What does socio-ecological justice look like?
I envision a world where we are open and honest with one another...where we are all willing to share how we think and feel.
At UBC, sometimes I feel that we don't provide enough room for dissenting voices. I distinctly remember a conversation I had with a friend last year. His political views are much different than mine, but he was willing to share how he truly felt. I got the sense that he didn't get this opportunity very often.
I also remember some of the comments made during my environmental sciences classes. One stands out. I was placed on a team that represented the Albertan government on a debate about the TransMountain Pipeline. Upon meeting my team members, one of them remarked: "Hey, guess we're playing the bad guys!"
Striving towards socio-ecological justice must involve the inclusion of traditionally marginalized voices. But it also requires us to confront our own limitations. This is where the value of courage comes in. Do we really listen to those who rely on resource extraction? Do we really understand their perspective? Are we willing to accept that we can sometimes be wrong?
Once we have these hard conversations, we can start to understand. Once we start to understand, our own views evolve. My proposed intervention this week is to try and spend a week reading stories (at least 5) about local communities dependent on resource extraction projects. By reading these stories, I hope to get a better sense as to why others place so much value in these projects.
@CoSphere