One of the things that keeps me up at night is my growing sense that many who rightly demand more justice in the world do not understand the unprecedented injustice of the crises we've set into motion (and are rapidly worsening through inaction on climate and sustainability).
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I've written many times, elsewhere, of the tragic costs being paid today for our inaction—and the much higher costs to be paid in the near future and for generations to come.
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Here's the thing, tho:
We on the Left still constantly underestimate not only how heavily those costs will land on those with the least, but how heavily they'll land on everyone, especially young people.
At the extremes of inaction, the cost becomes civilization itself.
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We on the Left still constantly underestimate not only how heavily those costs will land on those with the least, but how heavily they'll land on everyone, especially young people.
At the extremes of inaction, the cost becomes civilization itself.
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We must find ways of helping those who've been hit the hardest, while contributing least to the crisis that's undone them.
This is basic planetary ethics.
It is also impossible, if the planetary crisis worsens sufficiently.
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This is basic planetary ethics.
It is also impossible, if the planetary crisis worsens sufficiently.
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Even with much greater political will to act in just ways, the resources we have to mitigate the impacts of the planetary crisis will never be sufficient to deliver anything like justice if the crisis continues to worsen.
Inaction guarantees irremediable injustices.
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Inaction guarantees irremediable injustices.
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Again, we on the Left have morally failed to confront the scale of the injustices being created by our societies' inaction on climate and sustainability.
As part of that, we've become dangerously intellectually lazy about what is—and isn't— just climate action.
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As part of that, we've become dangerously intellectually lazy about what is—and isn't— just climate action.
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Here's one thing we should be clear on:
There is no short-term, limited gain we can make in the name of justice that justifies allowing massive, enduring injustices to spread through our inaction and delay.
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There is no short-term, limited gain we can make in the name of justice that justifies allowing massive, enduring injustices to spread through our inaction and delay.
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Anyone who tells you that a "just transition" demands slowing the speed of action, or holding hostage emissions cuts as a bargaining chip for short-term gains either a) has no understanding of the crisis we're in or b) is willing to do profound injustice in the name of justice.
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Not only can we have widespread progressive economic gains through bold climate action and disruptive sustainability—they're the *only* way we can have widespread prosperity gains on large scales.
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Sustainable development is not only *not* at odds with economic justice, it is the only means by which we can realistically achieve economic justice, especially intergenerational economic justice.
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We can't build a fairer world by destroying it.
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We also can't build a fairer world without designing our future to be fairer.
We need *more* voices for fairness, security and human rights in the climate debate.
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We need *more* voices for fairness, security and human rights in the climate debate.
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But voices that advocate for delay, for gradualism, for bailouts, for making new clean progress pay for the sins of on-going dirty greed—those are not climate voices, at all, much less climate justice voices.
And they're not the voices we should amplify.
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And they're not the voices we should amplify.
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Because on climate, speed is everything.
Speed itself is justice.
The voices truly worth amplifying are the ones who demand more speed, speed that takes hold where it will help the most—in communities and regions that have been left behind, and are ready to leap forward.
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Speed itself is justice.
The voices truly worth amplifying are the ones who demand more speed, speed that takes hold where it will help the most—in communities and regions that have been left behind, and are ready to leap forward.
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