Fossil Fuel Resistance

/Fossil Fuel Resistance

 

9 01, 2024

Q&A: Anti-Fracking Activist Sandra Steingraber on Scientists’ Moral Obligation to Speak Out

2024-08-26T11:01:59-04:00Tags: |

Sandra Steingraber was in college, studying biology when she was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Her background in biology allowed her to understand the circumstances of her condition, leading her to discover that she was among several people in her area with the same cancer linked to contaminated drinking water from industrial pollutants. Toxic chemicals in the water and air are severe health concerns that disproportionately impact elderly and pregnant individuals. Notably, anyone exposed to high quantities of these toxins faces an increased risk of health issues. Steingraber has since spent decades conducting research and advocating for the end to fracking in communities. Her non-violent protests alongside her community led to her arrests on two separate occasions, but she has not let that stop her work. Her contribution to the movement represents the intersection between climate change, environmental health, sustainable economies, food justice, and health equity, as they should not be studied in silos. Closing out the interview, Dr. Steingraber emphasizes that scientists have an obligation to share their findings with greater communities and speak out when their findings suggest a problem, and each of us has a responsibility to advocate for change in any way we can.

27 08, 2023

‘I’m Not The Guilty One’: The Water Protector Facing Jail Time for Trying to Stop a Pipeline

2024-09-16T11:17:16-04:00Tags: |

Mylene Vialard, a 54-year-old climate activist, faces up to five years in prison as she goes on trial for protesting against the expansion of Line 3, a tar sands oil pipeline cutting through Indigenous lands in northern Minnesota. Despite the pipeline's alarming environmental risks and its track record of spills, Vialard's peaceful demonstration led to felony charges of trespassing on critical infrastructure and obstruction of justice. Her refusal to accept a plea deal reflects her determination to challenge the injustice she sees. However, her arrest is not isolated, with over 1,000 arrests made in similar protests, supported by payments of at least $8.6 million from the pipeline company, Enbridge to Minnesota Law Enforcement and other security agencies. This mass criminalization, part of a wider trend of suppressing legitimate environmental protests, signifies a concerning erosion of civil liberties and underscores the urgent need for climate activism. Against this backdrop, Vialard's trial emerges as a pivotal moment in the broader struggle for environmental justice, shedding light on the complex interplay between state power, corporate influence, and grassroots resistance.

24 08, 2023

Opinion: I grew up next to an L.A. oil well. California can protect others from what I went through

2024-08-26T11:19:38-04:00Tags: |

Nalleli Cobo, an environmental justice activist and founder of “People Not Pozos,” was nine years old when she started advocating against oil drilling in her community. The pollution from the oil wells had been making her and her family sick, her entire life. At ages 11 and 19, she was diagnosed with asthma and stage two reproductive cancer. Cobo’s experience is one that is shared across many Los Angeles residents, especially Black and Hispanic communities, who live within dangerous distances to oil wells. The California Legislature proposed Senate Bill 1137, to protect community members impacted by oil extraction, but the bill was later halted by the oil industry pouring money into a ballot referendum. Senator Lena Gonzalez, a sponsor of SB1137, proposed a new bill, SB556, that would apply legal and financial penalties to oil drillers that ignore the science linked to the health risks of drilling, including asthma, cancer, respiratory problems, preterm birth, and high-risk pregnancies. Cobo continues her work against the oil industry within California. Ultimately, this bill did not pass in the California legislature, however, policies like SB566 continue to bring hope to communities in the fight for health protections against polluting industries.

14 03, 2023

Banking (Literally) on Climate Solutions

2023-05-26T14:38:33-04:00Tags: |

Alec Connon explores the ways in which big banks contribute to the fossil fuel industry. Typically, when money is in a bank account, the bank can use up to 90% of the savings to provide loans to various companies. This means that the money you hold with a bank is potentially used to fund fossil fuel projects. Last year, three nonprofit organizations published “The Carbon Bankroll,” a report which quantifies the amount of greenhouse gas emissions created with the money saved in banks. For example, if you hold $50,000 in an account, that is the equivalent to taking 12 flights from New York City to London in one year. Connon also spoke with Tara Houska, an activist who demonstrated at Standing Rock. While demonstrating, a researcher shared a graph which highlighted banks that funded the pipeline. This information was used to increase support for the movement, using the hashtag #DefundDAPL. Since then, the movement to move money into environmentally responsible financial institutions has grown, with many banks committing to net-zero emissions by 2050. Connon closes the article by highlighting groups like Clean Energy Credit Union and Climate First Bank which provide viable banking options while also being environmentally conscious. During Connon’s talk with Houska, she discussed how people can often feel like there is nothing they can do to make a difference, yet she emphasizes how moving one’s money is an action that truly does make a difference.  Photo Credit: Alec Connon

6 03, 2023

The Willow Project Would Be a Public Health Crisis for Alaska

2023-05-26T14:35:43-04:00Tags: |

Yessenia Funes speaks with Siqiniq Maupin, an Iñupiaq person from Fairbanks, Alaska and the executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, an organization which works to keep Iñupiat communities and environments healthy. Funes and Maupin discuss the threat the Willow Project poses to environmental and Iñupiat community well-being, as this project is estimated to extract 180,000 barrels of oil per day, making it the largest proposal under federal consideration. The Willow Project would be established in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, an area which already extracts 480,000 barrels of oil per day and is home to Iñupiat communities, as well as critical habitat for Alaskan wildlife like walrus and caribou. Maupin has been campaigning against Willow since about 2019 yet acknowledges those who do support the project, as Iñupiat communities need economic investments to fund infrastructure such as new roads and running water. While Maupin understands this perspective, their organization is centered around education and awareness building across Iñupiat communities so that people make informed decisions. The Willow Project is predicted to bring 2500 construction jobs and about 300 permanent jobs with an estimated $17 billion in revenue. Maupin emphasizes the costs of this wealth, stressing the importance of future generations being able to connect to their heritage. Photo Credit: Kiliii Yüyan

12 10, 2022

Standing Up For Water, Land And Climate: Meet 10 Indigenous Women Fighting The Line 5 Pipeline

2023-04-16T15:34:43-04:00Tags: |

Authors Osprey Orielle Lake and Katherine Quaid highlight the Indigenous women who are leading the fight against Enridge’s Line 5 pipeline expansion. Indigenous women like Jannan J. Cornstalk, Carrie Huff Chesnik, Philomena Kebec, Sandy Gokee, Rene Ann Goodrich, Jennifer Boulley, Carolyn Gougé, Gina Peltier, Lisa Ronnquist, and Debra Topping express how the Line 5 pipeline threatens non-human relatives, the culture, health and well-being of their communities and how this violence contributes to climate change. Indigenous women leaders will continue to resist fossil fuel pipelines and to defend their land, water, and communities. Photo credit: Devon Young Cupery and Cheryl Barnds/WECAN

12 07, 2022

Banks: The Less Visible Actors In The Fossil Fuel Industry

2023-03-29T13:04:10-04:00Tags: |

Roishetta Ozane calls attention to the less visible actors in the fossil fuel industry: banks. Ozane explains that big U.S. banks, like Morgan Stanley, are bolstering the fracked gas industry. The oil and gas industries promised to bring economic prosperity to the Gulf; instead, they have caused financial instability and increased the severity and occurrence of climate disasters like hurricanes and flooding. Local communities are paying the price. One report indicates that the proposed Plaquemines LNG facility project in Louisiana will be destroyed by inevitable storm surges. Ozane claims the banks are financing ‘sacrifice zones’ by prioritizing short term profits over the real-life impacts on local communities and the planet. These investments are financing future disasters and as the climate crisis worsens, Ozane urges banks to instead finance the transition to clean energy. Photo credit: not included

27 06, 2022

How Defeating Keystone XL Built A Bolder, Savvier Climate Movement

2023-02-02T16:24:35-05:00Tags: , |

Over ten years of resistance against the Canadian tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline has reinvigorated the greater climate movement through coordinated strategies of direct action and coalition building. The Keystone XL resistance gained traction in 2006 following the advocacy of three women from the Deranger clan of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta in partnership with the Indigenous Environmental Network. The Tar Sands Action sparked new waves of civil disobedience that became common tactics in direct actions to follow. From Maggie Gorry leading a Tar Sands Blockade in northern Texas to Joye Braun fighting for Indigenous sovereignty on her home lands of the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation in South Dakota, these grassroots direct actions were essential to the successful fight against Keystone XL. 

