The (In)Dispensability of Environmental Justice Communities: A Case Study of Climate Adaptation Injustices in Coastal Louisiana and Narratives of Resistance

Abstract

This case study analyzes how climate adaptation actors in coastal Louisiana undermine the justice concerns of coastal communities comprising Native American, Black, Southeast Asian, Hispanic, and working-class people. The homes, livelihoods, and cultures of these environmental justice (EJ) communities are threatened not only by climate disasters and ecological degradation, but also by adaptation projects proposed and backed by the state and federal governments and restoration nonprofit organizations. Drawing on 74 in-depth interviews, I analyze discourses from adaptation actors (government staff, scientists, engineers, and restoration advocates) and from coastal community leaders. Findings from the case study reveal how climate adaptation actors reference a socially constructed “bigger picture” to justify negative externalities of coastal projects while also undermining community concerns regarding their own survival. Findings also show how members of coastal communities discuss their survival, resist harmful narratives, and assert their indispensability. I conclude by connecting these themes to critical EJ research, particularly the racist underpinnings of utilitarian environmental decision making. This case study demonstrates the need to examine institutional actors' resistance to integrating justice into climate adaptation planning and action.

Mainstreaming Coastally Just and Equitable Marine Spatial Planning: Planner and Stakeholder Experiences and Perspectives on Participation in Latvia

“…Lastly, organization-related inclusion identifies and involves diverse place-and interest-based organizations or groups, including environmental non-governmental organizations at various scales, local grassroots movements, small-scale fishers, and where applicable, scholar activists, Indigenous Peoples, and ethnic groups). As ocean stewards and defenders, these environmental justice communities are key agents in reversing or improving the negative social and ecological externalities of MSP-related sustainability transformation policies and practices (Bennett et al, 2021;Domingue 2022).…”

“…Yet there is evidence that coastal communities are often underrepresented and marginalized in ocean governance, resulting in planning processes that are exclusive of or unresponsive to the needs and aspirations of coastal groups (Domingue 2022;Jentoft 2020). Despite this, there is limited scholarship focused on challenges and prospects for community just and equitable MSP beyond small-scale fisheries.…”

Futures on Dry Ground

“…For example, an annual update to the Master Plan boasts "23 dredging projects slated for construction totaling 86.8 million cubic yards of sediment to create or nourish more than 16,308 acres" (CPRA 2022). Coastal residents and environmental justice groups have critiqued these kinds of projections for obscuring the actual uneven impacts of coastal management projects on their communities' ability to access place and on the endurance of the ecosystems they rely on (Domingue 2022). "Land" is thus consistently abstracted out to the benefi t of large-scale restoration projects that both hide their negative consequences and forestall critiques by claiming a broader social mandate for action.…”

Environmental justice policy in the United States: community definition and benefits allocation in underserved and overburdened communities

“…As climate change increases the devastation caused by hurricanes and other extreme climate events, the most vulnerable communities tend to suffer the strongest impacts (Bullard & Wright, 2009;Chakraborty et al, 2019;Domingue, 2022;Fothergill et al, 1999;Hendricks & Van Zandt, 2021;Kuhl et al, 2014;Vilá et al, 2023). As a result, theories and frameworks used by researchers and policy-makers to study the intersection of disaster recovery and vulnerability have expanded.…”