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Environmental and Sustainability Justice
The negative impacts of global climate change and other environmental degradation and pollution are not equally distributed among countries, regions, and groups. Often, the most vulnerable members of society and those least likely to protect themselves are the ones experiencing the worst impacts.
The positive aspects of our natural environment (e.g. use of natural resources and access to restorative green spaces) are not evenly distributed. In addition, the focus on creating sustainability solutions that benefit the environment and the economy simultaneously often create new social injustices (e.g. energy prices that are not affordable to people with low incomes).
In a variety of ways, the Community, Environment, and Justice Research Group (CEJRG) team explores these important aspects of environmental and sustainability work. In this work, we are trying to use a community psychology lens to look at environmental and sustainability justice. Among others, we have explored how a deeper understanding of environmental justice can be used to motivate individuals to engage in action through invoking empathy.
Projects
- Principal Investigator: Alexa Stovold
The narrative approach can be defined as an individual or group of individuals sharing their lived experiences through narratives or stories as a form of education and insight into specific areas of investigation. Although the narrative approach has been understudied, research has shown that it can have a profound impact on those who witness individuals’ sharing their lived experiences.
As part of the advanced undergraduate Psychology, Environment and Action course offered at Wilfrid Laurier University, students heard a personal story from environmental activist Ada Lockridge, who has experienced a series of environmental injustices as a resident of the Aamjwinaang reserve in the middle of “Chemical Valley” in Sarnia, which is home to 40% of Canada’s petro-chemical industry.
This study investigated the effectiveness of this narrative approach and its ability to facilitate students’ learning and understanding of environmental justice, as well as motivate them to learn about environmental issues and take actions toward change. Ten semi-structured, qualitative interviews have been conducted with students from the course.
- Principal Investigator: Kate Klein (with Johanna Wandel and Manuel Riemer)
This study was a phenomenological inquiry into the experience of environmental justice and injustice in a community of people experiencing homelessness. People who have experienced homelessness are a highly understudied population in environmental justice scholarship, despite the fact that due to their unique life situation, they experience the effects of global climate change, pollution, littering, and other environmental issues in a way that cannot be equated with the experiences of other people in low socio-economic brackets.
This study explored their understandings of these injustices, as well as their experiences with attempts to address them: Do they understand their personal environment as a justice issue? Do they feel represented by the people making decisions on environmental issues that affect them? Is political engagement in environment issues something that appeals to them, and what barriers exist to their engagement?
- Principal Investigator: Felix Munger and Manuel Riemer
In determining the underlying causes of the current environmental crisis, researchers increasingly point to the link between environmental degradation and other societal issues such as social injustices and the trend toward individualism and decline of community.
In searching for pathways to change, we are developing a research program to systematically study attempts in creating alternative communities and to understand their successes and challenges in developing communities that are environmentally sustainable and socially just. The planned empirical study can only be accomplished with a cross-disciplinary approach that builds on the strengths and unique perspectives of community members, policy makers and scholars from a variety of disciplines
Publications
- Riemer, M. & Van Voorhees, C.W. (2014). Sustainability and social justice. In C. Johnson, H. Friedman, J. Diaz, B. Nastasi, & Z. Franco (Eds.) Praeger Handbook of Social Justice and Psychology. (pp 49-66). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
- Van Voorhees, C.W. & Riemer, M. (2011). Environment and justice: A bittersweet move toward center stage. The Community Psychologist, 44(4), 12-13.
- Klein, K. & Riemer, M. (2011). Experiences of environmental justice and injustice in communities of people experiencing homelessness. Ecopsychology, 3(3), 195-204.
- Riemer, M. (2011). Psychological impact of living close to petro-chemical industry. Expert witness report delivered to counsel for the applicants in Ron Plain and Ada Lockridge v Director, Ministry of the Environment et al., Court File No. 528/10, Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Divisional Court).
- Wandel, J., Riemer, M., de Gómez, W., Klein, K., de Schutter, J., Randall, L., Morrison, M., Poirier, S., & Singleton, C. (2010). Homelessness and Global Climate Change: Are we ready? A report from the study on the vulnerability to global climate change of people experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region. Waterloo, ON.
- De Schutter, J. & Riemer, M. (2009). Participatory decision-making models in the context of environmental justice: Are they working? Earth System Governance: People, Places and the Planet. Amsterdam, Dec 2-4.
Presentations and Talks
- Riemer, M. (2013, November). Education for complexity: Transformational learning on environmental justice. Invited talk at the 2013 Greening Education conference in Karlsruhe, Germany.
- Riemer, M. (2013, January). Psychology, sustainability and environmental justice. Invited presentation at the Applied Social Psychology Speaker Series, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON.
- Hickman, G.M. & Riemer, M. (2012). The Psychological and Community Impacts of Living in Chemical Valley: Relevance and Implications for Community Psychology. Innovative Session conducted at the International Community Psychology Conference, Barcelona, Spain. June 21-23, 2012.
- Riemer, M. & Voorhees, C. (2010). Community psychology, environment, and justice. Paper presented at the 3rd International Conference of Community Psychology, Puebla, Mexico, June 3-5, 2010.
- De Schutter, J. & Riemer, M. (2009). Participatory decision-making models in the context of environmental justice: Are they working? Paper presented at the 2009 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change “Earth System Governance: People, Places and the Planet,” Amsterdam, Dec 2-4.