Fossil Fuel Resistance

/Fossil Fuel Resistance

 

6 10, 2025

Fossil Fuel Billionaires Are Bankrolling The Anti-Trans Movement

2025-12-09T22:40:35-05:00Tags: |

An investigation co-authored by journalist Yessenia Funes and published in Atmos and HEATED reveals a disturbing financial link between the fossil fuel industry and the anti-trans movement in the United States of America. The analysis found that 80% of 45 groups advocating against transgender rights have received funding from fossil fuel companies and billionaires. Specific examples include Shell's donations to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a key organisation behind numerous anti-trans initiatives, as well as contributions from billionaires such as Phil Anschutz, the Wilks brothers, and the Koch brothers. This funding serves a strategic purpose: to create a social and political distraction from the climate crisis and other unpopular conservative agendas. Yessenia Funes’ report highlights that this financial and ideological alignment is a tactic employed by the fossil fuel industry to uphold a traditional, patriarchal social order from which it benefits. This alliance poses a dangerous situation for trans individuals, who are targeted by restrictive legislation such as bathroom bills and bans on gender-affirming care, and are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The article concludes that recognizing fossil fuels as a common enemy could unify the climate and LGBTQIA+ justice movements, strengthening their collective efforts against systemic inequality and fostering a broader coalition to create a more just and sustainable future.

10 09, 2025

An Energy Department Climate Change Report ‘Completely Ignored’ Adaptation, Rutgers Professor Says

2025-12-03T23:18:31-05:00Tags: |

Pamela McElwee is a professor of human ecology at Rutgers University, an expert in evidence-based climate policy, and an outspoken climate rights activist that is challenging the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on climate science. McElwee holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science from the University of Kansas, a Masters in Forestry and Plant Sciences from Oxford, and a Doctorate in Forestry, Environmental Studies, and Anthropology from Yale University. Her research took her to Southeast Asia where she studied the overlap between conservation, culture, and policy, and then back to the United States where she became crucial to climate mitigation strategies. She worked as a legislative aide to Al Gore and as an advisor on environmental policy to the Clinton White House. Globally, she has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the UNDP, and a variety of NGOs dedicated to mangrove restoration, sustainable forestry practices, and watershed management. She has openly expressed criticism of the U.S. Department of Energy’s problematic review of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. Their 150-page report, compiled by a now disbanded working group composed of 5 notorious climate skeptics, was riddled with cherry-picked data, misquoted research, and egregious citation errors. McElwee has pointed out how the document completely overlooks climate adaptation and how the Trump administration is using it as a so-called ‘scientific’ foundation to rescind and reverse monumental climate policies. Despite her criticism being belittled, she remains steadfast in her efforts to counteract the Trump Administration’s anti-climate science and pro-fossil fuels actions.

24 05, 2025

“A Whole History Of Injustice” In Southwest Louisiana, Organizers Fight Petro Projects Amid A Legacy Of Exploitation.

2025-11-07T15:07:36-05:00Tags: |

In response to the widespread community devastation from Hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020, which left her family displaced, Roishetta Sibley Ozane founded the Vessel Project of Louisiana. The grassroots organization leads a fight that addresses both immediate needs and their root causes: providing immediate mutual aid for disaster recovery while building long-term community resistance against the region’s massive petrochemical industry. Ozane and her allies are organizing to stop the construction of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, including Venture Global’s proposed Calcasieu Pass 2 Project, which would drastically increase greenhouse gas emissions. According to environmental assessments, the CP2 project alone would generate annual emissions equivalent to 42 million cars and destroy crucial coastal marshlands that buffer the area from future storms. Their resistance is also a direct response to the area’s history as a “national sacrifice zone” where industrial pollution is linked to a severe public health crisis; Louisiana's cancer rates are nearly 41% higher than the national average. By linking frontline disaster relief to a direct fight for climate justice, Ozane and her community are building a powerful movement for their collective health, survival, and future.

14 04, 2025

Plastics Reform, Regulation Urged by Los Angeles Reproductive Justice Group

2025-12-11T13:56:08-05:00Tags: |

Black Women for Wellness, a Los Angeles–based reproductive justice organization, launched a community-wide survey for a new report assessing the effects of plastics in southern Los Angeles. The organization highlights how environmental health complications and climate change target Black communities, and Black women in particular, in distinctive ways. Their report and activism underscore the necessity of researching and monitoring the effects that fossil fuel industry pollution and plastic production have on maternal health, newborn health, and the health of Black women overall. Plastics and other petrochemicals are projected to drive an estimated 30% growth in global oil demand by 2030. Today, Black and brown communities in Southern L.A. face disproportionate harm from pollution caused by oil drilling and extraction, as their neighborhoods sit atop an oil field containing thousands of active and idle wells. One important finding from the report is that although community members may want to prioritize sustainability and reduce plastic use, structural barriers make this difficult. For many individuals and families who can only afford low-cost necessities, such as plastic-wrapped food, avoiding plastic is simply not feasible. In response to these findings, Black Women for Wellness calls on the California state government to legislate a US$5 billion plastic mitigation fund, strategically financed in part by the polluters themselves, to support damage control for the communities most affected by plastics and the climate-related health complications they cause. Additional recommendations include educational initiatives on the plastic lifecycle, stronger regulations for the fossil fuel industry, and support for diversifying access to more sustainable food options for local communities.

11 01, 2025

Los Angeles Is On Fire And Big Oil Are The Arsonists

2025-11-07T21:49:10-05:00Tags: |

In an op-ed, Canadian environmental activist and writer Tzeporah Berman argues that the fossil fuel industry are the ‘arsonists’ behind the devastating wildfires raging through Los Angeles. Berman points to a decades-long history of deception and cites how companies like ExxonMobil knew about the climate risks of their products but chose to fund misinformation campaigns instead of acting. She connects this legacy of deceit directly to the current catastrophe, where hotter, drier conditions fueled by climate change are intensifying wildfires. The article highlights resistance from leaders who are suing major oil companies for damages. Berman champions the call for a global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to hold corporations legally and ethically accountable for the destruction they have knowingly caused. 

28 09, 2024

Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI) Joined the Global Call for an End to Fossil Fuels at the 6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal

2025-04-19T12:33:17-04:00Tags: |

Embedded within the 6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal that took place during the 2024 Climate Week in New York City, this article takes a close look at the Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI), which works in solidarity with global environmental advocates who address fossil fuels as a central global threat. The Philippine representatives at the tribunal focused on the Verde Island Passage, one of the most biodiverse marine habitats in the world. Ms. Yoly Esguerra, one of two representatives, reminded the audience of the urgency to protect the natural systems of the planet which are currently undermined in their ability to sequester carbon by humanity. Led by the PMPI, the Rights of Nature recognition campaign in the Philippines will build on the International Tribunal by the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), which aims to highlight the urgency of addressing climate justice. For this, the recognition of the Rights of Nature is essential. To achieve this recognition, the PMPI focuses on multiple paths: accountability from fossil fuel companies, constructing a robust and comprehensive protection plan for the Verde Island Passage and other ecosystems, the protection of impacted communities with immediate assistance, and plans for long term recovery—as well as an overall commitment to a Just Transition.

3 09, 2024

We can power our future by breaking free from the tyranny of fossil fuels

2025-05-22T13:24:02-04:00Tags: |

Writing in advance of the United Nations Summit of the Future, Christiana Figueres reflects on the Pact for the Future. Figueres, a climate negotiator, podcast host, and co-founder of Global Optimism, argues that the continued exploitation of fossil fuels amounts to a theft of our collective future. Citing the surge in fossil fuel company profits since the start of the war in Ukraine, she warns that a destabilized climate threatens the very structure of our societiesYet she remains hopeful, seeing an opportunity to reshape decision-making around the wellbeing of future generations. Prosperity, to her, can be seen in the wellbeing of the many. Following a recent open letter of Nobel Laureates calling for a transition away from fossil fuels, Figueres observes renewed confidence in multilateralism, but cautions against preserving global cooperation at the expense of bold action for the future. Focusing instead on the duty to preserve a liveable planet, she calls on others to reimagine our relationships with the planet and each other. She highlights the Declaration on Future Generations, drafted by UN member states after broad consultation with Indigenous communities, youth, civil society, scholars, and others. She calls on those profiting from fossil fuels to use their ingenuity to build the clean energy systems needed now and stresses the need for governments to align their policies with sustainability, equity, and intergenerational solidarity.

15 08, 2024

How A Landmark Case Against Norway’s Oil And Gas Expansion Could Set A Global Legal Precedent

2025-11-07T15:22:35-05:00Tags: |

A landmark climate ruling in favor of Swiss senior women (KlimaSeniorinnen) has cleared a path for women and youth activists to launch a new human rights case against the Norwegian government's oil expansion. Brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), their case specifically seeks to halt Norway’s aggressive expansion of oil and gas drilling in the fragile Arctic region. Led by young activists, including Sámi artist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, they argue that by licensing new fossil fuel extraction, Norway is violating fundamental human rights to life and family (Articles 2 and 8) and discriminating against youth and Indigenous Peoples (Article 14). The case is the first of its kind to hold a nation accountable for its 'combustion emissions'—the 95% of pollution that comes from its exported oil and gas—which makes it a direct challenge to the global fossil fuel business model. The activists aim to set a binding legal precedent that forces states to align their energy policies with their human rights obligations which could effectively accelerate the transition away from fossil fuel expansion.

29 07, 2024

Costly Climate ‘Solutions’ Look Like More Pollution In Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’

2025-11-07T21:42:26-05:00Tags: |

In the heart of Louisiana's ‘Cancer Alley’, women community leaders are organizing against a new wave of industrial projects disguised as climate solutions. Through door-to-door canvassing in the predominantly Black community of St. Rose, activists like Kimbrelle Eugene Kyereh are educating their neighbors about the dangers of proposed ‘clean’ hydrogen and ‘blue’ ammonia plants. These women, alongside coalition leaders like Eloise Reid and Monique Harden, expose the projects' reliance on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a scam that is designed to secure massive federal tax credits while prolonging fossil fuel dependence and creating new pollution risks. Their fight is both against corporations and a petrostate government where lawmakers have weakened regulations to favor the fossil fuel industry. From this series of grassroots resistance, these women are challenging a powerful narrative that attempts to sell more pollution as a solution to the climate crisis.

26 07, 2024

NYC Protesters Target AIG Over East African Crude Oil Pipeline

2025-11-07T21:34:42-05:00Tags: , , |

In New York City, a coalition of women-led climate justice groups organized a protest targeting the insurance giant AIG for its potential role in the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). Written by Jessica Corbett, the article highlights the powerful voices of activists including Molly Ornati of 350 Brooklyn, Mohiba Ahmed of DRUM, and Beth Yirga of the Black Hive. The protest demanded that AIG join over two dozen other insurers in refusing to cover the nearly 900-mile pipeline, which is set to displace over 100,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania and is described by activists as a "carbon bomb”. The women leaders framed their resistance as a global fight for climate justice, connecting the pipeline to legacies of environmental racism and corporate exploitation around the world. This collective action demonstrates a powerful act of international solidarity with the frontline communities fighting the pipeline in East Africa.

3 07, 2024

Meet the Indigenous Youth Defending the Amazon Rainforest

2025-04-18T11:48:02-04:00Tags: |

Helena and Nina Gualinga, members of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon, are at the forefront of a new generation of Indigenous youth fighting against extractive industries such as oil drilling, gold mining, and hydroelectric projects. Growing up deeply connected to their environment, both sisters experienced firsthand the destructive impact of these industries. Helena views the rainforest as a living entity, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all its elements. Nina’s activism began early, resisting attempts by oil company workers to bribe her community with gifts. Their commitment to preserving their home has taken them to international platforms like the United Nations Climate Change Conferences, where they advocate for the Amazon's protection. Their activism contributed significantly to the historic decision to halt oil drilling in Yasuní National Park, demonstrating their powerful influence. Despite global recognition, their dedication remains rooted in rejecting exploitative practices and defending their culture and environment from ongoing threats.

14 03, 2024

Revealed: How the global oil industry is fueling Israel’s war on Gaza

2025-05-22T13:13:35-04:00Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

Nina Lakhani, a climate justice reporter for the Guardian, reports on the fuel supply sent to Israel before and during the war on Gaza, drawing on a supply chain report by Oil Change International and additional analysis by Data Desk. To operate its fleet of fighter jets, tanks, and other military vehicles, Israel depends on crude oil and refined products, much of which originates in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Brazil, Gabon, and the U.S., and is supplied by major companies including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies. While most ships en route to Israel turn off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals before arriving, Lakhani notes it is plausible that the last of three U.S. jet fuel tankers departed after the International Court of Justice ruled that the crime of genocide in Gaza is plausible. Reiterating the words of David Boyd, former UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment – who stated that countries and companies continuing to supply oil may be complicit in genocide – Allie Rosenbluth, U.S. Program Manager at Oil Change International, calls for the United States to be held accountable for its potential violations of international law. With the siege heavily impacting the population of Gaza, the deliberate targeting of water and sanitation infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and energy supplies further endangers civilians. Lakhani quotes a spokesperson from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, who emphasizes the need to expose the states and corporations named in the report. Israel, which has no operational cross-border fossil fuel pipelines, relies entirely on maritime oil imports – many from the United States. Lakhani highlights the hypocrisy of leaders like Brazilian President Ignácio Lula da Silva, who made statements of solidarity with Gaza but refused to ban oil shipments, many of which come from offshore platforms.

15 02, 2024

Strength for the Next Disaster

2025-04-09T14:49:35-04:00Tags: |

Roishetta Ozane is a longtime community organizer living in close proximity to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility known as Calcasieu Pass (CP2) near Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. She was interviewed by Patagonia regarding her activism against CP2. Originally from Ruleville, Mississippi, Ozane highlights both the town’s and her own family’s history of activism, as well as her personal journey of overcoming structural oppression. Later in life, she founded a mutual aid organization, The Vessel Project, which provides financial assistance to community members in need—helping them navigate and overcome bureaucratic obstacles. Ozane explains that this continuous support enables the community to feel uplifted in their ongoing struggle for environmental justice. During the Biden administration, the United States became the leading international exporter of what Ozane calls “LMG,” or liquified methane gas—emphasizing the unnatural process of extraction. She underscores the adverse effects of pollution and environmental degradation on human health, which she witnesses firsthand in her own children developing chronic illnesses. Infrastructural problems, already strained by climate change, often have more severe impacts on towns like Mossville—founded by formerly enslaved people—whose residents were later displaced by the LNG industry and received little financial compensation compared to wealthier, White communities. Ozane calls for the direct involvement of frontline communities in future negotiations and for the reinstatement of the ban on LNG exports and other fossil fuels. She envisions successful resistance to fossil fuel infrastructure through community strengthening, emphasizing the importance of not viewing CP2 as an isolated issue, but as part of a broader structural problem.

24 01, 2024

Trial of Land Defenders Fighting the Coastal GasLink Pipeline is Put on Hold as Canadian Police Come Under Scrutiny for Excessive Force

2025-03-28T11:30:11-04:00Tags: |

In January 2024, the trial of three Indigenous land defenders was adjourned until later that year due to excessive force used by law enforcement. They had protested the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline, linking this trial to a twelve-year-long struggle. Citing Canada’s “abuse of process” doctrine, the court determined that the mistreatment they faced during and after their arrests could undermine the legal system. As a result, an “abuse of process” hearing is set to take place in June. The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, who have never consented to the pipeline’s construction nor ceded their territory, place their hope in this legal process to end the human rights abuses faced by protesters. Previously, the governments of British Columbia and Canada had been repeatedly rebuked by both the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the U.N. Human Rights Council. Although many Wet’suwet’en villages signed agreements with CGL, these agreements are not valid beyond the boundaries of their reserves, where the pipeline was constructed. This has led to critiques of leadership and authority, raising suspicions about the financial incentives behind these agreements. Research by the Yellowhead Institute later found that while injunctions against First Nations were likely to be granted, injunctions against corporations and the government were overwhelmingly denied.

19 01, 2024

Courage & calm despite attacks: Q&A with Colombian activist Yuly Velásquez

2025-03-28T11:31:03-04:00Tags: |

Yuly Velásquez, a fisherperson and the president of an environmental organization that aims to protect the wetlands and waterways near Barrancabermeja, Colombia, presents the dangers the region and local environmental and land defenders are facing. Colombia’s largest oil refinery is located in Barrancabermeja, where frequent oil and toxic waste discharges harm the local environment. This discharge threatens migratory fish and bird species, as well as the Antillean manatee which is on the verge of extinction. Local communities cannot access clean and safe drinking water, with manually drilled wells releasing gas. Velásquez reports having received death threats for her activism, and survived three assassination attempts. While attacks on her and other environmental defenders have increased, FEDEPESAN (the Federation of Artisanal, Environmental and Tourist Fishermen of the Department of Santander) reports of pollution and corruption have been ignored. According to Velásquez, they were failed by the government body monitoring pollution, with funds designated for cleaning up pollution not being invested in the affected places, and turned to the Attorney General’s Office, suspecting corruption. With the help of other organizations, FEDEPESAN now monitors the pipes and has created a network of fishers that inform them of pollution and in turn receive support from the group. In her eyes, it is collective work and international cooperation between groups that gives them the strength to reach the national government. To her, the Escazú Agreement represents hope but is only the beginning. 

15 01, 2024

EACOP in Uganda – How a heated oil pipeline leaves women and children in despair

2025-04-09T15:35:45-04:00Tags: |

In a podcast hosted by the German Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Onke Ngcuka reports on her research into the impact of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) on local communities—particularly women and children. Ngcuka, a climate and environmental journalist for the Daily Maverick, found that the pipeline, which runs from Uganda to Tanzania and spans approximately 1,500 km (932 miles), has led to the displacement of communities both at its extraction point in Uganda and along its entire route. Among those displaced, women are bearing the brunt of the impact, as they are often not the official titleholders of the land they cultivate. As caretakers of land, families, and communities, the women interviewed shared that they frequently received little to none of the compensation paid to their families. For many, their ancestral lands are all they’ve ever known. Concerns are growing around food security, as local food systems—already strained by colonial legacies—face additional disruption. There is also fear that Indigenous, climate-resilient crops could be lost or replaced. Ngcuka warns that what’s happening now may be a microcosm of the region’s future, and she praises the campaign against EACOP for its efforts. While some movement leaders have had to relocate to neighboring countries for their safety, the campaign’s significance and momentum continue to grow. It was recently recognized with the Copenhagen Conference People’s Award and highlighted by 350 Africa, helping to draw more young people into the movement.

