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12 01, 2024

Colorado Town Appoints Legal Guardians to Implement the Rights of a Creek and a Watershed

2024-08-26T12:31:55-04:00Tags: , |

Katie Surma, a journalist with Inside Climate News, reports on a recent win in the Rights of Nature movement. Nederland, a small town west of Denver, Colorado, has just appointed two legal guardians to represent Boulder Creek and the Nederland watershed, a monumental step forward in legally enacting the Rights of Nature. The guardians will work to report on the ecosystem’s health and make recommendations for policy and actions to improve the water quality, ecosystem health, and natural protection of the region. Advocates believe that nature, like other non-human entities protected by law, such as corporations, should have legal standing to assert its rights and request representation. In 2021, Nederland did this by recognizing Boulder Creek and its watershed as living entities with innate rights to be restored and protected. Despite previous attempts to debase Rights of Nature in 2017, three other towns have gone on to enact nonbinding resolutions, following the leadership of Nederland.

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.

7 12, 2023

We Must Shut Down Factory Farms To Protect Clean Water And Environmental Justice

2023-12-07T17:44:57-05:00Tags: |

Gloria Reuben is the president of Waterkeeper Alliance, a global advocacy group network that protects the world’s waters. She brings attention to the impacts of factory farming on environmental justice. The way food is currently being produced is wreaking havoc on ecosystems and on people’s livelihoods. This is particularly true for animal agriculture, with concentrated animal feeding operations being the most damaging. In the United States, waste and discharge from these farms are largely unregulated, leading to pollution of both water and air. This has catastrophic downstream effects as drinking water becomes contaminated and river ecosystems and fisheries collapse, resulting in economic losses that cost billions annually to repair this damage. Additionally, pathogen-filled water and polluted air poses public health risks, predominantly in the form of respiratory disease and infection. This issue is also an example of environmental racism, as these farms are predominantly located in rural locations near communities of color, whose health will be negatively impacted the most. To combat this social and ecological issue, Reuben urges for proper enforcement of existing legislation like the Clean Water Act and passing of new legislations like the Farm Reform Act in order to transition away from these harmful practices towards sustainable food production by legitimately independent actors. Furthermore, those who can, are encouraged to avoid buying from companies that perpetuate this devastating factory farming system.  Photo Credit: Vuk Valcic/Sopa Images/Lightrocket via Getty Images 

17 11, 2023

Women and LGBTQ+ people are uniquely vulnerable to climate change, new report shows

2024-02-26T09:06:22-05:00Tags: |

For the first time since its inception, the fifth National Climate Assessment included a section dedicated to studying how climate change impacts women and LGBTQ+ people. This addition reflects changing public and governmental acknowledgement of the ways climate change exacerbates existing inequalities. Key ideas of the report include disproportionate experiences for women due to unique mental, sexual, and reproductive health needs that intersect with social, racial, and economic disparities and particular vulnerabilities for LGBTQ+ people as they are excluded from many social services. Climate change makes it harder for women, especially women of color, to access reproductive health care. At the same time, health concerns are rising for women because of the crisis and existing environmental concerns that are especially pressing in low income neighborhoods, such as heat exposure and pollution. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to climate-related health problems, including poor pregnancy outcomes and increased maternal mortality rates. LGBTQ+ people also face increased difficulty accessing support post disasters due to exclusion from many faith-based groups and even being blamed for disasters in faith circles. The report highlights the urgency for unique disaster planning to meet the needs of vulnerable communities and the importance of amplifying intersectionality in climate research.  

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.

10 08, 2023

Indigenous activists say Haw River should be a legal entity

2024-02-20T10:58:26-05:00Tags: |

Crystal Cavalier-Keck and her husband Jason Campos-Keck are leading an educational movement in North Carolina to give rights to the Haw River, which flows for over 110 miles and sustains a 1700-mile watershed basin critical for wildlife conservation. The couple aims to pass House Bill 795, a piece of legislation that would declare the river as a legal entity, providing it with stronger protections from polluting industries. Current environmental laws fall short of adequately protecting Haw River. In Indigenous culture, humans see nature as a living relative. Bringing Rights of Nature into government law would allow local Indigenous peoples to care for the river as such and allow organizations and other entities to sue polluting entities on its behalf. The Keck’s organization, Seven Directions of Service, is wary that the government may not accept or pass such a law; however, just in raising the issue, the two hope to inspire more care and action throughout the community. Photo Credit: Celeste Gracia/WFAE

27 07, 2023

The Color of Grass Roots: Diversifying the Climate Movement

2023-12-05T13:24:30-05:00Tags: , |

Heather McTeer Toney highlights the immediate intersectionality of the climate crisis and the historic and contemporary struggles, work, and hope of BIPOC communities throughout it. Toney is Greenville, Mississippi’s youngest and first Black female mayor and has been fighting for water rights in her area, not realizing that she was continuing a legacy of environmentalism that goes back hundreds of years. Black communities have been at the frontlines of environmental and climate related issues for centuries as environmental justice is inextricably linked to their experiences of social justice. Toney highlights the need for affected communities to be involved in decision making in the future. She then shifts the conversation to hope and perseverance by uplifting faith communities that have provided safe and empowering spaces for Black communities throughout various movements. This hope has often been missing from the climate movement. Recognizing the climate crisis as part of a contemporary continuation of historic systems of oppression and learning from the communities leading the way to justice is how we can make radical change.  Photo Credit: United Women in Faith

