The third online education and advocacy training of WECAN’s U.S. Women’s Climate Justice Initiative was entitled “Women on the Frontlines of Climate Change: Resistance & Solutions”. This event sought to share stories about climate justice, women and frontline communities. It featured four women leaders: Kandi Mossett, Casey Camp Horinek, Jacqui Patterson and Pennie Opal Plant. Mossett is an Indigenous North American who serves as the Native Energy & Climate Campaign Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. She fights the harmful consequences of the economic exploitation of her region, Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, and stopped the construction of a new waste pit close to a vital water source. Horinek is a Native rights activist, actress and environmentalist from the Ponca Nation in Oklahoma. She works with the cultural identity, education and empowerment of Native and non-Native allies on civil rights and environmental issues. Patterson is Coordinator and co-Founder of Women of Color United and Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. As a researcher, she documented the illnesses experienced by community members living close to a coal-ash pond. Opal Plant is a founding member of Idle No More SF Bay, Movement Rights, and the Bay Area Rights of Nature Alliance. The Movement Rights organization provides legal and organizing support to communities assert their rights to self governance. Photo credit: Kandi Mossett
