Justice & Climate Change: The Three Actions of Justice and Three Major Complications
Hope & Justice Series Post #1.1
The first post in this Series began a 3-part subseries introducing the Hope & Justice Series. This post and the next will fill out this subseries.
The Three Actions of Justice
I’ve already introduced the three actions of justice in earlier posts, but it is appropriate for us to review them here.
In a nutshell, justice means we must:
stop bad stuff,
set wrong right,
make things better.
These are the three interrelated actions of justice, what we must do to achieve the desires and demands of justice, and doing so creates the virtuous circle of hope and justice as we make our future come faster and our world more beautiful. On every one of our Olympian Fields of Action we must be doing at least one of the three actions of justice, and, wherever possible, doing all three.
Because we are a moral movement, because justice is part of our vision, purpose, and Major Goal, we must ensure that justice is built into Catalytic-4 synergies. We must ensure that such synergies create justice.
As a moral movement we must not stop until we have helped our communities, our countries, and the world achieve these three interrelated hope-producing actions, demands, and desires of justice.
Three Major Complications
As we strive for justice there are three major complications we must be aware of and attempt to deal with.
First, in contrast to a harm done by one individual to another such as robbery or bodily injury, with many pollution issues we cannot identify a single perpetrator to be brought to justice. That’s because most pollution, including climate pollution, is a systemic aggregate problem. Lots of people and lots of businesses and factories and industries contribute, all acting within systems created to utilize fossil fuels to power our economies and our lives, systems defended by these powerful vested interests in symbiotic relationship with politicians.
While most people on the planet create emissions, those by the world’s poor do not create the problem. And even for those of us that are part of creating the problem, some contribute much, much more than others.
But this way of looking at things is, frankly, all wrong. Because when you read those last two sentences you were probably thinking of contributions by individuals. Western Civilization’s individualism has primed many of us to think this way, as have the ways many of us have been taught to frame discussions about justice. And, of course, the Big Producers of Polluting Products (B3Ps) have tapped into this to deflect attention and responsibility away from themselves onto individuals.
Let me try to state this as clearly as I can: an individual cannot cause a systemic aggregate problem. You cannot cause a systemic aggregate problem.
So as we move forward we must dispel some myths and lies:
We are not all a part of the problem.
Reducing your individual carbon footprint won’t do anything to solve the problem.
Some of the Big Producers of Polluting Products have conned us into thinking it’s our fault, when it’s their fault.
For example, as you can see from the graph above from the latest Carbon Majors report, 180 Big Producers of Polluting Products (B3Ps) are responsible for over two-thirds of climate pollution historically. They are responsible for nearly half of the rise in temperature. Just twenty major corporate polluters are responsible for 31% of climate pollution since 1965, according to the Climate Accountability Institute. Since the 2015 Paris Agreement 57 investor-owned corporations, state corporations, and state-run coal operations (e.g. China) have been responsible for 80% of CO2 emissions. In 2023, 36 companies were responsible for over half of CO2 pollution, with 16 of the top 20 being state-owned companies.
As we near tipping points, it’s the Big Producers of Polluting Products who are pushing us there.
Yet an ingenious and deceptive major marketing campaign by one of the B3Ps succeeded in deflecting responsibility for this systemic aggregate problem away from the primary culprits, B3Ps, and onto individuals. They did so by popularizing the “carbon footprint” scam.
The only way for individuals like you and me to make a difference with a systemic aggregate problem is to join the Climate Movement so we have the power to change the systems.
Second, to complicate things even more, pollution does not respect national or state or local boundaries, transversing legal and political jurisdictions.
Pollution is too much of something in the wrong place causing harm. In contrast to other forms of pollution, CO2 and other greenhouse gases don’t cause harm at a local level (except through ocean acidification). They are atmospheric pollution. With climate, we are dealing with a global problem.
As indicated by the classic definition of justice, to give each their due, justice concerns individuals and groups of individuals. Whether the concern is a harm being caused, or a just distribution of resources, opportunities, and solutions, it comes down to individuals. Achieving justice for individuals, or for individuals in groups, is very complicated when dealing with a global problem.
Third, as a final complication, the harmful consequences of climate change as well as many forms of pollution and environmental degradation, are intergenerational or intertemporal. One generation — the adults/parents — causes the problem, and subsequent generations — the children and their children — have to suffer the consequences.
None of these complications or powerful forces must obscure the fact that pollution is an injustice. None of this must stop us from pursuing justice. None of this should block us from seeing climate change and pollution and environmental degradation for what they are: an injustice that must be stopped; a wrong that must be made right in ways that set wrong right and make things better. None of this must keep us from our calling to create a justice-achieving synergy between the Catalytic-4.
And as we do so hope finds us in our striving and our victories. Join us!
If you are new here check out our Intro Series. If you like this post, please “like,” comment, and share to help spread the word. And thanks for all you’re doing.