18 05, 2023

The Many Lives of Water

2024-02-26T09:44:26-05:00Tags: |

Water holds significant cultural importance in Indigenous communities, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, Hawai‘i, and the Southwest of the United States. This article highlights the global challenge of accessing clean water, which is now threatened due to commodification. It advocates for repairing our relationship with water, valuing it as a sacred and essential element for all life. While women leaders and specific organizations are not mentioned, the text showcases how Indigenous communities protect water even in regions with limited access. It emphasizes the spiritual connection to water and encourages decentralized, safe, affordable, and accessible solutions to address water challenges. Photo Illustration Credits: Mer Young for YES! Media

25 04, 2023

From Farm Workers To Land Healers

2023-07-30T13:28:25-04:00Tags: |

  Former immigrant and Indigenous farmworkers have been using their cultural knowledge of sustainable fire practices to control wildfires and reclaim work in natural spaces. The workers previously faced hazardous and unhealthy conditions while being employed on vineyards, including exposure to toxic fumes and smoke, especially when harvesting through active fires. There was little financial compensation or support for their safety. Now, the workers are spearheading ecological restoration programs in wildfire prone areas. They are positioning themselves as leaders and educators in order to gain self-determination over their relationship to the land, reclaim former cultural practices, and have an active role in healing. The programs are offered in Spanish and local Indigenous languages and ensure that land workers are well-paid, safe, respected, and have autonomy in their work. These efforts mark an ongoing transition in climate mitigation efforts, centered on the intention to heal and grow both the environment and frontline communities. Photo credit: Brooke Anderson/YES! Magazine

23 04, 2023

Diane Wilson on Fighting Plastic Pollution, Losing Everything, and Gaining Her Soul

2024-02-26T09:30:03-05:00Tags: |

Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation shrimper from Seadrift, Texas, has been leading a three-decade-long fight against Formosa Plastics' pollution. The company's toxic polyvinyl chloride powder covered the town, leading to health issues and harm to the local fishing industry. Wilson persisted through hunger strikes, arrests, and legal action, becoming an ally to Vietnamese fishermen wrongly blamed for the pollution's impact. In 2019, her efforts paid off with a historic $50 million settlement from Formosa for plastic nurdle pollution. Wilson donated the settlement to environmental causes. Her work upholds climate justice, highlights women's resistance, and emphasizes the need for women's involvement in climate action. The fight for accountability and sustainable solutions showcases her story and dedication to environmental justice. Photo Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

17 04, 2023

Imagining a World Without Prisons

2023-11-28T18:55:42-05:00Tags: , |

Molly Lipson, a journalist and community organizer, discusses the intersections between carceral and environmental justice. She highlights the ways that prisons contribute to environmental degradation and the perpetuation of systems that work against historically underserved communities. Lipson showcases the discussion of the progress and tensions between sustainable futures and grassroots abolition movements with Andrea Johnson from the Renewable Rikers project and Jordan Martinez-Mazurek from Fight Toxic Prisons. Johnson is the architect of the Renewable Rikers project, which works to stop the toxicity of Rikers Island prison for inmates and those living in surrounding communities. Lipson captures her conversation with Martinez-Mazurek about the importance of making change for people actively impacted by the carceral system and its contingencies, as well as ensuring that society works towards an abolitionist future. Justice movements go hand in hand, and it’s necessary to understand the nuances of their intersections to achieve a better future for all. Photo credit: Nico Krijno

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

4 03, 2023

Northern Express Fascinating People Of 2023

2023-07-30T12:46:21-04:00Tags: |

This article highlights twenty of the most fascinating individuals from Northern Michigan, two of which are Indigenous women. The first of these women, Jannan Cornstalk -- who is the founder of the Water is Life Festival of Mackinaw City, a member of the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance, and a citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians -- devotes herself to water rights activism. In 2018, she brought back the aforementioned festival, which engages local communities and centers the celebration of and connections with water. Cornstalk seeks to inspire the community to protect the Great Lakes and other waters through daily choices and lifestyle decisions. The second highlighted Indigenous woman is Joanne Cook, a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB). Cook is presently the GTB’s chief appellate and has also served on Tribal Council and as a tribal court judge. Today, much of her work involves working with victims of crime and on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) project. She has also served on various local nonprofit boards. 

2 03, 2023

Q&A: Vox’s Rebecca Leber On ‘The Next Frontier’ Of Climate Coverage – The Home

2024-08-26T12:47:36-04:00Tags: |

Rebecca Leber is a senior reporter committed to centralizing climate issues in mainstream news by talking about cultural perceptions of climate-friendly choices. Leber has been researching the energy transition and its nexus with consumer habits, along with how it has manifested in people’s homes. Her work unveils the ongoing drive from the fossil fuel industry to promote household gas stoves in the US, using modern tactics which help entrench existing cultural myths, such as pushing the narrative that there are culinary benefits of "cooking with gas." Leber’s reports reveal the powerful discourses backed by incentives of economic greed which influence the information people get on both sides of the debate – renewable and fossil fuels – while also turning climate issues into partisan political feuds.

