Critical physical geographies of air, atmosphere, and climate

Abstract

The material condition of the earth's atmosphere exerts a significant influence on how humans live and die. Therefore, understanding how and why atmospheric processes unevenly impact communities, because of the changing material condition of air, provides an opportunity to address current and future climate risks through interdisciplinary perspectives. Using critical physical geography as a framework, this review provides perspective on how physical geographers may interact more closely with human geographers in addressing social-environmental issues related to the state of the earth's atmosphere and climate, and related processes in other earth systems. Climatic and atmospheric variability and change disproportionately impact populations already disadvantaged within this capitalist social formation. Using labor policy, flooding, wildfires, and incarceration as materially grounded examples where atmospheric inequities are experienced by everyday people, we demonstrate how taking a critical physical geography approach to the earth's air might highlight disciplinary synergies and build stronger cross-geography relationships. These examples demonstrate the interconnectedness of the atmosphere with other earth systems, both environmental and social, and how these connections co-produce atmospheric inequities experienced by human populations.