21 06, 2022

Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ residents in clean air fight

2023-05-26T14:32:42-04:00Tags: |

This article highlights ‘Cancer Alley’ in Louisiana, an 85-mile region of the state that has a 95% increased risk of cancer compared to the rest of the country because of air pollution, according to the EPA. The area, once known for its agriculture, consists of predominantly Black communities that are now surrounded by about 150 industrial plants. In the fall of 2021, Air Products and Chemicals announced a $4.5 billion blue hydrogen facility said to be built within the region in the next few years. The company claims that they will use carbon capture to offset the vast majority of their carbon dioxide emissions, a process which involves transporting captured carbon dioxide through a 35-mile pipeline and injecting it a mile below ground. Dr. Cynthia Ebinger, a professor of geology at Tulane University, says that Louisiana is a suitable place for the sequestration process, due to the geological composition, yet community activists remain skeptical. Dr. Beverly Wright, founder of the New Orleans-based organization, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and adviser to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, does not believe carbon capture is the answer to the environmental issues the region faces, saying that carbon sequestration is ‘too good to be true.’ She also adds her own doubts about how the same industries that caused the pollution will not be the ones to fix it. Activists in the community continue their campaigns for environmental justice and education to the public on the risks that carbon sequestration poses. Photo Credit: Lindsey Griswold

28 05, 2022

Young L.A. Latina Wins Prestigious Environmental Prize

2023-03-29T13:02:41-04:00Tags: |

Nalleli Cobo was only nine when she became an environmental activist. After experiencing severe sickness — believed to be caused by a nearby oil extraction site owned by Allenco Energy — Cobo and her family mobilized their community to shut down the drilling site. Cobo was the designated speaker of the People Not Pozos (Oil Wells) campaign which was successful in shutting down Allenco Energy. Later, when Cobo was 14, she co-founded the South Central Youth Leadership Coalition to increase efforts against oil sites and work to phase them out completely in Los Angeles. The Coalition sued the city, citing violations of the California Environmental Quality Act and environmental racism. The city settled the lawsuit by implementing new drilling application requirements. Cobo received the Goldman Environmental prize in 2022, recognizing her environmental leadership and activism. Photo credit: Tamara Leigh Photography for the Goldman Environmental Prize

26 05, 2022

The War On My Homeland Offers A Real Chance To Save the Planet

2023-02-01T23:08:02-05:00Tags: |

This article, written by Ukrainian climate advocate and environmental lawyer Svitlana Romanko, discusses how ending Putin’s “fossil-fueled war” in Ukraine can motivate a faster transition to green energy. Emphasizing how the Russian invasion is made possible by coal, oil, and gas industries, Romanko calls upon the international community to ban the import of all fossil fuels from Russia as a first step towards a global switch to renewable energy. She views the ongoing war as a decisive point in history: a chance to either embrace green technologies or perpetuate the harmful status quo. She also cautions against simply replacing fossil fuels from Russia with the same product from other countries, as this would only accelerate the climate crisis and fossil-fueled wars in other regions such as the Middle East. Romanko calls out the American oil companies that have used the war in Ukraine to increase their production and profits. Framing fossil fuels as weapons of mass destruction, Romanko connects the movement for peace with the movement for climate justice. Photo credit: Olga Gordeeva

10 05, 2022

Indigenous Women Leaders Say Line 5 Reroute Project Would Be Cultural, Environmental ‘Genocide’

2023-03-29T13:01:05-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women from the Great Lakes tribes are advocating for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to review and reject the Line 5 project in northern Wisconsin. Indigenous women leaders wrote a letter, with endorsements from over 200 organizations, outlining how the Line 5 pipeline and its proposed expansion threaten treaty lands, as well as the drinking water, ecosystems, and manoomin (wild rice) that Indigenous Peoples on those lands depend on. Manoomin is a critical component of Anishinaabe cultural and spiritual identity and a major food source and economic staple for tribes. The letter also stresses that construction projects’ “man camps” may bring further danger to already vulnerable Indigenous women and girls in the area. Indigenous women explain that allowing Line 5 to proceed is cultural and environmental genocide. Photo credit: Laina G. Stebbins/Michigan Advance

6 03, 2022

Three oil companies pull out of Alaska’s Arctic national wildlife refuge

2023-03-29T12:55:36-04:00Tags: |

Olivia Rosane, a writer for EcoWatch, reports that three oil companies have canceled their lease in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Gwich’in community and environmental groups have led a campaign to stop the drilling in the refuge. Drilling would be dangerous for the local ecosystem — which is home to 45 species of mammals — and to the global fight against climate change. Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee explains that the Gwich’in people are spiritually and culturally connected to the land, water, and animals, and they will never stop fighting to protect Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit (The Sacred Place Where Life Begins), the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Photo credit: Johnny Johnson

28 02, 2022

Gender-based violence and the climate crisis: an obstacle to climate-resilient communities

2023-03-29T12:59:09-04:00Tags: |

Paula Alejandra Camargo Pàez calls attention to the intersection of gender equality, violence against women and the fight against climate change. Pàez discusses how climate change exacerbates gender-based violence (GBV), especially against rural, Black, Rasizal and Indigenous women and girls who live in areas most affected by climate change. Climate-related disasters compound risks faced by marginalized communities, prompting negative feedback loops that further limit their access to health and economic services and increase their vulnerability to all types of abuse. In turn, GBV discourages the participation of women in climate-resilient communities. In order to build climate-resilient communities, Pàez explains it requires a human rights-based, gender-sensitive approach that includes preventing GBV. Photo credit: EFE/Ernesto Guzman Jr.

22 02, 2022

Latina Moms Fighting Against Air Pollution

2023-03-29T12:57:30-04:00Tags: |

Latina mothers like Nayelly Meledez are fighting against pollution, which is causing serious health issues for their children. Reports show that 1.81 million Latinx people in the United States live within half a mile of an oil and gas facility. Meledez is a member of a community organization called Familias Unidas del Chamizal (United Families of the Chamizal), which partnered with environmental and community groups to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2018. In the lawsuit, the coalition of organizations demanded the EPA reassess the air quality in their community and enforce the Clean Air Act. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the community; shortly after, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality appealed the decision. While the legal battle continues, the coalition’s victory in court is spreading hope in a larger movement across the country that aims to hold states and corporations accountable for environmental racism. Latina mothers like Meledez are leading environmental justice efforts to hold oil and gas facilities and governments accountable and to ensure their children and community live in a healthy environment. 

5 01, 2022

Josefina Tunki: ‘If We Have To Die In Defense Of The Land, We Have To Die’

2023-04-16T15:37:15-04:00Tags: |

Josefina Tunki is the first woman president of the Shuar Arutam people (PSHA), an organization uniting 12,000 Indigenous people of the Condor mountain range in southeastern Ecuador. Tunki was involved in her community as an educator and treasurer before becoming president. Tunki and other members of the PSHA have been threatened because they oppose mining on Indigenous territory. Tunki explains she is not afraid of the police or threats from mining companies; she is afraid members of her community could lose their homes. Tunki strategizes how to fight against mining companies while also being maternal and caring toward those she protects. Photo credit: Lluvia Communication

13 12, 2021

Voices From The Frontlines: Rose’s Story

2021-12-13T20:55:11-05:00Tags: |

Rose Whipple from the Santee Dakota and Ho-Chunk nations is protecting her ancestral lands from pipelines in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. Whipple describes her recent community organizing against the Line 3 pipeline which would be the largest in North America and run through rare Wild Rice beds in Anishinaabe and Dakota territory. Inspired by the solidarity of Indigenous communities at Standing Rock, Whipple has learned to use the strength of her voice as a youth leader to stand against the corporate greed of fossil fuel companies which harms the health of people and our planet. She continues to fight for community resilience and a full transition to renewable energy. Photo credit: Jaida L. Grey Eagle

