Environmental necropolitics and climate injustice: the social distribution of risk in the management of life in times of anthropogenic crisis

Abstract

Due to the severe climate disasters experienced in Brazil, discussions have arisen regarding the government's capacity to promote preparatory actions for the imminent risk of new anthropogenic events. Furthermore, it is essential to study how the biopolitical mechanisms embedded in sovereign power reproduce inequalities that reflect the greater vulnerability and exposure of certain communities to death and material, emotional, and health losses. As a central problem, we seek to understand how the sovereign action of the Brazilian state in contexts of climate disasters manifests necropolitical rationalities that amplify vulnerabilities based on historical prejudices and determine which lives should be protected or discarded. The general objective of the research is to analyze the necropolitical actions of the Brazilian state in the management of climate catastrophes and their impacts on the vulnerability of racialized, peripheral, and needy populations. Specifically, the research aims to: a) examine the emergence of contemporary necropolitics and its applicability to anthropogenic socio-environmental phenomena; b) investigate how structural and systematic inequality interferes with the social distribution of risk; and c) verify how the state's biopolitical response to risk is linked to the production of socio-environmental vulnerabilities. For implementation purposes, the following four-step methodological approach was used: a systemic-complex approach based on Systems and Complexity Theories, a literature review procedure, and a literature analysis research technique. Ultimately, the research pointed to the need for greater equity in the formulation of public policies, regulations, and government measures, with a view to combating the necropolitics behind climate injustice.