Student: Katie Kelly
Graduation date: May 2018
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2017
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Summary
In my second year of Lewis & Clark College, I created my original concentration in ENVS 220, titled Content and Rhetoric of Climate Justice in Media. At that time, I was very interested in media as an instrumental tool to evaluate climate justice. Since then, my interests have evolved into narratives of climate justice, which led to my second concentration.
Scientists have acknowledged the existence of climate change since the 1850s when John Tyndall offered “the first public, experimentally based account of what has become known as the greenhouse effect,” (Hulme, 2009). Already, the evidence of climate change (which includes rising sea levels, increasing global temperatures, and increased risk of natural disasters) has forced politicians, climate scientists, and economists to recognize that these changes are inevitable, whether or not they believe that climate change is human-induced. My concentration will focus on the human perspectives of climate change in countries that may have increased vulnerability.
The World-Systems Theory, developed by Immanuel Wallerstein, claims that the world order is a three-tier hierarchy consisting of core, semi-periphery, and periphery countries. The relations between core countries and periphery countries, then, “are based on unequal exchange and reinforced through imperialism, with the goal of exploitation of the periphery by the core in order to facilitate its processes of capital accumulation” (Straussfogel, 1997). It proposes core countries’ dominance, leaving periphery countries at a disadvantage in international competitions (Martínez-Vela, 2001). My concentration will use this theory to examine international climate change negotiations. For instance, the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action in 2011 created a new climate regime, but made no mention of equity or distinction between developed and developing countries that were founding principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Hurrell, 2012).
Although it is a highly contested term, climate justice is defined as “a common future based on justice for those who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and a just transition to a safe and secure society and planet for everyone,” according to the Declaration of Climate Justice by the Mary Robinson Foundation. In its vision, people and their experiences should be the center of climate change negotiations. Controversies exist within the politics of climate justice, including what reparations and responsibilities for which core countries should be held accountable and what limitations of consumption/development should be put on semi- and periphery countries (Bond, 2012).
Putting people at the center of the conversation is a priority made by climate justice, and narratives can be a revealing tool into the lens of another individual. Narratives can be linked to culture, heritage, identity, and the surrounding landscape (Hodge et al., 2002). They can also convince and compel listeners through a variety of outlets including, but not limited to, oral tradition, music, journalism, speech, and art. My concentration focuses on researching, studying, and interpreting the narrative around perceptions and actions of climate justice in periphery countries.
These narratives manifest themselves in different ways to adequately serve the parameters and complexities of their contexts. The range of expressions of activism to perspective differ what actor is speaking and what mode of narrative they are applying.
In recent years, periphery countries, categorized by labor-intensive production, have a higher risk to climate change vulnerability to core and semi-periphery countries. In Senegal, where music is a facet of culture and communication in both the private and public spheres, artists use their influence to not only express themselves, but also discuss topics ranging from youth unemployment to gender equality to climate change effects (Iggy 2014, Hip Hop in Senegal 2013). For instance, one of Senegal’s most famous singers, Matador, wrote a song about the degradation of his hometown in Catastrophe.
Core countries like the United States, categorized by capital-intensive production, are usually historically responsible for human-induced climate change (Roberts and Parks, 2009). In contrast to Senegalese narratives that actively publicize the effects of climate change, the United States witnesses a minority of climate deniers and skeptics who use their narrative to communicate their suspicion of human-induced climate change. One such denier is Senator Jim Inhofe, who has served on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for 12 out of the past 14 years and wrote the book, The Great Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, published in 2012. He represents a vocal character from one side of an ideological partisan divide, mirroring the American two-party system.
Semi-periphery countries land in the gray area between core and periphery countries, having both capital- and labor-intensive institutions. Core countries tend to have a shift to lower carbon lifestyle and economy, but these may be accredited to displacing emissions onto developing economies (Roberts and Parks, 2009). In India, the world’s third biggest carbon polluter (Barry and Davenport, 2015), people are more concerned about fairness of “common and differentiated responsibility” discussed in international climate change negotiations (Boykoff, 2010). In consequence 98% of Indian press coverage “accurately attributed climate change to anthropogenic causes,” but this coverage demonizes the United States and “has contributed to insider-outsider discourses,” (Boykoff, 2010). Unlike the United States’ climate denial narrative, India’s media focuses on who to blame.
References
Adger, W. Neil, Nigel W. Arnell, and Emma L. Tompkins. 2005. “Successful adaptation to climate change across scales.” Global environmental change 15: 77-86.
Barry, Ellen, and Coral Davenport. “India Announces Plan to Lower Rate of Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” The New York Times, October 02, 2015.
Balmford, Andrew, Manica, Andrea, Airey, Lesley, Birkin, Linda, Oliver, Amy, and Schleicher, Judith. “Hollywood, Climate Change, and the Public.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor).” Science 305, no. 5691 (2004): 1713-1713.
Bond, Patrick. “Politics of climate justice.” Paralysis above, movement below. University of Kwa Zulu Natal Press, Cape Town (2012).
Boykoff, Max. 2010. “Indian media representations of climate change in a threatened journalistic ecosystem.” Climatic Change 99: 17-25.
Chaudhuri, Sanjukta. “A Life Course Model of Human Rights Realization, Female Empowerment, and Gender Inequality in India.” World Development 52 (2013): 55.
Dispensa, Jaclyn Marisa, and Robert J. Brulle. 2003. “Media’s social construction of environmental issues: focus on global warming-a comparative study.” International Journal of sociology and social policy 23: 74-105.
Herson, Ben. “A Historical Analysis of Hip-Hop’s Influence in Dakar from 1984-2000.” American Behavioral Scientist 55, no. 1 (2011): 27.