20 02, 2023

Black Girl Environmentalist Rejects Climate “Doomism”

2023-06-04T09:46:13-04:00Tags: |

Recently climate "doomism" has been spreading across social media. It is the idea that humanity is doomed and the climate crisis is too far along to be stopped or helped. Wnajiku "Wawa" Gatheru, the founder of Black Girl Environmentalist (BGE), is fighting to challenge this thinking. She argues that an oversaturation of doomism can lead to a loss of power for Black girls, Black women, and Black non-binary environmentalists whose identities are intertwined with environmental racism. Arielle V. King, the programming director at Black Girl Environmentalist, speaks on the deeply connected relationship of racial and environmental justice and the ability of the environmental justice movement to create self-determination for Black, Indigenous and low-income communities. Photo credit: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Environmental Media Association/Courtesy of Arielle King and Roydenn Silcott

17 02, 2023

Mothers Of The Movement: Black Environmental Justice Activists Reflect On The Women Who Have Paved The Way

2023-06-04T09:36:09-04:00Tags: |

The Black community is disproportionately impacted by environmental racism and exposed to human-made environmental hazards. Black activists have been and still are trailblazing leaders and pioneers in the climate justice movement; however, they are often overlooked in history books and climate change conversations. To recognize this pivotal work, these interviews feature Black climate leaders' stories about the Black women who have inspired them in the environmental justice sector. A few of these include: Leah Thomas on Hazel M. Johnson, Abre' Conner on Kathleen Cleaver, Catherine Coleman Flowers on Sharon Lavigne, and Rhiana Gunn-Wright on Tamara Toles O'Laughlin, Colette Pichon Battle, Janelle Jones, Dr. Beverly Wright and Dorceta Taylor. Photo credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

13 02, 2023

Jacqueline Patterson: Honoring Legacy In The Environmental Movement

2023-07-30T13:18:17-04:00Tags: |

In an interview with Yessenia Funes, climate and environmental activist Jacqueline Patterson reflects on the legacy of Black communities, culture, and history, and their connections to the environmental movement. Patterson is the founder and director of The Chisholm Legacy Project, a Black-led climate organization working to empower Black communities. Patterson’s ideas of legacy reflect the spirit and work of Shirley Chisholm, a prominent leader. She first discusses cultural heritage and connection to the land. She notes how Black people were historically conservationists for survival, which fostered a kinship and understanding of the land that continues today. She also discusses the culture of the community that formed. She believes this legacy is crucial in environmental justice movements. Community fodders leadership and leadership fodders self-determination, which is a powerful tool in resisting inequities. BIPOC communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental injustice, and these legacies have historically fought this. Patterson highlights the Black women and youth on the frontlines of environmental, economic, and racial justice initiatives that continue these legacies. She emphasizes that the sustenance of these legacies and the continuation of positive change must center around the wellness of those embodying these ideas. Justice movements centered on community and liberation will lead to systemic transformation. Photo credit: Jacqueline Patterson/Atmos

5 01, 2023

Nature’s Tools Help Clean Up Urban Rivers

2024-02-14T10:16:22-05:00Tags: , |

This article, written by Katherine Rapin, explores the work of various organizations dedicated to restoring freshwater ecosystems through the reintroduction of bivalves (oysters and mussels) and aquatic plant species. These organisms improve water quality in numerous ways including nutrient cycling, acting as carbon sinks, and holding sediment together. Rapin highlights the work of Danielle Kreeger, the science director of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, which oversees a freshwater mussel hatchery in the Philadelphia area. One important dimension of reintroduction work is retaining the genetic diversity of wild populations, while also not introducing any diseases. Kreeger mentions the work her team is conducting on biosecurity to ensure the safety of bivalve populations. As well, experts emphasize how reintroduction measures must be conducted in conjunction with other frameworks to decrease contaminants, especially the addition of excess nutrients in these waterways. According to Kelly Somers, the senior watershed coordinator of the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region, in recent years, there have been discoveries of healthy seagrass beds along the Delaware River which are signifiers of improved water quality. Through decades of aquatic plant work, scientists attribute the growth of these populations to nature’s own capabilities in self-restoration and reductions in excess nutrients.  Photo Credit: Katherine Rapin

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

9 10, 2022

‘The US Dammed Us Up’: How Drought Is Threatening Navajo Ties To Ancestral Lands 

2023-04-16T16:15:56-04:00Tags: |

Annette McGivney highlights the story of Candice Mendez, a Navajo woman who runs her family’s farm on the Navajo reservation in northeast Arizona. During her childhood, Mendez and her family were self-sufficient; however, by the early 1990s, nearby waterways began to dry up due to climate change. These changes in water accessibility now force Mendez to drive more than one hundred miles each week to haul water back to the farm for her animals, which have been tended by women in Mendez’s family for no less than five generations. Since the Navajo People were not considered US citizens at the time decision-making surrounding Colorado River agreements occurred, their communities remain excluded from water-use and continue to lack sufficient water infrastructure. The disproportionate impacts of climate change on the Navajo Nation make these conditions increasingly more difficult, especially as they experience even greater temperature increases than the 1.5 C increase that much of the southwestern United States has already seen. Mendez’s attempts to receive funding from the USDA to support her farm have been unsuccessful; loans like this require land ownership as collateral, and there is no private property on the reservation. Due to these significant hardships, Mendez continues to have serious concerns about her ability to maintain her family’s ranch. Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images 

