Primary Submission Category: Policy
Toward an Intergenerational Environmental Justice Framework To Address Health Inequities: Implications For Local Governance in Louisville, KY
Authors: Latrica Best,
Presenting Author: Latrica Best*
The links between climate-related events and health are well documented. As climate-related events become more frequent and intense, policymakers must address the ways in which these environmental concerns further exacerbate existing health inequities, particularly within minoritized communities. Climate change not only impacts the health of individuals and communities but can also lead to poor health across generations and intergenerational perceptions of climate risk and harm. In this presentation, I pull from under-theorized scholarly discussions of intergenerational environmental justice and equity to introduce a reimagined Intergenerational Environmental Justice (IEJ) framework. IEJ is a critical, evaluative framework that draws upon core tenets of Critical Environmental Justice and Intergenerational Justice scholarship and activism to analyze local policies and governance in the context of climate change and health. An IEJ framework explores historical, current, and future cumulative and disparate impacts of environmental harms and the ways in which these harms are understood and acted upon within and across generations. Specifically, this framework considers 1) intersectional perspectives, 2) life course experiences, 3) the social, cultural and political meanings of age, time and place, and the importance of centering multiple forms of justice within local governance. I explore climate-focused, government-led health initiatives that lend themselves to and could benefit from a reimagined IEJ framework in Louisville, KY, a city that is experiencing increasingly frequent extreme weather events and whose environmental and health landscape is rooted in historical and on-going structural racism. Through this framework, I evaluate these initiatives based on their ability to articulate climate-related health concerns, their focus on key forms of justice, and their handling of potential intersectional and intergenerational issues. Lastly, I conclude by offering intersectional- and justice-oriented recommendations geared toward creating effective interventions.