What Winning Looks Like: Critical Environmental Justice Studies and the Future of a Movement

Abstract

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the environment is becoming an ever more present concern. Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour both foreground images of melting glaciers, dying coral, and people in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans stranded on their roofs as evidence that we have reached a pivotal moment in human history. DiCaprio quotes United Nations estimates, which predict that ignoring the threats presented by global warming could result in more than 150 million refugees and a rapidly increasing extinction rate by the middle of this century. The subtitle of DiCaprio s documentary presents the audience with a choice: face catastrophe or Turn Mankind's Darkest Hour into Its Finest. The film features leaders from environmental and social justice fields (who even ten years ago may not have imagined working closely together) discussing how to turn crisis into possibility. These experts talk about their own research and innovations and refer to the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are working to build carbon-neutral cities and create zero emissions transportation. They acknowledge, however, that it will take more than technology to make a difference; it will take leadership and it will take ideas that emerge from a deep encounter between our values, our experience, and the monumental social challenges we face.