Planetary Dysregulation & Disabled Communities 

Relationship with Nature

Alongside the greater risks disabled people experience from planetary dysregulation, disabled people are also more likely to be denied access to Nature. Footpaths and green spaces are often highly physically inaccessible, with stiles, uneven terrain and gates all posing difficulties for those with mobility impairments, especially wheelchair users. Additionally, disabled people are less likely to feel safe in public spaces than non-disabled people (source), and are more likely to be subject to everything from frequent stares to violent crime (source).

This lack of safety, and exhaustion arising from hyper-visibility, can make disabled people less inclined to go out, making it even harder for them to experience connectedness with Nature. Disabled people may also have complicated relationships with the idea of “Nature” as many of the things we may be dependent on for quality of life and/or survival are often labelled as “unnatural”, such as medicines and breathing equipment. Disabled people are often acutely aware of the fact that scientific and technological advancement has played a key part in our survival, and that in a “survival of the fittest” model, we would likely be left behind to die, which can alienate us from movements and discussions that dismiss scientific and technological advancement as artefacts of capitalism and drivers of the planetary crisis. Despite this, disabled people are also more likely to be invested in ideas of interdependence, community care and collaboration, and may well be able to point to the ways we can begin to address our current planetary crisis through these means.

Disabled people know what it is to be labelled tragic and not worth saving, and we know how to keep on living in the face of this; a vital knowledge when it comes to daring to dream that our world could have a future that looks very different to our current dysregulated reality. Disabled people also know that Nature works in strange and beautiful ways, that for every kind of “brokenness” there is a path to healing (and that this is not the same thing as a cure, requiring far more ongoing work and care).

Through recognising our shared needs and differing knowledges, experiences and ways of meeting our needs, we can begin to glimpse a way of existing that is predicated on communality, a sharing of resources and a celebration of different ways of doing things. 

Disability & Environmental Injustice

The extra steps disabled people may require to get our needs met often result in us being forced to the margins of society and excluded from the discussions we most need to be a part of. A prime example of this is the discussion around planetary dysregulation: disabled people are both at greater risk from the effects of it, and have perspectives and ideas that could prove invaluable when considering how to tackle it, but our voices go largely unheard. Not only is this true, but the larger environmental justice movement can be alienating to disabled people, as it all too often focuses on disability as a damning consequence of environmental injustice, painting disabled lives as tragic and preventable, and failing to engage meaningfully with disabled people themselves. Catherine Jampel, fellow of the American Council Learned Societies (ACLS) spoke about this issue, saying "focus has generally been more on how environmental injustices cause disability, but much less on the specific vulnerabilities of disabled people to environmental injustices." (source) 

A commonly used refrain in the disabled community is the phrase “nothing about us without us”, which speaks to the long history of disabled people being denied autonomy and a chance to be treated as a valued expert on our own life experiences, and addressing this is paramount if the environmental justice movement is to succeed. 

Disability justice is inextricably linked to environmental justice, and we cannot truly have either one without the other. Disabled people were some of the first to sound the alarm about the damage that seemingly mundane products like makeup, fragrances and detergents can do to a body - with already-chronically ill people being more likely to develop Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS). The chemicals in these products also pollute our ecosystems when they poured down domestic drains. 

Disabled people have also repeatedly called attention to the escalating harms of capitalism and its links with planetary dysregulation, as well as highlighting the prevalence of eugenicist ideas and how they influence who society is willing to overlook, and who is likely to be the first to be left behind in times of crisis, such as severe weather events. As well as having a valuable perspective on the dangers of planetary dysregulation, disabled people should also be looked to for ideas about how we can tackle this crisis. As Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha drives home repeatedly in their book, “Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice”, disabled people are dreamers: our inability to perform under capitalism leaves us free to dream of something different, our constant neglect by society pushes us to dream up solutions and ways of being that work better for us. We are well practised at the skill of dreaming, and that is an invaluable talent to have when it comes to addressing planetary dysregulation, because to tackle this we are going to have to dream bigger and more ambitiously and more lovingly than ever before. 

Vulnerability Pathways

Aside from acute weather events, disabled people also suffer from the ways the planetary crisis intersects with risk factors arising from ableist discrimination and marginalisation.

Disabled people are often unemployed - either from lack of accessible job choices, employment discrimination and/or chronic illnesses that leave them too unwell to work. Those who are employed often work poorly paid jobs in poor conditions due to lack of other employment options, with disabled people in the UK earning 13.8% less on average than non-disabled workers (source) and it being legal in the US to pay disabled adults sub-minimum wage. Poor pay for those who do work and measly government benefits for those who can’t mean disabled people often have no choice but to live in substandard housing (both in building quality and location) that heightens their exposure to extreme weather and pollutants; for example, disabled people are significantly more likely to live near hazardous waste storage and disposal sites (source). These areas are also less likely to come with green spaces (and even less likely: accessible green spaces) that can offer vital shaded outdoor time to cope with heat, and connect to Nature.

As well as risks in employment and housing, disabled people also face struggles in access to adequate transport. Disabled people are less likely to drive, with 55% of disabled people aged 17-64 holding a full driving licence, compared to 83% of non-disabled people (source), but public transport is also frequently inaccessible, with one in four disabled people saying negative attitudes from other passengers prevent them from using public transport, and 40% often experiencing difficulties when travelling by train in the UK (source.) These difficulties with transport can lead to further exposure to extreme weather as disabled people are forced to walk/wheel greater distances, and inability to drive can leave disabled people stranded during weather events when public transport stops running.