6 07, 2021

As Oil Plummets, Climate Activists Say Now Is the Time to Mobilize for a Green New Deal

2021-07-06T17:06:52-04:00Tags: |

Investigative reporter Christine Macdonald covers the 50th anniversary of Earth Day during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as record low oil demand. Macdonald points to this historic moment as an ideal time to topple Big Oil and invest in the green energy sector as cross-sector mobilization increases across interrelated social, economic, and environmental issues. Youth organizers Naina Agrawal-Hardin of the Sunrise Movement and Sarah Goody of Youth Vs. Apocalypse discuss the challenges of moving Earth Day events online but also the enhanced solidarity occurring via online organizing during the pandemic. The Earth Day to May Day Coalition expects a larger turnout this year as COVID-19 forces more workers to see overlaps in issues surrounding public health, human rights, and climate change in a new light. Macdonald champions a Green New Deal as the way forward in this critical time. Photo credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

6 07, 2021

New Fossil Fuel Projects Meet Indigenous Resistance in New Mexico

2021-07-06T17:04:05-04:00Tags: |

Kendra Pinto is a member of the Navajo Nation’s Eastern Agency in the Greater Chaco region of northwestern New Mexico. In response to the rapid changes occurring since the fracking boom of the past decade, she is fighting for greater protection of her lands and community. Pinto plays an active role in the group Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (Diné CARE) and has testified before Congress to demand justice from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and oil and gas companies who continue to receive new frack well permits. In partnership with the Sierra Club and Earthworks, she is calling for accountability by taking air quality samples to monitor methane emissions violations and other infractions from nearby frack wells. Photo credit: Randall Hyman/Truthout 

9 04, 2021

Over 75 Indigenous Women Urge Biden To Stop Climate-Wrecking Pipelines And Respect Treaty Rights

2021-04-09T13:17:36-04:00Tags: |

Prior to inauguration day, over 75 Indigenous women from First Nations across the country call on President-elect Joe Biden to end destructive pipeline projects including Line 3, Keystone XL, and Dakota Access Pipeline. Signatories include Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation and the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Tara Houska, Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe and founder of Giniw Collective, and Joye Braun of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) among dozens of other Indigenous leaders. The collective letter shares personal stories as well as research on how these pipeline projects perpetuate violence against Indigenous peoples and lands and violate key treaty rights. Photo Credit: Tiny House Warriors/Facebook

9 04, 2021

‘What’s At Stake Is The Life Of Every Being’: Saving The Brazilian Cerrado

2021-04-09T13:14:50-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous communities in the Cerrado region of Brazil are organizing to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of agribusiness and deforestation on their native lands. The region is even richer in biodiversity than the Amazon, playing a critical role in global carbon sequestration. Diana Aguiar, political advisor to the National Campaign in Defense of the Cerrado, describes the devastation that has been caused in recent decades due to agribusiness and cattle ranching, compromising the headwaters of major rivers and the livelihoods of Indigenous communities. Local communities and partner NGOs are working to bring greater attention to the importance of this vast savanna and to increase pressure to protect the region as a dedicated world heritage site.  Photo Credit: Elvis Marques / CPT Nacional

19 02, 2021

‘It’s Cultural Genocide’: Inside The Fight To Stop The Line 3 Pipeline On Tribal Lands

2022-06-27T13:05:38-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women in Minnesota are leading the fight against the proposed expansion of the Line 3 pipeline through tribal lands and major water sources. Tara Houska, an Ojibwe woman of the Couchiching First Nation, has set up camp for the past three years in resistance. Houska, tribal attorney and founder of Giniw Collective, explains that the pipeline compromises the health of her community and violates treaty rights, perpetuating cultural genocide of Indigenous communities. She is working with congresswoman Ilhan Omar to increase pressure on President Biden to take urgent action to halt the dangerous trajectory of pipeline expansion, including revoking water-crossing permits for future preventative measures. In addition, local organizer and member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Nancy Beaulieu, calls for tribal leaders to be held accountable for not providing prior informed consent to their members about the pipeline project. Photo credit: Jenn Ackerman and Tim Gruber/The Guardian

18 02, 2021

To Keep Indigenous Women Safe Joe Biden Must Go Beyond Keystone XL

2022-06-24T15:16:54-04:00Tags: |

In this article written by Anya Zoledziowski, Indigenous community leaders call on President Biden to follow the decision to end construction of the Keystone XL pipeline with more direct action to protect Indigenous women. Angeline Cheek, member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in Montana, is relieved that there won’t be an influx of transient workers or man camps in her community due to the pipeline cancellation. However, Cheek and Carla Fredericks, an enrolled member of Fort Berthold and the executive director of the Christensen Fund, demand President Biden follow his other campaign commitments to protect Indigenous women from high risks of sexual assault and trafficking by reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). They call for safety and accountability measures to end the disproportionate violence which is often inflicted by transient infrastructure workers who are non-Indigenous members. Photo Credit: Kokipasni Youth Group/VICE World News

3 01, 2021

The oil and gas industry is inherently misogynistic

2023-03-29T12:52:03-04:00Tags: |

There is a strong connection between the exploitation of the earth and the exploitation of women. Research, commission reports, and the advocacy of Indigenous women have shown that the practice of fossil fuel extraction is a violent practice. Women are disproportionately affected by climate change and burdened with mitigating and adapting to its impacts. In addition, they are faced with physical threats as a result of fossil fuel extraction and its man camps. Petro-masculinity is a concept exploring the link between fossil fuel production, male identity, and the risk posed for post-carbon energy policies. Since men, white men especially, benefit from fossil fuel production, women and their resistance is viewed as feminine work. Dismantling patriarchal structures is a fight for both the earth and for women. Photo credit: Sascha Steinbach/Greenpeace 

11 11, 2020

Minnesota’s New Climate Justice Leaders

2023-03-29T12:53:50-04:00Tags: |

Newly elected women in Minnesota are providing hope for those fighting against Enbridge Line 3, an oil pipeline from that stretches from Alberta, Canada to Wisconsin, United States. State Senator Lindsey Port believes she has a duty to bring voices from her community to the Capitol to highlight those most affected by the issues and make space for them at the table. This includes hearings at the Capitol, social media campaigns, and policy-making. Those at the local level fighting against Enridge Line 3 believe it is helpful to have these women who can exert influence and pressure the governor to achieve their goal in stopping the oil pipeline. Photo credit: Fibonacci Blue/Flickr

10 07, 2020

Water Protectors Celebrate As Dakota Access Pipeline Ordered To Shut Down

2020-10-10T19:55:28-04:00Tags: |

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, an elder of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and founder of Sacred Stone Camp and Tara Houska, Ojibwe lawyer and founder of the Giniw Collective are interviewed by reporter Amy Goodman after the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is ordered to shut down by August 5, 2020. LaDonna Brave Bull Allard has opened her home in North Dakota to supporters from the beginning of the resistance in order to protect sacred sites, water sources, and the health of her community members. She has joined forces with Indigenous leaders and water protectors from around the world, many of whom have faced similar harms from extractive industry. Tara Houska asserts that the shutdown of this massive pipeline sends a critical message to the fossil fuel industry that these dangerous projects will not be tolerated and that a regenerative green economy is non-negotiable. Photo credit: Democracy Now! (video screenshot)

12 05, 2020

Japanese Youth Climate Activists Confront Society To Save It

2020-11-07T17:37:36-05:00Tags: |

Mika Mashiko is a 20-year-old climate activist in Japan who started a Fridays for Future initiative in her hometown of Nasu as a response to mass deforestation and corporate exploitation of natural resources. Mashiko has been working with the small group to spread increased awareness about climate issues, gaining greater support since it was founded in September 2019. This ongoing outreach has led to the local Nasu government officially declaring a Climate Emergency. Other youth activists including Yui Tanaka and Yayako Suzuki are demonstrating against the construction of new coal power plants and calling on the Japanese government to commit to greater greenhouse gas reductions. While public demonstrations are still less widely supported in Japan than in other parts of the world, climate activism is becoming more popular among youth and adult allies and increasing public pressure for accountability. Photo credit: Ryusei Takahashi, Japan Times

