Background

On the 18 August 2022, in Vancouver, PIMA’s Climate Justice Education Group, under Shauna Butterwick’s convenorship, hosted a hybrid conversation on fundamental beliefs that limit possibilities for climate justice. One of these key beliefs is the separation of humans from the `more-than-human` world, an issue animated by Vishwar Satgar (2021), a leading South African climate justice activist and scholar. Vishwar Satgar acknowledged that many climate justice activists are enculturated into the belief that, like the majority of people, they are separate from ‘more-than-human’ life forms. These life forms are seen as ‘things’, `commodities` at the disposal of humans. He argues that activists need to confront their own ‘anti-nature dispositions, prejudices and alienation’. His question to educators is: how do we unlearn, relearn, learn that we as a species are deeply interconnected with all other life forms?

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In response to Vishwar’s challenge, Shirley Walters, Denise Nadeau, and Elizabeth Lange turn his questions over from different vantage points. These are complex and wide-ranging issues which are of critical importance for all educators. We look forward to deepening and widening the discussions through different fora.

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Why do so many humans believe we are separate from the ‘more-than-human’ world?  
Shirley Walters

Unlearning Embodied Colonialism - Listening with the more-than-human world 
Denise Nadeau

 

A Transition Imagination toward Relationality

Elizabeth A. Lange

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