The overarching ecological issue of our time is climate change, with an increasing recognition that an unstable climate will have the greatest and most immediate impacts on impoverished communities around the globe. Furthermore, climate instability will only exacerbate other environmental issues and multiple systems such as soil degradation, potable water availability, flooding, drought, and food production that all have significant consequences for the world’s civilizations. The central theme of the symposium is to look at how the field of ecology can and should embrace justice by presenting multiple case studies using a whole systems perspective: land, water and culture. For the purposes of the symposium, we differentiate justice from equity: justice being the interpretation of our principles and values, while equity is regarded as the outcome. The presentations will represent a wide diversity of experience, culture, and disciplines, but are all connected through climate and justice. Issues that will be discussed include privilege in areas affected by natural disasters, climate impacts on social diversity and communities of color, how the extractive industry disempowers communities through poverty and pollution, and legal implications for climate justice. In order for the field of ecology to have a collective discussion equity, we have to determine what type of framework ecologists can build to incorporate justice into our work. How do our biases direct our understanding of climate and justice? The presenters will frame the session in order to stimulate a discussion on how the field of ecology can have a productive contribution to increase global equity through the lens of climate change. The presentations will be followed by a series of recommendations offered to the audience to stimulate a dialogue on roles and responsibilities, building on past ESA sessions and publications. We will then conclude the symposium with a synthesis of what was presented, discussed, and recommended to move forward the field of ecology and its relations to justice and equity in the midst of an unstable climate.