23 11, 2019

Ocasio-Cortez Demands Solar Company Rehire Workers Fired After Unionizing With Green New Deal in Mind

2020-10-23T23:05:45-04:00Tags: |

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the lead sponsor of the Green New Deal, which includes pro-justice and worker provisions in its effort to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies. The need for these provisions became evident when twelve workers were fired from Bright Power, a solar energy company, after stating their intent to unionize. Ocasio-Cortez demands that Bright Power be held accountable and re-hire these twelve workers. She recognizes the danger of oil barons becoming renewable energy barons and continuing to exploit workers, regardless of the seemingly progressive purpose of their company. The Sunrise Movement and Senator Bernie Sanders also voiced their agreement with Ocasio-Cortez. Photo Credit: Bill Clark

14 10, 2019

On Indigenous People’s Day, Anishinaabeg Leaders March Against Enbridge’s $7.5 Billion Oil Pipeline

2020-11-20T17:50:08-05:00Tags: |

Anishinaabeg leaders march in resistance to the proposed Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline in Clearbrook, Minnesota on Indigenous People’s Day. Tara Houska, member of the Anishinaabeg Nation and Founder of Ginew Collective, leads the march with more than 200 supporters to protect Ojibwe culture and treaty rights along with key water sources that would be compromised in the Great Lakes region with the potential to harm millions. The pipeline construction company, Enbridge, faces several lawsuits after the environmental review was overturned due to high risks to waterways. Houska and other Indigenous leaders continue to garner greater support for resisting construction and protecting their ancestral lands. Photo credit: Amelia Diehl/In These Times

2 08, 2019

From The Archive: The Local’s First Interview With Greta Thunberg

2020-12-02T21:54:27-05:00Tags: |

In this article first published in the Local (Swedish) newspaper, Greta Thunberg describes herself as a climate radical. At 15 years old, she decided to make a stand for climate change by protesting outside Sweden’s Parliament every day so politicians would take climate issues seriously. The choice of location ensured the protest would attract attention from tourists and professionals passing by; such as being approached by Minister for Social Affairs Annika Strandhäll. Greta chose to raise awareness about climate change and counteract the lack of youth voting power by refusing to attend school, which is obligatory until the age of 16. Involved in environmental issues since she was 11, Greta started organising herself to do something about the worrying effects of climate change. By the 5th day of protest, she was joined by 35 people sitting outside parliament, including Fatemeh Khavari, spokesman for the young Afghans against Swedish deportations policy. Photo Credit: Catherine Edwards/The Local

9 04, 2019

What The Queer Community Brings To The Fight For Climate justice

2020-11-07T17:54:21-05:00Tags: |

To ensure the success of the climate justice movement is to ensure the liberation of Queer Communities. As we move forward in healing the climate crisis, the interconnectedness of Queer and Trans Communities with the Climate Jutsice movement must be realized. Many LGBTQ+ activists are lifting up the environmental movement with resilience and innovation while also participating in the divest movement and bringing equity policies to environmental organizations. Photo Credit: Dylan Comstock

5 02, 2019

Emily Satterwhite of Appalachians Against the Pipelines

2019-04-13T15:55:11-04:00Tags: |

Emily Satterwhite detained the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline for 14 hours by chaining herself to a backhoe. She is an active part of Appalachians Against Pipelines, defending the mountains and forests in West Virginia. In this interview, she discusses the role of lobbyists, the influence of corporate interest, and the struggle to keep fracking pipelines outside of the state. She refutes many myths regarding pipelines, emphasizing that Dominion Energy and it’s investors are profiting, but there is no benefit for West Virginians.Photo Credit: Thunderdomepolitics.com

16 01, 2019

The Women Fighting A Pipeline That Could Destroy Precious Wildlife

2020-10-05T16:36:38-04:00Tags: |

In Louisiana, the indigenous-led resistance camp “L’Eau est la Vie” fights to put a stop to the construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which is planned to connect the Dakota Access pipeline to a refinery in St. James. The region is known for its swamplands that offer a vast biodiversity, but also has a long history of forced evictions and environmental injustice ever since oil was discovered below a lake. To this day, the water protectors face intimidation tactics and in some cases acts of physical violence in response to their activism. Photo credit: Joe Whittle/The Guardian

18 10, 2018

Why A Farmworker’s Daughter Interrupted Governor Brown At The Global Climate Action Summit

2019-04-13T16:39:10-04:00Tags: |

At the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco California, Niria Alicia stood up and sang out in protest to Governor Jerry Brown’s refusal to take action against oil and gas companies. In this piece, Niria describes why she joined eight other young people in singing the Women’s Warrior Song as an act of resistance at the summit. Niria sites her own identity as an Indigenous woman, and daughter of a farmworker to poignantly explain the consequences of fossil fuel divestment. Photo credit: Niria Alicia

15 10, 2018

Be The Hummingbird, Be The Bear

2020-12-15T21:40:17-05:00Tags: |

In this essay published in the Earth Island Journal, philosopher, writer and climate activist Kathleen Dean Moore calls to action the mothers, grandmothers, aunties, godmothers and all those who love the children. From her cabin in Alaska, she witnessed her a hummingbird saving her nestlings from a squirrel, and a bear saving her cub from wolves. She highlights the power of love, ferocity and responsibility of mothers and grandmothers protecting children and the planet against global warming and ecosystem collapse. She evokes grandmothers Annette Klapstein and her friend Emily Johnston, who shut off the flow of Canadian tar-sands oil by cutting the chain on an oil-pipeline valve in Minnesota. She relates the work of Leatra Harper and Jill Antares Hunker, mothers who devise strategies against fracking from their kitchen tables. This eloquent piece is illustrated by Lisa Vanin, whose work focuses on the magic and mystery of nature. Illustration Credit: Lisa Vanin

23 09, 2018

Indigenous Women Rise Against Climate Half-Measures

2020-10-23T22:20:10-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women organizers lead Solidarity to Solutions Week (Sol2Sol) during the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, CA. Kandi Mossett with the Indigenous Environmental Network grew up in the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota whose community experienced high cancer rates from close proximity to coal plants and uranium mining. Isabella Zizi with Idle No More SF Bay was raised in Richmond, California near the Chevron refinery with accidents disproportionately impacting Indigenous and communities of color. The week of action criticizes politicians who cling to false solutions to the climate crisis that support the fossil fuel industry and market-based solutions while leaving out frontline communities. Mossett and Zizi describe alternative community-based events during Sol2Sol including a People’s Climate March led by the Ohlone people native to the Bay Area, prayer ceremonies on sacred sites, visits to nearby sustainable farms, and educational workshops. Photo credit: Daniela Kantorova/Flickr

7 09, 2018

California Leaders Must Keep Fossil Fuels In The Ground

2023-03-29T13:07:10-04:00Tags: |

One week before the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director of Amazon Watch, calls on leaders in California and worldwide to take the necessary steps to phase out fossil fuel reliance. Salazar-López puts pressure on the California governor to take direct action to reduce the production of fossil fuels in the fifth largest economy in the world which purchases around half of all oil exported from the western Amazon basin in Ecuador. She argues this continued level of oil extraction leads to disproportionate health and safety impacts on low-income communities and communities of color both in her home state and in the Amazon rainforest. Photo credit: Ivan Kashinsky/Mongabay

16 08, 2018

IPN Students Turn Polluted Water Into Fuel

2020-04-24T15:55:14-04:00Tags: |

Two female chemical engineer students developed a prototype that converts polluted water into clean energy through a purifier and an electrolyzer. Jeimmie Gabriela Espino Ramírez and Lisset Dayanira Neri Pérez, at the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico, are the creators of this device they named Gimfi, which in the Otomi language means “dirty water”. The students designed Gimfi to be both portable or nonportable in order to provide clean fuel for stoves and ovens in marginalized areas. The filter is made of natural elements like cotton, sand, volcanic rock, gravel, marble and charcoal. The hydrogen generated is currently produced with electricity but they plan on adapting it to solar panels, which would make Gimfi even more sustainable. Photo credit: Serg Velusceac/El Universal

