In her note, Isabel argues that “otherizing” climate change allows the state to ignore and evade their responsibility to address domestic impacts of climate change on poor, rural, and immigrant communities & communities of color.

Author: Isabel Tahir is a J.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Host: Taylor GrahamTechnology Editors: Hiep Nguyen (Volume 111 Senior Technology Editor), Taylor Graham (Volume 111 Technology Editor), Benji Martinez (Volume 111 Technology Editor)Soundtrack: Composed and performed by Carter Jansen (Volume 110 Technology Editor)

Article Abstract:

In the United States, climate change discourse often focuses on international communities, island nations, and poor global citizens. While the focus on international communities is important, it places the impact of climate change in remote and distant locations. This Note argues that associating climate change with people outside the United States creates an “otherization” of climate change and evades the responsibility to look internally and address domestic climate impact. The importance of addressing domestic climate impact is particularly important given that the effects of climate change in the United States often disproportionately harm poor, rural, and immigrant communities, as well as communities of color.

This Note is an intervention in the current academic discourse on climate change. The Note challenges the current focus on global citizens who are or will be displaced due to climate change. I make the proposition that internal U.S.-based displacement warrants as much attention. This Note is not a call to abandon the focus on international citizens who will suffer disproportionately and to focus only on the United States. The purpose of the Note, rather, is to fill a gap currently missing in academia—a gap focused on marginalized communities in the United States who, in many ways, share the same challenges as international communities most impacted by climate change. Drawing from the Principles of Environmental Justice and from the United Nations framework of Internally Displaced People, the Note demonstrates that addressing the domestic climate crisis and domestic climate displacement can be accomplished in a comprehensive and innovative framework.

Ultimately, when communities within the United States receive their share of attention, we will see that climate change is not so distant, and that it is our neighbors, our friends, or maybe even us who will be impacted by the climate crisis that we often associate with island nations and poor global citizens. A focus on the domestic climate crisis will demonstrate that climate change is happening now, and it is affecting communities in the United States directly and indirectly.