People, Place and Peace-Building: Critical Multi-Level Responses to the Triple Planetary Crises

The Triple Planetary Crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution (UN, 2022) presents major socio-ecological challenges and devastating impacts for people across our planet, with vulnerable communities and societies worst affected by associated injustices. Not only do such forces pose existential threats for humanity, they threaten non-human species and are driving some species to extinction (IPBES , 2019). Yet, incredibly, opportunities exist to co-create a better world for all species.

In this paper, I share some conceptual and practical insights into how we can connect transformation of complex society-environment interactions with egalitarian agendas for genuinely sustainable development, locally and globally. Through a case study of Northern Ireland, a complex society still reeling from colonisation and associated ethno-nationalist conflicts, I consider how the Triple Planetary Crises constitutes a critical juncture that can offer new ways of thinking, being and collaborating to transcend traditional visible and invisible divisions.

The paper includes insights from an interdisciplinary, systematic review of literature on anthropogenic development pressures and biodiversity change in Northern Ireland (Ellis, Slevin and Emmerson, 2024), sociological research on climate [in-]action across the region (Slevin, 2023b, 2022), and new evidence on how conflict and segregation has damaged our shared environment (Belfast City Council, 2024). Upon problematising place-specific consequences of contemporary and historic society-environment interactions, I consider mechanisms for socio-ecological transformation. These include fostering socio-ECO-logical imagination as a starting point for alternative human-nature relations (Slevin, 2023a), community and social movement actions for climate and sustainability (ibid.), and associations with Johan Galtung's conceptualisation of ‘positive peace’ (1969). This paper connects empirical evidence with an emerging theoretical framework conducive to achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and in so doing, illuminates the role of sustainability praxis and critical multi-level responses crucial to tackling the Triple Planetary Crises and enabling just transitions.