The Evolution of Climate Action in the Environmental Justice Movement,2010–2020

Abstract

This article reviews the evolution of actions—advocacy, educational campaigns, programming, or otherwise—by environmental justice (EJ) organizations and affiliated local civil rights advocates in relation to climate change adaptation for the past decade through organizational content reviews, interviews, focus groups, and resource mapping. Ten years ago, adaptation activity was limited although the organizations' understanding of their communities' likely exposures and vulnerabilities to climate change's effects was clear. Over time, these organizations' climate activity has grown considerably richer and more nuanced despite continuing to face the same ongoing headwinds: the lack of governmental coordination over local climate effects and vulnerability data and policy; gaps in the distribution of resources to groups; and the inability to coalesce operations that address the intersections of new environmental exposures and long-standing social disparities. Regardless of the evolution in context, the long-standing network of local EJ groups are meeting the moment by intersecting their past work with climate justice strategies.