Team 4B

Social justice and sustainability are closely connected. According to an article by Anna Coote, "Each goal depends on the other for fulfillment. On the positive side, a healthy natural environment is good for human well-being, while a socially just society is better able to safeguard natural resources and cope with the various consequences of climate change. On the negative side, the poor suffer first and most from weather extremes, food shortages and flood damage, while social inequalities drive up aspirations for resource-intensive consumption. Meanwhile, the institutions of the welfare state, including hospitals, schools and town halls have a big ecological footprint: they have significant power to influence the environmental agenda."

If sustainability is not present then…

• There eventually will be not enough resources for everybody to live comfortably

  • Extreme inequality rates will shoot up

• The cost of living can go up due to needing more and more coping mechanisms for climate change

  • People of lower income who were living comfortably beforehand can have a difficult time

• Many people will suffer from illnesses due to the heat

• Natural disasters are more likely to occur

  • Examples:

    • Heat waves

    • Floods

    • Droughts

    • More intense storms

      • Hurricanes

    • Wild fires

    • And more

  • Property will get destroyed

    • People will lose their homes

Without social justice or sustainability, there will eventually be a cycle that will be extremely difficult to get out of due to how interconnected both concepts are. To stop that cycle, we need to take action and try to mitigate inequalities and climate change.