28 09, 2022

Women fighting fire with fire

2023-03-29T13:30:11-04:00Tags: |

The scale and intensity of wildfires has dramatically increased due to drier conditions from climate change and the suppression of natural fires. Women like Lenya Quinn-Davidson, fire advisor to the University of California, Margo Robbins, executive director of the Cultural Fire Management Council, and Katie Sauerbrey, fire programmer for the Nature Conservancy, are part of a larger movement of women and gender non-conforming people working in the field of prescribed burning, the intentional practice of setting fires to maintain the health of forests. Prescribing burning comes from the traditional knowledge and practice of Indigenous Peoples in North America. This practice was disrupted by colonialism when settlers suppressed natural fire. The return to prescribed burning comes at a time when people are desperate for a solution to the catastrophic wildfires raging across the continent. For prescribed burning to be successfully practiced and integrated in fire management plans, Indigenous Peoples, women, and gender non-conforming people must be included and become leaders in the fire industry. Photo credit: Jennifer Osborne/Atmos

28 07, 2022

Humanity Can’t Equivocate Any Longer. This Is A Climate Emergency

2023-03-05T23:40:26-05:00Tags: |

Rebecca Solnit and Terry Tempest Williams invite readers to join them in declaring a climate emergency, arguing that where the people lead, governments will follow. Recent natural disasters, droughts, fires, water contamination, and rising temperatures have shown us that “the future the scientists warned us about is where we live now.” Solnit and Williams explain that the climate emergency requires an immediate transition away from fossil fuels and a commitment to collectively investing in newer, more socially and environmentally just methods of production, consumption, and travel. They urge people to come together in solidarity to save the planet from further destruction for the future generations who will call it home. Photo credit: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

12 07, 2022

Banks: The Less Visible Actors In The Fossil Fuel Industry

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

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

27 06, 2022

How Defeating Keystone XL Built A Bolder, Savvier Climate Movement

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

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

21 06, 2022

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

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

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

1 06, 2022

Interview: Osprey Orielle Lake, Women’s Earth And Climate Action Network

2023-03-05T23:36:00-05:00Tags: |

In this interview, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International’s Founder and Executive Director Osprey Orielle Lake discusses WECAN’s goals, the roles of women in movements for climate action, and Stockholm+50 with writer Selva Ozelli. Lake highlights the critical work that is being done by women and feminist leaders around the globe -- work that challenges systems of oppression (patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and capitalism) and aims to create more equitable, sustainable futures for people and planet. She explains that women are at the helm of grassroots and community-led efforts to advance renewable energy, food sovereignty, rights of nature, Indigenous human rights, and feminist economies. They are also fighting back against extractive industries, fossil fuel infrastructure, deforestation, and the destruction of biodiversity. Lake credits the work of these women leaders and organizations like WECAN with advancing toward a just transition. Photo Credit: WECAN

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

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

22 03, 2022

The Wildlife Scientist Finding Innovation in Ancient Ideas

2024-08-26T10:53:59-04:00Tags: |

A wildlife biologist and member of Laguna Pueblo, a west-central New Mexican tribe, Serra Hoagland, is bridging her experiences to help manage forest fires and threatened species. As the first Native American woman with a Ph.D. to work for U.S Forest and Wildlife services, she sees herself connecting tribal knowledge and management practices with scientific research. Her field site, located in a forest belonging to the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico, has no phone service and is difficult to access. Hoagland and a research team use sound to monitor the Mexican spotted owl, a species whose habitat has been affected by wildfires and climate change. Her studies focus on Mescalero Apache tribal management of forests, including the controlled use of fire, which has not shown negative effects on the animal. Her work highlights the holistic approach many tribes utilize to manage their forests, through consideration of species, watershed health, and forest resiliency.

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

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. 

15 02, 2022

Let’s Honor Hazel Johnson’s Environmental Justice Legacy During Black History Month

2023-02-02T15:40:02-05:00Tags: |

Executive Director of People for Community Recovery, Cheryl Johnson, honors the legacy of her mother: Hazel Johnson. As an organizer in the south side of Chicago, Hazel raised awareness about inequities at the intersection of socioeconomic, environmental, and public health factors. She fought against environmental racism, housing discrimination, and toxic waste. After her husband died from lung cancer, she began noticing the high cancer rates in her neighborhood, and she exposed the connection between pollution and health problems through community advocacy. The 17 Principles of Environmental Justice she formulated continue to motivate action today. In this article, Johnson commemorates her mother’s accomplishments as an early leader of the environmental justice movement, while emphasizing the importance of women’s contributions to grassroots initiatives. She also discusses recent efforts to recognize Hazel Johnson, including three federal bills that propose celebrating every April as environmental justice month in her name, creating a memorial postage stamp, and posthumously giving her a Congressional Gold Medal. Photo Credit: People for Community Recovery