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.

5 01, 2024

Solar Pumps Are Empowering Women Farmers in India

2025-04-18T21:12:19-04:00Tags: |

In the rural village of Harpur, India, women-led groups like Shiv Ganga Samuha Sichai Samity are using solar-powered irrigation pumps to transform their lives while challenging traditional gender norms. These solar pumps provide affordable and clean energy for irrigation, while addressing historical water scarcity issues and lowering environmental impact. As a result, women farmers have been able to diversify crops, significantly increasing their revenue. This fosters independence from their husbands’ income and enables them to better support their families. The group now supplies water to over a hundred farmers, further boosting their income. Beyond financial benefits, these initiatives have brought women greater confidence and self-reliance. However, these women face challenges in a male-dominated society, including discriminatory comments and a lack of local maintenance support. Despite these obstacles, plans are underway to scale the project to other villages. Sunaina Devi, a member of the group, calls for further investments in technology that support smallholder women farmers and places women at the forefront of climate adaptation.

29 11, 2023

‘This Genocide Is About Oil’

2025-04-19T16:20:21-04:00Tags: |

Yessenia Fuentes, an environmental journalist and the editor-at-large at Atmos Magazine, is committed to creating change through her journalism. Her article critically examines the ongoing genocide on the Palestinians, linking in to larger colonial, imperial, and environmental forces. Israeli attacks on Palestine since October 7th, 2023 were likely motivated by the extensive fossil fuel reservoir in Palestine. Under Israeli occupation, Palestinians cannot mine the oil in their land or develop cleaner energy systems. Historically, colonization and occupation in the Middle East coincided with the discovery and mining of oil, preventing occupied communities from experiencing the economic benefits of oil in addition to the often violent militarization of their land. Environmental activists aim to stop the mining and use of oil and return Palestine to its restorative initiatives before Israeli occupation. Despite the genocide, Palestinians are preserving their culture and fighting against colonization.

16 11, 2023

Burning Coal to Survive Climate Change

2025-11-07T15:26:44-05:00Tags: |

In coastal Bangladesh, women are on the frontlines of a movement resisting the Maitree Super Thermal Power Project—a massive new coal plant built, paradoxically, to fund the country's climate adaptation efforts. Led by activists like Fatima Zannat, who works in cyclone preparedness, local women are protesting the plant's threat to their health, livelihoods, and the vital Sundarbans mangrove forest. They argue that the plant, located near the fragile UNESCO heritage site they call their 'mother' for its storm protection, will poison their air and water, destroy fisheries, and force them from their land. While the government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, promotes the plant as a path to economic progress, the protesting women demand community-led solutions and an end to top-down industrial projects that exacerbate environmental injustice. Their resistance highlights a critical global dilemma where the most climate-vulnerable communities bear the immediate costs of the fossil fuel projects intended to pay for their protection.

2 11, 2023

HRW: activists in Uganda subject to harassment and arrest over oil pipeline protests

2025-04-09T15:30:49-04:00Tags: |

Sarah Ferguson from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law discusses the current fight against fossil fuels in Uganda. Human Rights Watch (HRW) raised concerns about the arrests and repression of protests against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The EACOP spans a total length of 1,500 km (932 miles) from Uganda to Tanzania and is projected to produce nearly 400 million tonnes of CO₂ over the course of its 25-year operation. Often referred to as a “carbon bomb,” the pipeline poses serious threats to surrounding communities and ecosystems. HRW has already documented the inadequate compensation given to farmers for their land, as the construction of EACOP has required widespread land acquisition across East Africa. Protesters raised concerns with HRW about harassment and threats targeting affected communities, as well as arbitrary arrests and detentions without charge in undisclosed locations. Following Uganda’s 2016 NGO Law, 54 organizations have been suspended. In 2021, police raided the offices of organizations working on EACOP, leading to the confiscation of materials, threats against staff, and forced closures. Ongoing protests against EACOP outside of Uganda have further contributed to uncertainty around the pipeline’s future.

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.

20 07, 2023

The Artist Demanding Accountability and Restoration for Peru’s Worst Oil Spill

2025-04-18T10:57:47-04:00Tags: |

Amidst the devastation caused by Peru's worst oil spill, artist Lizeth Lozano Palomino’s project "Orilla Negra" emerges as a powerful beacon of accountability and restoration. Through a fusion of raw imagery and intimate storytelling, "Orilla Negra" amplifies the voices of those impacted, demanding justice and action from both Repsol and the Peruvian government. Triggered by Repsol's catastrophic mishap off the coast of Lima, Palomino’s poignant documentation captures the profound human and environmental toll exacted by corporate negligence. Her recognition as the winner of #CreateCOP27 underscores the urgent need for climate-related discourse, especially as fossil fuel interests continue to wield undue influence. In spite of corporate indifference and governmental inaction, Palomino's unwavering commitment to her cause remains undeterred—a testament to the enduring power of art in the face of ecological crisis and systemic apathy.

13 07, 2023

Indonesian Women Lead Protests Against Sand-Mining, Calling Men ‘Too Emotional’

2025-11-07T15:12:56-05:00Tags: |

In the coastal village of Pasar Seluma, Sumatera, more than 100 women are leading a resistance movement against the iron-sand mining company, PT Faminglevto Bakti Abadi. They are fighting to protect the traditional saltwater mussel harvesting that provides their main source of income and to prevent mining from worsening coastal erosion in their tsunami-vulnerable community. Recalling a previous conflict where male-led protests resulted in arrests, the women have deliberately placed themselves on the frontlines by taking a strategic lead to maintain a more effective protest. Led by activists like Elda Nenti, the women have staged multi-day protest camps at the mining site and directly confronted the company for operating without the necessary environmental licenses. In response, they have faced police summons and harassment, but remain steadfast in their fight to protect their livelihoods and preserve their village for future generations.

13 07, 2023

Indonesian Women Lead Protests Against Sand-Mining, Calling Men ‘Too Emotional’

2025-04-18T11:52:09-04:00Tags: |

In 2021, women in Pasar Seluma, a coastal village in Indonesia, took the lead in protesting against a new iron-sand mining project by PT Faminglevto Bakti Abadi. Previous protests led by men resulted in arrests, prompting women to take charge this time to avoid similar consequences. The village, reliant on saltwater mussels for income, fears that mining will harm the environment and worsen climate impacts like flooding and coastal erosion. Despite facing harassment, police summons, and legal threats, the women continue to oppose the mining, emphasizing that it threatens their livelihoods and local traditions. Their protest symbolizes their fight for environmental justice and the protection of future generations.

27 04, 2023

Women Against the Grain

2025-11-07T21:38:56-05:00Tags: |

Women across continents are leading frontline resistance movements against the devastating impacts of the global sand mining industry. This series highlights their diverse struggles. In Cambodia, river sand mining causes riverbank collapses that have destroyed the homes and livelihoods of women like Sor Sok Lang. In India, women farmers face arrest and police violence for protesting new mines that threaten their farms, while other mothers mourn sons killed in the dangerous, illegal trade. In Kenya, women like Mary Atieno are speaking out after losing children to deadly sand pit collapses, and in Indonesia, Indigenous Serawai women form human shields and lead protests to protect their traditional mussel-harvesting grounds from iron sand mining. The article reveals how women disproportionately bear the burden of the destructive nature of the industry and, in response, are courageously organizing to protect their communities, livelihoods, and environments.

14 03, 2023

Short film: Freeport gas explosion and the community fighting back

2025-02-21T17:49:36-05:00Tags: |

After seeing a giant fireball launched 100 feet in the air after a gas explosion, residents of Freeport, Texas came together to fight the harmful industry plants polluting their home. Gwendolyn Jones of Citizens for Clean Air and Clean Water of Freeport and Brazoria County has been a leader in this work. Her family has lived in Freeport for generations and has been continuously disenfranchised by industry plants. Freeport is predominantly a community of color and 72% of the residents are considered low income. Like many others, it faces systemic environmental justice crises that the government ignores. It is a historically African American neighborhood. Over the last few decades, Port Freeport has been systematically displacing residents, and buying, and subsequently polluting, the land. Jones has watched her home be completely overturned while her community is treated as collateral damage. The residents face high risks of cancer and other health concerns, and Freeport is considered one of several “sacrifice zones” in the area. When the explosion came, the community was left on their own with no warning or support. After this, the community decided to take matters into their own hands. Jones and others are pushing for legal accountability, emergency response plans, and the phase out of plants and pipelines for future generations.

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

15 12, 2022

These Indigenous Women are Fighting Big Oil―And Winning

2025-02-21T17:12:44-05:00Tags: , |

Indigenous leaders Nemonte Nenquimo and Nonhle Mbuthuma discuss their successes in stopping Big Oil initiatives that would harm their communities, and share their formula for how others can triumph through community involvement, education, and legal pressure. Nenquimo, a Waorani leader, organized a resistance to stop government plans to drill in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador in 2019. Just a few years later, Mbuthuma, a leader of the amaMpondo people, led her community to court to prevent Shell from gaining a permit that would enable them to pillage Indigenous farming and fishing communities on the coast of South Africa. These efforts are rooted in Indigenous rights, knowledge, and spirituality. Nenquimo and Mbuthuma believe that if Indigenous stories and knowledge are spotlighted and supported―legally, financially, and otherwise―effective and successful change can be made.

2 12, 2022

Watch ‘We Are the Water’: How the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Is Protecting Ancestral Land

2025-04-24T18:26:15-04:00Tags: , |

The communities within Tsleil-Waututh, a matriarchal First Nation occupied by Canada, are deeply connected to their lands. In their creation story, their first grandfather transformed from a wolf into a two-legged human, who then collected sediment from the bottom of a fjord and cedar needles—materials that became the first grandmother. In this cosmology, humans are placed on the land to learn from it and to protect it. However, since the occupation of Tsleil-Waututh territory, many have died due to disease and colonial violence—whether directly or in the form of environmental degradation and pollution. Since the 1950s, the area has seen intense industrial development through oil refineries and has suffered coastal erosion and oil spills as a result. A decade ago, a new pipeline was proposed to expand upon an already existing one from the 1950s, a time when Indigenous opposition to such projects was heavily criminalized. Although compensation was offered, the Tsleil-Waututh opposed the new pipeline after consulting First Nation experts on the Alberta tar sands. While construction was halted, it was not entirely stopped. Particular concern centers around the potential impact this pipeline could have on the local ecosystem, especially orcas—creatures that already face increased noise pollution and food scarcity. Many Tsleil-Waututh people feel a deep connection to orcas, who are matriarchal and rely on their female elders to pass down traditional songs to the young. The women interviewed for this story express that passing on their traditions is now a moral obligation, especially considering the toll colonization has taken on their beliefs and communities. Together, they have replanted riverbanks and reintroduced species. They aim to shift common narratives about the incompatibility of humanity and nature, advocating for a healthy, reciprocal relationship with the planet.

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

26 09, 2022

How Youth Are Stepping up Against the Mountain Valley Pipeline

2025-02-21T16:57:47-05:00Tags: |

Youth activists have unique skill sets and knowledge, especially in environmental movements, and many have been coming together to protest the expansion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The 303-mile pipeline has been resisted by communities in affected Appalachian areas for generations, but today’s youth are in a unique position. Psalms White, Grace Tuttle, Jalyn Oxendine, and many others have been personally affected by the pipeline. In many cases, it has been a defining constant in their lives. Their futures are most at risk from the rapidly accelerating climate crisis, but they also have new tools at their disposal to enact change. Growing up in the digital age makes them able to communicate, organize, and educate more easily and efficiently than ever before. Additionally, any knowledge passed down to them from their elders can become widespread. The communities face danger from law enforcement, structural violence, public health inequities, and more, but they are pushing for their futures and their homes. The MVP protests are intergenerational in nature, and the shared knowledge and resources of communities coming together is bringing in a new era of change.

12 07, 2022

As peak hurricane season looms, banks bolster cozy relationship with fossil fuel industry

2025-02-21T17:10:12-05:00Tags: |

After continuously seeing her community impacted by climate disasters instigated by fossil fuel corporations, Roishetta Ozane speaks out about the hidden connections between big banks and fossil fuel extraction. She and Adele Shraiman discuss the relationship between the two and how it impacts local communities. The Louisiana-based activist has seen the Gulf Coast’s environment, ecosystems, and geography be decimated by hurricanes and flooding prompted by climate change and specifically fracked gas. The largest banks in the United States pour billions of dollars into fossil fuels every year. The impacts include environmental degradation and impacts on public health, such as the emissions of toxic pollutants that can cause asthma, respiratory and heart diseases, and cancer. The corporations work under the guise of sustainable development, but community members who have been left behind in the wake of the disasters have been protesting these efforts, emphasizing that this will lead to long-term impacts that will prevent the U.S. from meeting their climate goals and will continue to have grave consequences for local communities. Activists, such as Ozane, have been increasing pressure on banks and financial institutions to address their role in the climate crisis.

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

28 06, 2022

Peruvian Women Demand Accountability for Toxic Water Contamination

2025-04-18T11:42:21-04:00Tags: |

Peruvian women are urging action against Glencore, the Anglo-Swiss mining giant, for contaminating their drinking water with toxic heavy metals. Esmeralda Larota and others in the vicinity of Glencore’s Tintaya-Antapaccay mine have high levels of arsenic, manganese, cadmium, lead, and mercury in their bodies, causing severe health issues. Despite scientific evidence of water contamination, neither Glencore nor the Peruvian state has taken responsibility. The community faces environmental degradation, social conflict, and health crises, with increasing calls for legislative action and corporate accountability to protect their rights and environment.

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

2 05, 2022

The Umbilicus

2025-02-21T17:04:12-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous land defender Tara Houska reflects on the legacies of colonialism and the need to revitalize our experiences in being a part of nature. Houska has been defending the land against the Line 3 pipeline for years, joining the Indigenous and frontline communities who have been carrying out nonviolent protection measures against the construction of the pipeline. Colonialism and its compounding impacts have led to environmental degradation and the separation of Indigenous communities from their culture and connection to their environment. The loss of land rights, language, community, autonomy, and traditional knowledge are detaching the umbilical connections that were once present between humans and the environment. However, leaders such as Houska and other Indigenous women, two-spirit, and others are restrengthening this bond through land protection and rediscovering lost connections for new generations.

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

9 02, 2021

#HS2Rebellion: Finding Community On The Frontlines

2025-02-21T17:02:06-05:00Tags: |

Talia Wooden spent a year living on the frontlines of the resistance movements against High Speed Railway 2 in the UK, a project that would decimate local ecosystems and potentially contaminate water that reaches millions of people in the West London area. Amid the isolation that came with COVID-19, protesters created a community to effectively resist the railway’s expansion and rekindle connections with the ecosystems they were protecting. Camps were set up along the railway’s intended pathway, with protesters sleeping in hammocks and tree houses in the canopy. Protesters were of all different socio-economic backgrounds, livelihoods, ages, and more, creating a diverse and resourceful movement. Despite the risks they faced, the protesters found strength through their activism and acknowledged their privilege to have minimal comparative risk than many across the world while doing so. In the midst of the dangers, connections are strengthened, cultures are shared, alternative sustainable lifestyles are rediscovered, and community prevails.

27 01, 2021

Sunrise Movement’s Varshini Prakash: Biden’s Climate Agenda Must Go Beyond Undoing Trump’s Damage

2025-02-21T16:59:53-05:00Tags: |

Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of the Sunrise Movement, spoke with Amy Goodman on Biden’s climate action as of 2021 and what steps she believes the Biden-Harris Administration should take going forward to address the climate crisis. She appreciates the steps Biden had already taken, such as re-entering the Paris Climate Agreement and canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, among other initiatives. However, Prakash emphasizes that these actions must continue, and that economic and climate justice must be centered in the conversation. At this stage of the crisis, with much of the immediate damage disproportionately affecting historically underserved communities, it is not enough to make up for the damage of previous administrations. We cannot afford to sit back now that we have a leader who is pushing for climate initiatives―we must continue to push for the future we want to see. A standout point was that Biden should keep his efforts going and stop the Dakota Access pipeline and Line 3, both sites of endured Indigenous resistance. Climate justice initiatives and sustainable economic development must be coupled going forward. Prakash believes that various movements coming together under the climate justice umbrella can help build support and pressure, and lead to unified change.

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 11, 2020

The Women Of Kendeng Set Their Feet In Cement To Stop A Mine In Their Lands. This Is Their Story.

2025-10-09T14:03:19-04:00Tags: |

In the Kendeng Mountains of Java, Indonesia, women farmers known as the ‘Kartinis of Kendeng’ are leading a years-long resistance against the state-owned company PT Semen Indonesia. Their fight is to stop a cement factory from mining the Kendeng Karst, a sacred limestone formation they revere as Ibu Bumi (Mother Earth), which provides a reliable source of clean water for their farms and communities. Led by farmer Sukinah, the women placed themselves on the frontlines, staging a two-year blockade of the construction site and filing a lawsuit against the company. Their struggle gained international attention when they repeatedly traveled to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, to perform a visceral act of protest: encasing their feet in cement blocks outside the presidential palace. Despite winning a landmark case in Indonesia’s Supreme Court, their victory was nullified when the provincial governor immediately issued a new permit. The movement turned tragic when activist Patmi died from a heart attack after a protest in 2017. Though the factory was eventually built, the Kartinis of Kendeng are continuing their fight. They use cultural ceremonies and their unwavering solidarity to protect their land and water.

