Third Way: Is Climate Change Truly Equal?
Markus Winkler
Climate change has historically existed on an all or nothing scale. There is little room in the discussion for those who fall anywhere between one extreme and another. This creates an alienation of the middle class that leaves many feeling abandoned and ignored. For us to include everyone in the climate conversation and make climate injustice a thing of the past, we must understand climate justice as it was, is now, and may be in the future.
According to researcher Jaffar Abbas at the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), climate justice can be organized into four distinct groups: Recognitional justice, procedural justice, distributive justice, and restorative justice.
Recognitional Justice is the act of recognizing that there is a cultural element to climate justice and that to fully understand it, we must acknowledge the effects that one's community may have on their sociopolitical perspectives.
Procedural justice focuses on the importance of including affected communities in these salient discussions and eventual decision-making, regarding environmental changes within their area.
Distributive justice involves ensuring that the decided upon climate actions are equitably shared between those involved; i.e. everyone is expected to give what they can, not the same as what their richer and/or poorer peers may.
Restorative justice’s primary intent is to acknowledge past systemic inequalities and how best to move forward from them. This allows for a brighter future where not only mother nature is respected, but so are her inhabitants.
The diversity of the geopolitical landscape causes many countries to have differing methods of climate change countenance. These methods are discussed, recorded, and submitted as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). NDCs are maps of a given country's plan for their contribution to the decreasing of global carbon emissions. These NDCs are to be updated every five years as global climate change, well, changes. Beginning in 2015, under The Paris Agreement, it required developed countries to create national climate plans intended to help aid in under-developed countries’ resilience to climate change, while also working to counter the already present effects of climate change on both first and third world nations. The most recent iterations, penned NDC 3.0, were released in 2025 and contained environmental ambitions based upon climate changes since the year 2020, when NDC 2.0 was released.
The roots of climate justice are planted firmly in the systemic racism of early colonialism. According to Mary Annaïse Heglar, Climate Justice Writer and Co-host and Co-creator of the Hot Take Podcast and Newsletter, colonial efforts were responsible for carting slaves to countries rich with resources such as oil and gas and then forcing them to harvest these resources. The gathering of such materials resulted in the necessary assets for human advancement in the manufactural sector. These advancements contributed directly to the early causes of the Industrial Revolution and the first instances of noticeable global climate change due to human pollution, thus sending humanity down its “yellow brick road” to our current environmental crisis.
“It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few”
Greta Thunberg, environmental activist, COP24 in Katowice, Poland, 2018
These systemic practices continue in today’s environment. The climate injustices of today lie almost entirely on the shoulders of the under-represented and vulnerable. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg said at the COP24 2018 conference in Katowice, Poland, “It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few”. Those placed at the fore front of the global climate crisis are often marginalized communities such as minorities, immigrants, and women. David Wallace-Wells, Journalist and Author of The Uninhabitable Earth, states that often it is the countries with the least ability to protect themselves from these global changes as well as those who contribute the least CO2 that are those most devastatingly affected. Their resources are stolen and they are left vulnerable and unable to respond to the consequences of the actions of the rich and greedy.
This injustice is experienced within developed countries as well. It is most often displayed in choice of placement of pipelines and manufacturing plants in black, brown, and indigenous communities, says Hegler. Dr. Robert D. Bullard. Referred to as the “Father of Environmental Justice”, he discovered through his ongoing environment and race-centered research that the greatest indicator of a person’s health is their zip code. This is largely because of the aforementioned pipeline and plant placement. The air conditions in these communities are vastly more unsafe than their more affluent counterparts, and thus perpetuate the social issue of the government attempting to play God in their deciding whose life is more valuable. In this case, they appear to have decided that the wealthy and white should be kept safe in their ivory tower, while those toiling below are slowly poisoned.
The United States Environmental Protections Agency (EPA) has recently taken steps to correct some of these ignorant-at-best and racially prejudicial-at-worst industry placements by helping make access to safe drinking water available to all, regardless of socio-economic status or class. On October 18, 2025, the EPA issued the Lead and Copper Rule, requiring that all lead pipes be found, dug up, and replaced within the next 10 years. They aim to mandate more intense testing of water quality and the raising of standards for what is considered safe and acceptable drinking water. The EPA seeks to also increase communication with affected communities through education regarding safe drinking water and the dangers of consuming lead, as well as plans for replacing the affected pipes and the levels of lead currently in their drinking water.
As underdeveloped areas grow increasingly vulnerable and their conditions become unlivable, they are faced with the potential need to leave their homes for their own safety. Individuals who are forced to migrate, and sometimes settle, in new countries due to environmental means are referred to as Climate Refugees. Assistant professor in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Department of Environmental Social Sciences, Hélène Benveniste, reports that often, it is middle class families and individuals who choose to leave their home countries due to environmental dangers caused by climate change. This is not due to lower- or upper-class families choosing not to leave, but rather varying levels of capability. In the case of upper-class families and individuals, they have the means to protect themselves from growing climate hostility and find no need to leave their homes. For lower-class families and individuals, it is often a phenomenon called “Involuntary Immobility”. This being the idea that they desire to leave a given area but are unable to due to one or more circumstances.
Climate change is a very real and present danger for everyone living on planet Earth. However, for those suffering in under-resourced and vulnerable communities, it is truly a life-or-death threat. As human beings, we should be able to set aside our differences and acknowledgethat gain at the expense of the lives of others isn't truly gain at all, but rather an ignorant world, viewed through the rosy lenses of capitalism and privilege.