Intersectionality and Climate
A guide for mental health providers
Photo Credit: San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, California
*Please note: This section is under continuous development. This space will become a resource for climate-aware professionals to develop their understanding of how intersecting inequities interact with (and amplify) the impact of climate change on vulnerable individuals, communities, and cultures across the globe.
As we develop this page, we’d like to first share a selection of resources on various topics in intersectionality and climate. All of these topics are additive, and many could go into several categories - the additive nature of these topics reflects the layers in which people experience climate impacts.
Climate Distress, Capitalism and The Role of Therapists
What is Climate Distress - And What Can Therapists Do About It?, published in Mad In America, by Daniel Rosenbaum (2021).
Climate Change and Mental Health, featured on ClimateCentral.org
Intersectionality & Colonialism
Global South Climate Database, a publicly available, searchable database of scientists and experts in the fields of climate science, climate policy and energy.
Carbon Brief, with the support of our Oxford Climate Journalism Network, has set up the Global South Climate Database to ensure that journalists from all over the world can contact scientists from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific.
Intersectional Environmentalism and Environmental Justice
The Climate Reality of Roe v. Wade, by Alexandria Herr on Atmos.earth
The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet, by Leah Thomas
The Cure for the Climate Blues. Mercy Mercy Me by J. Phoenix Smith
Slow Violence by Rob Nixon
Photo Credit: Peter Essick / Cavan, Corpus Christi, Texas
Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility by Dorceta Taylor
Locked into Emissions: How Incarceration Contributes to Climate Change, published in Southern Sociological Society, by Julius Alexander McGee, Patrick Trent Greiner, and Carl Appleton, 2020
The Connection Between Mass Incarceration and Environmental Justice, published in Natural Resource Defense Fund’s on Earth In-Depth blog, by Nicole Greenfield, January 19 2018
Prisons, Policing, and Pollution: Toward an Abolitionist Framework within Environmental Justice, Pomona College Undergraduate Senior Thesis, Ki’Amber Thompson, 2018
What Good is Clean Air if People Can’t Breathe?, published in Yes! Magazine, by Sarah Lazarovic, June 5 2020
Environmentalism and the Mystique of Whiteness, published in Sun Magazine, interview by Theodore Roszak, 995
Reckoning on Injustices Within the Field of Psychology
Photo Credit: DVIDSHUB. / U.S. Air Force, Minot, North Dakota
Toward a decolonial psychology, American Psychological Association Global Insights Newsletter, by Glenn Adams, Ph.D.
Psychology Must Reckon with its Racist Past—and Present, University of Minnesota Department of Psychology, by Associate Professor Moin Syed, Ph.D.
What Does Social Justice Really Mean for Psychologists, published in Mad in America, by Zenobia Morrill, September 24 2018
Decolonising psychology creates possibilities for social change, published in The Conversation AFRICA, by Senior Lecturer Shose Kessi, September 27 2016
Toward a Decolonial Psychology: Three Scholars in North American Settings, recorded by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
Systemic Racism & Climate
Climate Denial’s Racist Roots, Atmos, by Mary Annaïse Heglar, June 15, 2022
Climate Justice is Central to Addressing the Climate Emergency's Psychological Consequences in the Global South: a narrative review, South African Journal of Psychology, by Garret Barnwell and Nick Wood
‘The Climate Crisis is a Racist Crisis’: Structural Racism, Inequality, and Climate Change, University of Warwick, Leon Sealey-Higgins
How White Women Can Move Toward Anti-Racism, published in Green America Magazine, by Mary Meade
An Invitation To Save The Planet By Ending White Supremacy, published in Sierra Magazine, by Hop Hopkins, September 18, 2021
Climate Anxiety is an Overwhelmingly White Phenomenon, published in Scientific American, by Sarah Jaquette Ray, March 21, 2021
Is It Time To Abandon The Term Climate Anxiety?, published in Yes! Magazine, by Isobel Whitcomb, August 31, 2021
What counts as an “environmental” issue? Differences in issue conceptualization by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, published in the Journal for Environmental Psychology, by Hwanseok et al., April 2020
Black Environmentalists Talk about Climate and Anti-Racism, published in the New York Times, by Somini Sengupta, June 3, 2020
We Need to Talk about Racism in the Climate Movement, Climate Home News, published in Climate Change News by Tonny Nowshin, June 30, 2020
Black Lives Matter: the link between climate change and racial justice, published in the Climate Analytics blog by Adelle Thomas and Rueanna Hayes, June 22, 2020
Climate Justice Means Justice for Black Lives, 350 Canada
Climate Justice is Racial Justice, published in Eco-Business, by Keya Catterjee, June 4, 2020
Women & Climate
CPA-NA Co- President Rebecca Weston speaks on Bloomberg News about the relationship between gender, climate change, and mental health.