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

14 10, 2019

Oil and Gas Pollution in Vaca Muerta

2025-03-28T12:01:02-04:00Tags: |

Through modeling, video recordings, testimonies, and other investigative methods, the research group Forensic Architecture (FA) and The Guardian investigate pollution in Vaca Muerta, Argentina. Their specific investigation focuses on an intentional fire set at a building constructed to better observe the industry's expansion on Mapuche lands. This investigation is conducted in collaboration with the local Mapuche community, the activist group O11CE, and Argentinian anthropologist Jorgelina Villarreal. Additionally, the community center allowed them to monitor breaches of environmental regulations by the companies operating in the area. Vaca Muerta, part of Mapuche territory, is rich in shale oil and gas, which has been heavily exploited by fossil fuel companies such as Chevron. The Mapuche, who claim that irreversible damage has been done to their ancestral homeland, saw their community building burned down in 2013. In their investigation, FA focused on three key areas: the burning of the community building, an oil waste treatment facility, and an extraction platform where a major oil spill occurred. While the investigation is still ongoing, FA has found that the areas closest to the river, as well as the roads connecting the platform, are increasingly barren and show signs of distressed vegetation.

5 10, 2019

Why Aren’t Fossil Fuel Companies Held Accountable for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women?

2025-02-21T17:06:14-05:00Tags: |

[Content warning: sexual violence] The struggle over the Keystone XL pipeline sparked concerns about the future for Indigenous women in construction zones. The epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is a result of the multifaceted crises of extraction, climate impacts, and colonization that disproportionately affect Indigenous women. Sexual violence and murder rates are high among indigenous women, and there are direct ties to extraction movements. Angeline Cheek, a community advocate on the Fort Peck Reservation, finds large company-owned housing for oil workers to live temporarily to be a driving force. Tribal police, activists, and the Canadian government have found direct connections of increased sexual violence rates and the extractive sites. Tribal communities are already limited in what they can prosecute and how they can legally respond to crimes and local authorities are often underfunded, making it extremely difficult to obtain proper aid or justice. A suggestion is to hold companies themselves accountable for the violence of the individuals that cannot be brought to justice. The idea is that the company is responsible for public safety and their workers. Cheek and other Indigenous community leaders are working hard to ensure that Indigenous women are not left behind and that justice is brought to them.

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

14 02, 2018

The Woman Going After Big Energy for the Typhoon That Killed Her Family

2025-03-27T14:39:38-04:00Tags: |

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan killed 6,300 - including Joanna Sustento’s mother, father, brother, sister,  and nephew - and destroyed the city of Tacloban. The Typhoon ranked 8.1, on an intensity scale that only goes up to 8. Sustento blames climate change for the storm, and blames 47 of the world’s largest polluters for causing climate change. Sustento is on a journey to hold them morally and legally responsible. A human rights commission in the Philippines has held public hearings to determine if these companies should be held accountable, however, it cannot make legal rulings. Despite this, the outcome could set an important precedent. Legal recognition of climate change’s impacts is important for spurring further action and giving tangible points of accountability. None of the 47 companies participated in the Philippines investigation, and none of their representatives heard Sustento speak on the impacts of climate change and the direct actions of corporations on the lives of her family. The commission is holding hearings across the Philippines throughout 2018. An official report is expected in 2019.

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

26 09, 2017

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger On Indigenous Rights In The Face Of Climate Change

2017-10-26T14:14:40-04:00Tags: |

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) and Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action spoke at 2017 LUSH Summit about Indigenous rights and climate change. Deranger challenges extractive models of development and their impacts on people and the planet, and postulates that we must begin to draw inspiration from Indigenous beliefs of the Earth’s sacredness for collective life to persist. Her community resides downstream from large-scale Canadian tar sands surface mining fields and collectively, the ACFN have witnessed first-hand the complex impacts extractive industry can have on Indigenous peoples and the planet. Photo credit: LUSH Player

26 09, 2017

First Nation Builds Ten Tiny Homes To Block Trans Mountain Pipeline

2017-10-26T14:10:25-04:00Tags: |

The Secwepemc First Nation constructed roughly ten micro-homes along a section of the proposed route of the Trans Mountain pipeline in British Columbia. The First Nation has declared formal opposition to the project, which would ship 900,000 barrels of crude oil (or tar sands) a day through Secwepemc territory. This article in VICE features an interview with Kanahus Manuel, the woman Indigenous leader who spearheaded the direct-action project called Tiny House Warriors to protest the tar sands pipeline proposed by Houston-based oil giant, Kinder Morgan. Photo credit: Ian Willms

26 09, 2017

10 Things You Always Wanted To Ask An Indigenous Land Defender

2017-10-26T14:08:46-04:00Tags: |

Kanahus Manuel, a determined woman Indigenous leader, is leading her First Nation’s movement to fight a dirty tar sands pipeline expansion. If built, the pipeline would bisect the Secwepemc First Nation’s territory in British Columbia and threaten their livelihood, water and the Earth’s climate. This blog, published by Greenpeace, includes testimony from Manuel about her personal and cultural motivations to fight the fossil fuel industry, the risks she faces specifically as a woman in doing so, and how she came to form the group, Tiny House Warriors (THW). THW have been constructing tiny homes in the path of Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline to protest its expansion. Photo credit: Ian Willms/Greenpeace

23 09, 2017

Extractives vs Development Sovereignty: Building Living Consent Rights For African Women

2018-01-23T17:44:43-05:00Tags: |

This report chapter by WoMin and Oxfam focuses on the right of consent of women and their communities with regards to mega-development and extraction projects, and emphasizes how the collaboration between corporations and states undermines community fights for sovereignty. The community of Xolobeni, South Africa is used as a case study of how the right of consent is determined by inequalities, and how women are too often excluded from decision-making and consent-giving processes due to their class and gender. The study confirms how women confined by the prevailing societal patriarchal structure, especially those with lack of resources and land ownership, have their voices silenced, and their opposition to dangerous projects ignored.. Photo credit: Oxfam

21 09, 2017

Far Away From Any Witnesses, My Small Town Is Being Poisoned By Fracking Waste

2018-03-02T13:53:12-05:00Tags: |

Alison Stine reports from her home in a rural part of south-eastern Ohio, along the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, where out-of-state fracking companies are dumping toxic waste into injection wells in what was once coal country. The contamination of the local environment has threatened local agriculture, left water undrinkable, and is affecting tourism in the region. In 2012, Madeline ffitch (whose last name is traditionally spelled lowercase) was arrested for blocking the entrance to a pit well. Two years later, Christine Hughes was arrested for protesting at another site. In 2016, the Bureau of Land Management began selling off land in the state’s only national forest and authorized it for injection wells as well as fracking. ffitch says that the most impacted communities – older women, Indigenous communities, and people of color – are leading the resistance against wastewater injections. The companies have chosen their communities, they say, because they are isolated, poor, and lack resources more readily found in cities. Photo credit:  Alamy Stock

1 09, 2017

Tzeporah Berman: Pipelines, Politics And Polarization – Where Do We Go From Here?

2017-11-01T03:53:31-04:00Tags: |

Tzeporah Berman, a Canadian woman environment leader and author, argues that the construction of pipelines, such as the Energy East Pipeline, is contrary to the commitments Canada made in Alberta Climate Plan and the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. She urges Canada's elected officials to be honest: locking in emissions by building more fossil fuel infrastructure is not the way to a renewable energy future. Photo credit: Kris Krug

1 09, 2017

Why Moms (And The Rest Of Us) Must Fight For EPA’s Future

2017-11-01T01:31:58-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Vien Truong, CEO of Dream Corps, mobilizes mothers across the United States to use their economic and political clout to amplify the grassroots green movement and build clean, healthy communities. She advocates for strategies such as renewable energy, clean transportation, and female representation in government offices to eliminate pollution and the severe health impacts 0f fossil fuels. Photo credit: Dream Corps

27 08, 2017

Maria Nailevu On Climate Justice For Fijian Women

2017-10-09T21:34:05-04:00Tags: |

Maria Nailevu recounts how her lived experience of climate change on the island of Taveuni has led to her current work on gender and climate change. She details her important work with feminist and community-led organization Diverse Voices & Action for Equality (DIVA). She recounts the work of the Women Defend the Commons campaign, which promotes social, economic and ecological justice in a women-led Suva-based organisation. Photo credit: Christine Irvine/Survival Media Agency

26 08, 2017

Recommendations To Protect WHRDs Confronting Extractive Industries

2017-10-26T23:28:57-04:00Tags: |

The Association for Women in Development (AWID and the Women Human Rights Defender International Coalition published a report entitled “Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries” that lays out recommendations for practitioners to support this crucial work. They advocate for the recognition and support of women human rights defenders, an end to the criminalization of their activities, and empowerment and capacity-building for key leaders.

26 08, 2017

Berta Vive Feminist Delegation To Standing Rock

2017-10-12T18:19:53-04:00Tags: |

On September 26, 2016, the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance sent a "Berta Vive" Feminist Delegation to the Standing Rock camp in solidarity with the struggle to protect the water and land from the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. Women and two-spirit (LGBTQ) delegates supported the camp via food prep and participating in the Indigenous Environmental Network’s Women Warrior press conference. Photo credit: Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

26 08, 2017

Water Protector, Tara Houska, Bestowed Good Housekeeping’s Awesome Women of 2017 Award

2017-10-26T16:45:50-04:00Tags: |

Tara Houska (Ojibwe of the Couchiching First Nation), a tribal rights attorney, Campaigns Director with Honor the Earth, and former Native American advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, was awarded the Good Housekeeping Awesome Women award in 2017. The recognition comes for her ongoing work to speak up for Indigenous rights, and stand in opposition to fossil fuel pipelines including the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and Enbridge Line 3. Photo credit: Indian Country Today/Instagram

26 08, 2017

Water Protectors Ride Along Proposed Pipeline Route To Raise Community Consciousness

2017-10-14T12:48:40-04:00Tags: |

As part of the 5th annual “Love Water Not Oil” tour, 27 water protectors and members of Honor the Earth rode their horses along a proposed pipeline route to increase community awareness of the fosil fuel project. Winona LaDuke, who participated in the ride, denounces Enbridge’s plans to build Line 3 and argues that the replacement line violates 1855 treaty territory rights. On their journey, the water protectors stopped at Chengwatana Farm. Lynn Mizner, the farm’s owner, has been an outspoken opponent of Line 3 since she learned it would cut through her 200-acre property. Photo credit: Brielle Bredsten

25 08, 2017

Puerto Rico: Resistance To Coal-Fired Power Plant And Toxic Coal Ash Dumping Spreads Across Island

2017-10-12T18:11:46-04:00Tags: |

Juan Carlos Davila and Laura Gottesdiener of Democracy Now! report on the growing movement in Puerto Rico of residents who are demanding that the island’s only coal-fired power plant be closed. Wearing hazardous waste suits, demonstrators dumped buckets of toxic coal ash onto the steps of the government’s capitol building in San Juan to draw attention to Applied Energy Systems, a private company, is polluting natural resources. Activists Jocelyn Velasquez and Yanina Moreno spoke about the risks posed by the poisonous ash to their health and the environment, which led community members to attempt to stop the dumping via blockade, which was broken up by government forces. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

17 08, 2017

Indigenous Women On Bakken Oil Extraction Zone

2017-10-13T16:13:45-04:00Tags: |

In this video, women of the Hidatsa, Arikara and Mandan nations march in a healing walk in the heart of the Bakken Oil Formation. Indigenous activists assert that extraction zones such as the Bakken Oil Formation are where environmental racism begins, and it ends with contaminating communities of color across the country. Photo credit: Facebook/Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

10 08, 2017

Sierra Club Podcast On Surprising Stories Of Climate Activists

2017-10-13T16:02:45-04:00Tags: |

In this podcast, Claire Schoen interviews different women activists of the “1000 Grandmothers” group and focuses on stories of civil disobedience for protesting for defending the Earth. Following in the noble tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., climate activists, young and old, are taking control of this new political era. Photo credit: Stepping Up

7 08, 2017

Indigenous Climate Action Welcomes Eriel Tchekwie Deranger As Executive Director

2017-12-07T18:44:29-05:00Tags: |

Canada’s only Indigenous-led climate justice organization, Indigenous Climate Action, has named as its Executive Director Indigenous woman leader, Eriel Tchekwie Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. Eriel has spent many years working with environmental organizations, and front-line Indigenous water protectors and land defenders across her region and around the world. She is an advocate with the United Nations Indigenous Peoples Caucus, and has proven to be a vital leader both on the streets and in the halls of international conferences and meetings. With her leadership, the organization will look forward to produce a Indigenous Knowledge Climate Change Toolkit, and deepening community engagement and movement building for Indigenous led climate action in Canada. Photo credit: Indigenous Climate Action

26 07, 2017

At 98, Crowe “Won’t Pay The Fine” For Blocking Kinder Morgan Pipeline

2017-10-26T13:52:37-04:00Tags: |

Francis Crowe and other members of the Sugar Shack Alliance continue to be arrested for trespassing and blocking access to Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion in the Otis State Forest. Crowe, who is 98 years old, is ready to go to jail to protect the forest and stop the natural gas line’s construction. Lawyers for the Sugar Shack Alliance, a direct action group that organizes nonviolent resistance to the fossil fuel industry in the northeastern United States, argued the pipeline’s expansion violates an article in the Massachusetts state constitution that protects the conservation land and state forest. Photo credit: WAMC Northeast Public Radio

26 07, 2017

Bay Area Women And First Nations Allies Fight Tar Sands Pipeline Expansion Project

2017-10-26T13:48:49-04:00Tags: |

This video profiles leaders Corazon Amada of Diablo Rising Tide and Isabella Zizi of Idle No More SF Bay, along with others, who participated in a protest to block the entrance to an oil storage facility in Richmond, California. The women took a strong stance against Canada’s approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, which they say could be worse than the Keystone XL pipeline in terms of environmental impact. They voiced their support and stood as allies to First Nations people. The expansion project would significantly increase the amount of crude oil shipped from Canada to the west coast of the United States. Many of the protestors at the event were arrested. Photo credit: Fusion Media Network

23 07, 2017

Gloria Ushigua From The Sapara Tribe Of Ecuador Speaks In Oakland

2025-01-25T11:25:26-05:00Tags: |

During an event organized in honor of Ms. Ushigua from the Sapara Nation in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Indigenous women from Ecuador and the United States gathered to make their voices heard against the destruction of Mother Earth. Ms. Ushigua presented on the problems that her tribe is facing as their territory is covered by oil blocks and the oil is extracted for export to China. She discussed how, when her tribe was informed about the drilling plans, five Sapara women protested the destruction of their land and prevented the planes from landing in their territory. Gloria points out how Indigenous women in her area are victims of violence every time they fight for their land and rights, and shares thoughts on exactly why it is so important for her and her community to be part of the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty, which was written by and for Indigenous women leaders of North and South America, uniting to defend their land and lives. Photo credit: Nanette Bradley Deetz

21 07, 2017

Water Walk For Life

2017-09-03T20:48:02-04:00Tags: |

Jun Yasuda, a Buddhist Nun and internationally renowned environmental activist, walked 170 miles in the “Water Walk for Life” to protest the Parallel Pilgrims pipeline. The pipeline is expected to cross 235 regulated streams in New York and two drinking water aquifers in New Jersey. If constructed, the pipeline would disrupt and destroy wildlife habitats and imperil clean water sources for about 100,000 residents. Photo credit: wamc.org

18 07, 2017

Nuns Are Suing To Stop A Pipeline—Because They Believe The Earth Is Sacred

2017-10-14T12:33:15-04:00Tags: |

A group of Catholic nuns in Columbia, Pennsylvania, are taking creative legal means to stop the construction of a natural gas pipeline on their land. After corporate attempts to seize the land, the nuns have made a legal claim that the pipeline violates their religious liberty, stating the project would infringe on their “land ethic” to protect the holy land. The nuns have occupied space along the projected site and aim to maintain a protest vigil until the project is denied.

15 07, 2017

A Canadian City Is Putting Warning Labels On Gas Pumps

2018-02-15T12:27:28-05:00Tags: |

Youth activist Emily Kelsall is at the forefront of the launch of a new program to place warning labels on all gas pumps in the Canadian town of North Vancouver. In collaboration with the climate action group Our Horizon, Kelsall has worked tirelessly to convince her local city council and mayor of the necessity of using this platform to connect with people and showcase the impact of fossil fuel use on climate change and the acceleration of environmental devastation. Photo Credit: Andrea Crossan

11 07, 2017

Mothers Out Front Mobilize Against Proposed Compressor Station

2017-10-17T18:50:25-04:00Tags: |

In this video, hundreds of women and their allies associated with the organization Mothers Out Front rally at the State House in support of Andrea Honore. Honore, a mother from Weymouth, had waited over 70 days to speak to Governor Charlie Baker about a proposed natural gas compressor station in her New England community. Honore and most of her community oppose the station’s construction for the health and public safety risks it poses. The site would be a key link in Algonquin Gas Transmission’s Atlantic Bridge pipeline to Nova Scotia. Mothers Out Front urged the governor to deny all existing permits, visit the proposed site and meet with local citizens. Photo credit: Mothers Out Front/Facebook

6 07, 2017

Bayou Bridge Pipeline Opponents Aim To Build Standing Rock-Like Protest Camp

2017-12-06T14:28:06-05:00Tags: |

Cherri Foytlin, Indigenous leader with Bold Louisiana, is at the forefront of local efforts to build and sustain a peaceful encampment of protectors, standing in opposition to the Bayou Bridge pipeline, an Energy Transfer Partners project which would be the the tail end of a network of pipelines carrying tar sands-oil from Canada and North Dakota, down to Texas and Louisiana. Foytlin and hundreds of supporters are holding the space for community organizing, prayer, and creative strategy building, seeking to protect the vital wetlands of the region, and the lives and dignity of the residents who would be impacted. Photo credit: Chris Granger, NOLA.com

4 07, 2017

Remembering Koreti Mavaega Tiumalu: 350 Pacific Climate Warrior’s Journey To The Tar Sands

2017-10-09T20:49:13-04:00Tags: |

One of the beloved core leaders of the 350 Pacific climate movement, Koreti Tiumalu, has passed away after a long battle with cancer. This 350 Pacific video pays tribute to the Samoan sister who coordinated the Pacific chapter of 350.org. As a staunch defender of Indigenous land rights, climate change and water sanctity, Tiumalu was instrumental in the recent #RAISEAPADDLE trip of a group of Pacific Islander activists to the Canadian Tar Sands. In this video, Tiumalu organised a flotilla of paddlers to protest President Trudeau’s support of the fossil fuel industry and stand in solidarity with the local Aboriginal populations. Photo credit: 350.org

1 07, 2017

Wenonah Hauter On The International Anti-Fracking Struggle

2017-10-12T18:14:12-04:00Tags: |

In this podcast from the Democracy Center, Food and Water Watch Director Wenonah Hauter shares lessons the American anti-fracking movement has learned in order to assist the international fight against fracking. She speaks about the necessity to track the activities of international corporations that impact multiple communities while manufacturing plastic or shipping fossil fuels.