3 02, 2022

Rematriating The Land With Corrina Gould — The Native Seed Pod

2023-04-16T16:05:15-04:00Tags: |

This episode of the Native Seed Pod highlights Corrina Gould, co-founder (along with Johnella LaRose) of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, Tribal Chair for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, and co-founder of Indian People Organizing for Change. In this episode, Gould discusses the importance of reinstating Indigenous women as stewards of the land and highlights one of the successful initiatives The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust has launched -- the Shuumi Tax. This tax allows people who live and work within the traditional territories of Lisjan to pay an honorary tax for using the lands, which supports the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. Gould also elaborates on the Himmetka program, an initiative that seeks to establish resources and community centers for gathering in times of crisis in multiple locations throughout the territory. These are based in areas that are vulnerable to crises due to lack of resources and protection from the city. Gould also underscores the importance of land to food security; it must remain accessible to those in the community who do not have fresh food available. The episode ends with Gould discussing some of her planned next steps which include founding a land fund which anyone globally can donate to in order to support the purchase of traditional lands. Photo Credit: Maisie Richards and Inés Ixierda

2 02, 2022

Permanently Organized Communities.

2023-02-02T16:25:03-05:00Tags: |

In this article Movement Generation founder, Michelle Mascarenhas, details why we need place-based permanently organized communities. Specifically now, the Covid-19 pandemic has offered opportunities to build the types of local systems our movements need, including but not limited to: shifting labor to mutuality and care, creating mutual aid networks, resourcing mutual aid funds, and working towards self-governance. Photo Credit: Brooke Anderson

28 01, 2022

The Young Activist Fighting To ‘Change the Faces of Power’

2023-02-01T23:10:09-05:00Tags: |

Ilona Duverge, a housing justice activist from New York City, experienced housing insecurity as a college student and is now a movement leader for systemic and electoral change. Low-income and public housing, especially in formerly redlined areas, can be inadequate in the winter due to lack of insulation and sufficient heating but dangerous in the summer given suffocating heat. This is exacerbated by the issue of climate change. Duverge has worked at the intersection of these issues, first volunteering with local campaigns and later becoming the deputy organizing director for U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign. She is also the founder of Movement School, which trains working class activists on how they can run for office, as well as a housing and legal fellow who helps tenants of public housing learn their rights. Duverge’s advocacy for the NYC Housing Authority to upgrade their housing with climate action and clean energy in mind inspired Ocasio-Cortez to introduce the Green New Deal for Housing, which would invest in sustainable housing upgrades and create green jobs. Duverge’s vision of the climate-economy link has sparked powerful action against poverty and environmental racism. Photo Credit: Ilona Duverge  

1 01, 2022

Dolores Huerta: Workers Must Unite To Take On Climate

2023-02-02T15:42:00-05:00Tags: |

Yessenia Funes, the climate director of Atmos, interviews labor activist Dolores Huerta on how her fight for justice promotes environmental justice. Huerta discusses ways to unite labor and climate action movements, emphasizing that we need to facilitate a just transition to green jobs so oil workers have alternate employment that pays adequately while being better for the environment. She outlines suggestions for pressuring Congress and local legislatures, expanding labor unions through legal support and movement-building, and supporting workers who are transitioning industries. Above all, Huerta believes that the focus should be on supporting candidates at all levels who will be advocates for environmentally just labor policies.  Photo Credit: Brandon Barela

1 01, 2022

Indigenous Feminism Flows Through The Fight For Water Rights On The Rio Grande

2023-06-04T09:54:16-04:00Tags: |

Kalen Goodluck (Dine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Tsimshian) and Christine Trudeau (Prairie Band Potawatomi) highlight the Rio Grande Pueblo Nations' extremely difficult path to quantified Rio Grande water rights. The negative impacts on the Rio Grande's water quality and quantity due to the climate crisis and non-Native interventions compound this struggle. Despite challenges, the Pueblo nations have hope and are taking action. In particular, three Indigenous women are highlighted for their work in fighting for quantified water rights to protect their communities, culture, and future generations. Notably, Julia Bernal (Sandia, Taos, and Yuchi-Creek Nations of Oklahoma), the director and co-founder of the Pueblo Action Alliance, which centers youth involvement in their advocacy for water rights; Judge Verna Teller (Isleta Pueblo), the Chief Justice of Isleta Pueblo who played a major role in having Isleta become the first tribal nation to create water-quality standards through the Clean Water Act; and Phoebe Suina (San Felipe and Cochiti Pueblos), hydrologist and owner of High Water Mark, an Indigenous and women-led environmental consulting company which specializes in water-resource engineering. 