9 08, 2018

Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion Oil Pipeline Is Threatening Indigenous Peoples’ Land

2018-10-12T17:35:48-04:00Tags: |

Kayah George a young indigenous water protector has been fighting the destruction of her homeland. Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline runs from Alberta to West Coast of Canada to Tsleil-Waututh Nation of United States of America. The pipeline poses a threat to coastal cities as well as wildlife due to the high chances of an oil spill. Unfortunately, the Canadian government continues to support this destructive project despite the ramifications to local communities. Despite this, 19-year old Kayah continues to fight and build a peaceful movement to protect her home. . Photo Credit: Emma Cassidy

2 08, 2018

Plastic Pollution: How One Woman Found A New Source Of Warming Gases Hidden In Waste

2020-10-10T20:04:25-04:00Tags: |

Researcher Sarah-Jeanne Royer was supposed to measure methane gas coming from biological activity in sea water, but she found by accident that the plastic bottles holding the samples were a bigger source of the warming molecule. The gases produced and accelerated by solar radiation are methane and ethylene, which both contribute to the greenhouse effect. These findings are important because until the discovery, the link between plastics and climate change was mainly focused on the use of fossil fuels in the manufacture of plastic items, while this is the first time that anyone has tried to quantify other warming gases emerging from plastic waste. The discovery hasn’t been received well by the plastic industry, while other scientists agree that further research is urgently needed. Photo credit: IPRC

13 07, 2018

These Young Climate Justice Advocates Say It’s Time For A Revolution

2020-10-23T23:31:05-04:00Tags: |

Youth activists Jamie Margolin and Nadia Nazar mobilised a youth march in Washington DC on 07/21/20 and co-founded Zero Hour, a volunteer-based organisation focused on climate change. With a diverse group of students, they created a platform highlighting the relationship between climate change, consumerism and systems of oppression, and their adverse impact on the natural world, animals and marginalized communities (indigenous, homeless, LGBTQ, different abilities and people of color communities). The organization is part of a global youth movement actively marching, lobbying, suing and engaging with local communities and state officials to find climate solutions. Zero Hour advocates for the power of young people to act, generate human change and cultural shifts without delay. As 350.org’s executive director May Boeve stated, we have the responsibility to stand with the youth fighting to protect our collective future whose voice should be at the center of the global conversation. Photo CHERYL DIAZ MEYER FOR HUFFPOST

8 06, 2018

Pipeline Protester Removed From Perch On Excavator

2019-01-21T19:26:30-05:00Tags: |

Emily Satterwhite, an Appalachian Studies Professor at Virginia Tech, blocked the Mountain Valley Pipeline crossing through Brush Mountains for 14 hours. She used a sleeping dragon to lock herself 20 feet off the ground to the excavator but was later lowered down by law enforcement. With this technique, her arms were inserted at each end of an elbow-shaped piece of pipe, and her hands chained together inside the pipe, making it difficult for her to be removed from the equipment. She chose to protest the pipeline because it threatens the nearby environment. Photo Credit: Heather Rousseu/The Roanake Times

1 06, 2018

Music And Climate Change

2020-09-23T21:06:48-04:00Tags: |

Tanya Kalmanovitch, musician and New England Conservatory professor, grew up in the early industrial mining days of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sands, which has since grown into one of the world’s largest industrial projects. For many years, Kalmanovitch used music as an escape from the oil and gas baron reality of homelife in Fort McMurray. However, when clashes over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline made national front-page news, Kalmanovitch realized it was time to turn her music into an instrument for change. She began bringing stories of Fort McMurray together, speaking to Indigenous elders, activists, engineers, oil patch workers, and members of her own family. From the stories she gathered, including her own, she created the Tar Sands Songbook, weaving oil, climate, and music into one. Photo credit: Tanya Kalmanovitch

18 05, 2018

The Erin Brockoviches Of Ecuador

2020-10-05T16:40:01-04:00Tags: |

In the Ecuadorian Amazon, women from different indigenous frontline-communities are leading the protests against further oil and mining concessions. As they see the wellbeing of the people and an intact environment as inextricably linked, they frame their struggle against resource exploitation as a human rights issue. In the areas affected by former oil drilling, the water and soil contamination from former oil wells pose a great health risk to the residents and deteriorate formerly fertile soil. Additionally, women living in towns where oil extraction occurs have been found to face a greater risk of gender-based violence. Photo credit: Rodrigo Buendia/AFP/Getty Images

8 05, 2018

Climate Solutions: #LeadingWomen – Beyond Coal: Is Your Health At Risk?

2018-08-09T17:41:01-04:00Tags: |

In this 1-hour long podcast we meet Mary Anne Hitt, the Director of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign. Mary Anne has worked tirelessly toward achieving 3 main objectives: to stop the construction of new coal plants; to retire 2/3 of the current operating coal plants by 2020; and by 2030, to have a power grid in the United States that is free from fossil fuels. Mary Anne reflects on her passion to protect the environment and on the importance of taking action. Photo Credit: Mrs. Green World

22 04, 2018

Mother, Daughter Perch In Trees To Block Virginia Pipeline

2018-11-25T12:15:04-05:00Tags: |

Teresa “Red” Terry and her daughter, Minor, are perched 32 feet up in the trees. They are there to protect their family farm in a wooded enclave of Bent Mountain, Roanoke from the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which threatens not only the forest but the water supply of this region. Enduring harsh weather for three weeks, they also face formal charges of trespassing, obstruction of justice and interference of property rights. Their trees are surrounded by police waiting to arrest them -- but the two women, ages 61 and 30, remain committed to their protest, and community support is high, as they see the 300-mile pipeline as a violation with no local benefits. Photo credit: Michael S. Williamson/ The Washington Post

19 04, 2018

This Young Environmental Activist Lives 500 Feet From A Drilling Site

2018-10-29T16:36:15-04:00Tags: |

Ashley Hernandez grew up in Wilmington in South Los Angeles, a primarily latino community and home to one of the largest oil fields in the United States. Hernandez tackles environmental justice issues by educating her community about pollution. Her first campaign, “Clean Up Green Up,” led the Los Angeles City Council to support a pollution prevention and reduction strategy. Her new campaign is calling on Governor Jerry Brown to make California the first oil-producing state to phase out existing oil and gas production and to transition to sustainable fuels that can provide new jobs for workers while also protecting public health of vulnerable communities.  Photo Credit: Melissa Lyttle for HuffPost

2 04, 2018

In Service Of Climate Justice

2020-10-02T21:33:39-04:00Tags: |

Dineen O’Rourke was moved to step into leadership in the climate justice movement after experiencing the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy in her community in Long Island, New York City in 2012. She has since become a powerful voice in the movement through her ongoing initiatives promoting community building, policy advocacy, direct actions, and storytelling. In 2017, O’Rourke and fellow climate justice advocate, Karina Gonzalez, co-led a delegation of 15 youth from different parts of the United States to attend the 23rd annual United Nations ‘Conference of the Parties’ climate negotiations. Despite the lack of political will exhibited by the United States during COP23, O’Rourke, Gonzalez, and a crowd of supporters protested false solutions presented by the fossil fuel industry to hold elected officials accountable. Photo credit: Dineen O'Rourke

30 03, 2018

Meet The People Courageously Resisting New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

2020-11-07T18:11:24-05:00Tags: |

Oliveria Montes is the spokeswoman for several Indigenous communities including the Totonacos, the Nahuas, and the Otomies in Mexico in active resistance to the Tula-Tuxpan gas pipeline in Puebla and Hidalgo. These communities are organizing against the final portion of the pipeline construction which if completed would run through key water sources and mountainous ancestral lands. Montes affirms that their struggle is not only to protect the land and Indigenous communities, but is also a fight against ongoing foreign corporate influence intertwined with political corruption in Mexico. In the face of intimidation and violence, Montes is spreading awareness of these corrupt actions to international activists for further support. Photo credit: [Video screenshot]

21 03, 2018

Women Are At The Front Lines Of The Fight Against The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline

2018-07-16T14:31:42-04:00Tags: |

The expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline would triple the oil pumped from Northern Alberta through British Columbia to oil refineries in California, with 36 oil spills expected in a 50 year lifetime. Women are on the front of the fight against this pipeline. From Kayah George, of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in Vancouver who uses storytelling to inspire action against this project which would destroy her homeland inlet which represents her community’s oldest ancestor; to Mary Lovell who has helped organise the Pull It Together campaign to raise funds for First Nations that are legally challenging the pipeline, raising over $600,000 in 2 years alone. And Kanahus Manuel, a Secwepeme woman who is leading the Tiny House Warriors: Our Land is Home movement. 10 solar powered homes solar block the pipeline route, half of which runs through un-surrendered Secwepeme territory. On March 10th Indigenous leaders led 10,000 local supporters on Coast Salish Territory in Vancouver to challenge this destructive project, declaring the pipeline will not be built. Photo credit: Jason Redmond/ AFP/ Getty Images.

