Commentary: the injustice of climate change

• About this resource

  Link: How its creators describe it

  Howard Magazine (from Howard University, USA) have produced a series of images exploring aspects of natural hazards, climate change and justice and woven them into a short critical essay on climate justice. Their Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Program explores diverse and intersecting facets of climate justice and aims to open the space and empower people to scale adaptation and mitigation efforts in vulnerable communities. The essay was written by Seth Shapiro, and the illustrations are by Michelle Moore.

• Testimonies from educators

  This resource was sourced by the research team, rather than recommended by an educator taking part in the research. However, educators talked about the power of images to spark discussion of climate justice and the images illustrating this essay align with some of the ideas they mentioned .

  “The understanding I'm thinking of [is] for the children who are slightly older here, they have a lot of lessons in PSHE [Personal, Social and Health Education] on equality and equity, and they have a better understanding of that. So, using some imagery within that so they can see about how that links within climate justice. So, they then know what they mean by justice, but they can also understand, well, how does that impact on them as individuals?” Newcastle-based middle-school educator.

  “Having those Images and that visual stimulus within the classroom starts to sort of make it easier for [the students] to understand. So, like comparing a picture of a place in Africa and then America, that are affected by climate change. What is the difference there? Why is there that difference there?” Newcastle-based secondary educator.

  “And like there are ways into addressing that, like, visual imagery of places that [show] the impact [of climate change] on cities and people and so on. You know, they will be a stimulus for what you want to teach but they also bring home to children as well that it's not just polar bears, which aren't cuddly at the best of times” Dublin-based senior primary educator.