Root and Branch: Climate Migration, Racial Crises, and the History and Future of Climate Justice

Watch the Recording Here

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | A talk by Maxine Burkett, Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii's William S. Richardson School of Law and a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The disproportionate burdens of climate change borne by the Global South are numerous and increasingly well-documented. While the effect of the climate crisis in the South is starting to receive its due coverage in a current moment of heightened awareness, the centuries long relationship between the two also deserves deeper exploration, particularly to ensure that our solutions seek to grasp at the roots of the crisis while it prunes the branches. Indeed, the climate crisis and racial hierarchy have long been inextricably intertwined, explaining in large part the uneven share in cause and consequence of the North and South respectively.

Maxine Burkett, Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii's William S. Richardson School of Law and a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, will give a comprehensive review of the challenges of climate-induced migration and will provide a case study in the gaps of international law and illuminate transformative and just approaches to twin crises.

Co-sponsored by Environmental Studies