Dissonance between framing & acting for climate justice

Abstract

ABSTRACT Residents of Southeast Florida face many climate-related impacts, so to understand how climate change is framed and acted upon in the region, we conducted a two-part study of community organisers and residents. First, the first author participated in an 11-week, community-based workshop on climate advocacy, leadership, justice, and resilience to identify how a climate action initiative framed climate change and fostered community leaders and allies. We found “place” and “justice” to be two prominent frames. After the 11-week training, seven of the 18 attendees (or 39 percent) were then interviewed on their understanding and application of the training. Participants expressed a deeper appreciation of the local risks on both coastal and inland communities, and discovered how spatial disparities in residence (between higher-income, coastal communities and lower-income, inland communities) led to climate injustice and climate gentrification. Their understanding was further substantiated by their direct experience with Hurricane Irma. Yet the more privileged participants resisted the organisers’ overarching goal to foster community-based climate justice engagement. Several of the participants their relative privilege and inexperience with social injustice as deterrents. While it was understood that everyone in the region would be affected and that there were social and economic differences in terms of impact and vulnerability, the privileged participants perceived these disparities as too daunting to become a climate justice leader or ally.