29 06, 2017

Ogoni Widows File Civil Writ Accusing Shell Of Complicity In Nigeria Killings

2017-10-12T14:26:47-04:00Tags: |

Esther Kiobel, Victoria Bera, Blessing Eawo and Charity Levula are bringing Shell to court in the Netherlands for complicity in the execution of their husbands in 1995. The men were killed by Nigeria’s military government after 300,000 peaceful demonstrators publicly opposed the widespread pollution of Ogoniland. The company denies culpability, but Audrey Gaughran, senior director of research at Amnesty International, who is supporting the plaintiffs, argues that Shell had plenty of evidence about the human rights abuses suffered by demonstrators at the hands of the military government. Photo credit: Amnesty International

26 06, 2017

Water Protector Red Fawn Fallis Granted Pre-Trial Release

2017-10-26T17:45:46-04:00Tags: |

Water protector Red Fawn Fallis was set to be released pre-trial to a halfway house in Fargo after spending nearly 8 months in the custody of U.S. Marshals since her arrest on October 27th, 2016. Red Fawn will be outside the walls of the Rugby, North Dakota jail and able to prepare for trial. Her fight for freedom, for all that is sacred and for Indigenous sovereignty continues. Photo credit: Free RedFawn

23 06, 2017

Cherri Foytlin Of L’eau Est La Vie Camp in South Louisiana Stands Against The Bayou Bridge Pipeline

2017-11-01T10:12:13-04:00Tags: |

On the eve of the opening of the L’eau Est La Vie (Water is Life) Camp in South Louisiana, Cherri Foytlin with the Indigenous Environmental Network discusses the proposed Bayou Bridge Pipeline, its connection to the Dakota Access Pipeline, whom the pipeline will impact, and why this Energy Transfer Partners pipeline needs to be prevented from receiving government permits. She points to the inherent genealogy of resistance present in Indigenous people across the world and how this knowledge guides her. Photo credit: Indigenous Environmental Network

19 06, 2017

People Power: Lessons From Standing Rock And Beyond

2017-10-09T21:48:25-04:00Tags: |

Tara Houska, an Ojibwe woman of the Couchiching First Nation who is a tribal attorney in Washington, D.C., and Native American Affairs Advisor to Bernie Sanders, discusses the biggest challenges and lessons from her time on the front line at Standing Rock and what’s next in the fight against corporate environmental destruction and systemic racism. She advocates engaging with local governance, taking direct action (such as protesting or participating in lawsuits) or indirect action (such as refusing to support corporations that fund destructive activities), and using social media to raise awareness of climate issues and protests. Photo credit: NITV

18 06, 2017

Diné Woman Kendra Pinto Testifies Before US House Natural Resources Subcommittee On Oversight And Investigations

2017-10-09T21:14:53-04:00Tags: |

Kendra Pinto from the Counselor Chapter of the Diné (Navajo) Nation in New Mexico is fighting for the US Congress and Bureau of Land Management to strengthen federal protections in the San Juan Basin of the southwestern United States. Pinto advocates for stricter regulation of methane waste and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to protect Diné tribal lands and sacred sites from current and future water and air pollution impacts that stem from local oil and natural gas industries. Photo credit: Frack Off Greater Chaco

9 06, 2017

Marshall Islands Activist Selina Leem Explains Why She Protests Climate Change

2017-10-09T20:55:04-04:00Tags: |

Selina Leem, a young activist from the Marshall Islands, explains that she protests climate change to ensure that her low-lying atoll island nation will survive the coming decades and to protect the identity, culture and well-being of her people. As a member of renowned poet-activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner’s youth nonprofit environmental organisation Jo Jikum, she works with other members to address issues of climate change through the arts and creativity, locally and in international forums. Photo credit: Impolitikal

9 06, 2017

Alice Eather: The Slam Poet Who Forced Big Oil Out Of Arnhem Land

2017-10-09T20:26:04-04:00Tags: |

In 2013, Alice Eather, an Indigenous activist and poet from Australia’s Northern Territories, discovered that Paltar Petroleum had applied to frack the ocean of her community of Maningrida. Alice cofounded the Protect Arnhem Land campaign group, which mobilized local communities to oppose the project. In 2016 the company withdrew its permit application. Eather will be remembered for her fierce poetry, as memorialized in the documentary Stingray Sisters. Photo credit: ABC

3 06, 2017

Murrawah Johnson And The Indigenous Fight Against Adani Coal Mine

2017-10-09T20:42:31-04:00Tags: |

Aboriginal activist Murrawah Johnson is fighting for self-determination for the Indigenous Wangan and Jagalingou people. For the past two years, after being named spokeswoman of the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners’ Council, Johnson has been the public face of the campaign to protect her country from the proposed Adani Carmichael coal mine on the Galilee Basin. She has travelled across Australia and the world, lobbying big banks and investors, and gave a keynote address at the largest Aboriginal conference on the circuit, the National Native Title Conference. Photo credit: The Saturday Paper

1 06, 2017

Rainforest Action Network Shares The Truth About Banks And Oil Pipelines

2017-11-01T03:29:06-04:00Tags: |

Lindsey Allen, the Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Network and woman climate leader, explains how RAN has exposed the list of banks that are financing the Keystone Pipeline, a project that would mean game over for the climate if built. Allen urges us to push banks to refrain from supporting such destructive projects, a strategy that proved effective in the Dakota Access Pipeline fight. Photo credit: CREDO Mobile

29 05, 2017

She’s a Climate Scientist. Here’s Why She Quit Working for Trump

2020-10-23T22:48:43-04:00Tags: |

Jane Zelikova, a soil ecologist, used to work for the U.S. Department of Energy researching methods of greenhouse gas emission reduction by fossil fuel industries. When Donald Trump was elected president, Zelikova, as well as her female colleagues, considered the incoming administration to be a threat to scientific work as well as to the planet. As a result, they formed the activist group 500 Women Scientists. Their fears were not unfounded, since the new administration was determined to remove Obama’s Clean Power Plan as well as reduce funding for the Energy Department’s renewable energy research programs. Thus, Zelikova quit her fellowship at the department to pursue a position at the nonprofit, Center for Carbon Removal, instead. Photo Credit:Emeric Fohlen/ZUMA.

26 05, 2017

Mother And Daughter Duo From Rural Pennsylvania Are Standing Up To Fracking

2017-10-26T13:50:47-04:00Tags: |

In 2012 Judy Wanchisn (74) and her eldest daughter Stacy Long learned that the Environmental Protection Agency was planning to allow Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE), an oil-and-gas exploration company, to maintain a fracking wastewater well beneath their small township. In response, the women founded the East Run Hellbenders Society to help propel their community to the frontline of an emerging movement to establish laws that establish the legal right for nature to defend itself. Both the women and their rural community are continuing to fight the establishment of PGE’s injection-well site. Photo credit: Mike Belleme for Rolling Stone

25 05, 2017

A Voice From The Forest In The Corporate Boardroom

2020-12-02T19:53:25-05:00Tags: |

Tribal attorney and Native advisor to Bernie Sanders, Tara Houska of Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe recounts her work of drawing attention to Indigenous rights issues in corporate boardrooms. She speaks specifically about the Indigenous-led resistances against large international financial corporations investing in fossil fuels. For Houska, the Paris Agreement and “sustainable action” plans do not hold corporations accountable for the environmental and social harm that they have caused. Now, Indiegnous resistance groups are rising up against these institutions, posing threats to Big Oil and its investors. Photo Credit: Tara Houska

23 05, 2017

Ponca Tribe Councilwoman Explains Why Activism At Standing Rock Is Not Over

2017-10-14T12:36:44-04:00Tags: |

Councilwoman Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation traveled to New York City to speak at the “Indigenous Women Protecting Earth, Rights, and Communities” event presented by WECAN International. Camp-Horinek joined thousands of other peaceful protesters at Standing Rock in 2016. During the event in New York, she expressed continued commitment to fighting the expansion of Keystone XL pipeline, as well as other extractive projects that directly impact the health of her people. Photo Credit: Emily Arasim/Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

19 05, 2017

Communities Versus Coal: Stories And Strategies From Thailand

2017-10-13T16:09:23-04:00Tags: |

In this video, EarthRights International offer three portraits of communities that are resisting fossil fuels in Thailand. Mae Moh in the North, and Baan Krut and Bo Nok in the South are battling coal-fired power plants and coal mines in their regions. They speak about the strategies they have used to defend their communities, including lobbying and standing up for their rights as minorities. Photo credit: EarthRights International

18 05, 2017

Isabella Zizi: Each Step We Take Is A Prayer To A Just Transition

2017-10-05T18:11:38-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous youth activist Isabella Zizi recounts her personal experience witnessing the explosion of a local Chevron oil refinery, which led her to organize in many different movements, such as #IdleNoMore, Black Lives Matter and immigration rights. Today she fights as an Earth Guardians Bay Area crew leader and RYSE youth council member. She draws upon the resilience of her ancestors in her activism, “disrupting business as usual and visually being noticeable through creative art.” Photo credit: Alana Conner

17 05, 2017

Honor The Earth Marches Along Sacred Waters To Confront BP Refinery

2017-10-14T12:40:33-04:00Tags: |

Honor the Earth and other allies marched along the sacred waters of Ininwewi-gichigami, or Lake Michigan, to BP’s refinery in Whiting, Indiana where they protested the continued processing of heavy crude oil extracted from Canada’s tar sand deposits. In this video, Tara Houska explains her cultural duty as an anishinaabekwe (woman) to be keeper of the water, and calls for an immediate and just transition away from extractive industries. Photo credit: Honor the Earth

15 05, 2017

Lamu Woman Representative Shakila Abdalla To Move To High Court To Stop Proposed Coal Plant

2017-10-05T18:23:54-04:00Tags: |

Kenyan politician Shakila Abdalla is fighting to keep the proposed Sh200 billion coal plant out of Lamu, Kenya. Mobilizing residents and activist groups, Abdalla has spoken out about the deleterious impacts on human health, World Heritage Sites and tourism of the project. If the National Environment Tribunal does not consider the health hazard of this project, Abdalla said she will take the case to court. Photo credit: Alphonce Gari

11 05, 2017

Second Annual Indigenous Climate Justice Symposium: Panel On Fossil Fuel Resistance

2017-10-12T17:56:31-04:00Tags: |

In a panel on Fossil Fuel Resistance at the Evergreen State College in Washington State, Faith Spotted Eagle and Rueben George, key leaders of Native-led alliances to stop oil pipelines, and Lummi youth who visited Paris for the 2015 UN Climate Summit, shared their experiences. In this panel they discuss the Quinault stand against Grays Harbor oil terminal, First Nations' stand against tar-sands pipelines sponsored by the Kinder-Morgan company, and the Puyallup stand against Tacoma LNG plant. Photo credit: The Evergreen State College Productions

7 05, 2017

Interview With Anna Peters: Federation Of Young European Greens

2020-11-07T17:44:13-05:00Tags: |

In this short video (1:12), Anna Peters recalls how she started getting involved in activism at a young age (13 y.o.) by demonstrating against nuclear power plants because she felt strongly about the danger of nuclear power. Fuelled by a desire to do something and take action, she eventually joined the Federation of Young European Greens, which is an umbrella organisation encompassing 36 Young Green organisations from across the European continent. FYEG promotes capacity building, networking, political meetings; runs campaigns at street level and lobbies the European institutions on Green issues. Anna advocates the importance of showing initiative and act for what matters to one’s heart. The act of getting out there to do something and change things little by little can be empowering, especially for young women when they supported by mature people, family and friends. Photo Credit: Video Screen Capture

1 05, 2017

Kandi Mossett: Women Shouldn’t Die Protecting Water

2017-09-03T20:53:08-04:00Tags: |

Kandi Mossett, an indigenous activist and organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network and a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations spoke out about climate justice and access to water during the 2017 People’s Climate March. She and leader Tom Goldtooth are marching not only for her brothers and sisters in the north and the south, including Berta Cáceres, but also to defend the sacred from toxic fossil fuel projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline and threats to traditional ways of life. Photo credit: Democracy Now

1 05, 2017

Standing Against The Banks: DAPL Divestment And Water Protectors’ Fight For Justice, Indigenous Rights, Water And Life

2017-11-01T05:00:19-04:00Tags: |

Michelle Cook, a Dine/Navajo human rights lawyer and founding member of the Water Protector Legal Collective at Standing Rock, and Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, share an in-depth analysis on the need for Indigenous-women led movements to push policymakers and financial institutions to divest funding from fossil fuel extraction projects across Indigenous territories and around the world, drawing on their experiences in Europe during the Spring 2017 Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation to Norway and Switzerland.

27 04, 2017

Environmental Protest Forms A Red Line On The Capitol East Lawn

2017-10-27T01:32:40-04:00Tags: |

Activists from different including environmental and Native American groups congregated on the Capitol Lawn to protest the Trump administration’s handling of environmental policies and regulations and to fight for minority and environmental rights. The non-violent protest aimed to demonstrate to the public the harmful impacts of mineral extraction and the waste generated from it.  Attending, amongst others, were activists Puja Dahal of the Asia Pacific Environmental Network, Kandi Mossett, event organizer and leader of the Indigenous Environmental Network, and Michael Marceau of Veterans for Peace. Photo credit: InsideSources/Erin Mundahl

26 04, 2017

AWID Report Reveals The Gender-Specific Risks Women Human Rights Defenders Face

2017-10-26T23:22:07-04:00Tags: |

Building off of findings from the report, “Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries,” the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) outlines the gender-specific barriers Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) encounter when they defend their land and communities from extractive industries and environmental degradation. Testimonials from the women illustrate their individual experiences. In this post, AWID also emphasizes the inseparable link between extractive models of development and risks and threats WHRDs face worldwide. Photo credit: ACDI/Katalina Morales

26 04, 2017

Descendant Of Sitting Bull Speaks At UN About Fight Against Dakota Access And State Violence

2017-10-26T16:51:57-04:00Tags: |

Brenda White Bull, member of the Standing Rock Sioux nation, army veteran, and descendant of Lakota Chief Sitting Bull, presents an intervention at the 2017 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City, exposing human and Indigenous rights violations, as well as treaty violations, perpetrated through the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). She speaks directly to the connection between ongoing violence against the Earth, and the violence against Indigenous women by police and other armed forces, which was seen and documented throughout months of action to protect the land and water. Photo credit: Indigenous Environmental Network

25 04, 2017

Study Reveals That Fracking Kills Newborn Babies; Polluted Water Likely Cause

2017-10-09T20:21:07-04:00Tags: |

A study published in the Journal of Environmental Protection shows for the first time that contamination from fracking is related to increased infant mortality. The Marcellus shale area of Pennsylvania was one of the first regions where hydraulic fracturing of subsurface rock, or fracking, gained prominence. The epidemiological study by Christopher Busby and Joseph Mangano examines early infant deaths zero to twenty-eight days before and after the drilling of fracking wells, using official data from the US Center for Disease Control to compare the immediate post-fracking four-year period 2007–2010 with the pre-fracking four-year period 2003–2006.

24 04, 2017

Rivers Of Resistance: Siana Fitzjohn On Aotearoa Protest Against Fossil Fuels

2017-10-09T20:59:13-04:00Tags: |

Blocking the entrances to the 2017 Petroleum Conference in New Plymouth, Sina Fitzjohn offers a personal retelling of blockading local and international oil delegates from arriving to discuss the expansion of the oil and gas industry in New Zealand. The action was the result of collaboration between many climate change resistance groups led by women, including the Climate Justice Taranaki, Friends of Waitara River, Frack Free, Parihaka, Oil Free Wellington, Oil Free Auckland, Greenpeace, Auckland Peace Action, 350 Aotearoa, Pacific Panthers, and Ngatiawa Ki Taranaki Trust. Photo credit: Hera rain

21 04, 2017

Environmentalists Slam Planned Bangladesh Power Plants Near Protected Sundarbans

2017-11-12T18:48:39-05:00Tags: |

Environmental groups from around the world (Climate Action Network, Timberwatch, Global Forest Coalition, and Friends of the Earth International) have joined together to protest the development of a coal power plant near the Sundarbans forest of Bangladesh. They believe the development would endanger women’s lives, irreparably damage the mangrove forest’s ecosystem, and threaten the livelihood of millions—including farmers, fishers, and forest dwellers. Displacement (due largely to the power plant’s construction) positions local women to live with an increased risk of gender-based violence, prostitution, and trafficking.

13 04, 2017

Protecting Country: First Nations And Climate Justice

2017-10-09T21:42:07-04:00Tags: |

Larissa Baldwin is the national co-director of the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, which addresses the impact of climate change on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through numerous campaigns. Baldwin asserts the need for an indigenous-led climate movement and explains how the environmental concerns of Indigenous people frequently overlap with broader issues of colonialism, systemic racism and land rights.

