Living Climate Futures
Spring 2022 — and beyond
History, Anthropology & STS Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Protest sign from Southeast Chicago.
The effects of climate change are all around us, but unevenly. Science and engineering provide essential tools for assessing and helping to mitigate earth systems changes underway, but those changes also result from political-economic decisions and neglect that perpetuate social inequities and injustices. Thus, as MIT’s Fast Forward Climate Plan recognizes, “the world will not solve the climate problem without solving the intertwined problems of equity and economic transition.”
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland accepting the Sacred Lands totem pole on a journey to Washington, D.C. co-sponsored by Se'Si'Le in summer 2021.
Living Climate Futures demonstrates a collaborative approach that does not merely ask after the “social impacts” of climate change and mitigation strategies on diverse communities, but instead is led by research agendas that center community needs, experiences, and priorities.
“Climate change” does not happen alone. It is always bound up with other things: land dispossession, eroding infrastructure, industrial pollution, job loss, water and food insecurity, racial discrimination, and more. This is particularly true for Indigenous/Native peoples and disenfranchised communities. Living with climate change means grappling with deteriorating economic and environmental conditions in the present, while planning for an uncertain future.
The Living Climate Futures Initiative is attentive to historic inequalities including the legacies of settler colonialism and slavery, as we move forward by sharing notes for creative solutions.
Professor Ryan Emanuel (Lumbee), speaking to a group from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality about wastewater contamination. Photo by David Shane Lowry.
Friday - Saturday
22 - 23 April 2022
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Public Symposium
MIT - Cambridge, MA
Participating groups:
Southeast Environmental Task Force (Chicago, IL), Se’Si’Le (Bellingham, WA), Richland Gro-Op (Mansfield, OH), Lumbee Community (North Carolina), GreenRoots (Boston, MA), and more.
A view onto Chelsea Creek looking toward the Boston Bay Marina. Photo by Bettina Stoetzer.
Meet front-line climate and environmental justice activists from across the country. Visit (via live remote) with high school activists in Southeast Chicago. Take a guided environmental or food justice tour of Chelsea or Roxbury. Hear the experiences of our community partners and participate in an exercise to envision livable climate futures for all!