Cows and their Coalitions: Biopolitics and Climate Justice in Multispecies Worlds — ASN Events

Cows and their Coalitions: Biopolitics and Climate Justice in Multispecies Worlds (16911)

Donna Houston 1 , Andrew McGregor 1
  1. Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, Australia

Climate justice frames knowledge and action about climate change in ethical terms. It asks: what responsibilities do we have toward past and future generations in sustaining healthy and flourishing communities?   The ethical framing of climate change in relation to concepts of justice have tended to focus on issues of intergenerational equity, rights, participation, vulnerability and distributive justice.  Climate justice is therefore understood as a particular matter of human concern that is based in the collective transformation of social and environmental injustice. Yet, injustices associated with climate change are lived and felt across multispecies boundaries – where animal and human lives are entangled in networks of care and neglect. In this paper we discuss the emerging biopolitics of ‘eating environmentally’ and its intersections with animal welfare and climate justice. In particular, we explore different types of biopolitical subjects that are emerging and how incorporation of human-animal ethics and environmental justice can create new opportunities for livestock animals in an era of climate change. We conclude by arguing for compassionate and enlarged framings of climate justice for multispecies worlds.