20 03, 2018

10,000 People Protested A Proposed Kinder Morgan Pipeline

2018-07-16T14:29:34-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Indigenous youth activist, Ocean Hyland, a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in British Columbia, shares her experience protesting the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline with 10,000 people. In the resistance project, “Kwekwecnewtxw: Protect the Inlet,” Indigenous land defenders and allies built a watch house to mark the threat and sit as a physical symbol of opposition. She describes how community, identity, and solidarity are central to sustaining her Indigenous culture, and how fossil fuel divestment and clean energy investment will help realize equitable futures for the people and the land. Photo credit: Nancy Bleck

20 03, 2018

Former Trans Mountain Environmental Engineer Arrested Blocking Kinder Morgan Construction

2018-07-16T14:25:12-04:00Tags: |

Former Trans Mountain environmental engineer, Romilly Cavanaugh, was arrested with students and youth for protesting and occupying Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby Mountain node of its controversial oil project. Despite being a former employee, she was motivated to stop the project knowing that an oil spill would cause long-term environmental damage because of limited recovery efforts. Her brave activism is among thousands of other solidarity actions and daily resistance women across British Columbia and Washington State. Photo credit: Coast Protectors

14 03, 2018

Ecuador: Indigenous Women Protest Lack Of ‘Consultation,’ Environmental Damage Caused By Mineral, Oil Extraction In Amazon

2020-12-02T20:03:36-05:00Tags: |

Ecuador’s National Assembly recently passed a law intended to benefit regional development and expand social services for the most impoverished; however, dozens of Indigenous Amazonian women are protesting the law’s support for continued mining activities and oil extraction, which are responsible for environmental contamination and human displacement threatening the indigenous way of life. These activists are camping outside the presidential office until president Lenin Moreno meets with them and hears their mandate to reject extractive industries, ensure food sovereignty, and deliver intercultural education, among other concerns. Photo credit: CONFENIAE  

8 03, 2018

Turkish Women At The Center Of The Climate Struggle

2018-07-13T17:07:02-04:00Tags: |

Women are at the centre of the Turkish climate movement. 350.org shares three of their favourite stories of Turkish Villagers for International Women’s Day. 1) The women of Yirca were outraged by the uprooting of 6,000 olive trees, their source of livelihood, to pave the way for a coal plant. Their powerful resistance prompted a national outcry that resulted in the suspension of the project. The same day the women planted new olive seedlings to mark the power of people against coal.  2) Dudu Sözcüer, a math teacher, set up a solar power plant in Manisa with 2,200 solar panels. She has inspired other women to play a role in the Turkish solar industry. 3) Süheyla Doğan, a well-known environmental activist, has been at the centre of struggles against gold mining in Havran. She is also active leader in resisting the 16 proposed coal plants in Kazdağlan and works to promote conscious consumption and natural and traditional living. Photo credit: 350.org

5 03, 2018

Decolonizing Birth: Women Take Back Their Power as Life-Givers

2020-12-15T21:44:23-05:00Tags: |

This article relates Zintkala Mahpiya Win Blackowl’s experience of giving birth to her six children in the comfort of home and safety of a sacred space. Writer Sarah Sunshine Manning relates how a heavily pregnant Blackowl, who is Sicangu Lakota and Ihanktonwan Dakota, joined the Standing Sioux Rock reservation resistance camp. This is where she eventually gave birth to her baby girl, Mni Wiconi (Water of Life). This story reflects the larger Indigenous birth movement in which Native-American women reclaim not only their roles as life-givers and birth-workers, but also their rights to their bodies, traditions and birthing experiences. Counteracting the medicalised and colonised hospital-based birth environment, nurses such as Nicolle Gonzales, Navajo executive director of the Changing Woman Initiative, promotes Indigenous birth and midwifery knowledge; Jodi Lynn Maracle, traditional doula of the Tyendinaga Nohawl nation, works towards the reclaiming of Indigenous women’s powers, self-determination and ancestral traditions. Photo Credit: Unknown

12 02, 2018

Woman ‘Dragged’ From West Virginia Hearing After Listing Lawmakers’ Oil And Gas Donors

2018-07-16T14:22:10-04:00Tags: |

On the legislative stage, Lissa Lucas took a stand against West Virginia lawmakers’ deep ties with the fossil fuel industry. In her testimony against legislation that would relax requirements for oil and gas drilling and weaken private land rights, Lucas read aloud campaign contributions that House Delegates had received from fossil fuel companies. However, she was cut off and forcibly removed from the chambers for her activism. Photo credit: West Virginia House of Delegates

7 02, 2018

Climate Change Isn’t Just About the Planet

2020-12-02T20:24:32-05:00Tags: |

In this article, winner of 2017 Nation Student Writing Contest Leehi Yona follows up on her thoughts about the most important issues of her generation. A community organiser, climate researcher and PhD student in environment and resources, Leehi reflects on the interconnectedness between wildfires and trans rights, Hurricane Irma and DACA. She argues that climate change is not a siloed issue and instead lies at the intersectionality of justice – racial, socio-economic, reproductive and environmental. She acknowledges the breadth of challenges faced by her generation, such as the ICE onslaught on undocumented immigrants, the cracked Antarctic ice sheet, the heat waves, xenophobia, fascism, Donald Trump’s policy of climate destruction, and how poor communities of color will be primarily affected by his environmental rollbacks. Whilst such trials can be overwhelming and strip people of hope for the future, Leehi proposes physical, social and spiritual resilience in response to these fights for equality. Photo Credit: Laura Hutchinson / Divest Dartmouth

15 01, 2018

Native Houma Community Provides Local Climate Response

2020-12-15T22:00:23-05:00Tags: |

Monique Verdin is a citizen of the United Houma Nation in the St. Bernard Parish community of southern Louisiana. As a town previously devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and facing ongoing climate threats, community members are organizing around a vision for their shared future. In this short documentary directed by Katie Mathews, Verdin describes community-led efforts to educate, inspire, and envision through art, preservation of Indigenous knowledge, and creative community spaces for multigenerational engagement. She refers to one of her recent projects as a “Land Memory Bank” to share seeds, stories, and wisdom in a community archive. Despite the immense challenges facing their community, Verdin believes the answers will be found through working together. Photo credit: Screenshot from video

8 01, 2018

Meet the 23-Year-Old Who’s Helping Lead the Indigenous Resistance Against Pipelines

2018-02-22T20:29:09-05:00Tags: |

In June 2017, 23 year-old indigenous activist Jackie Fielder quit her job to join Mazaska Talks, an organization that promotes community divestment from banks that fund fossil fuel projects and companies. Inspired by the Seattle City Council’s commitment to divestment, Jackie has since been at the forefront of community-based divestment efforts, traveling around the country and the world to mobilize citizens towards similar local-level, legislative action. She has continued to mobilize her own community with the creation of the San Francisco Defund DAPL Chapter, in which she actively shatters negative stereotypes placed upon indigenous women and holds fossil fuel companies accountable for their contribution to climate change and cultural genocide. She has also traveled with other Indigenous women to meet with major banks in Europe to advocate for fossil fuel divestment. Photo Credit: Jackie Fielder

27 12, 2017

Women’s Declaration Against Kinder Morgan Man Camps

2017-12-27T18:03:27-05:00Tags: |

Representatives of the Secwepemc Nation composed and delivered a Historic 'Women’s Declaration Against Kinder Morgan Man Camps' to the CEO of Kinder Morgan in Vancouver, Canada in Winter of 2017. The Declaration, which had been signed by over 2,800 international organizations and individuals, attests that the Secwepemc people never have and never will give their free, prior and informed consent to oil extraction in their territories, and specifically to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Project and the Kinder Morgan Man Camps. Speaking out as Indigenous women, the Declaration authors describe how women have borne the brunt of the impacts of colonial resource extraction. They speak to the horrors of the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) - and how this intensifying attack has risen in connection with growth of oil extraction economies in Indigenous territories. In response, they present the movement for land protection being led by the women of the Tiny House Warriors. Photo credit: Secwepemcul’ecw Assembly/Linda Roy of Irevaphotography

21 12, 2017

Was 2017 The Year That The Tide Finally Turned Against Fossil Fuel Projects?

