The Colonialism-Vulnerability Nexus: A Political Ecology Study of Structural Inequality in Climate Change

Abstrak

This literature study examines the interdisciplinary fields of political ecology and climate justice, analyzing the connections between climate change, structural inequality, colonialism, and human rights. The research investigates how political ecology explains the causal relationship between colonial structures, global economic disparities, and the uneven distribution of climate vulnerability. It further explores how social movements define, advocate for, and expand the understanding of environmental justice in response to the climate crisis. The findings reveal that climate change is a symptom of a global economic system built on a history of extraction and inequality, where vulnerability is politically produced. Climate justice movements successfully reframe the crisis as one of human rights and structural injustice, emphasizing historical responsibility, intergenerational equity, and substantive participation. The study concludes that effective and equitable responses to climate change require a fundamental transformation of power relations, a decolonization of knowledge, and the centering of the rights and agency of frontline communities. Technical and market-based solutions are insufficient without addressing these underlying political and economic structures.