The term Anthropocene (Age of Human) implies that the reduction of carbon emissions is a matter of changing human behaviour. This risks depoliticising the climate emergency. Everyone is not equally responsible for climate change, and the consequences of climate change are not distributed equally. Climate change is overwhelmingly the result of extractive and exploitative capitalist production. It is thus more useful to understand the climate crisis in terms of the Capitalocene (Age of Capital), with climate justice being a terrain of anti-capitalist struggle. Mainstream responses to climate change have largely neglected the Capitalocene, focusing instead on consumer behaviour. This individualistic approach has been taken up by several ecologically oriented psychological professions, where the emphasis has been on ‘responsible consumer behaviour’ and/or the psychological effects of climate uncertainty. There is, however, a growing critical tradition within the psychological professions that seeks to advance climate justice by taking seriously the capitalist political economy. Indeed, psychological practitioners are equipped with skills that may be useful for activists involved in psychopolitical efforts to consolidate climate justice movements and build political power. We posit three key areas for psychological practitioners working for climate justice movements: solidarity-making, affective mediation, and resource mobilisation.

Editorial

Water stress, occasioned by irregular and insufficient rainfall, has been found to have far-reaching impacts on human lives and livelihoods. Often, these impacts have been linked to agriculture, industry and household water needs. In transcending these usual narratives about drought impacts, this study attempts to discuss the drought-health nexus which is an area of scholarship that has not gained much attention. Relying on extant literature as data source and content analysis as analytical tool, the study highlights the impacts of drought on public health. The study recommends early warning systems (EWSs), scenario planning (SP) etc. as interventions which can ameliorate the impacts of drought on public health.