Climate Movement Values: Justice
Introductory Series Post #10.2
The Climate Movement is a moral movement. In a nutshell: we are about doing what’s right. That’s why justice is a supreme and defining value for us. (I will have a separate series of extensive posts exploring Hope and Justice.)
As I discussed briefly in post #5 on overcoming climate change, because the climate crisis is a profound injustice, we are about:
stopping bad stuff,
setting wrong right, and
making things better.
For us these are our three interrelated actions of justice. This is what we are doing when we are striving towards justice.
The classical definition of justice going back at least to Plato is to give each their due. And what are each one of us due? What are today’s children and subsequent generations due? A better world.
This is why we affirm the Better Future Covenant (post #6).
This is why our vision, purpose, and Major Goal is to overcome climate change while creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything.
There is no overcoming climate change without justice. Injustice to anyone is a harm to everyone.
To do these things is to stop bad stuff, set wrong right, and make things better.
We seek for justice because of the love we have. Our love makes us push for justice now, as soon as possible, because our beloved and those loved by others must not suffer one millisecond more from injustice.
Injustice to anyone is a harm to everyone. For those treated unjustly the rest of us either have compassion — which literally means “to suffer with” — or we don’t or try hard to suppress it, which can make us morally grotesque.
We strive to have those we love and those loved by others live in a just world, for that is what we hope for. Our pursuit of justice pushes us to make our future come faster as we make the impossible possible and the possible actual and the actual beautiful.
Love also keeps our pursuit of justice from becoming arrogant, self-righteous, rigid, screechy, and alienating. When combined with our other Movement Values, justice brings people to our cause and helps keep all of us in the struggle.
Justice is right at the beating heart of who we are and who we long to be. There is no Climate Movement without the pursuit of justice.
Remember to check out the other posts in our Introductory Series, including our first value, love. If you like this post, please “like,” comment, and share with others.