Robert D. Bullard is the Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. He is often described as the father of environmental justice. Professor Bullard received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University. He is the author of seventeen books that address sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, industrial facility siting, community reinvestment, housing, transportation, climate justice, emergency response, smart growth, and regional equity. In this interview, Dr. Bullard talks about some of the key climate change-related challenges for vulnerable communities and actions needed to address them.

How can we build the momentum to act on climate change now, instead of seeing it as a problem of the future? One way is to acknowledge the disproportionate effects of climate change on people. Contributions in this special issue examine issues of power, ideology, and inequality, as these interact with people's social and environmental vulnerabilities. Research and interviews with leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of environmental and social justice, climate science, and rhetoric, discuss how examining the interaction between climate change and other forms of inequalities is critical for sustainability. Whether you are an academic, a practitioner, or an activist, my hope is that content in this special issue will activate your desire to act now.

Vulnerability is an indispensable component of climate justice discussions, especially as it functions to identify the worst off in procedures and distribution framed in a Rawlsian interpretation of justice as fairness. Yet, vulnerability is a term replete in varying interpretations and analytical approaches; and choices in interpretation and approach are consequential to policy-making. Recent policy is constructed with disproportionate reference to biophysical conceptions of climate change, which, albeit useful, can lead to an overlook of the geographic and social context of vulnerability. In addition, when considering that this context is differentiated between and within scales, it is apparent that a multi-scalar framework provides a comprehensive approach to vulnerability studies. Small island developing states (SIDS) are often noted as being among the most vulnerable to climate change. This work assesses that claim through a multi-scalar examination of the political, geographic, and socio-economic conditions that engender vulnerability. What starts as a global scale case study of the political context of SIDS vulnerability is then focused upon a regional study of the socio-economic and geographic context of Caribbean, the most tourism-intensive economy of the world; the latter examination is pursued further with a national scale analysis of contextual vulnerability in Jamaican tourism and agriculture, referencing to local scale examples of adaptive capacity. By this multi-scalar framework, justice and contextual vulnerability are revealed to be inextricable, and a re-evaluation of how these terms are operationalized in policy is suggested.

The Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis had the opportunity to interview Dr. Danielle Endres (Ph.D., University of Washington)—an Associate Professor of Communication and faculty in the Environmental Humanities Masters Program at the University of Utah. The interview discussed how rhetoric influences and shapes our societal understandings of climate change, strategies for mitigation and adaptation, and the intersections of social justice and environmental action.

Bill Bigelow taught high school social studies in Portland, Oregon for almost 30 years. He is curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools magazine, co-directs the Zinn Education Project, and co-edited A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis. He is author and co-editor of many books and contributes to Common Dreams. He was part of a collective that introduced a climate justice resolution to the Portland School Board. In this interview he discusses how and why we should include social justice in climate change conversations.