Analyze

Minas Gerais, Brazil

Misria
In response to

Addressing climate change in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais demands collaboration across traditional bureaucratic divisions. While the team officially tasked with devising climate plans falls under the purview of the Secretary of the Environment, their efforts to reduce vulnerability to climate change and support those already suffering its effects have brought them into many uneasy alliances. These efforts ranged from acquiring funding or technical support from European partners with fundamentally different views of environmental projection, to securing logistical aid from Civil Defense which was a part of the Mineiro military cabinet, to encouraging cooperation from the major economic institutions primarily focused around mining and agriculture. Working with these different groups necessitated that climate analysts become adept at shifting their rhetorical framing from audience to audience, but this work carried great ethical and practical risk. Were the climate scientists acting cynically when they adopted rhetoric they did not fully believe? Were they being naïve in trusting partners who may not genuinely value climate justice? What kinds of self-reflection might assist climate analysts and STS scholars in our efforts to grapple with the moral complexities of climate governance? 

Image Source: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters, "Deadly dam burst in Brazil prompts calls for stricter mining regulations," The Guardian, 10, November 2015.

Wald, Jonathan. 2023. "Beyond Cynicism and Naïveté: Ethical Complexities of Climate Governance." In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

Beck, Nyah E. | Winter 2023 EiJ Annotations

nebeck
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In response to
  1. How has CRPE adapted its strategies and approaches in response to changes in the political and social landscape, and what are the organization's priorities for the future?

  2. What advice would you give to individuals or organizations interested in working on environmental and social justice issues in low-income communities and communities of color, based on CRPE's experiences?

  3. How does CRPE measure the impact of its work, and what data or metrics does the organization use to track progress?

  4. Can you provide examples of some of CRPE's most significant successes in addressing environmental and social justice issues, and the strategies that were employed to achieve these successes?

Beck, Nyah E. | Winter 2023 EiJ Annotations

nebeck
Annotation of
In response to

CRPE seems to be proud that they are working within the San Joaquin Valley in one of the most polluted areas in the nation, “West of the Mississippi.” It also claims that by empowering locals with the necessary resources, they can amplify the already “robust vision for change” as well as “the willpower [of the community] to make it happen.”

Beck, Nyah E. | Winter 2023 EiJ Annotations

nebeck
Annotation of
In response to

They share the cases they are actively working on and provide further details and documentation of how those legal battles proceed. I feel as if the information itself is credible because of the validity of the organization's purpose and then the team of active lawyers working on each case.