13 04, 2017

Indigenous Women Of Standing Rock Resistance Movement Speak Out On Divestment

2017-10-19T22:35:32-04:00Tags: |

A delegation of Indigenous women from Standing Rock and their allies who observed and experienced human and Indigenous rights violations in North Dakota due to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) traveled to Norway and Switzerland in the spring of 2017 to share their stories as women leaders living and working in communities directly impacted by fossil fuel development and infrastructure. Wasté Win Young, Standing Rock Sioux leader and former tribal historic preservation officer; Tara Houska, Anishinaabe tribal attorney, national campaigns director of Honor the Earth and former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders; Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, Oglala Lakota and Mdewakantonwan Dakota pediatrician living and working on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation; Autumn Chacon, Diné artist and water protector; and Michelle Cook, Diné human rights lawyer and founding member of the Water Protector Legal Collective all met with actors including Den Norske Bank (DNB), the Council on Ethics for the Government Pension Fund Global, and the Norwegian Parliament to advocate for divestment from fossil fuels and respect for Indigenous rights. During their time in Europe, the presence of delegation members helped tip the scale for announcements of a large divestment by DNB.

7 04, 2017

Cherri Foytlin And Her Daughters At The Peoples Climate March 2017 Press Conference

2017-12-07T19:04:08-05:00Tags: |

At the start of the People’s Climate March in Washington DC in 2017, Erin and Jayden Foytlin speak about the direct climate impacts they have faced at their home in southern Louisiana, including flooding, hurricanes, severe land loss. They are followed by their mother, renown Indigenous rights and Earth protector, Cherri Foytlin, who is State DIrector of Bold Louisiana, and a signer of the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defenders of Mother Earth Treaty. She speaks about the efforts of L'eau Est La Vie Camp to stop the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which would threaten Indigenous lands and vital waterways and wetlands across the region; and the power of youth, particularly Indigenous youth, in leading movements for a livable and just future. Photo credit: 350.org

1 04, 2017

Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation From Standing Rock Meets With Norwegian Parliament

2017-10-17T19:26:25-04:00Tags: |

A delegation of Indigenous women traveled to Norway to share their experiences from the frontlines of Standing Rock and to advocate that Norway’s largest financial services group, DNB, divest from Dakota Access Pipeline. The delegation, which included Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle (Oglala Lakota and Mdewakantonwan Dakota), Wasté Win Yellowlodge Young (Standing Rock Sioux), Tara Houska (Anishinaabe of Couchiching First Nation), Michelle Cook Dineh (Navajo), and Autumn Chacon (Navajo/Diné), spoke directly to a member of the Norwegian parliament. Photo credit: Censored News

28 03, 2017

Report: No Longer A Life Worth Living

2017-09-21T18:01:04-04:00Tags: |

A team of ten women researchers from the drought-stricken and mining-impacted communities of Somkhele and Fuleni launched the No Longer a Life Worth Living report as part of the Women Building Power initiative. The report emphasizes the impact of drought and subsequent water scarcity, as well as the impact on families and communities of Tendele Mine’s activities related to water access and water pollution. The researchers highlight the failures of the local municipality to address the water challenges faced by these communities and call on the government to revoke water licensing for coal mines in the area. Photo credit: WoMin

27 03, 2017

Women Are Pushing A Simple Climate Solution With Big Potential

2017-10-27T10:41:51-04:00Tags: |

One of the ways to fight climate change is to simply make carbon pollution more expensive. Camila Thorndike and Page Atcheson took this principle and created the Put A Price On It campaign, designed to hold major carbon producers financially responsible. They are doing this by organizing youth leaders from around the country to push state legislation for carbon taxation. Photo credit: Grist 50!

27 03, 2017

Nanette Barragán Fights For Polluted Communities

2017-10-27T03:06:01-04:00Tags: |

Nanette Barragán is a member of the city council of Hermosa Beach California. She has already taken on oil and gas companies looking to drill wells on the local beach. Once those projects were stopped, Barragán began to focus on ensuring that the current environmental rollbacks won’t impact community members in the districts she represents, the majority of whom are minorities and are exposed to heavy pollution. She is now the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s environmental task force and a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Photo credit: Grist50!

22 03, 2017

Banaban Academic Dr. Teresia Teaiwa On Pacific Islander Resilience And Climate Change

2017-10-09T21:07:25-04:00Tags: |

This video pays tribute to a powerful Pacific woman who passed away in 2017; she was an academic, a climate warrior, Pacific activist, poet, artist and friend. Dr. Teresia Teaiwa reflects on the immense resilience of Oceanic peoples and their ability to lead the frontline movement to combat climate change. Photo credit: Tagata Pasifika/Facebook

22 03, 2017

Carry On: The Power Of Not Being Silenced

2020-11-07T18:15:33-05:00Tags: |

In southwest Pennsylvania, the „Moms‘ Clean Air Force“ is pushing back against the development of further fracking wells in their area, particularly because many are planned close to schools. The numerous wells, pipelines and compressor stations that are already situated on the ground have led to a toxicologically confirmed exposure to benzene in children, which can have long-term negative health impacts. Photo Credit: Video Screenshot

21 03, 2017

Women Saving The Planet: Kayla Devault Of The Navajo Nation On The Energy Crisis

2017-10-05T18:07:11-04:00Tags: |

Kayla Devault, a SustainUS delegate to the COP22 climate negotiations and Navajo activist, delivered a firey speech at the United Nations about the human rights violations the United States government and extractive industries have paradigmatically inflicted on Indigenous people.  She argues for an understanding of the Dakota Access Pipeline fight that centers on not only the question of water and fossil fuels but also on tribal sovereignty. She expresses frustration of the sidelining of Indigenous interests at global summits, in a detailed anecdote from COP22 where she had difficulty as a member of a sovereign tribe lobbying those from the United States delegate. Photo credit: Piotr Lesniak

20 03, 2017

Water Is Worth More Than Coal

2017-10-12T18:41:28-04:00Tags: |

In Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, ranchers  L. J. and Karen Turner have witnessed their water supply disappear with the operation of the Peabody Antelope Creek Mine. The mine, only 10 miles away from their home, threatens to destroy their lives and livelihood. They urge President Trump to maintain the coal moratorium, as lifting it will cost hard-working families such as these their livelihoods. Photo credit: Sierra Club/LivingWithOilAndGas.com

15 03, 2017

Indigenous Women March To Defend The Amazon And Indigenous Rights

2017-10-17T19:21:36-04:00Tags: |

Over 500 Indigenous women and their allies from seven nationalities (the Andoa, Achuar, Kichwa, Shuar, Shiwiar, Sapara and Waorani nations) took to Ecuador’s streets to protest a contract the government signed without Indigenous consent. Ecuador’s government ignored the wishes of Indigenous nations when it granted a Chinese oil corporation access to 500,000 undeveloped acres in the Amazon. Many of the marchers were moved to action by the murder of Indigenous earth defender Berta Cáceres and paid tribute to her life and legacy during the protest.

7 03, 2017

How Women Are Expanding Their Horizons With Solar Power

2017-11-26T13:22:16-05:00Tags: |

Twenty-three women from the Deir Kanoun Ras el Ain cooperative in South Lebanon are spearheading a renewable energy revolution and improving their own lives in the process. The women partnered with activists from Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria to complete a solar panel installation project to help power machines to heat water, knead dough, squeeze fruit, and complete other working tasks. In the past, electricity shortages hurt the women’s productivity and added to prolonged and arduous working hours, as well as increased time away from their families. The solar panels mean increased income and opportunity for the women of the cooperative. Photo credit: Fadi Gedeon/Greenpeace

1 02, 2017

Nancy Pili: Our Homegirl In The Sky

2017-11-01T03:46:24-04:00Tags: |

Activist, muralist and dancer Nancy Pill was one of the Greenpeace activists that scaled a crane near the White House to hang a banner reading "Resist" after the Trump administration fast-tracked the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines. A woman of Mexico/Chicano descent, she is a powerful example of a climate woman leader to students, such as those in author Carlos Baron's class at San Francisco State University. Photo credit: Gus Reyes

31 01, 2017

Winona LaDuke On New Ways To Keep Pipelines Out Of The Great Lakes

2017-10-09T21:23:58-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous leaders from Michigan to Manitoba, emboldened by the resistance at Standing Rock, are asserting their right to self-determination and taking unprecedented action against the Canadian energy company Enbridge’s plans to expand a massive network of tar sands and fracked oil pipelines through treaty and tribal lands in the Great Lakes region. In this article, Winona LaDuke, Ojibwe woman leader of Honor the Earth, from the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota, shares updates and calls to action.  Photo credit: Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians

30 01, 2017

Women Gathered In South Africa Say No To Violent Extraction And Pesticides

2017-10-30T03:05:42-04:00Tags: |

At the Alternative Mining Indaba held in Cape Town South Africa, the People’s Dialogue, the Rural Women’s Assembly, Women on Farms, Women Affected by Mining in Action (WAMUA) and WoMin organized a public meeting where women affected by mining and industrial agriculture shared their powerful testimonies regarding the structural violence that they face. The event, entitled “They Are Killing Us: Violence Against Women in Extractives Dialogue,” brought together women from different parts of Africa to not only share the ways in which extractivist violence structures their personal and public lives, but to also build collective power across borders. Photo credit: Rural Women’s Assembly

26 01, 2017

Melania Chiponda, Zimbabwe’s Women’s Rights Activist

2017-11-01T23:29:06-04:00Tags: |

Melanie Chiponda started as an activist the day the police stopped the bus she was traveling in and forced all the women to get naked in order to search them. Since then, she has been harassed several times by state agents, but it didn’t prevent her from fighting the oil and mining interests that are destroying the local ecosystem and displacing families. On the contrary, Melanie has bravely been working in the defense of women’s right to land. Photo credit: Global Fund For Women

26 01, 2017

Chevron’s Massive Pollution In Ecuador Frames Death Of Legendary Nurse Rosa Moreno

2017-10-26T13:38:47-04:00Tags: |

This story, published by Amazon Watch, honors the life and legacy of Rosa Moreno, a nurse who dedicated over 30 years of her life to treating cancer and fighting on the frontlines of a dire environmental health crisis in her Amazonian village of San Carlos. San Carlos is located near dozens of Superfund sites or open-air pits filled with toxic oil sludge. These dump sites, presently owned by the American-based Chevron Corporation, continue to funnel waste into the local drinking water sources. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

25 01, 2017

Water Is Life, Water Is Sacred: Standing Rock Activist Speaks Out Against Trump

2017-11-12T18:32:27-05:00Tags: |

Bobbi Jean Three Legs, a Standing Rock Sioux woman and founder of ReZpect Our Water, organized and participated in a 2,000-mile relay run from North Dakota to Washington DC to advocate for Indigenous rights and to protest construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Forty Oceti Sakowin youth between the ages of 13 and 30 joined Bobbi Jean in the run for water. In this interview with Amy Goodman for Democracy Now!, Bobbi Jean asks people around the world to stand up for water and life. She was among the first Indigenous people to gather at the Sacred Stone Resistence Camp. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

25 01, 2017

Black Resistance Is In Resurgence In Australia

2017-10-14T15:23:20-04:00Tags: |

Murrawah Johnson, an Indigenous woman leader and campaigner with the Wangan and Jagalingou People's Family Council, puts into historical context the Indigenous resistance to the Adani Carmichael mine and other oil and gas projects. She argues that the 229 years of Australian state history can be understood as a struggle over land and land rights, with Black Resistance as a powerful force that has always contexted the dispossession of Indigenous lands and continues to do so in resisting fossil fuel extraction. A new generation of young Indigenous activists and organizers are taking up the task of defending their natural heritage. Photo credit: Murrawah Johnson

23 01, 2017

Fiji 4 Rally: Fijians Stand In Solidarity At Women’s March Against Trump

2018-03-01T12:23:08-05:00Tags: |

Four Fijian women—Roshika Deo, Betty Barkha, Sandra Fong and Kaushal Sharma—joined more than two million people worldwide to participate in the Women's March of 2017. This American movement, formed after the national election, intends to defend women’s rights, address concerns of marginalised groups and work for environmental justice. Deo, Barkha, Fong and Sharma voice their concerns of how a Trump environmental non-agenda will impact small island states. Photo credit: Roshika Deo

1 01, 2017

Meet The Saik’uz Women, Canada

2017-10-25T23:02:05-04:00Tags: |

Chief Jackie of the Saik’uz First Nation turned away Enbridge after a thorough research on scientific and social impacts of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline with the help of the law in 2006. However, aware of the persistence of the company on carrying out the construction of the pipeline, Jackie and her cousin Geraldine created the Yinka Dene Alliance, an alliance of First Nations in the British Columbia region. The Alliance worked on several fronts with 160 First Nations representatives to publish the first Save the Fraser Declaration that banned tar sand pipelines through Fraser River watershed. The women also lobbied to gain support from other financial institutions, interacted with UN and EU officials, and spearheaded the civil disobedience action. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

1 01, 2017

Greenpeace Activist From San Francisco Was Not At Book Club, Because She Was Atop A Crane In Washington, D.C.

2017-11-01T03:41:02-04:00Tags: |

Karen Topakian, a chairperson at Greenpeace, climbed a crane close to the White House shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration to hang a banner that said "Resist." This was Topakian's first time climbing a crane, but 36th time getting arrested for civil disobedience. Topakian felt moved to take action due to the Trump administration's fast-tracking of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines. Photo credit: Karen Topakian

26 12, 2016

Indigenous Women Artisans Defend Their Livelihood And The Environment

2017-10-26T23:14:11-04:00Tags: |

Sumara and other Indigenous artisans are using traditional techniques when crafting necklaces and pottery to generate sustainable incomes for their families. The women live in an area of the Ecuadorian Amazon often greatly exploited by extractive industries. The HAKHU Project supports the women artisans so they may continue nurturing their culture’s traditions and highlight forms of non-extractive economy that ultimately empower Indigenous people. Photo credit: Ian Frank/HAKHU Project

26 12, 2016

Gwich’in Women Fight To Preserve The Arctic Refuge From Drilling

2017-10-26T17:48:46-04:00Tags: |

Bernadette Demientieff is a member of the Gwich’in community, and over the last thirty years, her people have been fighting to protect their lands, where oil companies have been trying to drill. Demientieff takes part in “The Refuge,” a documentary focusing on the struggles of her community. She explains that it is not about activism but about protecting their area as it constitutes their livelihood and identity. Photo credit: Care2

1 12, 2016

Standing Rock Youth Bobbi Jean Three Legs Calls For Divestment

2017-11-01T23:02:26-04:00Tags: |

Standing outside of Citibank, Standing Rock Youth leader Bobbi Jean Three Legs calls for allies around the world to take action to divest their personal bank accounts, and push institutions to divest their funds from destructive fossil fuel projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is threatening the water, land and communities of her home. Photo credit: Seeding Sovereignty

1 12, 2016

The Crucial Role Of Women At Standing Rock

2017-10-17T19:38:37-04:00Tags: |

This photo essay from White Wolf Pack examines the vital and sacred role Indigenous women are playing as leaders and water protectors at Standing Rock. In the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, women are stepping to the forefront and demonstrating the link between water protection, creation, and ultimately, the respect for all life. Photo credit: Celine Guiout

29 11, 2016

Bay Area Indigenous Women Kick Off Month Of NoDAPL Actions

2017-10-05T18:16:30-04:00Tags: |

Isabella Zizi and hundreds of Indigenous women and allies from San Francisco’s Bay Area gathered on November 30, 2016, for a prayer circle and teach-in to call for divestment from the Dakota Access Pipeline. A prayer walk to several banking institutions funding the Dakota Access Pipeline followed the teach-in. At each institution, prayer walk participants closed their bank accounts as part of the national divestment campaign from all financial institutions supporting the pipeline project, including Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, and Wells Fargo, and dispersed educational handouts to the public.

28 11, 2016

Women Of Movement Rights On How Rights Of Nature Help End Environmental Genocide On Ponca Lands

2017-11-01T04:31:14-04:00Tags: |

When the Governor and state legislature of Oklahoma passed two bills restricting residents from banning or limiting oil and gas operations, the Ponca Indigenous people began experiencing huge increases in intensive and dangerous fracking. Pennie Opal Plant and Shannon Biggs, Movement Rights co-founders, visited the City of Ponca, which is home to 26,000 people including 3,500 members of the Ponca Nation, visiting leaders including Council woman and Indigenous rights and Earth advocate, Casey Camp Horinek. The authors highlight that what is happening in Ponca and at Standing Rock reminds us that it is time to rise and stand for the protection of Mother Earth.  These violations concern us all, as they are not only threatening Indigenous peoples but also our very own system of life. Photo credit: Movement Rights

27 11, 2016

Indigenous Latin American Women Craft Climate Change Solutions In Marrakech

2017-10-27T16:30:09-04:00Tags: |

A group of Indigenous women from Latin America, called Chaski Warmi (which means women messengers in Kichwa), collected stories from their regions about people affected by climate change. The Indigenous group brought stories of women affected by the fossil fuel industry and climate disasters, in addition to resource extraction. The Indigenous women went to COP22 in Marrakech to share their cultural struggles and environmental strategies. Photo credit: Binod Parajuli/Seble Samuel

26 11, 2016

Fifteen Indigenous Women On The Frontlines Of The Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance

2017-10-26T17:55:26-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women from across North America stand on the frontline of the Dakota Access Pipeline to protect the Earth and Indigenous rights and communities. In this interview, 15 Indigenous women (LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, Jaslyn Charger, Champa Seyboye, Kandi Mossett, Phyllis Young, Lauren Howland, Shrise Wadsworth, Joye Braun, Michelle Cook, Tara Houska, Eryn Wise, Winona Kasto, Morning Star Gali, Leanne Guy and Deezbaa O'Hare) explain that protecting water and Mother Earth is their traditional role as women. The women interviewees speak of the need for action for Indigenous sovereignty and for a new narrative of socio-ecological balance based on respect for women and the Earth. If there is no respect for women, there is no respect for water and therefore for life. Photo credit: Women's Earth and Climate Action Network

26 11, 2016

Midwives At Dakota Access Resistance Camps: We Can Decolonize, Respect Women And Mother Earth

2017-10-26T17:52:00-04:00Tags: |

Thousands of people from the United States, Latin America and Canada have joined the resistance at Dakota Access pipeline. Most of them are Indigenous peoples  from different tribes across the Americas. Multiple kitchens, a school and medical services have been set up. The first baby was born in the camp with the help of a group of Indigenous midwives. In this interview, Melissa Rose, Carolina Reyes, and Yuwita Win discuss the significance of effective reproductive health-care at the resistance camps. Photo credit: Democracy Now

26 11, 2016

In Solidarity With Standing Rock Tribe Two Woman Close Safety Valve On Pipeline

2017-10-26T14:12:25-04:00Tags: |

Emily Johnston of Seattle doesn’t believe it’s right that we are on track to knock out 95 percent of living species on the planet. In part, it is this belief that led her and Annette Klapstein, along with 3 other valve turners to close the safety valves on 5 pipelines carrying Canadian tar sands oil. The act effectively shut down 15 percent of the United States’ crude imports and got all the activists arrested. Johnston shares her story in this audio interview conducted by Bill Prouty.

