Ecological Justice, a new programme in development
Hannah Yu-Pearson joins the Centric Lab ecosystem this year and will be researching, investigating and shaping the ecological justice programme within the Urban Health Council.
We are at the very start of this journey and our first task is understating our role as a neuroscience lab focusing on ecological justice.
Our past work and research has allowed us to understand that we are not going to be healthy unless our planet and all Kin are healthy. Water, Land, and Air are heavily contaminated and it’s the root cause to the degradation and ecocide we are experiencing. In turn this is having a direct impact on health.
Air pollution, for example, is now linked to cancer, diabetes, obesity, and various other non communicable diseases. Floods, droughts, and other phenomena related to planetary dysregulation are linked to anxiety, depression, neurodevelopmental diseases, and communicable diseases.
Therefore we cannot advocate for health justice without advocating for ecological justice.
There are three macro themes we will be investigating and researching. Full descriptions will follow at the end of 2024.
A non-exploitative TEK inclusive framework
Traditional Ecological Knowedges are the aggregation and continual evolution of Knowledges that belong to Indigenous and Land-Kinned Peoples that are rooted in Kinship, mutualistic symbiosis, relationality, and reciprocity. What/Is there a non-exploitative framework for their consideration and learning by others?
Climate, environmental and spatial policy and Ecological Justice
What is the relationship between Ecological Justice and urban systems, namely the professional systems that govern urban development and the socio-economic systems they relate with.
Abolition, Social Movements, and Ecological Justice
Our themes on abolition are rooted in not begging or haggling for our health and dignity. As such, what role does Ecological Justice play in designing systems to support self-organising.
These three macros themes will take us through building a framework to then applying this lens to how decisions made around climate and the environment are intertwined with health and social change.
The goal for 2024 is that we have a clear description of our role and a working definition of Ecological Justice.
ABOUT HANNAH
Hannah has a background in urbanism and city level climate action. She is now exploring new approaches to environmental and health justice, using food and tea as medicine, incorporating the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Hannah has been working with Centric Lab since 2022 and has contributed to a range of work and projects, such as:
The Indigenous Health Justice programme