When thinking about this question my mind initially went down a more mechanistic route to attempt to achieve social-ecological justice. In the past, very important and often marginalized communities haven’t had their voices heard or even acknowledged when talking about environmental changes. To counter this I think that within every geographic area, representatives of each community/sector (coastal, First Nations, government, etc.) should be brought together, almost in a panel, to discuss changes being made to that geographic area before any of the proposed changes are made. Only once everyone has been sufficiently heard out should decisions be allowed to be made and voted upon. This idea of a panel does bring up the question of whether or not the seats should be representative of the population size of each community/sector or if each should evenly get 2-5 spots or something (depending on how large we want this panel to be). That’s a difficult question to answer when talking generally as each geographical area will have different distributions of different people. Nevertheless, I think it'd be good to form some overarching legislative body with the intention of protecting our environment and acknowledging the people who live and work within these environments. Semantics aside of how this panel works and how it’s formed, the reason I believe this kind of thing is so important is to get a discussion going about important environmental matters and having an inclusive conversation with a broad range of people. While I've proposed this panel of sorts, my ideal future involving social-ecological justice stems from a desire for accessible, open, communication around ecological sustainability within our communities #UnleashValues
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That's a good point, and I feel like a lot of people recognize that and I think so, but there's a major barrier to understanding each other and listening to each other, and that's cultural differences, power differences and conflicts of interest. Under such circumstances, even if the people and the indigenous people are willing to accept and understand each other, as long as the relevant government departments do not agree, everything will be carried out according to their wishes. The cruel fact is that the voice of the weak is difficult to be heard or understood. Not only that, but there are conflicts between parties with different interests. That's why it's hard for groups like Aboriginal people to get involved in making decisions and things like that.
I really like your idea! Kind of like a UN geared towards protecting the environment? I think it's definitely a tough, but worthwhile idea to implement, as it gives us a platform to discuss and make decisions with the environment and affected parties as our priority.
I love the bolded "accessible, open, communication around ecological sustainability". It really describes what direction the world should head towards!
This sounds something like what folks are calling for in "Regional Environmental Assessment". The Liberal government contemplated this when revising them Impact Assessment legislation, but decided in favour of the current model, which is much more technocratic. We'll discuss more in the Minerals week!
I also love the idea of an open discussion in which people, leaders and stake holders can be included so more voices are heard.
I love this very logical and thought out response! Something I struggle with is the translation between ideation to actually putting into action; what you have described here sounds like a really great thing to parse out further to see if it would work for communities...at the very least it sounds like a wonderful place to start and a method to building conversation and consideration into the structures we work within.
thats a really good idea about bringing together different community/sector leaders to have a discussion. This allows for communication and issues to be resolved.
I think your ideas have the potential to make substantial impact! More communication with representatives from a diverse range of communities really is the key to achieving justice!
Hi Helen! This is a great idea and I believe would be a very impactful one :) In almost all situations, it's helpful to have more people chime in with varying knowledge and viewpoints so that we can decide on what's best for everyone.