This question is somehow both very simple and yet endlessly complicated to answer.

Depending on how far along you are on your climate consciousness journey, the term 'Climate Change' can mean a number of different things to you. Essentially what we're talking about here, especially in commonly used broad-strokes definitions, relates to the warming of the earth. While the planet has always had natural fluctuations in its temperature, historically unprecedented (and increasing!) levels of human activity has contributed to accelerating global warming. This had led to many undesirable effects - including extreme weather, loss of biodiversity, unhealthy living conditions, forced migrations, social injustices, and alot more.

Human contributions come in many, many forms. In fact, it can be argued that almost all human activity has some sort of minutely small effect that can add up to contribute to the climate crisis. Still, some things we do are worse for the planet than others - unsustainable energy systems, transportation, waste management, agricultural practices, and manufacturing are a few of the sectors that, if transformed from the ground up, can have huge positive effects over relatively short periods of time.

Below are some of our favorite introductory resources.

Not all climate impacts are distributed equally.

The term Climate Justice has increased in popularity quite dramatically in recent years. However, its meaning is still pretty flexible. It is often used to refer to an academic movement linking the climate crisis to various social inequities in research, activist networks addressing intersectional issues pertaining to climate change vulnerabilities, or just as a catch-all term used to frame global warming as a political and/or socio-economic issue. This connection is achieved by relating the causes and effects of climate change to concepts of social and environmental justice.

Historically marginalized communities, such as women, ethnic minorities, indigenous groups, and communities of color often face disproportionately severe consequences of climate change, in the form of poverty exacerbation, vulnerability to extreme weather, habitat displacement effects, etc. On the flipside, these communities are generally least responsible for the climate crisis themselves, as historically overlooked groups are less likely to have actively contributed to environmentally harmful activity in relation to others. Given the complex ways in which issues surrounding Climate Justice manifest themselves across cultures and contexts, activist communities throughout the world have begun setting up legal systems designed to protect the rights and interests of groups that are multi-fold vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Some learning resources specializing in Climate Justice are linked below.