Bridging Science, Indigenous Knowledge and Faith: New Pathways for Environmental Justice and Climate Action
By Gregory Simpson and Tory Field
Center for Earth Ethics
August 28, 2025
The communities most affected by environmental injustices have long recognized what academic institutions are only now beginning to acknowledge: the most pressing ecological challenges cannot be solved solely through the sciences. Addressing these challenges requires relying on multiple ways of knowing, drawing on a convergence of knowledge systems that honors both empirical data and the lived experiences of those most affected by environmental degradation.
A significant challenge in exploring different “ways of knowing” is defining terms such as science, Indigenous knowledge, and other approaches that explain how people, cultures or societies access knowledge about the natural world. For our purposes in this writing, when we use the term “science,” we are referring primarily to Western science and its methods, systems and tools for acquiring, protecting and disseminating knowledge about the natural world.