The Link Between Climate Change and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, by Women Deliver
US Organizations Connecting Gender Justice and Climate Justice: Reflections and Lessons from Twenty-Eight Groups Working at the Intersection, by The Chisholm Legacy Project
Empowering Women to Chill Out the Planet: Climate and Gender Equity with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson on the Warm Regards podcast, with co-hosts Jaqueline Gill and Mary Annaïse Heglar
Climate Change Through an Intersectional Lens: Gendered Vulnerability and Resilience in Indigenous Communities in the United States, report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, by Kirsten Vinyeta, Kyle Powys Whyte, and Kathy Lynn
Intersectionality and the Changing Face of Ecofeminism, published in Ethics and the Environment, by A.E. Kings, 2017
Eco-Feminism is Intersectional Feminism, published in Ms. Magazine, by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, and Carolyn Choi, April 22, 2020
Feminist climate justice in a world of crisis, Dr. Farhana Sultana lecture, UCSB Climate Justice conference, 2021
The Climate Crisis Is Worse for Women. Here’s Why., published in the New York Times, by Lauren Jackson, August 24, 2021
Mapped: How climate change disproportionately affects women’s health, published in Carbon Brief, by Daisy Dunne, October 29, 2020
The Connection Between Pipelines and Sexual Violence, published in the New Republic, by Nick Martin, October 15, 2019
Re-gendering Climate Change: Men and Masculinity in Climate Research, Policy, and Practice, published in Frontiers in Climate, by Joane Nagel and Trevor Scott Lies, May 11, 2022
Imperialism, Power & Climate
The Unbearable Heaviness of Climate Coloniality by Farhana Sultana
The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection by Dorceta Taylor
Biopiracy by Vandana Shiva
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis
1.5 to Stay Alive: Climate Change, Imperialism and Justice for the Caribbean published in Third World Quarterly, by Leon Sealey-Huggins
Legislation & Climate Change
‘I’m not the guilty one’:the water protector facing jail time for trying to stop a pipeline, Nina Lakhani, The Guardian, Aug 2023
Congress Is Turning Climate Gaslighting Into Law, New York Times editorial,
Love of the Land and Community Inspired the Montana Youth Whose Climate Lawsuit Against the State Goes to Court this Week, Inside Climate News, Richard Forbes, June 2023
“We’re going to see workers die”: extreme heat is key issue in UPS contract talks, Dharna Noor, July 2023
Climate Litigation Has Exploded, but is it making a Difference? Inside Climate News, July 2023:
Queer & Trans liberation and Climate Justice
Queering Outdoor Spaces Heals People and the Earth, published in Green America Voices, by Eleanor Greene
Why Queer Liberation is an Environmental Justice Issue, published in Earth Justice’s blog, by Lisa Pradhan, June 11 2021
An Episode on Climate Justice & Queer and Trans Liberation, podcast episode of In Conversation: Queer and Trans Liberation, with Sophia Benrud, Meera Ghani, Orion Camero, Mmabatho Motsamai, and Gabby Benavente
Climate justice means involving gender and sexual minorities in policy and action, published in SEI Asia Perspectives, by Nicole Anschell, May 5 2021
What the queer community brings to the fight for climate justice, published in Grist, by Aletta Brady, Anthony Torres, & Phillip Brown, April 29 2019
Indigenous Rights and Sovereignty & Climate
Photo credit: Ben Powless, Alberta Tar Sands 2014
Indigenous Knowledge Has Been Warning Us About Climate Change For Centuries, published in Pacific Standard, by Malcolm Harris, March 4 2019
Colonization, Fire Suppression, and Indigenous Resurgence in the Face of Climate Change, published by Yes Magazine, by Kari Marie Norgaard, October 22, 2019
Perhaps the World Ends Here: Climate disaster at Wounded Knee, published in Harper’s, by Julian Brave Noisecat, December 5, 2019
Apocalypse Then and Now, published in the Columbia Journalism Review, by Julian Brave Noisecat, Winter 2020
Big Oil is fueling the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, published in Greenpeace.org by Kaitlin Grable, May 5, 2021
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Migrant Justice & Climate
Climate Justice is Migrant Justice, Session 1 (video)
Conservation Refugees, by Mark Howie
Ecofascism, Holocaust & Climate
Stemming the Creep of Ecofascism: a Primer, by April Anson, Cassie Galentine, Shane Hall, Alex Menrisky, and Bruno Seraphin
Black Earth, by Timothy Snyder
The Next Genocide, published in the New York Times, by Yale Historian Timothy Snyder, September 13 2015
White Skin, Black Fuel: On The Danger of Fossil Fascism by Andreas Malm and the Zetkin Collective
Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire by Cara Daggett
Disability Justice & Climate
Connections Between Climate Change and Disability, from the Disability & Philanthropy Forum
Climate Change, Environmental Activism, and Disability, published in Stanford Social Innovation Review, by Valerie Novak and Daphne Frias, Winter 2022
Environmental justice and disability: Where is the research?, published in Environmental Health News, by Krystal Vasquez, August 23 2021
Natural Disasters
“We’re going to see workers die”: extreme heat is key issue in UPS contract talks, Dharna Noor, July 2023
What happens to Lahaina Now? Part 4: Compassion Fatigue, by Climate Survivor, Medium, August 2023
Thank you to Selin Nurgün, M.S., Climate and Somatic Practitioner, Rebecca Weston, LCSW, JD, and Rei Takver for contributing to this page.