Climate Justice, Sea Level Rise, and the Paris Agreement
The second chapter of my dissertation, published in Earth's Future, explores the climate justice implications of sea level rise (SLR) under the Paris Agreement Long Term Temperature Goal (LTTG). You can find the press release from UMass Amherst here and a blog breaking down the work here.
Using a mixed methods approach grounded in critical physical geography we explore how the LTTG was developed, what the justice implications of it are when considering SLR, and how Antarctic projections interface with the LTTG and climate justice. The paper traces the development of the LTTG through the lens of procedural justice, analyzes the long-term and spatially variable impacts of sea level rise through the lens of distributive justice, and considers sea level rise impacts through the lens of recognition justice. In exploring these questions we center the advocacy of, and SLR implications for, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). For decades now AOSIS has consistently advocated for strong action to address sea level rise and the greenhouse gas emissions that drive it.
Following the climate justice analysis of sea level rise and the LITTG we then consider a case study of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass loss which includes a historical overview of the science of sea level rise and analysis of the spatial impact of Antarctica's contribution to sea level rise. Using sea level modeling which accounts for gravitational, rotational, and Earth deformational effects of ice sheet mass loss I analyzed new SLR fingerprints. Results show that AOSIS members are projected to be disproportionately impacted by Antarctic-sourced sea level rise, experiencing SLR from Antarctica at 11-34% above the global mean value (see figure below). This is a distributive injustice relative to their extremely low emissions contribution.
This work was inspired by the results from the first chapter of my PhD which showed that Antarctic melt could delay air temperature rise, while at the same time raising global sea levels. Exploring this issue became a key focus of my dissertation leading me to reshape my dissertation committee and scope to bring in social sciences perspectives from human geography, political science, and critical theory. Thank you to Profs. Regine Spector, Eve Vogel, and Forrest Bowlick for teaching me so much during this time.
This map (Fig. 2a) shows the Antarctic sea level rise fingerprint for RCP4.5 (without cliff collapse). The purple line indicates global mean SLR. Mapping methods follow Gosling-Goldsmith, Ricker, and Kraak (2020) to highlight ocean states. Fingerprint data was provided from Natalya Gomez and Jeremy Roffman.
Using a mixed methods approach grounded in critical physical geography we explore how the LTTG was developed, what the justice implications of it are when considering SLR, and how Antarctic projections interface with the LTTG and climate justice. The paper traces the development of the LTTG through the lens of procedural justice, analyzes the long-term and spatially variable impacts of sea level rise through the lens of distributive justice, and considers sea level rise impacts through the lens of recognition justice. In exploring these questions we center the advocacy of, and SLR implications for, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). For decades now AOSIS has consistently advocated for strong action to address sea level rise and the greenhouse gas emissions that drive it.
Following the climate justice analysis of sea level rise and the LITTG we then consider a case study of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass loss which includes a historical overview of the science of sea level rise and analysis of the spatial impact of Antarctica's contribution to sea level rise. Using sea level modeling which accounts for gravitational, rotational, and Earth deformational effects of ice sheet mass loss I analyzed new SLR fingerprints. Results show that AOSIS members are projected to be disproportionately impacted by Antarctic-sourced sea level rise, experiencing SLR from Antarctica at 11-34% above the global mean value (see figure below). This is a distributive injustice relative to their extremely low emissions contribution.
This work was inspired by the results from the first chapter of my PhD which showed that Antarctic melt could delay air temperature rise, while at the same time raising global sea levels. Exploring this issue became a key focus of my dissertation leading me to reshape my dissertation committee and scope to bring in social sciences perspectives from human geography, political science, and critical theory. Thank you to Profs. Regine Spector, Eve Vogel, and Forrest Bowlick for teaching me so much during this time.
This map (Fig. 2a) shows the Antarctic sea level rise fingerprint for RCP4.5 (without cliff collapse). The purple line indicates global mean SLR. Mapping methods follow Gosling-Goldsmith, Ricker, and Kraak (2020) to highlight ocean states. Fingerprint data was provided from Natalya Gomez and Jeremy Roffman.
In addition to the published version of the paper above, an abbreviated version of this work can be found in my 2021 AGU poster which has a downloadable version and DOI here. A blog post summarizing the paper can be found by clicking the image below.
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Multispecies Climate Justice and Sea Level Rise
Climate justice is not solely limited to human systems, rather a more expansive and inclusive view provided by multispecies climate justice takes into consideration the interconnected human and nonhuman systems that shape global ecologies (Tschakert et al., 2021). Drawing from political ecology, animal geographies, and biological and ecological sciences literature I have been developing a preliminary framework for considerations of multispecies climate justice as it relates to sea level rise drivers, impacts, and adaptations. Determining the impacts that sea level rise has on biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning, and the wellbeing of individual humans and nonhuman animals is an important avenue to assess as we seek to address climate change in a way that centers climate justice. This work has been supported by a research grant from Culture and Animals Foundation.
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I first began researching the multispecies climate justice concerns presented by and sea level rise in 2021 with preliminary results presented at AAG NESTVAL in 2021. From 2022-2023 Stephanie Rutherford, Sylvia Cifuentes, and I convened a series of 6 sessions on Multispecies Climate Justice at the American Association of Geographers conference. Drs. Cifuentes, Rutherford and I are now co-editing a book on Multispecies Climate Justice to be published in Fall 2025 which includes contributions from many of our session participants. |
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