Climate Change and Social Justice Practices

By: Natascha Lambing                                                                                                

NEWBERG Ore. - Climate change is no longer a future problem, and it is not something that only scientists should concern themselves with. In fact, climate change is inherently connected to faith and social justice. 

  A brief history of climate change suggests that ideas about humanity contributing to climate change, known as “anthropogenic climate change” existed as early as the late 19th century. By the mid-20th century such research had developed to better explain how the climate might be at risk, but questions remained regarding the extent to which climate change was an anthropogenic issue and whether it was a subject of concern. 

However, due to various events in the 1960s, including the surface of the Cuyahoga River catching fire, it became clear that humanity was directly contributing to the degradation of the environment and ultimately the climate. This led to the first Earth Day the following year, on April 22, 1970. 

Cherice Bock, a professor in the Creation Care program at Portland Seminary and Creation Justice Advocate for the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, views involvement with the environment as equally as important as any other social justice issue in today’s society. Examining her own Quaker heritage, Bock asked herself, “What about in our time? What social justice issue am I supposed to work on?” Although all social justice issues are important to Bock, she “realized that . . . if we don't have clean air, healthy soil,” and an environment that can assure “basic needs are met,” those other issues lose significance. 

Involvement with the environment is an active part of Bock’s faith. “God created all of creation and called it good. It’s not just about people, but it’s about being benevolent participants within creation in the world that God created rather than trying to pretend like we can be the ones to dominate over it,” she said. “As we have done that [burn fossil fuels] the things that scientists have warned about have been happening. Worse storms, worse droughts…”

NASA lists future effects of climate change, including continuation of temperature increases, changes in precipitation patterns, more droughts, higher intensity hurricanes, sea levels rising, and icefree arctic zones (among others). 

“When I was a kid,” Bock said, “we called it global warming because the Earth is getting warmer, which is true. But people get confused. ‘Why is it so cold right now if it’s global warming?’ Climate change causes really erratic changes in weather patterns, so you get really cold snaps and warm times, but overall the temperature of the planet is getting warmer.”

A prime example of these extreme climate events is the recent winter storm that swept across North America in mid-February. Among the most heavily affected were citizens of Texas, as temperatures dropped to extreme cold levels which Texans and Texas infrastructure were unprepared to confront.  Under heavy strain in attempts to keep homes warm, Texas’s power grid began to fail, triggering the need for rolling blackouts. In many cases, communities remained without electricity for multiple days. Various agencies reported that three to four million people remained without power for days in freezing conditions. 

Moments like these tend to disproportionately affect minorities and individuals with less access to economic resources. According to a New York Times report on the subject with professor Robert Bullard of Texas Southern University “[marginalized] communities are hit first and have to suffer the longest.”

The way impending environmental crises impact lower-income and at-risk communities is sometimes called “environmental racism.” Bock said, “this is why I think it’s a particularly important thing for Christians to think about. Obviously it affects all people, but . . . it’s not just impacting everybody the same way . . . it’s easier for people to escape the impacts of bad disasters if they have funds to do so.” 

For example, Senator Ted Cruz, who makes around $174,000 a year, was reported  leaving the state for Cancun, Mexico with his family on Feb. 17. Although he returned less than a day later, not all Texans had the resources to escape freezing temperatures amidst the outages and climate emergencies. 

Furthermore, it is often lower income communities which lie in close proximity to unhealthy sites that emit dangerous air pollutants, or even toxic waste facilities. These factors can contribute to their being more heavily influenced by other things like COVID as a result of pre-existing respiratory conditions. 

Being conscious of the way we engage with the environment and the impact it has on those around us is important. Creating a sustainable society in which at-risk communities are no longer disproportionately influenced requires reimagining the way we engage with the world. Bock said,  “Our way of contributing to that kind [of sustainable] society is by being good stewards of the resources that we have.” 

For more information on environmental justice with Cherice Bock, attend “Spirituality & Environmental Justice: Being an Ally in the Community of Creation,” a Diversity Dialogue with the School of Social Work on March 31, from 6:30–8:00pm. Learn more in the Daily Bruin.

Jessica Daugherty