12 11, 2016

Indigenous Women Take A Vow of Empowerment And Speak Up Against Climate Destruction

2017-10-12T17:52:46-04:00Tags: |

Vanessa Farrelly, a Southern Arrernte woman and a passionate anti-fracking activist with the Seed Youth Indigenous Climate Action Network, is becoming a powerful advocate. She and 80 other women participated in the 2016 Straight Talk forum, run by Oxfam, which connected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to the political system to spark change in their communities. Indigenous women took vows to speak up against climate destruction, as many Parliamentarians in attendance left saying they were profoundly moved by the commitment they had witnessed. Photo credit: Adrienne Francis

9 11, 2016

Greenpeace Activists On Women Rising Radio

2017-10-12T18:30:40-04:00Tags: |

This podcast offers three poignant vignettes from women activists of Greenpeace, the legendary eco-activist organisation. Hettie Geenan discusses working as a first mate on the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, while Leila Deen recounts her anti-fracking campaign work and Laila Williams discusses Greenpeace’s work in tandem with Indigenous communities, women’s groups and people of color.

6 11, 2016

At Standing Rock, Women Lead Fight In Face Of Mace, Arrests And Strip Searches

2017-12-06T14:47:57-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous women and other allies women leaders on the forefront of the movement to protect the land and water at Standing Rock from the Dakota Access oil pipeline faced intense, and often racist and gendered abuses at the hands of policy and security forces. Women living on the ground at Standing Rock speak on strip searches, physical violence, and other traumatizing and violating experiences while detained for their defense of the Earth. Despite the challenges, Indigenous women reflect on the matriarchal tradition of their peoples as a source of strength to continue in their resistance. Photo credit: The Guardian

4 11, 2016

Mother Of Standing Rock Sioux Nation Tells Her Story From The Frontlines

2017-10-13T16:31:35-04:00Tags: |

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard of Standing Rock Sioux Nation conveys the many personal and spiritual motivations that inspired her as a mother to found Camp of the Sacred Stones in opposition to the proposed route of the Dakota Access Pipeline. In her testimonial, originally collected by WECAN International, LaDonna connects the history of violence and discrimination against women around the world to current environmental crises. Mom’s Clean Air Force, a community of over 1 million parents fighting air pollution, shared LaDonna’s story on Huffington Post. Photo credit: Emily Arasim

31 10, 2016

Anti-Fracking Warriors Steingraber And Boland Released From Jail

2017-10-31T22:38:37-04:00Tags: |

On November 26, 2016, activists Sandra Steingraber and Colleen Boland, from the group "We Are Seneca Lake," were released from jail after serving eight days of a 15-day sentence for trespassing on the banks of Seneca Lake. The two women are part of a non-violent civil disobedience campaign that is seeking to prevent the storage of fracked gas along the shores of Seneca Lake. With 73 arrests so far, the community is trying to protect this crucial water source, which provides water for 100,000 people. Photo credit: Sandra Steingraber

31 10, 2016

Funders Go Fossil Free

2017-10-31T19:17:26-04:00Tags: |

On Global Divestment Day, members of Rachel's Network, a coalition of women's environmental funders, pledged to divest their stock holdings from the fossil fuel industry. Online tools such as the As You Sow website and the Divest-Invest movement are helping individuals and investors to make sure their money does not support oil, coal and gas companies. Photo credit: Rachel's Network

29 10, 2016

Fifteen Indigenous Women On The Front Lines Of The Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance

2017-10-17T19:44:02-04:00Tags: |

Fifteen Indigenous women leaders raise their voices and tell their personal stories from Standing Rock. In their testimonies, many of the women advocate for Indigenous sovereignty and for new and more just relations between Indigenous nations, governments and corporations. The women also voice their continued support for unified resistance to fossil fuels and their harmful infrastructure. WECAN International gathered the firsthand accounts to honor the vital role Indigenous women play in the movement for social and ecological justice. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN

27 10, 2016

Meet Kandi Mossett, A Passionate Climate Change Activist

2017-10-27T02:29:37-04:00Tags: |

Kandi Mossett is a member of Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations, and grew up feeling a deep connection to Mother Earth. She has turned that connection into a passionate career as a climate change activist. Kandi’s work is dedicated to campaigning against fracking in the United States, which means going up against the oil industry and other powerful interests. Though facing huge hurdles, she remains unfazed, and calls on young voices to join her on the global environmental stage. Photo credit: Indigenous Environmental Network

26 10, 2016

The Link Between Oil Pipelines And Sexual Assault

2017-10-31T19:30:44-04:00Tags: |

Force: Upsetting Rape Culture, a survivor-led art and activism group, has created an infographic to demonstrate that Native women are at greater risk of sexual assault where oil pipelines are being built. The infographic details in particular the dangers for women of the Standing Rock Sioux. The state of North Dakota, which produces more oil than any other state, obtains most of this oil from tribal lands. To do so, areas known as “man camps” are set up to house oil workers in close proximity to Native communities, which facilitates an increase in sexual violence that cannot be prosecuted by Native Nations. Building the Dakota Access Pipeline has impinged on not only water safety but also women’s safety. Photo credit: Paulann Egelhoff

23 10, 2016

Reframing The Climate Narrative

2020-10-23T22:17:22-04:00Tags: |

Drawing on her experiences at the 2015 UN Climate Talks in Paris, the author and WECAN-member Karina Gonzalez stresses the importance of changing the narrative around climate change. Instead of solely focusing on technological solutions and the reduction of greenhouse gases, she calls for an approach that focuses on the systemic root causes instead. In doing so, one can value the unmeasurable and qualitative, challenge biases and power relations and remove the illusion of predictability.

29 09, 2016

Gloria Ushigua Works To Defend Indigenous Territory In The Ecuadorian Amazon

2017-10-09T21:19:09-04:00Tags: |

Gloria Ushigua, President of the Sápara Women's Association of Ecuador (Ashiñwaka) is actively working against state and privately-run oil companies’ efforts to develop the Pastaza Province of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Despite increased harassment, intimidation, and persistent threat of violence, Ushigua has persevered in her defense of Sápara land and right to a traditional way of life in the Amazon. Photo credit: Land is Life

19 09, 2016

Women Risk Arrest With The Break Free Movement In Southern California

2017-07-17T21:46:28-04:00Tags: |

On October 23, 2015 a massive methane gas leak was discovered at the Porter Ranch natural gas extraction facility in Southern California. Thousands of residents of the area were displaced after experiencing headaches, nosebleeds and nausea, and the Governor of California Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency. Alexandra Nagy, of Food & Water Watch, was amongst the 14 women who risked arrest to as part of the Break Free mobilization, calling on California to keep the Porter Ranch extraction facility closed. Photo credit: dailykos

13 09, 2016

Battle Against The Dakota Access Pipeline Launched By Native Women

2017-07-12T19:33:29-04:00Tags: |

Ladonna Brave Bull Allard of the Standing Rock Sioux ignited a movement to protect the tribe's water source from the Dakota Access Pipeline when she began the Sacred Stone Camp in Cannonball, North Dakota. Native women have been the center of the #NODAPL movement, using non-violent civil disobedience and prayer to stand strong in the face of bulldozers, pepper spray, and dogs. In addition to standing at the front lines in North Dakota, they have organized camps and prayer vigils across the country and lobbied in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: Facebook  

12 09, 2016

Native American Activist Winona LaDuke At Standing Rock: It’s Time To Move On From Fossil Fuels

2017-10-09T21:39:35-04:00Tags: |

Winona LaDuke, longtime Native American activist and executive director of the group Honor the Earth, lives and works on the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota. She talks about how she spent years successfully fighting the Sandpiper pipeline, a pipeline similar to Dakota Access. Listen to LaDuke speak from near the Red Warrior Camp, one of the encampments where thousands of Native Americans representing hundreds of tribes from across the United States and Canada resist the pipeline’s construction. Photo credit: Democracy Now

24 08, 2016

Young Woman Is Protecting Herself And Her People From The Dakota Access Pipeline

2017-11-26T13:16:09-05:00Tags: |

Thirteen-year-old Tokata Iron Eyes of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation joined thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous water protectors at the Red Warrior Camp in 2016. Iron Eyes hopes that people will recognize that the Standing Rock Movement is about not only Indigenous rights and protecting Indigenous communities, but also underscoring the bridge between water and life—and that by protecting water, we protect life. Photo credit: Upworthy

7 08, 2016

Women Of Color Speak Out: Break Free Pacific Northwest

2017-12-07T18:17:01-05:00Tags: |

Members of the Women of Color Speak Out collective, based in Portland, share reflections and analysis following their participation in Break Free Pacific Northwest direct actions, which included blockades of fossil fuel transporting trains by activists camped out for multiple nights on the train tracks, by kayaks on the water blocking oil shipping ports. They discuss feelings of success, learning, empowerment, and community strength, as well as issues of white fragility, privilege and oppression within the climate movement.

5 07, 2016

Europe’s Dark Cloud And Its Silver Lining: How Coal-Burning Countries Are Making Their Neighbors Sick

2017-10-13T16:00:22-04:00Tags: |

A new report issued by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) European Policy Office, and Sandbag details the damaging health effects of coal consumption in Europe. Mary Anne Hitt of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign writes of the international ramifications of coal pollution and climate change.

1 07, 2016

Shut It Down! By Rossmery Zayas

2017-11-01T00:59:01-04:00Tags: |

Rossmery Zayas works with youth to promote environmental justice at Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) and advocates for campaigns against toxic facilities and pollutants in southeast Los Angeles. Recently she was involved with the closing of Exide Technologies and is now demanding that they clean their waste. “Jerry, Jerry Brown, shut it all down, right now” were the words sang by Zayas and others at the demonstration in May 2016  for a just transition to 100% renewable energy. She is also a delegate with the It Takes Roots to Change the System People’s Caravan, which fights an intersectional problems such as racism, sexism, and xenophobia. Photo credit: Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

29 06, 2016

Women Lead The Call To Arms As Anti-Fracking Fight Intensifies

2017-07-17T21:48:01-04:00Tags: |

Women like Tina Rothery from Lancashire are at the forefront of the opposition to fracking as mothers across the United Kingdom unite to safeguard their children's future. They successfully opposed energy company Caudrilla’s application to frack in Lancashire, and are prepared to set up camp and recruit other mothers to stop future shale gas projects. Photo credit: Jonathan Nicholson/Nur Photo via Getty Images

26 06, 2016

Meet The Jeans-Wearing, Nature-Loving Nuns Who Helped Stop A Kentucky Pipeline

2017-10-26T13:46:22-04:00Tags: |

The Sisters of Loretto, the Sisters of Charity, and the Mt. Tabor Benedictine Sisters in Kentucky are among the many orders of nuns across the United States dedicated to social and environmental activism as part of their religious commitment. For example, Sister Ceciliana Skees and other sisters from Loretto resisted the Bluegrass Pipeline from being built on their land and they continue to protect their community from natural gas pipeline construction. Photo credit: Laura Michele Diener

26 06, 2016

Suzanne Dhaliwal Leads UK Tar Sands Network

2017-11-01T05:07:43-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous Rising Media profiles, Suzanne Dhaliwal an Indigenous rights and mining/extraction activist with the UK Tar Sands Network, who is leading campaigns against United Kingdom based corporations and financial institutions which invest in and support the Alberta Tar Sands, Canada - one of the largest and most destructive industrial projects on the planet. Photo credit: Indigenous Environmental Network

25 06, 2016

Impact Journalism Day: Global Indigenous Youth Taking The Planet Into Their Own Hands

2017-10-12T15:00:32-04:00Tags: |

Young activists Amelia Telford (an Aboriginal woman from Bunjalun country, Australia) and Joseph White-Eyes (a Lakota man from the United States) bring different cultures together in solidarity to fight for environmental and climate justice. After witnessing the impacts of a severe storm on her homeland in 2009, Amelia joined the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and founded Seed, a network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth fighting for climate justice. Photo credit: Penny Stephens

17 06, 2016

Thailand: Women Human Rights Defenders And Villagers Oppose Coal Mining And Demand Climate Justice

2018-03-01T14:19:19-05:00Tags: |

In this statement, members of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Protection International (PI) and the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) express their solidarity with the Ban Haeng community of Thailand, which is opposing a nearby coal mine. Part of the Global Call for Climate Justice campaign, the statement condemns the harassment, intimidations and threats experienced by the community members, particularly women environmental and human rights defenders, such as woman leader Waewrin Buangern. Photo credit: Alexandra Salmon-Lefranc Gennai

16 06, 2016

Women Human Rights Defenders And Villagers Oppose Coal Mining And Demand Climate Justice

2017-07-16T14:40:40-04:00Tags: |

Asia Pacific Indigenous and women’s organizations are joining the Ban Haeng community in opposing the coal mine in Tambon Ban Haeng, Thailand. The government of Thailand granted a mining concession to Green Yellow Co. Ltd. in August 2015, threatening both local forests and the Ban Haeng people. While vocalizing their opposition and taking legal action to revoke the mining concession, villagers and their allies have faced physical harassment and deaths threats from military personnel. As part of the Women’s Global Call for Climate Justice, this solidarity action stands together not only with Asia Pacific regional communities, but also with women all over the world fighting for a fossil fuel free future. Photo credit: Alexandra Salmon-Lefranc Gennai

13 06, 2016

South Sea Islander Angel Owen: We’re The Last Generation That Can Do Anything

2017-10-09T20:37:01-04:00Tags: |

As a young Aboriginal woman, Angel Owen cares about environmental destruction on more than just a physical level. When her family went through huge upheaval during Australia’s 2013 floods, she was moved to join the movement of Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Pacific Islanders in opposing offshore coal projects through the Break Free movement. Attending the National Indigenous Youth Leadership Academy, Angel continued to hone her skills as an organizer, while dreaming of pursuing climate justice one day through law school. Photo credit: Valerie Bichard

7 06, 2016

Winona LaDuke Takes On Foreign Oil In Documentary

2017-10-14T12:44:55-04:00Tags: |

Winona LaDuke of the White Earth Ojibwe nation and leader of Honor the Earth speaks out against the construction of Enbridge’s tar sands pipeline in this short film called Food, Water, Earth. The proposed pipeline would run straight through the heart of Anishinaabe territory, threatening a sensitive wetland ecosystem that is home to Manoomin (wild rice), a sacred food of the Anishinaabe people. The short documentary is part of WOMEN, a collection of short films featuring women from around the world who are on the frontlines fighting for social change. Photo credit: Honor the Earth

6 06, 2016

India’s Tireless Anti-Nuclear Protesters

2017-07-17T21:54:48-04:00Tags: |

Celine, 73 years old, was one of five fisherwomen who went on a relay hunger strike to protest the expansion of a nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu state. Her people have been resisting nuclear power in their communities since the 1980’s. When asked, the women say they don’t oppose science, as their adversaries like to claim, but oppose the danger the plant would pose to millions of people - and the millions that would go to foreign corporations, instead of domestic energy grids. Photo credit: K. Vigneshwaran

2 06, 2016

Indigenous Woman Leader Threatened For Defending Environmental And Human Rights

2017-07-16T14:48:47-04:00Tags: |

Gloria Ushigua, coordinator of the Indigenous Sápara women’s organization Ashiñwaka, faces great danger in her home in the Ecuadorian Amazon as a result of her determined work to stop the expansion of oil drilling and the displacement of her community. Since 2010, she has defended her community Llachama Cocha from the encroachment of foreign and state-sponsored fossil fuel extraction. Photo credit: Frontline Defenders

18 05, 2016

First Nations Women Sing Watersong At Town Hall Event Against Energy East Project

2017-07-12T19:56:35-04:00Tags: |

Women from the Nipissing and North Bay First Nations are singing Water Songs to raise awareness about the TransCanada Corporation’s proposed Energy East pipeline project, which would dangerously convert old pipelines to transport new oil sands and threaten watersheds along its route from Alberta to New Brunswick. Photo credit: Anishinabek News

18 05, 2016

Native Houma Woman Stages Protest At Shell Shareholder Meeting

2017-07-16T14:52:14-04:00Tags: |

Monique Verdin, a member of the Mississippi River Deltas indigenous Houma nation, represented the Native American Houma National Council at Shell’s annual shareholder meeting in 2016. With the support of the Indigenous Environmental Network and the UK Tar Sands Network, she presented a pop-up exhibition of professional photos showing the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and oil and gas infrastructure in the Mississippi Delta to advocate for an end to extraction. Photo credit: Energy Voice

