Reconciliation with the Earth and Each Other: Intergenerational Environmental Justice in Canada

Abstract

There has been growing recognition in recent environmental discourse that environmental justice, which is normally understood to mean the disproportionate effect of climate change on minority groups, also takes the form of epistemic injustice. In the Canadian context, this means the exclusion of Indigenous philosophies, values, and perspectives from discourse about environmental ethics, as well as the spheres of policy and governance as they pertain to the environment. At the same time, there has been increasing concern with creating just outcomes for future people. Given that future generations have made no contribution to the pollution that causes climate change, but will feel its worst effects, many environmental and political philosophers have recently pointed to the need for a strong theory of intergenerational justice, especially as it pertains to the environment. In this thesis, I argue that an essential part of achieving intergenerational environmental justice in Canada is working toward the rectification of both material and epistemic harms toward Indigenous peoples which are perpetuated by the “rationalistic” conception of nature which sees nature as an instrumentally valuable resource to be exploited for human gain. I explore the historical construction of this conception of nature and its pervasiveness in recent work on environmental ethics in order to show how Indigenous perspectives have historically been suppressed through colonialism, and more recently been subjected to epistemic oppression within Western environmental ethics. I then focus specifically on intergenerational environmental justice as a field in which Indigenous philosophies have faced the greatest exclusion, and may also have the most to teach us. I conclude by providing a brief overview of recent Indigenous environmental activism as an expression of Indigenous values, and look to treaties as understood by Indigenous philosophies as a potential framework for moving together toward a just future for all.