Most vulnerable members of society haven’t got the best quality of life and as a nation we do need to become more interested. This is when Social justice comes in. Social justice is a common interest of many throughout the globe. It intertwines with many different topics, such as food, justice and human rights. More interestingly, not many know or have realised that environmental sustainability is a large issue within social justice. However, the links between sustainability and social justice are growing even more visibly, especially today. Around the world environmental catastrophes affects an excessive amount of disadvantaged poor people in and around 3rd world countries and undeveloped regions. I believe the reason is that capitalism is dominated by the wealthiest corporations and devoted to just profit above all else that comes beneath.
When looking at Marx’s ecology, he argues, so do Marxists in general that the separation of inorganic from organic nature poses a serious threat to life in general but more importantly to society. It is mostly in human nature that we only care about the things that gain us more power or money and this does need to chsnge. Karl Marx states; “Nature, especially transformed nature, is a part of the means of production” (Marx, 2018)
As mentioned, the difficulty in pursuing making a change with both social justice and environmental sustainability is deeply intertwined in capitalist accumulation but putting that to one side it is more important for us to worry and care about how important achieving the best for our environment is and trying to gain ‘justice’. Whilst reading the different accounts of opinions from the different authors my reaction has changed towards achieving social justice and environmental sustainability, it is crucial that as human beings in this world that we do take a stance. Anna Coote, states: “Understanding the links between social justice and environmental sustainability must be at the heart of a new social settlement” (Coote, 2014)
This really does speak volumes of how important it is to take a stance, as a young generation and how I am passionate about the development of these issues. Furthermore, how as a young generation today we need to educate ourselves in these matters. I conceive that circumstances need to change for the improvement of our future and to where we need to start changing into a new, better society.
There is also a clear link between deforestation and desertification, an example would be desertification in northwest India and parts of Asia. With both these things making access to resources even more difficult for those already in need at the same time. With the quickly disappearing resources, this obviously then leads to undeniable causes of conflict which could and does turn to war. Capital industrial agriculture is very much affecting our planet. Allen and Smolski touched base on this. They also believe it has and is endangering the dignified existence of the species and increasing the risk of a civilization-level catastrophe (Jacobinmag.com, 2019). I believe things will not be changing because of the capitalistic issues in society where the rich get richer and poorer get poorer and money is being poured into the wrong places. I believe also it is the principles of Marx that have caused economic downturn across the globe.