13 12, 2021

Nurturing Roots, Flourishing Movement

2021-12-13T20:58:40-05:00Tags: |

This webpage introduces us to the ‘memory project’ presented by FRIDA, a youth-led fund exclusively supporting young feminist organizing which was officially set up in 2008. On International Women’s Day 2018, through a collection of stories of innovation and creation; recognition; collaboration and action; and of collective learning, FRIDA acknowledged the individual lives of inspiring women who paved the way for today’s young feminists. Through this recognition, FRIDA asserts that memories are part of their resistance, as each story relates a memory, reveals a symbol, and shares the belief that feminist organising can change the course of history. The project was developed by young feminist consultant Christy Selica Zinn who collected and translated these stories (her work is on women’s rights, youth development and organisation change in Sub-Saharan Africa); and by illustrator and project designer Pearl D’Souza, who is based in Goa, India. Photo Credit: Young Feminist Fund

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

13 10, 2021

Food Sovereignty: A Growing Movement

2021-12-13T21:07:14-05:00Tags: |

In this episode of the All My Relations Podcast, idigenous women Matika Wilbur and Adrienne Keene discuss food sovereignty and colonised food systems with Valerie Segrest of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. A Native nutrition educator, Segrest uses her specialisation in local and traditional foods to touch on topics such as breastfeeding, food sovereignty activism, the issue with the term “food desert,” and systems of colonisation through food. Photo Credit: All My Relations Podcast

13 09, 2021

Stop Ignoring Mothering As Work

2023-02-02T16:26:11-05:00Tags: |

Writer Kimberly Seals Allers believes a major part of feminism is celebrating women as a whole, with mothering as a central and unique role that should be highly valued in society. Allers explores the alarming gender inequities ingrained in social and financial systems in the United States based on the undervaluation of maternal work alongside secular work which impacts women at all levels. She advocates for women to be honored and supported across society for their specific contributions as mothers, nurturers, educators, and other roles that extend far beyond the patriarchal confines of the ability to compete with men in professional roles. Photo credit: 10’000 Hours/Getting Images

13 09, 2021

Eat Your Ethics: Rallying For Food Justice In Supply Chains With Lauren Ornelas

2021-12-13T21:26:52-05:00Tags: |

In this episode of the Amplify Podcast, host Sanchi Singh speaks with food justice activist Lauren Ornelas. Founder of the food justice nonprofit, Food Empowerment Project, Ornelas discusses her path to activism, whiteness in the veganism movement, and the ways in which COVID19 has greatly impacted food labor. Singh and Ornelas discuss the specific impacts of COVID19 food system disruptions in relation to low-income communities in both India and the United States. Video Credit: Amplify Podcast

1 09, 2021

Aurora Castillo Activates East Lost Angeles Mothers For Social And Environmental Justice

2022-05-14T17:06:13-04:00Tags: |

Aurora  Castillo is a Mexican-American activist and one of the founders of The Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA). With organized action, she was able to stop the eighth prison of the East L.A. from being built, stop an oil pipeline from running through her community, stop a toxic waste incinerator that was being planned for the East L.A. city of Vernon, and  stop a hazardous waste treatment plant close to a high school. With MELA and her activism, companies were brought to justice, environmental responsibility encouraged and others grassroots groups were helped by a series of important legal precedents. Photo credit: Goldman Environmental Prize.

6 08, 2021

‘It could feed the world’: amaranth, a health trend 8,000 years old that survived colonization

2023-05-26T15:19:13-04:00Tags: |

Over the last few decades, amaranth has gained popularity globally. It is an extremely resilient 8,000-year-old pseudocereal indigenous to Mesoamerica, but also grown in China, India, south-east Asia, west Africa and the Caribbean. As a complete protein with all nine essential amino acids, amaranth is a nutritious source of manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and antioxidants that may improve brain function and reduce inflammation. This ancient cultivation was extremely important for Native People, such as the Aztecs and Maya. In fact, amaranth was not only a source of proteins but was also used for ceremonial purposes due to these communities’ strong spiritual connection to the land and plants. Beata Tsosie-Peña, an Indigenous woman from Santa Clara Pueblo, is a coordinator of the environmental health and justice program at Tewa Women United. She is part of several networks of women across North and Central America working together to reclaim Indigenous food systems, reconnect ancient trade routes, exchange seeds and share traditional knowledge as a way of regaining sovereignty and freedom for Native People. By overcoming the ban and struggles to preserve these seeds - the Spanish outlawed amaranth when they arrived in Central America, Mexico and the south-western United States - indigenous farmers contributed to their own self-determination and created an alternative economic system in order to protect their independence and control over the food supply. Photo Credits: Hitendra Sinkar/Alamy Stock Photo

17 07, 2021

The Rebirth Of The Food Sovereignty Movement

2021-07-17T18:50:51-04:00Tags: |

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a wave of backyard food planting and production. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of their local and regional food systems, and are taking initiative to support local food sovereignty projects. Doria Robinson of the urban farming project, Urban Tilth, describes the importance of CSAs in this time. Debbie Harris of Urban Adamah in Berkeley, California, points out the vital sense community urban farms create and nurture throughout times of hardship. Food sovereignty activists hope the push for local and equitable food systems continue after the end of the global pandemic. Photo Credit: Wendy Becktold

17 07, 2021

Local Indigenous People Gather To Bring Back Food Sovereignty

2021-07-17T18:33:58-04:00Tags: |

In a recent screening of the documentary “Gather,” a film recounting Indigenous food sovereignty initiatives, members of the Narragansett and Wampanoag tribes described their own local food sovereignty struggles. Hosted by Rhode Island’s first food gleaning project, Hope Harvest Rhode Island, the event featured Narragansett-Niantic speaker Lorèn Spears, the executive director of the Tomaquag Museum. Alongside other tribal members, Spears emphasized the radical power of food sovereignty initiatives to resist oppression by the dominant society through the reclamation of intergenerational Indigenous knowledge. Photo Credit: Gather

