Climate justice: Urban vulnerability to extreme weather and the environmental justice movement in historical perspective

This presentation explores the history of the post-World War II Environmental Justice movement in the United States, and its most recent tributary – the social movement for climate justice -- in relation to the recent research on the geography of social and ecological vulnerability to extreme weather. It examines how the global equity dimensions of climate change involve not only inequities between but within countries. At the global level, there is recognition that populations of developing nations, who have contributed relatively little carbon to the atmosphere, are experiencing much greater impacts and face greater risks than those in the world's wealthier developed nations. Less well known is that among cities in developed nations, a growing number of studies document the unequal exposures and intra-urban health disparities that may result from climate change, variability and extreme events. The presentation concludes with thoughts on the equity implications of differential exposures to climate hazards for planning to adapt to climate change, as the urban-scale is the site of innovation for policies, programs and design approaches to mitigate climate hazards and adapt to a changing environment.