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The Unavoidability Of Justice In The Pursuit Of Environmental Sustainability

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In the last 100 years, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased, causing the Earth to warm by an average of 0.6 degrees celsius, largely a result of burning fossil fuels for energy, transportation, and land use changes increased for food production. The basic science is straightforward and climate researchers have shown that gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and others can trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. Human activities such as industry, transport, energy generation and deforestation all produce these greenhouse gases. In the last 20 years, concern has grown that global warming is inevitable and now considered most probably caused by man-made increases in…show more content…
Intersectionality between different systems of oppression and domination is relevant to Okereke’s article as he states, “The ‘unavoidability of justice’ in the pursuit of environmental sustainability resides in the fact that environmental issues are not distinguishable but rather interwoven, into the fabric of racial, social and economic injustice.” (Okereke 117). Environmental costs and benefits are often distributed such that those who already suffer other socio-economic disadvantages tend to bear the greatest burden. The co-domination of women and the environment is supported by the current power structure upheld by the dominant narrative that Okereke highlights in his article, which discusses the exploitation, over-production as well as over-consumption of natural resources leading to environmental degradation and global climate change.
Okereke makes his view clear that many global ecological problems currently are caused by historic and current economic processes which have benefited the Northern developed countries and left the poor South to immeasurable human risks and environmental degradation without defense. The liberalization of trade and investment has provided a disguise for developed countries and their corporations to overwhelm southern markets, exploit their labor and natural resources cheaply, then
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