16 05, 2016

Women Walk To Raise Awareness About Water Project In Nova Scotia

2017-07-12T19:48:37-04:00Tags: |

For over seven years, the women of the Mi’Kmaq Nation have united annually to walk for ten days along the Shubenacadie River. With these river walks, they raise awareness about a natural gas pipeline project proposed by Alton Gas, which would threaten sacred local rivers, ecosystems and Indigenous communities. Photo credit: APTN National News

11 05, 2016

Native American Teenager Petitions To Stop Dakota Access Pipeline

2017-07-16T14:55:39-04:00Tags: |

13-year-old Anna Lee Rain Yellowhammer has, along with 30 friends from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, collected 80,000 signatures against the construction of a big oil pipeline close to their land on the Missouri river. Her brave stance against the Dakota Access Pipeline contributed to a months-long camp at the Sacred Stone site, which resulted in a deferral of the pipeline’s construction from the Obama Administration. Photo credit: The Independent/Youtube

1 04, 2016

Miya Yoshitani Of Asian Pacific Environmental Network Speaks Out For A Just Transition

2017-11-01T03:14:02-04:00

Miya Yoshitani of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network speaks with New Economy Coalition about the effects of the fossil fuel economy on communities of color at the conference Common Bound. She focuses on the negative impacts of the fossil fuel industry in Richmond, California and she elaborates on how communities can end their reliance on the fossil fuel economy and build something new. Photo credit: Common Bound

29 03, 2016

Six Indigenous Women Are At The Heart Of Argentina’s Anti-Fracking Resistance

2017-07-12T20:08:39-04:00Tags: |

Chela Campo is amongst the six Indigenous Mapuche women from the Checho Maripe community who are putting their bodies at risk and chaining themselves to fracking machinery to stop drilling in the Argentinian Patagonia. The Mapuche come from a long legacy of resistance, first to genocide by the Argentinian state in the late 19th century, and most recently to the alliance between multinational fossil fuel companies and the Argentinian government that permitted drilling without the Mapuche’s consent. Photo credit: Checho Maripe

25 03, 2016

Bengali Women March To Save Asia’s Largest Mangrove Forest

2017-07-11T18:06:58-04:00Tags: |

In Bangladesh, the Rampal Coal plant was slated to extend over almost 2000 acres of fertile farming land, fish ponds, and the fragile Sundarban mangrove forest, which protects this low-lying nation from rapid sea level rise. Umma Habiba Benojir, a student leader at Dhaka University, and hundreds of other people, many women, marched hundreds of kilometers to protest the coal plant. Photo credit: Mowdud Rahman

23 03, 2016

Climate Activists Disrupt Gulf Oil And Gas Auction In New Orleans

2017-07-17T22:01:08-04:00Tags: |

Cherri Foytlin, an Indigenous woman, journalist, mother of six and environmental activist, helps organize her community in the Gulf South to oppose extreme energy extraction and offshore drilling. Along with Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska and allies at 350.org, the climate movement in the United States has organized a string of actions targeting federal onshore and offshore oil and gas leases. Photo credit: Paul Cobett Brown

12 03, 2016

Women On The Front Lines Fighting Fracking In The Bakken Oil Shale Formations

2018-03-01T12:25:13-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous women are leading the grassroots resistance to stop fracking in North Dakota. where a rapidly growing industry has brought widespread damages to the land, as well as a sharp increase in violence against local women, girls and Indigenous communities who suffer as a result of the boom in oil extraction close to their homes. The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network reports on time spent near Fort Berthold Reservation with local Indigenous woman protectors including Kandi Mossett (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara) of the Indigenous Environmental Network. Photo credit: Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

8 03, 2016

Indigenous Women Of The Amazon And Allies March For Climate Justice And Indigenous Rights On International Women’s Day

2017-10-12T14:43:28-04:00Tags: |

On International Women's Day, Indigenous women of the Andoa, Achuar, Kichwa, Shuar, Shiwiar, Sapara and Waorani nations marched in opposition to a contract between Chinese oil conglomerate Andes Petroleum and the Ecuadorian government. Rosalia Ruiz (Sapara) and Alicia Cahuiya (Waorani) spoke about defending their ancestral territory for their people, their rights and climate justice. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

7 03, 2016

Women Of The Amazon Defend Their Homeland Against New Oil Contract On International Women’s Day

2017-12-15T13:25:31-05:00Tags: |

In response to January 2016 action by the government of Ecuador to sign a new contract with Chinese oil company Andes Petroleum, giving permission to explore and drill for oil in the country's pristine southeastern Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous women leaders from across the country are speaking out to denounce this latest cultural and ecologic violation. Gloria Ushigua (Sápara) and Patricia Gualinga and Ena Santi (Kichwa) share thoughts in advance of a historic gathering and march of women in Puyo, Ecuador, on International Women’s Day 2016. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN

28 02, 2016

Recognizing The Rights Of Nature And The Living Forest

2018-10-17T18:17:15-04:00Tags: |

Mirian Cisneros, Ena Santi, Patricia Gualinga and Nina Gualinga are some of the women leaders of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, who are opposing continued oil extraction, and setting forth a vital proposal for the healthy and just future they envision for their community and the forest that they live in relationship with. The women shared their communities’ Kawsak Sacha, ‘Living Forest’ proposal at the International Rights of Nature Tribunal in Paris, France during the United Nations 2015 climate negotiations. This article shares background and analysis from Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, regarding the Living Forest proposal, Rights of Nature and the importance of Indigenous women’s leadership in these movements for deep systemic change in law, policy, and ways of living with the Earth. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN International

2 02, 2016

Indigenous Women Come Together To Reject Ecuador’s Contract With Big Oil

2017-10-14T12:52:52-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women leaders from the Sapara and Shiwar Nations, from the Kichwa, Kawsak Sacha, and Sarayaku Peoples, and from the communities of the Bobonaza Basin banded together to make a public declaration in defense of life, the land, and buen vivir (good living). In their public letter, published by Amazon Watch, the women denounce Ecuador’s contract with Andes Petroleum. The women state that the Ecuadorian government pushed this contract without prior consent from Indigenous communities and outline how the contract directly endangers the water, the forest, and Indigenous lives.

26 01, 2016

Deborah Parker Of The Tulalip Tribes Speaks At Standing Rock

2017-10-26T14:16:24-04:00Tags: |

In this video, Deborah Parker from the Tulalip Tribes of Washington State speaks directly from the Standing Rock resistance camp about her role as a water protector and about the ways in which traditional Indigenous education and values instruct children to regard the earth as sacred. Photo credit: The New American Underground

12 12, 2015

Vancouver Teen Ta’Kaiya Blaney’s Voice Captures The World’s Attention

2017-07-17T16:15:26-04:00Tags: |

14-year-old singer Ta’Kaiya Blaney has spoken at a United Nations panel in New York and sang at the Paris Climate Talks in 2015. Blaney, who is a Youth Ambassador for non-profit organization Native Children’s Survival and grew up in the Silammon First Nation, Vancouver, Canada, speaks out against the political silencing of her people and the impacts of fossil fuel extraction on Indigenous life. Photo credit: Daryl Dyke/The Globe and Mail

10 12, 2015

The Amazonian Tribespeople Who Sailed Down The Seine

2017-10-12T14:34:37-04:00Tags: |

The Kichwa tribe in the Sarayaku region of the Amazon in Ecuador believe in the “living forest,” where humans, animals and plants live in harmony. They are fighting the oil companies who wish to exploit their ancestral land. Indigenous women led their Amazonian tribespeople in sailing down the Seine to make their demands known to the world during protest events at Paris COP21. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

7 12, 2015

Nina Gualinga: We Were Born of the Land Lent to Us By Our Future Generations

2017-12-07T18:25:46-05:00Tags: |

Nina Gualinga, a young woman leader of the Kichwa Pueblo of Sarayaku, writes on her experience growing up deep within the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, and the consciousness and responsibility she has developed to take action to ensure that her ancestors are honored, and that future generation's have the opportunities to enjoy the rich, diverse Earth that has shaped her own worldview and life. She speaks directly to Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, calling him to see and act to respect the wishes of the country's Indigenous movement, which is ceaseless in its efforts to protect the land, waters, creatures, and their communities, customs and livelihoods. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

29 11, 2015

A Testimony On Rights Of Nature Violations In Manchester Community, Houston Texas

2017-10-29T00:03:27-04:00Tags: |

Yudith Nieto is a Youth Organizer and Communications Coordinator at Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services which is fighting for environmental justice and is advocating for communities around the world. During her testimony at the Paris International Rights of Nature Tribunal, she describes the situation in Manchester Community, which is a part of Houston surrounded by petrochemical industries. Houston is the petrochemical capital of the world and is witnessing contamination of the environment. The support from officials and agencies is non-existent. At the end of her speech, she presented a video with testimonies from members of the community on the destruction of Nature, environmental racism and the effects on the community members’ lives and health. Photo credit: Rights4Nature

27 11, 2015

Shell Advert: “Renewables Are Unreliable, Like Women”

2020-12-02T19:58:00-05:00Tags: |

This humorous analysis illustrates not just the greenwashing inherent in Shell’s 2015 advert on natural gas, but also underlines the ways in which it heavily relies on antiquated gender stereotypes. It portrays renewable energies as unreliable and in dire need of a strong partner (enter natural gas). Not only is the portrayal of renewable energies as unreliable not up to date, the suggestion of natural gas as a “clean” alternative to other fossil fuels openly ignores its negative climate impacts. Photo Credit: Shell

14 11, 2015

The Growling Grannies Against Gas

2017-10-31T12:17:38-04:00Tags: |

The Northern Territory's Growling Grannies, a coalition of aboriginal elders and activists, are taking a stand against the Northern Territory government and fracking companies. They are taking a stand against the selling off their lands for risky shale gas fracking. In this video they call for a meeting with the NT government and the Northern Land Council to tell them that fracking harms the country, their water, and the health of future generations. Photo credit: Frack-Free NT

6 11, 2015

Alicia Cahuiya Fights Oil Drilling In Ecuador

2017-07-17T17:33:00-04:00Tags: |

Alicia Cahuiya has fought tirelessly to protect the rights of the Tagaeri and Taromenani Indigenous people of the Amazonian region of her native Ecuador. In spite of repeated death threats, Cahuiya calls upon the government to do more to protect Indigenous people, particularly from expanding oil activity which is causing tensions among communities and threatening their livelihoods. Photo credit: Daniel Cima

1 11, 2015

Being Idle No More: The Woman Behind The Washington Movement

2017-11-01T21:35:31-04:00Tags: |

In her work as Director of Idle No More Washington, Sweetwater Nannauck (Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian) organizes Native and Indigenous people from many different tribal nations to stand up against arctic oil drilling. In anticipation of the construction of an oil rig in the Arctic by Shell, Nannauck organized a drum andprayer circle in Seattle to united the Indigenous peoples of Canada and Alaska, and the Coast Salish peoples, in calling for environmental and Indigenous justice. Photo credit: Micheal Rios

31 10, 2015

Oppose Oil Drilling On The Gullah/Geechee Coast!

2017-10-31T22:35:14-04:00Tags: |

As the United States government moved to allow oil and gas companies to use seismic guns to test for offshore oil reserves on the coasts of the Carolinas and Georgia coast, Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, urged her community to stand up to this threat. Oil exploration and extraction would damage sea life and potentially pollute the coast, which is a critical cultural landscape and national heritage area. Photo credit: Gullah/Geechee Nation

31 10, 2015

Janet Miller On The The Town That Fought Tar Sands

2017-10-31T19:19:17-04:00Tags: |

Janet Miller, founder of the WestWind Foundation (a foundation that supports environmental and reproductive health organizations) writes about her community's resistance to the proposed Portland Pipeline. The pipeline would have brought tar sands, rich in benzene, from the Canadian boreal forest through her town for export. A group of citizens formed the group "Protect South Portland" who, with the help of the Natural Resource Council of Maine, Environment Maine, and the Conservation Law Foundation, successfully passed a local ordinance banning the benzene burn-off and bulk loading of unrefined product. Photo credit: Rachel's Network

30 10, 2015

Young Conservationist Amelia Telford Calls For Energy Revolution

2017-10-31T12:16:26-04:00Tags: |

Amelia Telford, a Bundjalung woman, began her personal journey with activism at a young age, when she began protesting the loss of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland. She founded the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Action Network and has been named the Australian Geographic Society's Young Conservationist of the Year. With her confidence in the voices of Indigenous people and her drive to start an energy revolution, Amelia has been working to bring a message to the Australian government: use the sun and wind, not fossil fuels. Photo credit: James Brickwood

26 10, 2015

Meet Young Indonesian Leader Magdalena Kafiar

2017-10-26T23:54:58-04:00Tags: |

Magdalena Kafiar is an Indigenous Papuan priest who works throughout Indonesia reporting on human rights violations. Her work as an activist encompasses education about women’s rights, advocacy for justice, and surveying environmental destruction. As part of the Young Indonesian Women Activists’ Forum (FAMM), she defends Indonesia’s people against the extractive activities of foreign companies, the military, and the police. Photo credit: Global Fund For Women

26 10, 2015

Senowa Mize-Fox Speaks At An Anti-Fracked Gas Pipeline Demonstration

2017-10-12T18:27:48-04:00Tags: |

In this speech, Senowa Mize-Fox outlines the necessity to prevent further environmental degradation to an already fragile environment as a result of colonization as part of this demonstration at Vermont Gas. She advocates for a just transition to renewable energy, at the Paris climate talks and beyond, as a member of the Vermont Workers Center, United Electrical Local 203, and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. Photo credit: Jamie Moorby

26 10, 2015

Amazon Women On The Front Lines: The Waorani

2017-10-26T16:32:06-04:00Tags: |

The Waorani peoples, whose ancestral homeland encompass Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, are fighting for their forests, way of life and cultural survival in the face of expanding oil extraction. Alicia Cahuilla, Vice president of the National Waorani Federation, spoke out in Lima, Peru during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP20 climate negotiations to advocate against continued exploitation, and share the story of the Asociación de Mujeres Waorani del Ecuador. In the face of deforestation and oil drilling, the Association, now comprised of over 300 women, has developed an incredible land management and just development plan which stresses zero deforestation, wildlife and biodiversity protection, and holistic food production, hunting and wild harvesting. Photo credit: Caroline Bennett

13 10, 2015

How Women Are Saving The Amazon: Nina Gualinga

2017-10-12T14:37:58-04:00Tags: |

With the third-largest oil reserves in South America, Ecuador is home to fossil fuel resources that foreign companies, and consumers, want to extract. Nina Gualinga, an Indigenous Sarayaku woman, has been at the forefront of the fight to preserve her ancestral homelands and the Yasuni National Park, a biodiversity hotspot, from drilling. In 2012, Indigenous groups won a settlement and apology from the Ecuadorian government, who had permitted drilling without prior consent. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

1 10, 2015

Patricia Gualinga & Atossa Soltani – Indigenous Women On The Frontlines: From The South

2017-12-15T13:25:54-05:00Tags: |

Speaking at the annual Bioneers Conference, Patricia Gualinga of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku tells the story of her communities fight at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and every day on the ground - to prevent oil extractions in their homelands, the ‘lungs of the world’. Atossa Soltani of Amazon Watch provides translation and words of support. Photo credit: Bioneers

27 08, 2015

Lubicon Cree Woman Advocates For Her People, Against Tar Sands

2017-07-17T17:00:09-04:00Tags: |

35-year-old Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree, one of Canada’s First Nations, was raised on the land like her parents and grandparents: hunting moose and drying the meat, using local plants as medicines, spending summers deep in the boreal forests and muskeg swamps and winters in a village with no running water. But her community’s traditional lifestyle is under threat from oil development in the nearby Alberta tar sands. Laboucan-Massimo travels around the world to speak about the threats to her of life, while raising awareness about violence against women and Indigenous people, including discussing the social problems that arise in oil extraction communities. Photo credit: Greenpeace

14 08, 2015

Black Mesa: From Coal To Solar Energy

2017-09-29T19:21:21-04:00Tags: |

Wahleah Johns believes that the adoption of solar energy is a matter of environmental justice within Navajo communities. Companies such as Peabody Coal have been extracting coal and water found in Navajo territories for their profit at the expense of the Indigenous people who lives there. As member and Solar Program Director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition, Johns argues that the sustainability of the Navajo nation depends on the adoption of clean and community-controlled energy. Photo credit: Our Power Campaign

1 08, 2015

May Boeve: The New Face Of The Climate Change Movement

2017-11-01T03:34:25-04:00Tags: |

3o-something year old May Boeve is the Executive Director of 350.org and one of few young women leaders to occupy such a leadership position in an environmental organization. In this piece, Boeve discusses the the fossil fuel divestment campaign that 350.org helped to support and her growth as an activist after the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks. She also reflects on the future of the movement to "follow the money." Photo credit: Graham Turner/The Guardian

30 06, 2015

Revisiting The Federal Energy Regulatory Commitment (FERC): A Mother’s Plea

2017-07-17T23:15:49-04:00Tags: |

Harriet Shugarman, Executive Director of Climate Mama, and Linda Reik, scientist and mother, took direct action to oppose the construction of several fracked gas pipelines that would run through their communities. They urged the U.S. Federal Regulatory Commission to side with them, not the polluters. Photo credit: Erik McGregor

19 06, 2015

Faces Of Change: Adolfina Garcia

2017-10-13T16:05:54-04:00Tags: |

Adolfina García, an Achuar Indigenous woman from the Corrientes Region of northern Peru, saw her son die due to contamination caused by the oil companies near her home. This article details how Adolfina and the leaders of five Achuar communities brought a lawsuit against Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum to demand reparations for the widespread destruction of their livelihoods. Photo credit: EarthRights International

28 05, 2015

Shannon Biggs: Hydraulic Fracking Violates Rights Of Nature

2017-10-28T23:52:42-04:00Tags: |

During her passionate speech at the Paris International Rights of Nature Tribunal, Shannon Biggs, Executive Director of Movement Rights and co-founder of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, explains how fracking is a global issue and one of the worst threats of life on Earth. In the U.S. fracking sets stage for disaster with over 1 million active fracked oil and gas lines. She states that fracking is a clear violation of Rights of Nature as it violates the rights of water, air and climate, soil and life. Moreover, it causes earthquakes and contributes to climate change, cancer and asthma as it uses and brings to the Earth’s surface radioactive materials that cannot be safely disposed. In the end, Casey Camp-Horinek, Indigenous rights activist who helps maintain the cultural identity of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, in an emotional speech described how fracking has major impacts in the lives of tribes located in Oklahoma. Photo credit: Rights4Nature

25 05, 2015

Black Women: Tipping The Balance With Michelle Deshong

2018-03-01T12:26:27-05:00Tags: |

Dr. Michelle Deshong of the Kuku Yulanji and Butchulla Nations speaks about how Black and Indigenous women have helped movements for civil rights in Australia and worldwide. Drawing on historical examples, she highlights women’s leadership in the fights for Aboriginal and Indigenous rights in this TedX talk. Photo credit: TedXJCUCairns

29 04, 2015

Casey Cam-Horinek: What About The Rights Of Mother Earth?