2018-03-02T13:47:05-05:00Tags: |

In this article, artist and activist Suzanne Dhaliwal of the UK Tar Sands Network marks a year of successful divestment efforts against the fossil fuel industry to mitigate climate impacts and defend Indigenous rights. Dhaliwal highlights the decision of Canadian-based Indigenous Climate Action and executive director Eriel Deranger, to reject a cash prize tied to tar sands projects and pipelines. This moral stand is among divestment commitments in 2017 from many financial institutions including AXA, BNP Paribas, KLP, and the World Bank. Going into 2018, Dhaliwal writes that continued action must focus on an intersectional just transition that puts everyone at the table, reinvests in the communities most impacted by climate change, and does not leave behind those previously dependent on the fossil fuel industry. Photo credit: Flickr/BeforeItStarts

3 12, 2017

In Massachusetts, Protesters Balk At Pipeline Company’s Payments To Police

2018-07-13T15:15:22-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous water protector, Karla Colon-Aponte, and pipeline protester, Priscilla Lynch, are among more than 100 activists who have been arrested at Kinder Morgan’s Connecticut Expansion Project despite nonviolent direct action. Cathy Kristofferson of the Massachusetts Pipeline Awareness Network and Abby Ferla of the Sugar Shack Alliance believe that the company’s payments to state law enforcement—which total over $950,000—may be influencing police priorities at the natural gas pipeline. These organizations and protestors hope to continue to highlight human rights injustices by mega energy infrastructure projects and the country’s harmful reliance on fossil fuels. Photo credit: Eoin Higgins

27 11, 2017

Women Speak: Casey Camp-Horinek Is Fighting Keystone XL In The Name Of Indigenous And Environmental Justice

2017-12-27T18:09:00-05:00Tags: |

Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca Nation Councilwoman, elder and long-time Indigenous rights and environmental protector, speaks with Ms. Magazine about her experience growing up as an Indigenous woman, and her work in the movements to stop extraction projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline - and shares her advice to young women, mothers and fellow grandmothers who are taking a stand for their communities and the Earth. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN International

27 11, 2017

1st Female President Of The Marshall Islands And Her Poet Daughter: We Need Climate And Nuclear Justice

2017-12-27T18:07:28-05:00Tags: |

During COP23, held in Germany under the leadership of Fiji, women of Pacific Island Nations took action at the forefront of advocacy efforts as a voice for women and most-vulnerable island communities impacted by climate change. In this Democracy Now! interview, first woman president of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, and her daughter, world-renown climate justice activist and poet, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, share poignant analysis on the fight against nuclear contamination in the Marshall Islands, about the need to expose the dangerous policies of the Trump Administration at COP23, about women's leadership, and about the global struggle to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

26 11, 2017

New Economy Trailblazer: Melina Laboucan-Massimo

2017-12-26T15:46:49-05:00Tags: |

Melina Laboucan-Massimo, member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and leader of Lubicon Solar grew up in Little Buffalo, Alberta, a witness to the damaging impacts of the tar sands oil industry on the land and her community, including the observation that people in her community were trapped into cycles of working for the very companies undermining their health and futures. Her experiences inspired her to begin to envision a post-oil economy for her community and Indigenous peoples across the region, founding the community-run Pîtâpan Solar site and Lubicon Solar project. Photo Credit: Melina Laboucan Massimo

24 11, 2017

Here’s How The All-Woman Chief And Council Of The Saik’uz First Nation Is Changing The Way Leadership Works

2020-09-03T01:21:41-04:00Tags: |

Early 2017 was marked as an auspicious year for Saik'uz First Nation which selected five women – Priscilla Mueller, Jasmine Thomas, Marlene Quaw, Allison Johnny and Chief Jackie Thomas to lead the tribe. The council of five women identified four key areas to work – governance + finance, environmental stewardship, socio-cultural issues, and education + employment. Jasmine Thomas, the youngest member of council was inspired to lead after Chief Thomas's success against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. Her work helped lead to the Tsilhqot'in Land Ruling, which now requires the government and companies to work with First Nations in order to develop natural resources, rather than going around them. Photo Credit: Andrew Kurjata/CBC

21 11, 2017

Why I Disrupted The White House Fossil Fuel Panel At The United Nations Climate Talks

2018-07-13T17:11:13-04:00Tags: |

In this article, youth climate leader, Maia Wikler, shares why she is deeply invested in claiming the right to a healthy environment for herself and for the world. Born in the same year of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, she describes her struggles growing up with severe asthma and how her access to clean air has been negotiated on the international stage her entire life. To reclaim this space, she attended the 2017 climate talks as a youth delegate for SustainUS and protested with other frontline communities against the U.S. panel on ‘clean’ fossil fuels and nuclear power. Photo credit: Maia Wikler

18 11, 2017

Pipeline Protester Speaks Out For First Time After Nearly Losing Her Arm

2018-07-16T14:18:44-04:00Tags: |

22 year old, Sophia Wilansky was standing outside the Dakota Access Pipeline encampment when she was flattened by a deafening explosion. This became the emblematic moment of violence at the Standing Rock protest was likely caused by a cop’s concussion grenade. The explosion ripped out her bone, muscles, nerves, and arteries in her left arm. Despite this, Wilansky vows to continue the fight against climate change and for the rights of indigenous people. Photo Credit: Annie Wermiel

17 11, 2017

These Women Nobelists Are Fighting For Grassroots Activists In Central America

2020-12-02T20:27:53-05:00Tags: |

Nobel Peace Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú, Tawakkol Karman, and Jody Williams dedicate their lives to defending the rights of women, children, and the earth and, rather than cease this work, they have used their international acclaim to fuel and uplift local women-led movements. In October, they followed grassroots efforts in Honduras and Guatemala, even marching in solidarity with women from Casillas against the San Rafael mine. The laureates aim to bring the world lens to showcase these steadfast women leaders and their work against corrupt economic and political interests that seek to silence them and disrupt their communities. Photo credit: Mel Mencos

16 11, 2017

Why I Disrupted Trump’s Fossil Fuel Agenda at COP23: A Young Person’s First-Hand Account

2018-10-11T18:59:08-04:00Tags: |

Michaela Mujica-Steiner, a SustainUS delegate at the United Nations and a youth from Colorado helped organize a singing disruption at the Trump Administration's fossil fuel panel. At the 2017 UN Climate Talks, the Trump Administration held a panel to promote the use of fossil fuels. With the intention to set the terms of the debate on fossil fuels, disrupt the Trump administration's lies, inspire people back home, and most importantly, stand on the right side of history, Mujica-Steiner’s delegation disrupted the Trump Panel by silencing their lies with song. She is advocate and change maker working to educate people about environmental justice issues.  Back home, she is ready to ensure that governor of Colorado, Hickenlooper, doesn’t harm the rights of environment by increasing the hydraulic fracking. Photo Credit: Unknown

