Climate Justice and Community Renewal demonstrates why the expanding climate movements best chance at substantially transforming current failed climate policies lies in the twin goals of climate justice and community renewal. This exceptional collection by Brian Tokar and Tamra Gilbertson, two of the worlds most knowledgeable and accomplished climate researcher-activists, demonstrates why the most farsighted and constructive responses to the climate emergency stem from embracing the re-communalization of social life on the basis of egalitarian, post-capitalist, horizontalist, and non-patriarchal principles. This is also one of the first volumes to tackle the seemingly intractable question of the systemic convergence among transformative alternatives. By outlining a workable horizon for climate-driven radical change, the authors give us back the possibility for living otherwise and for reclaiming the future.
Arturo Escobar, Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, and Ad-hoc Professor, PhD Program in Environmental Sciences, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia
The iron law of climate change is, the less you did to cause it, the sooner and harder you suffer. That means that fighting the climate crisis, as these remarkable leaders and thinkers make clear, is first and foremost a matter of justice. The leadership in that fight comes precisely from these people and these places, and so this book is an invaluable resource.
Bill McKibben, Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College, USA
As this volume shows, nation-states prevaricate, but everyday people now lead on climate change, building new models of democratic politics, at once grassroots and globally collaborative.
Ariel Salleh, author and activist, author of Ecofeminism as Politics (2017)and Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice (2009)
This volume comes as a breath of unpolluted air, shining rays of light through the often clouded debates on climate, providing sharp critiques both of the crisis as also grounded alternatives that can provide the just transition to a world where humanity makes peace with the earth.
Ashish Kothari, Kalpavriksh/Global Tapestry of Alternatives, India
These activists and scholars alert us to the value of local community experiments as living alternatives and show how a climate justice lens simultaneously enriches these precious adventures while carving pathways to the range of systemic alternatives we all desire.
John Foran, Professor of Sociology and Coordinator, Environmental and Climate Justice Studies Hub, University of California Santa Barbara
Climate Justice and Community Renewal
This book brings together the voices of people from five continents who live, work, and research on the front lines of climate resistance and renewal.
The many contributors to this volume explore the impacts of extreme weather events in Africa, the Caribbean and on Pacific islands, experiences of life-long defenders of the land and forests in Brazil, India, Indonesia, and eastern Canada, and efforts to halt the expansion of fossil-fuel infrastructure from North America to South Africa. They offer various perspectives on how a just transition toward a fossil-free economy can take shape, as they share efforts to protect water resources, better feed their communities, and implement new approaches to urban policy and energy democracy.
Climate Justice and Community Renewal uniquely highlights the accounts of people who are directly engaged in local climate struggles and community renewal efforts, including on-the-ground land defenders, community organizers, leaders of international campaigns, agroecologists, activist-scholars, and many others. It will appeal to students, researchers, activists, and all who appreciate the need for a truly justice-centered response to escalating climate disruptions.
Brian Tokar is a Lecturer in Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont, USA, and the author and editor of six previous books on environmental issues and movements.
Tamra Gilbertson is an activist, researcher, writer, and scholar. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Tennessee in the Department of Sociology, as well as the Climate Change and Forest Policy Advisor for the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research
Culture, Space and Climate Change
Vulnerability and Resilience in European Coastal Areas
Thorsten Heimann
Communication Strategies for Engaging Climate Skeptics
Religion and the Environment
Emma Frances Bloomfield
Regenerative Urban Development, Climate Change and the Common Good
Edited by Beth Schaefer Caniglia, Beatrice Frank, John L. Knott Jr., Kenneth S. Sagendorf, Eugene A. Wilkerson
Local Activism for Global Climate Justice
The Great Lakes Watershed
Edited by Patricia E. Perkins
Political Responsibility for Climate Change
Ethical Institutions and Fact-Sensitive Theory
Theresa Scavenius
Insuring Against Climate Change
The Emergence of Regional Catastrophe Risk Pools
Nikolas Scherer
Climate Justice and Community Renewal
Resistance and Grassroots Solutions
Edited by Brian Tokar and Tamra Gilbertson
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Advances-in-Climate-Change-Research/book-series/RACCR
First published 2020
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2020 selection and editorial matter, Brian Tokar and Tamra Gilbertson; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Brian Tokar and Tamra Gilbertson to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tokar, Brian, editor. | Gilbertson, Tamra (Tamra L.), editor.
Title: Climate justice and community renewal : resistance and grassroots solutions / edited by Brian Tokar and Tamra Gilbertson.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019054838 (print) | LCCN 2019054839 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367228484 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367228491 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429277146 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Environmental justiceCase studies. | Community developmentEnvironmental aspectsCase studies. | Energy policyCitizen participationCase studies.
Classification: LCC GE220 .C554 2020 (print) | LCC GE220 (ebook) | DDC 363.7/0525dc23