6 07, 2021

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Will Be The Leading Democrat On Climate Change

2021-07-06T18:27:01-04:00Tags: |

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, recently defeating 10-year incumbent, Joe Crowley, in the Democratic Party’s primary elections, has put forth an ambitious proposal to address climate change. The objective of her plan is to transition the United States economy into one that runs on 100% renewable energy by 2035. As a means to that end, Ocasio-Cortez is advocating for a “Green New Deal,” echoing President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1930s New Deal program. As part of this program, the U.S. government would be required to invest heavily in the development, deployment and distribution of green energy. Particularly, since Puerto Rico is still struggling to regain reliable electricity after a deadly hurricane in 2017, the new policy could be tested there, says Ocasio-Cortez. Photo credit: Xavier Garcia/Bloomberg via Getty Images

6 07, 2021

When Women Lead: Women’s Environmental Voting Records

2021-07-06T17:48:06-04:00Tags: |

Since 1972 to present day, women in Congress have more often supported environmental protection legislation as compared to their male counterparts. This includes legislation to provide clean air and clean water as well as legislation promoting conservation for future generations. Conversely, women in Congress have also voted more often against legislation that would undo those protections. This trend holds for both political parties, Democratic and Republican, and it also holds for both chambers of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Thus, the track record of women in Congress is a promising one. Still, women are significantly underrepresented in the legislature and so rectifying this situation is necessary. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

6 07, 2021

A Call To Attention Liberation: To Build Abundant Justice, Let’s Focus On What Matters

2021-07-06T17:43:25-04:00Tags: |

Writer, speaker, and social justice advocate Adrienne Maree Brown discusses the power presence and attention as a force for change based on what individuals or groups choose to focus their limited energy on. She explores intentional mindset practices and group efforts that impact social justice work, including the concept of “principled struggle” that brings people closer together by fostering respectful conflict that is generative by nature. Brown also highlights “critical construction” as a key practice of co-creating thoughtful plans that build off of ideas from various perspectives provided within a coalition or group. These practices seek to reach beyond the pervasive mindset of scarcity that often dominates capitalist society to allow for collaborative, holistic methods to approach the fight for justice. Photo credit: Jeff Swensen / Getty Images

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 

6 07, 2021

Women in the Water Sector: Working Together for the Future

2021-07-06T14:57:10-04:00Tags: |

Studies show that there is a lack of women working in the water sector, which includes a lack of women leaders. Specifically, less than twenty percent of water workers are women in the United States. But the water organizations that include female leadership tend to benefit—whether women are included in sustainability, community engagement or economic development roles. Keisha Brown, one such leader, has had extensive experience working in community-based partnerships to improve water quality while remaining accountable to the local communities the work is enacted in. According to her, the lens of social justice must be applied to the infrastructure industry and the impacts of infrastructure on people’s well-being should be carefully assessed. Photo Credit: Storm Water Solutions

6 07, 2021

Meet Your Farmer: Brooklyn Grange, The World’s Largest Rooftop Urban Farm United States

2021-07-06T14:52:59-04:00Tags: |

In Brooklyn, New York, Michelle Cashen and Anastasia Cole Plakias manage and lead Brooklyn Grange, the world’s largest rooftop urban farm. Eleven stories above the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the farm produces greens, fruits, and other edible plants. Cashen and Plakias describe their commitment to urban farming and providing fresh food without using pesticides and herbicides. Photo Credit: Local Roots NYC

13 04, 2021

Women Environmental Defenders Condemn Systemic Abuses Before The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

2021-04-13T17:33:31-04:00Tags: |

This Earth Rights International (ERI) media release summarises the submission of a delegation of women environmental defenders from the Americas who testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The delegation condemned widespread and unjust criminalisation and repression against defenders of rights of land, territories, and environmental protection. The testimonies presented in this thematic hearing, which denounced instances of exceptional cases of attacks against environmental defenders, was led by Columbian human rights lawyer Julian Bravo Valencia, ERI’s Amazon Program Coordinator. Several women testified, including two women from Acción Ecológica, Esperanza Martinez Yanez and Ivonne Ramos, whose experiences highlight the sexism disproportionately affecting women defenders in the Americas. At a time when the interests of corporations and their impunity in committing rights violations is rife, the hearing aimed to produce a report which presents extreme examples of human rights abuses in Ecuador, Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil and the United States. Photo Credit: Earth Rights International

13 04, 2021

Panel Discusses Food Sovereignty, Justice

2021-04-13T17:22:41-04:00Tags: |

In Santa Barbara, California, the Santa Barbara County Food Action Network invited local environmental advocates to present a webinar on food sovereignty and food justice. The panel included Santa Barbara City Council faculty member Daniel Parra Hensel, environmental director for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Teresa Romero, executive director of Lideres Campesinas Suguet Lopez, Community Environmental Councilmember Alhan Diaz-Correa, former farmworker Andrea Cabrea Hubbard, and Ana Rosa Rizo-Centino, a senior organizer for Food and Water Watch. A majority female panel, the panelists discussed women’s roles in food justice initiatives and local agriculture movements. They expressed gratitude for grassroots efforts and their hope to create institutional change through community organizing. Photo Credit: Courtesy Photos   

