Gender and Climate Justice – A Special Section of Atlantis Journal

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This year, I had the opportunity to co-edit, with Sritama Chatterjee, a special section of Atlantis journal regarding Gender and Climate Justice. When we started this process, we were hopeful that it would expose the ongoing colonialisms of climate change and the submissions we received did not disappoint.

Explore the Open-Access Special Section
Gender and Climate Justice, special section of Atlantis Journal, featuring an image of fish.

For those of us who study climate justice, it has long been clear that not everyone is sharing in the negative impacts of the climate emergency equally. Furthermore, women are often some of the most disadvantaged by climate disasters. Vulnerable communities such as women of colour, Indigenous women, and LGBTQ2 persons are disproportionately harmed by the negative impacts of the climate emergency. This is especially true in the Global South. We should very much view climate change as an ongoing aspect of colonialism.

Fossil fuel sectors were established in the nineteenth century at the height of the reach of empires and former colonial holdings. As a result, Indigenous populations are often the most impacted by the climate crisis. These same communities are expected to transition to renewable energy and keep a low carbon footprint while industrialized northern powers expect to keep pumping fossil fuels, drive cars, fly frequently, and own yachts. This hypocrisy also reflects the patriarchy and racism that was built into colonial conquest.

Anyone with an interest in the genocide against missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls absolutely should read the article by Rily Olstead and Kim Burnett which considers how “the coloniality of gender” reflects violence against land. They effectively make the case that an examination of violence against Indigenous women can help us to better understand the practices that underpin the destruction of the Earth.

An article from Margot Hurlbert, Barsha Kairy, and Ranjan Datta argues for “a shift away from top-down approaches to more participatory, community-led solutions” to addressing climate disasters. They argue for adopting the practice of listening to and collecting women’s stories, as a feminist decolonial methodology. The article makes the case for participatory methods as crucial to climate justice work in the academy.

Tanis MacDonald explores how feminist-queer environmental pedagogies, in different classroom spaces, can be a form of resistance. Furthermore, she argues that a classroom that centers creative-writing practices and personal experiences can radically interrupt the corporate university.

Cover of Misreading the Bengal Delta: Climate Change, Development, and Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh

As co-editors, we were delighted to have the opportunity to interview Camilia Dewan, author of Misreading the Bengal Delta: Climate Change, Development & Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh (2021). The book is notably available through open access. Dewan has effectively argued that we need to reconsider the concept of vulnerability in relation to the women of Bangladesh, who often have strong kinship with family members and extended families on which they depended. She also provides important commentary on interdisciplinary work and anthropological methodologies.

There are also book reviews of The Intersectional Environmentalist by Nicole Vankooten, The End of this World by Carole Therrien, and Queer Ecofeminism Sākihitowin Awāsis.

We hope that you enjoy reading these works and encourage you to incorporate them into your teaching. Together they expose the strong links between colonialism, patriarchy, racism, heteronormativity, and environmental destruction.

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Lori Lee Oates

Teaching Assistant Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland
Lori Lee Oates is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Currently, she holds a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for a project entitled Cursed: How the Resource Curse Manifests in Newfoundland and Labrador. Lori Lee recently co-edited a special section of Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Social Justice & Culture on Gender and Climate Justice. She is also a member of the Environmental Cluster of the Canadian Sociological Association. Lori Lee has been a contributor to the CBC, The Globe and Mail, Canada's National Observer, and The Hill Times. She has advised national environmental groups on the political economy of climate change and a just transition off fossil fuels.

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