Book Displays

Climate Justice: Toward More Resilient and Inclusive Futures For All

On display starting April 2022 • Selected by Liana Bayne and Kristen Shuyler

We’re not all in the same boat when it comes to climate change. Unfortunately, communities around the world with less power and privilege are disproportionately affected by climate change. Indeed, “climate change is a powerful ‘threat multiplier,’ making existing vulnerabilities and injustices worse.” [1]

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and current Chair of the UN General Assembly’s Elders, said that climate justice “insists on a shift [when talking about climate change] from a discourse on greenhouse gasses and melting ice caps into a civil rights movement with the people and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts at its heart.” [2]

Climate justice, then, is not an abstract concept for communities that are already suffering environmental harms:

“The most polluting coal plants are disproportionately located in communities where residents are predominantly low income or people of color. Burning fossil fuels is resulting in sea level rise, which is displacing communities from Kivalina Island, Alaska, to Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana. Shifting rainfall patterns and extreme weather are disrupting agriculture, deepening existing food insecurity in too many communities. Climate change is absolutely a civil rights issue.” [3]

We’ve selected podcasts, videos, and JMU Libraries books to help you learn more about climate change, climate justice, and environmental justice, how they relate to systems of oppression—and what we can do to build more inclusive and resilient futures.

Special thanks to Dr. Katey Castellano, coordinator of the Environmental Humanities Minor and Professor of English, for contributing suggestions to this compilation of resources. 

Note [1]: page xviii of “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” 

Note [2]: interview with Mary Robinson: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/climate-justice/ 

Note [3]: page 199 of  “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” (chapter called “At the Intersections” by Jacqui Patterson)