2017-10-29T00:16:51-04:00Tags: |

Casey Camp-Horinek, an Indigenous activist who helps maintain the cultural identity of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, testifies on fracking and its major impacts in the lives of tribes located in Oklahoma during the International Rights of Nature Tribunal in Paris during the UN COP21 climate negotiations. She explains that there are 13,000 fracking wells in her community and because of fracking, her community has gone from having 5 earthquakes in the year of 2008 to over 5,000 in one year alone. These earthquakes are directly related to the injection process involved in fracking. She states that Mother Earth suffers and she has begun to shake as she has to live with her waters being poisoned. Photo credit: Indigenous Rising Media

22 01, 2015

Indigenous Australian Youth Murrawah Johnson Stands Against Mines

2017-07-17T23:36:11-04:00Tags: |

Murrawah Johnson, a young Indigenous woman from Australia’s Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council and People, has caused a myriad of legal and financial problems for one mining consortium. With the help of the Seed Youth Indigenous Climate Network, she embarked on an 18-day world tour to meet with the international banks funding the mine to personally convince them to back out of the Adani Group’s proposed open-pit Carmichael Mine, which would have been Australia’s largest-ever coal mine. Fifteen pulled their support, rendering the project dead in its tracks. The Wangan and Jagalingou are the traditional owners of the land and rivers in the area, and trace their heritage back 60,000 years. Photo credit: Grist

28 11, 2014

Indigenous Women In West Timor Fight To Defend Their Land – And Win

2017-07-11T18:14:50-04:00Tags: |

Aleta Baun, an indigenous Mollo woman from West Timor, Indonesia risked her life to oppose the destruction of local forests by mining and palm oil companies. Despite facing death threats and beatings, she led a group of women to stage four sit-ins at the mines, which forced the mining corporation to close operations and saved 130 homes and local forests. Photo credit: Goldman Prize

25 11, 2014

Alice Eather: My Story Is Your Story

2017-10-09T20:32:52-04:00Tags: |

In this poem, Alice Eather, one of the leaders of the Protect Arnhem Land Campaign, poetically recounts the need to fight against the offshore exploration, mining and drilling that is threatening the entire coastline of Australia’s Northern Territory region, her home. Arnhem Land is a sacred area in the most northern region of the Australian Northern Territory. It is home to the oldest living culture of Indigenous peoples existing on the planet today. The last remaining existence of this ancient, traditional culture and its practices is under threat. Photo credit: Luka Lesson

3 11, 2014

Guardians Of Life: The Indigenous Women Fighting Oil Exploitation In The Amazon

2017-10-12T14:29:39-04:00Tags: |

Ecuador’s Indigenous women are at the forefront of movements to resist oil and gas extraction in the Amazon. From marching to Quito to ask president Rafael Correa to protect the Kawsak Sacha, a living jungle, to being indicted for terrorism, to resisting the closure of NGO Fundación Pachamama, these women are standing up against the odds. Felipe Jacome’s photoset “Amazon: Guardians of Life” offers an intimate account of the women’s courage and strength. Photo credit: Felipe Jacome

31 10, 2014

Sandra Steingraber: Why I Am In Jail

2017-10-31T22:40:45-04:00Tags: |

Sandra Steingraber, of the We Are Seneca Lake movement, shares her experiences serving time in jail after trespassing onto the property of a company that was attempting to establish a fracked gas storage site on the shores of Seneca Lake. She writes about how most of the other women in jail for violating probation, highlighting the difficulty of motherhood, finding a job and securing housing for a family. Steingraber reflects on the process of personal exploration and growth that can occur, even from within a jail cell. Photo credit: EcoWatch

30 10, 2014

Fracking And Lima Climate Talks Slammed At Nature Rights Tribunal

2017-10-30T21:18:00-04:00Tags: |

Thirteen judges meet in Peru at the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature to hear charges of how Rights of Nature are being violated. The goal of the Tribunal is to investigate cases of possible violations according to the Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth. In total, 12 cases were heard and experts and impacted people from around the world spoke as “witnesses.” Among the experts there were Casey Camp-Horinek who spoke about the negative impacts of fracking on the Ponca Nation, and Shannon Biggs, who highlighted how fracking is destroying livelihoods within the United States. Photo credit: Free source

28 10, 2014

#Frack Off: Indigenous Women Lead Effort Against Fracking

2017-10-28T22:19:33-04:00Tags: |

During Climate Action Week, Shelley A. Young (Mi’kmaq), Kandi Mosset (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara), Elle-Maija Tailfeathers (Blood and Saami), and Ellen Gabriel (Mohawk) were among the Indigenous women headlining #FRACK OFF: Indigenous Women Leading Media Campaigns to Defend our Climate. Across First Nations in Canada and the United States, Indigenous women gathered to resist fracking and fight inaction and corruption across governments and tribal councils to prevent its severe environmental and health impacts, especially the impact on women’s wellbeing. Photo credit: Jessica Harjo/Fanny Aishaa/Ossie Michelin

27 10, 2014

No Fracking In New York – Efforts Of Helen Slottje

2017-10-27T16:28:50-04:00Tags: |

Helen Slottje is the recipient of the 2014 Goldman Prize, from North American. Slottje provided legal help to communities in the New York states against the efforts of oil and gas companies to practice fracking in their local lands. She assisted in passing local bans on fracking, starting in 2009 as a volunteer for a community group in Tompkins about gas drilling. More than 170 towns of the state have banned fracking due to Slottje's legal framework.  Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

20 09, 2014

Esperanza Martinez At This Changes Everything Talk With Naomi Klein

2017-10-14T16:21:23-04:00Tags: |

Climate activist Esperanza Martinez discusses the meaning and ramifications of ecological debt in this discussion with Naomi Klein during Climate Action Week. Martinez argues that societies should no longer be destroying areas like Yasuní National Park in Ecuador to unearth fossil fuels and explains why it is essential that social economies must free themselves of fossil fuels. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

2 09, 2014

The Pain In Our Hearts – A Conversation With Yudith Nieto

2019-01-14T17:52:08-05:00Tags: |

Yudith Nieto is a community advocate with the Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS) fighting against capitalism, marginalization, and racism in the U.S. Her home community of Manchester, a neighborhood of Houston, is surrounded by industrial pollution, which impacts the health of people regardless of age. She has been working to mobilize a younger generation to fight against environmental and human injustice, especially in the face of mounting gentrification.  Photo Credit: The Life Support Project

1 03, 2014

Meet Some Of The Women Warriors Of Greenpeace USA

2017-11-01T03:48:15-04:00Tags: |

On International Women's Day, Greenpeace USA honored some of its powerful woman leaders. Deepa Isac, Deputy General Counsel, discusses being a lawyer and a woman of color who is working for climate justice, while Melissa Thompson, Senior Video Producer, explains how she got started as a videographer via the reproductive rights movement. Nicky Davies, Campaigns Director, discusses her work managing the entire campaign program of Greenpeace USA, while Amy Moas, Senior Forest Campaigner, reflects on her transition from academia to activism. Njambi Good, Grassroots Director, is committed to building people-power to counteract the negative influence of organized money, while Monica Embrey, North Carolina Field Organizer shares her experience advocating for justice to Duke Energy and Molly Dorozenski, Media Director, remembers battling the BP oil spill while being diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer. Photo credit: Jason Miczek/Greenpeace

27 12, 2013

Winona LaDuke: Protecting Wild Harvests Through The White Earth Land Recovery Project

2017-12-27T18:15:16-05:00Tags: |

Anishinaabeg woman leader, Winona LaDuke, is a renown author, activist, and founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) and Honor The Earth. Through her work with WELRP, Winona has spearheaded efforts to  restore sustainable Indigenous land use practices, and protect traditional seed crops, particularly her peoples wild rice. Winona and WELRP have consistently challenged attempts to lower environmental and water quality standards, and taken action to oppose oil pipelines crossing the fragile wetland ecosystems that sustain traditional agriculture for Indigenous peoples of the region. Photo credit: Star Tribune

7 12, 2013

Cherri Foytlin Of Louisiana On The BP Oil Spill

2017-12-07T19:02:36-05:00Tags: |

Mother of six, Cherri Foytlin of Rayne, Louisiana, describes one of the moment that impelled her into intensive work for climate justice -  when during clean up efforts following the BP oil spill, she held an oil soaked, dying pelican in her arms. For the health of her children, the climate, and the rights of Indigenous people, she began engaging in non-violent direct action and advocacy in solidarity with movements across the country, including the Keystone XL fight, Idle No More movement, and Occupy movement. Photo credit: Searching for Occupy

7 12, 2013

Patricia Gualinga: Warrior For the Amazon

2017-12-15T13:25:43-05:00Tags: |

Amazon Watch profiles Patricia Gualinga, a Kichwa woman leader of the community of Sarayaku in the Amazon Rainforests of Ecuador. Patricia was a key protagonist in the recent historic indigenous rights victory at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in which her community received support to their claims of violation by oil companies opening fossil fuel extraction sites in their traditional territories without consent. Through her vocal leadership, Patricia has helped to inspire and empower countless other Indigenous women leaders in her community, and across Ecuador and the Amazonia region, to stand up and speak out with strength to protect their homelands from fossil fuel and mining companies. Photo credit: Caroline Bennett

26 10, 2013

Our Power Film-Black Mesa Water Coalition

2017-10-26T22:24:57-04:00Tags: |

This video features Wahleah Johns and Jihan Gearon speaking about water and its significance to their communities, as they and others try to develop strategies towards a just transition in order to protect water from mining companies and find ways to generate the electricity without damaging the Earth. This is what climate justice and effective community organizing looks like. Photo credit: Our Power Campaign

1 10, 2013

How Six Women Did Something Incredible To Save The Arctic

2017-11-01T03:51:37-04:00Tags: |

Ali Garrigan, 27 (United Kingdom), Liesbeth Deddens, 31 (Netherlands), Sabine Huyghe, 33 (Belgium), Sandra Lamborn, 29 (Sweden), Victoria Henry, 32 (Canada), and Wiola Smul, 23 (Poland) spent 15 hours climbing Europe's tallest building, the Shard, to send protest Shell oil's plans to drill in the Arctic. They livestreamed their brave climb on YouTube, generating a virtual sensation. Photo credit: GreenpeaceVideo

1 01, 2013

BP Oil Spill 5 Years Later: Environmental Justice Struggle Continues in Gulf Region After 2010 Spill

2017-11-01T21:46:09-04:00Tags: |

Monique Harden, attorney and Co-Director of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, speaks on Democracy Now! three years after the catastrophic BP Oil Spill, sharing environmental justice analysis of the impacts of the spill, and ongoing lawsuits and efforts for clean up and justice. Advocates for Environmental Human Rights is a non-profit public interest law firm. In collaboration with Co-Director Nathalie Walker, Monique Harden has spearheaded numerous initiatives, such stopping land theft from historic African-American community in Mossville, Louisiana; advocating for the human rights of displaced Gulf Coast hurricane survivors; and preventing the building of waste dumps near schools. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

7 12, 2012

A Message from Gloria Ushigua, President of the Association of Sapara Women

2017-12-07T19:00:21-05:00Tags: |

Gloria Ushigua, President of the Association of Sapara Women, of the Sapara Nation in the Amazonian region of Ecuador, shares a powerful direct message from her community, about the strength of traditional medicines and associated knowledge systems, the need to protect and promote continues local use of them, especially in the face of the threats and devastation of oil extraction in their homelands. Her message was sent to members of the Indigenous Peoples Biocultural Climate Change Assessment (IPCCA). Photo credit: Asociación de Mujeres Saparas

11 10, 2012

This Environmental Activist Is Taking The Canadian Government To Court

2017-07-17T18:04:59-04:00Tags: |

Crystal Lameman, a member of the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation, Canada, feels a powerful responsibility to speak out against the exploitation of oil sands on her people's land. Crystal’s advocacy efforts have succeeded in holding the Canadian federal government responsible for lands usurped by the oil and tar sands industry. The Beaver Lake Cree Nation has filed a statement of claim taking the Government of Canada to court for over 17,000 treaty violations and have been granted a trial, establishing an important precedent for First Nations communities in Canada. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

26 06, 2012

Katie Redford On What Makes Us Human

2017-10-26T14:18:08-04:00Tags: |

Katie Redford, co-founder and director of EarthRights International, questions unfettered corporate power and the real-life impacts it has on people when fossil fuel companies like Shell Oil Company or Chevron are granted corporate-personhood in the United STates legal system, but are not held accountable for human rights abuses. EarthRights International brings legal power and people power together to seek justice for people and the environment worldwide. Redford gave this TEDx presentation at DePaul University in 2012. Photo credit: TEDx Talks

25 04, 2012

In Japan, A Mothers’ Movement Against Nuclear Power

2017-07-17T23:39:00-04:00Tags: |

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japanese mothers are leading the anti-nuclear movement in Japan, challenging norms about Japanese women and social activism in the process. The mothers regularly organize marches, petition government officials, fast, and hold months-long sit-ins and other public actions. Photo credit: Olivia Sydney Fine  

21 10, 2011

Women Rising Radio On Rescuers of Wildlife

2017-10-12T18:33:09-04:00Tags: |

This podcast by Women Rising Radio features four animal rights activists. Elena Bykova discusses her work with the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Saiga Conservation Alliance to preserve the Saiga Antelope in Uzbekistan. Alice Ng, with Wild Aid, speaks about founding Animal Balance in the Galapagos Islands and directs the Animals Asia Foundation. Rosamira Guillen shares her experience as the executive director of Proyecto Titi in Colombia, protecting the cotton-top tamarin monkey and its habitat. Lorena Aguilar, with with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, works in community and gender issues.

1 09, 2011

Governing Climate Funds: What Will Work For Women?

2017-10-12T14:23:54-04:00Tags: |

Elizabeth Arend and Sonia Lowman examine four funds—climate funds and non-climate funds—to draw out lessons for gender integration in global finance mechanisms. As the international community mobilizes in response to global climatic changes, climate funds must ensure the equitable and effective allocation of funds for the world’s most vulnerable populations. Women and girls, disproportionately vulnerable to negative climate change impacts in developing countries, have largely been excluded from climate change finance policies and programmes. They must not only be included in adaptive and mitigative activities, but also recognized as agents of change who are essential to the success of climate change interventions.

1 11, 2010

A Cooperative Approach To Renewing East Kentucky

2017-11-01T21:33:15-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Sara Pennington, the New Power Campaign Organizer with Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, writes about the Renew East Kentucky plan. The plan would reduce the region's dependence on coal-fired power plants, improving air and water quality while creating jobs in renewable energy and reducing rates. Photo credit: Solutions

30 10, 2009

Mari Rose Taruc Speaks In Copenhagen At Chevron International Headquarters

2017-10-30T02:59:19-04:00Tags: |

Mari Rose Taruc from the Asian Pacific Environmental Network spoke at Chevron’s international headquarters in Copenhagen about the link between Asian-American populations and tar sands. Her home of Richmond, California is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, which disproportionately impact communities of color. The Asian Pacific Environmental Network fought alongside Communities for a Better Environment and the West County Toxic Coalition to halt the expansion of a local Chevron refinery. Photo credit: RTC_USA

26 10, 2008

Marina Rikhvanova Of Russia Against Oil Pollution

2017-10-26T13:44:43-04:00Tags: |

Goldman Environmental Prize recipient Marina Rikhvanova dedicates her life to protecting human and environmental health from the harmful impacts of the Russian government’s petroleum and nuclear projects. As co-chair and co-founder of Baikal Environmental Wave, Rikhvanova led a successful, four-year campaign against an oil pipeline project that risked polluting Siberia’s Lake Baikal, a significant ecological and cultural site. She continues to mobilize Russians against nuclear development through public protests and citizen training camps. Photo credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

27 03, 2007

Persistence: The Power Of People And Prayer

2018-10-25T17:06:28-04:00Tags: |

The Climate Listening Project and Mom’s Clean Air Force have collaborated to tell meaningful stories of climate and community. This short video documents the stories of two moms, Tracey and Caroline, who discovered their communities above average cancer rates were directly linked to a nearby coal ash pond. Now they work to protect North Carolina residents from coal ash and fracking. Photo Credit: Moms Clean Air Force

1 11, 2004

Rashida Bee And Champa Devi Shukla Lead Fight For Justice From Union Carbide Gas Disaster

2017-11-01T02:51:02-04:00Tags: |

In 1984, Bhopal, India suffered what would be the world’s biggest industrial disaster: the Union Carbide gas leak that killed more than 20,000 people. More than 20 years have passed and victims and their offspring still have no justice. Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, two Bhopal activists, are demanding justice for survivors. In 1986, both women, former workers at the factory, organized an independent union to fight for their worker’s rights and conditions and better wages, which helped them achieve gains for their class. In 2002, they organized a hunger strike that had unimaginable reach also to other countries and more than 1,500 people participating, and have, ever since, continued fighting to find justice for their own. Photo credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

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