Critical Ecology Lab

For centuries, the exploitation of land and labor–from cotton plantations to oil fields–has laid the groundwork for today’s climate crisis. Black and Indigenous communities forced into these extractive economies have suffered the brunt of environmental harm across generations, starting long before the term ‘climate change’ was coined. Today, the latest UN IPCC report recognizes colonialism as a historic and ongoing driver of the climate crisis. There is a massive and persistent knowledge gap about how these social and ecoclimatic systems are interrelated. As a consequence, the connection between social inequality and Earth systems dysfunction remains obscured, preventing meaningful progress towards reparations and sustainability. The Critical Ecology Lab is a novel institution addressing this crucial gap by fostering boundary-breaking collaborations between scholars and communities impacted by harmful environmental change. Leading the development of the new field of “critical ecology”, CEL researchers and community collaborators use the scientific method and advanced techniques to explain relationships between inequitable social systems and the modern environmental crisis. CEL’s focus is to coordinate and disseminate environmental research as a form of community reparations and restorative justice for people and the planet. We create: IMPACT-DRIVEN RESEARCH on the societal drivers of global ecoclimatic change, building a base of evidence and shifting public dialogue and civic action towards a culture of just ecological relationships. REVOLUTIONARY EDUCATION PATHWAYS to empower marginalized communities with the scientific literacy, liberatory social frameworks, and intergenerational connections needed to activate justice-oriented environmental solutions TRANSFORMATIVE SPACES to develop collective strategies for social and ecological change, center liberation, and build marginalized community resilience and resistance.