissipated or even dispelled.
It is our unjust reality that creates a dissonance between hope and justice, not something inherent in the concepts themselves. Quite the opposite. Deep within nearly every human heart we hope for a just world, a fair world, where everyone and everything is given their due.
And what are we due? An abundant life, wellbeing, a life well lived. This is our hope for every generation, which is why we have our Better Future Covenant.
Our hope for justice inspires us to create justice. That’s why we have two kinds of hope or double-hope: vision-hope and action-hope. Every step towards justice creates what we hope for, and such hope empowers us to strive for more justice — all of which is beautiful. As such, we are justice-seekers, hope-makers, and beauty-creators.
The Climate Movement is a moral movement, and the beating heart of our being a moral movement is our striving towards justice. Without this we won’t create the people power needed to fulfill our vision: to overcome climate change by creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything.
As you can see, justice informs and inspires our vision at every step. Together with our moral power and people power and staying power we are making the impossible possible and the possible actual and the actual beautiful and our future come faster. Join us!
If you are new here, check out our Intro Series, and other posts in our Hope & Justice Series. If you like this post, please “like,” comment, and share. And thanks for all you’re doing.