Hodge, Felicia Schanche et al. “Utilizing Traditional Storytelling to Promote Wellness in American Indian Communities.” Journal of transcultural nursing : official journal of the Transcultural Nursing Society / Transcultural Nursing Society 13 (2002): 6-11.
Hoffman, Andrew J. “Talking past each other? Cultural framing of skeptical and convinced logics in the climate change debate.” Organization & Environment 24, no. 1 (2011): 3-33.
Ian Jones, David López-Carr, and Pamela Dalal. “Responding to Rural Health Disparities in the United States.” Netcom 2011-2, no. 25 (2013): 273-90.
Hurrell, Andrew and Sandeep Sengupta. “Emerging powers, North-South relations and global climate politics.” International Affairs 88 (2012): 463-484.Hulme, Mike. 2009. “On the origin of ‘the greenhouse effect’: John Tyndall’s 1859 interrogation of nature.” Weather 64: 121-123.
Iggy, MTV. “Scene Report: Hip-Hop Galsen Makes Dakar Africa’s Rap Captial.” Last modified October 8, 2014. https://s3.amazonaws.com/external_clips/1605948/Scene_Report__Hip-Hop_Galsen_Makes_Dakar_Africa%E2%80%99s_Rap_Capital___MTV_IGGY.pdf?1452552953
IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II, an III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp.
Kristie S. Gutierrez, and Catherine E. Leprevost. “Climate Justice in Rural Southeastern United States: A Review of Climate Change Impacts and Effects on Human Health.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 13, no. 2 (2016): 189.
Lairson, Thomas D., and Skidmore, David. International Political Economy : The Struggle for Power and Wealth. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2003.
Lucas, Todd, Shanmukh V Kamble, Michael Shengtao Wu, Ludmila Zhdanova, and Craig A Wendorf. “Distributive and Procedural Justice for Self and Others.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 47, no. 2 (2016): 234-48.
Mann, Michael E., Raymond S. Bradley, and Malcolm K. Hughes. 1998. “Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries.” Nature 392: 779-787.
Muhammad Ashraf Khan Beenish Zaheen. “Portrayal of Women by Star Plus Soap Operas: A Feministic Perspective (January-June, 2010).(Report).” Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences 31, no. 2 (2011): 365-378.
Pettit, Jethro. 2014. “CLIMATE JUSTICE: A NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR ATMOSPHERIC RIGHTS1.” Green Planet Blues: Critical Perspectives on Global Environmental Politics 1: 122.
Roberts, J. Timmons, and Bradley C. Parks. 2009. “Ecologically unequal exchange, ecological debt, and climate justice the history and implications of three related ideas for a new social movement.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 50: 385-409.
Roosevelt, Margot. “A Global Warming Star Search; U.N. Leader Seeks to Enlist Hollywood Heavyweights to Fight Climate Change.” Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2011.
Straussfogel, Debra. “World-Systems Theory: Toward a Heuristic and Pedagogic Conceptual Tool.” Economic Geography 73, no. 1 (1997): 118-30.
Tamazian, Artur, Juan Piñeiro Chousa, and Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati. “Does higher economic and financial development lead to environmental degradation: evidence from BRIC countries.” Energy policy 37, no. 1 (2009): 246-253.
Uldam, Julie, and Anne Vestergaard, eds. 2015. Civic Engagement and Social Media: Political Participation Beyond Protest. Palgrave Macmillan.
Questions
- Descriptive: What are the dominated climate change narratives in a given context? What are the current communications between core, semi-periphery, and periphery countries about climate justice? What attitudes about climate justice in periphery countries? Does story-telling change as climate changes? Are narratives connected or disconnected from their physical surrounding?
- Explanatory: What political, social, physical, and economic factors influence how a narrative is created and distributed, and to what degree is the influence? What gives a narrative importance (both to the creator and to the audience)? How do physical environments and geography effect the narratives of climate justice?
- Evaluative: Do prevalent narratives change in helpful ways in accordance to their surroundings? Do cultural narratives tend to ignore or otherwise ignore pressing environmental changes? What audiences do climate justice narratives need?
- Instrumental: How can climate justice narratives be used as a tool to coerce powerful institutions? What would help climate justice narrative communication and distribution? What should be the role of climate justice narratives in international climate change negotiations?
Concentration courses
- ENVS 460 (Topics in Environmental Law and Policy, 4 credits), Fall 2015. In this class, I will learn how agencies create law, regulations, and policies pertaining to climate justice. I will also study avenues for climate justice organizations to influence policy and legislation through a legal agenda.
- RHMS 321 (Argumentation and Social Justice, 4 credits), Fall 2016. In this class I will learn the role and importance of rhetoric concerning social justice and social change.
- ENVS 350 (Environmental Theory, 4 credits), Spring 2018. In this course I will investigate environmental theory relating to climate justice and the roles of science and humanities in this concept.
- IA 340 (International Political Economy, 4 credits) Spring 2018. In this course I will investigate how the international political economy influences climate justice and how social issues are affected by political influence and money.
- GEOL 170 (Climate Science, 5 credits), Fall 2017. This course will give me in-depth knowledge of the concept that started this entire concentration, climate change. I will experience the rhetoric and discourse being had in the scientific community.
- ENVS 499 (Independent Study, 4 credits), Fall 2016-2017. Concentration-related research connected to anticipated Senegal overseas program Spring 2017. This research will probably be focused on news media in Dakar Senegal.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- RELS 274 (Islam in the Modern World, 4 credits). I will learn how these identities perceive different institutions (such as government) and their communities. I will understand how these perspectives react to change with modern political and social dynamics.