Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
In the last four decades, average temperatures have risen significantly across the United States, with Alaska and New Mexico among the fastest warming states. Since 1970, average temperatures in New Mexico have risen 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit (°F)—or nearly 2 degrees Celsius (°C). The international scientific community has urged world leaders to contain global warming above pre-industrial levels to 1.5°C ideally, and to 2°C at worst. Current trajectories, however, suggest we may shoot past 2°C of global warming this century and enter a world of 3-4°C or beyond... The “trade offs” and “letting go” as we confront the looming 4°C world raise fundamental concerns for environmental justice, which has long emphasized the inequitable distribution of environmental protection across classes including race and income. If global climate change will increasingly affect everyone on the planet, should we still try to focus attention on low-income people or communities of color? Can the “World War II-scale” development of renewable energy be squared with environmental justice principles of fair treatment and meaningful community involvement? To save our skins in the warming world, is concern for environmental justice now anachronistic, another luxury that requires letting go? This chapter will consider that question, ultimately concluding that even in the face of a dramatically changing climate, concerns for environmental justice must continue to guide our actions.
Publisher
Environmental Law Institute
Publication Title
Adapting to High-Level Warming: Law, Governance, and Equity
City
Washington, D.C.
Editor
Katrina F. Kuh & Shannon M. Roesler
First Page
207
Last Page
228
Keywords
Environmental justice, climate change, New Mexico, climate mitigation, climate adaptation
Recommended Citation
Clifford Villa,
Environmental Justice Beyond 2°C,
Adapting to High-Level Warming: Law, Governance, and Equity
207
(2024).
Available at:
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facultyscholarship/956
