Climate Change Beyond Environmentalism Part I: Intersectional Threats and the Case for Collective Action

Abstract

This paper is part I of a two-part series of papers exploring the intersectional threats of climate change, its discriminatory impacts on the economically disadvantaged, people of color, women, children, and animals; and the unique role animals play as both a cause of climate change emissions and some of its front-line victims. The paper discusses the failure of regulatory institutions to provide meaningful solutions to the climate change problem, and why the 900,000,000 people living in extreme poverty, the native communities literally disappearing into the sea in Alaska and elsewhere, the 600,000,000 people living less than ten meters above sea level, and the more than 140,000,000,000 wild animals caught in climate change’s cruel grasp cannot afford to wait for incremental emissions reduction plans, carbon emission trading schemes, or other efforts to “stabilize” or normalize global warming emissions. The paper argues for the immediate engagement of the animal protection community due to the impending loss of billions of wild animals, and makes the case for reactivation of the historic alliance between animal protection and environmental advocates as a first step towards a more holistic and inclusive climate coalition effort.