15 11, 2017

A 12-Year-Old Warrior For Justice

2018-02-15T12:18:53-05:00Tags: |

Angelika Soriano is a 12-year-old climate warrior who is leading the fight against air pollution in East Oakland, an area of Alameda County, California where 93 percent of the residents are people of color. After suffering from an asthma attack in the fourth grade, Angelika became an advocate for herself and other children in East Oakland who are twice as likely to visit the emergency room or be hospitalized for asthma than those in other parts of Alameda County. As a member of her school’s club Warriors for Justice, Angelika helps stage protests against polluters in her area. On Halloween, 2017, Angelika led a “Zombie March on Coal” to the home of local developer Phil Tagami. At the event, she proclaimed that although she may be small, her impact is mighty.  Photo credit: Antonia Juhasz

3 11, 2017

The Story We Want: Moms Responding To Methane Pollution And Oil In New Mexico

2017-12-27T18:10:51-05:00Tags: |

As part of the five-part ‘The Story We Want’ video series, the Moms Clean Air Force and Climate Listening Project travel to New Mexico in the Southwest United States, where they hear from Diné women leaders, including Kendra Pinto and Louise Benally, who are standing up to protect their families, communities and the Earth from methane pollution, growing oil and gas operations, and a dangerous "culture of extraction". Photo credit: Mom’s Clean Air Force

25 10, 2017

Meet The Indigenous Woman Facing Off Against Big Oil

2017-11-26T13:26:44-05:00Tags: |

Jackie Fielder, a member of three affiliated tribes, founded the San Francisco Depend DAPL Chapter to exclude banks that invest in oil pipelines (such as Wells Fargo) from the city’s budget. She is part of a broader municipal divestment movement that began shortly after the dissolution of the Standing Rock camp. The movement has divested billions of dollars from big banks in major cities like Seattle and Santa Monica. However, for Fielder, who was the youngest member of the Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation, her efforts are about something more than defying big banks and stopping pipelines: she says her efforts are rooted in supplanting extractive economies and industries with socially just solutions. Photo credit: Teena Pugliese

20 10, 2017

Indigenous Women Take Pipeline Activism Global

2017-11-01T10:52:53-04:00Tags: |

Michelle Cook, a Diné human rights lawyer, founding member of the of the Water Protector Legal Collective at Standing Rock, and delegate to the Autumn 2017 Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegation to Europe, speaks on Rising Up With Sonali TV, providing hard hitting analysis of why financial and political institutions are morally and legally obligated to change their practices to respect Indigenous rights, human rights and the Earth - and how Indigenous women are taking action to push for this accountability and action in some of the European nations home to major investors and institutions funding fossil fuel extraction projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo credit: Teena Pugliese

15 10, 2017

Women Of Porter Ranch On Resilience: The Power Of Community

2018-02-15T13:03:40-05:00Tags: |

As part of ‘The Story We Want’ video series, which follows the efforts of women across the United States who are coming together to confront fossil fuel industries and a culture of extraction, the Climate Listening Project and Mom’s Clean Air Force speak with women from Porter Ranch, California who were affected by the Alison Canyon methane blow out. The blow out released more than 100,000 tons of toxic methane gas over four months. Two mothers recount the health impacts felt by their families, and the local organizing efforts that have emerged to counter the danger in their community.  Photo credit: Moms Clean Air Force

6 10, 2017

Ponca Nation Of Oklahoma To Recognize The Rights Of Nature To Stop Fracking

2017-12-06T14:26:04-05:00Tags: |

In response to a history of abuses and a recent onslaught of years of intensive fracking development, the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma voted on October 20, 2017 to pass a statute recognizing the Rights of Nature, as a tool to legally block continued fracking, and resultant poisoning of land and water, health issues, earthquakes and other dangerous impacts. When enacted, the Ponca will be the first United States tribal nation to recognize the Rights of Nature in statutory law. Casey Camp Horinek, member of the Ponca Tribal Business Council, grandmother, and longtime leader and Indigenous rights and Earth protector - and her family, have been central to ensuring this forward motion. Allied climate justice organizations, such as Movement Rights, have also supported efforts. Photo credit: Movement Rights

1 10, 2017

Why Native American Women Are Going After Europe’s Banks to Divest From Big Oil

2017-11-01T04:52:40-04:00Tags: |

A delegation of Indigenous women leaders from the United States traveled to Europe in October 2017, where they met with leaders of government and financial institutions in Norway, Switzerland, and Germany to share their experiences, and calls to action for immediate action to divest funding from the Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners, as well as other dangerous fossil fuel extraction projects across Indigenous lands. In this Yes! Magazine interview, delegate Jackie Fielder (Mnicoujou Lakota and Mandan-Hidatsa), campaign coordinator of Lakota People’s Law Project and organizer with Mazaska Talks, discusses the events of the Delegation, as well as ongoing global, Indigenous-led movements for fossil fuel divestment such as the Divest The Globe and Equator Banks Act campaigns. Photo credit: Teena Pugliese

1 10, 2017

Meet The London Activist Who Climbed The Side Of A Huge, Moving Ship

2017-11-01T03:49:57-04:00Tags: |

London-based activist Victoria Henry scaled a massive cargo ship in the Thames Estuary to prevent a ship carrying Volkswagen diesel cars from offloading its cargo in the United Kingdom. Diesel is often advertised as a clean fuel, but this is a common misconception that the activists were trying to debunk with their direct action. Henry had previously climbed Europe's tallest building to protest Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic. Photo credit: Phil Ball/Greenpeace

26 09, 2017

Our Territory Is Not A Sacrifice Zone: Tsleil-Waututh Councillor Charlene Aleck

2017-10-26T17:31:04-04:00Tags: |

Charlene Alek, the granddaughter of Chief Dan George and an elected Councilor for the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, explains the disastrous consequences of the Kinder Morgan pipeline project in Canada. While Prime Minister Trudeau announces that he would approve the pipeline as he considers it safe, officials in Washington State have expressed serious concerns about Canada’s inability to respond to a potential spill. Photo credit: Pull Together

26 09, 2017

The Power of Oceti Sakowin Women

2017-11-01T05:08:11-04:00Tags: |

The Oceti Sakowin (Seven Councils Fires) is comprised of seven bands of Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Indigenous peoples, who traditionally lived across in the Northern plains of the United States. Women’s knowledge and leadership, always central to the Oceti Sakowin, has been brought again to the forefront as part of the Standing Rock, Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) resistance movement. Ihanktonwan Nakota elder, Faith Spotted Eagle, has been a key voice in opposition to the pipeline, and has also taken ceaseless action to support Oceti Sakowin women through the Brave Heart Society, which is helping resprout many traditional women’s teachings and ceremonies which were fragmented over generations of colonization, displacement and extractive violence. Photo credit: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

26 09, 2017

Faith Spotted Eagle, Indigenous Activist, Speaks Candidly About What It’s Like

2017-11-07T11:31:34-05:00Tags: |

In this interview, Faith Spotted Eagle, elder of the Yankton Sioux Nation in Lake Andes, South Dakota, shares her reflections, experiences and advice to young activists as an Indigenous woman community organizer, land defender, healer and leader - most recently active in the fight against Keystone XL Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipelines (DAPL). Through the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Spotted Eagle also works to address sexual abuse, assault and PTSD amongst community members. Connecting these two issues, she speaks on the impacts of the oil industry on violence against Indigenous women. Photo credit: Louisiana Mei Gelpi

26 09, 2017

Native Youth “Paddle to Protect” Minnesota’s Water from Another Enbridge Pipeline

2017-10-31T15:24:47-04:00Tags: |

Young women such as Rose Whipple and Valyncia Sparvier are on the forefront of action by Indigenous youth in the Great Lakes region to oppose the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline through a 250 mile “Paddle to Protect” action held over Summer 2017. The proposed project threatens water quality, Indigenous rights, and vital ancestral food producing regions - prompting the youth to take to their local waterways to draw public attention to the dangers of the project on the land, water and their future. Honor the Earth, a Minnesota-based Indigenous rights group directed by Ojibwe woman leader, Winona LaDuke, had been central to support of the youth involved in the paddle and continued advocacy. Photo credit: John Collins