10 - Climate change and community social work

Summary

Introduction

There is little dispute as we head into the second quarter of the 21st century that climate change is real and presents a threat to the security of people across the planet. Natural disasters caused by the effects of global warming on weather systems and rising water levels are already causing regular catastrophes in the Global North, which has always considered itself immune from such phenomena. International agreement through the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by reducing fossil fuel extraction and use seems to be failing to achieve the progress required and if global warming reaches the levels predicted (a 3°C increase on pre- industrial levels by 2100, being 1.1°C over these already in 2019), areas of the world will be overwhelmed by floods and life- threatening heatwaves (bringing fires and water and food shortages) (IPCC, 2018). There is a growing literature that associates social work with sustainable development (green policies), environmental justice and climate disaster response (see, for example, Dominelli, 2012, 2023; Smith, 2022; Rao et al, 2023; Boddy and Nipperess, 2023). Margaret Ledwith discusses climate change and climate justice extensively in the 2020 edition of Community Development – A Critical and Radical Approach (Ledwith, 2020), quoted elsewhere in this book. Social work commentator Ella Booth (2019) will not be alone in her belief that social workers have a responsibility based on the ethical statements of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) to become climate change activists and involve themselves in protests, such as those organised by Extinction Rebellion. On a similar theme, Whelan (2022: 30) suggests that if social workers are to be ‘on the right side of history’, they need to show dissent from policies that are failing to tackle climate change effectively. Indeed, a widely read climate change commentator, Andreas Malm (2020: 105), suggests: ‘To be radical after all, means aiming at the roots of troubles; to be radical in the chronic emergency is to aim at the ecological roots of perpetual disasters.’ While this is in keeping with the radical premise of this book, it takes us no nearer to the actuality of day- to- day social work practice in communities.