13 04, 2021

Sustainable Missoula: Food Sovereignty Is On The Line This Year

2021-04-13T17:20:19-04:00Tags: |

Based in Missoula, Montana, Indigenous ethnobotanist and Salish scientist Rose Bear Don’t Walk describes her personal relationship to Thanksgiving, while imploring readers to bring food sovereignty values to their own plates. She reclaims the settler-colonial notion of Thanksgiving by using the holiday to give thanks, spend time with family, and support her local farms— further forging a connection between herself, her family, and the land around them. Photo Credit: Missoula Current

13 04, 2021

Rebecca Newburn Garden In Richmond, CA

2021-04-13T17:18:26-04:00Tags: |

When she is not teaching middle school science and math classes, Rebecca Newburn tends to her expansive home garden in which she grows a variety of fruits, vegetables, and other plants. The co-founder of the “Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library,” Newburn understands the importance of saving and sharing seed among her close knit community of female gardeners in Richmond, California. She emphasises the stories plant varieties tell and the historical and cultural significance of seeds. Video Capture Credit: Edible East Bay

9 04, 2021

My Year Of No Shopping

2021-04-09T13:25:25-04:00Tags: |

The author Ann Patchett shares the journey to her pledge to stop shopping, inspired by her friend Elissa years earlier. The initial attraction for the idea turned into practice at the end of 2016, when she came up with an arbitrary set of rules for the year to make a serious but not draconian plan. In the article she shares all the “gleeful discoveries” of her first few months of no shopping as well as more long-term positive impacts on her lifestyle. At the end of the year, instead of ending the experiment, she decides to leave her pledge in place. Photo Credit: Wenjia Tang

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

10 03, 2021

Women Run The Climate World. Just Ask Elizabeth Yeampierre.

2023-04-16T14:36:23-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of Uprose — an organization that promotes a just transition and community development in Brooklyn, New York— discusses women’s leadership in the climate justice movement. Yeampierre describes patriarchal models of leadership as outdated and unproductive in the climate justice space. She explains that within the movement, generations of women have come together to create a new model for collective leadership in which all voices matter and all participants are leaderful. Yeampierre considers climate justice a way of keeping with the traditions of her ancestors who stewarded the land and protected the earth before her. She is dedicated to creating more just and sustainable systems that will protect the earth and frontline communities through the power of a diverse, intergenerational climate justice movement. Photo credit: Photograph by Pete Voelker

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

16 02, 2021

Get To The Bricks: The Experiences Of Black Women Foom New Orleans Public Housing After Hurricane Katrina

2021-02-16T20:43:53-05:00Tags: |

The report explores the experiences of almost 200 black women who were living in “The Big Four”- four large housing projects within the city of New Orleans - when Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005. They were displaced from their prior homes due to the hurricane and the closure and demolition of the public housing units. This case shows that the experiences of black women in public housing were not taken into consideration when developing a plan for post-Katrina recovery. U.S. policies were implemented in a manner that took away opportunities, supports, and infrastructures from low-income women and their families most in need of a reliable safety net as they sought to recover from a catastrophic set of disasters and endure the Great Recession. Including the various experiences and voices of these women in the policy discussion going forward will ensure that future disasters do not perpetuate the marginalization of the most disadvantaged members of our communities.

23 12, 2020

Going Viral

2023-02-02T16:00:47-05:00Tags: |

Environmental activist Leah Thomas discusses her experience going viral in May of 2020, when she posted on Instagram calling for solidarity between the environmental movement and Black Lives Matter. Her graphic outlined a vision of “Intersectional Environmentalism” – an approach to advocacy that centers people as well as the planet, acting upon the interconnectedness of injustice and confronting social inequity. Thomas reflects upon the post’s rapid virality and the power that social media has to build movements and motivate collective action. She emphasizes the potential for social media-driven knowledge and empowerment, while showing the power that individuals have to inspire change. Photo Credit: Cher Martinez

15 12, 2020

Focus on Housing and Jobs or the Climate Fight ‘Goes Nowhere’

2023-11-28T21:50:46-05:00Tags: , |

Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of Uprose, has been leading a movement to stop new developments in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood that would displace local communities. She has presented an alternative project that would give back to the community and help meet climate goals. Yeampierre has proposed that instead of the waterfront being bought and rebuilt by private developers, which would result in gentrification and the displacement of many BIPOC communities in the neighborhood, that a bustling green industry hub be built. This would support the shift to renewable energy through development of wind turbines, solar panels, and low-carbon technology, while providing fair salaries for neighborhood residents and also benefit immigrants and undocumented individuals without much formal education. These developments would sustain and develop communities that are at increased risk from the climate crisis. Photo credit: Pete Voelker

20 11, 2020

Jilian Hishaw Wants To Help Black Farmers Stay On Their Land

2020-11-20T17:54:00-05:00Tags: |

Jilian Hishaw’s organisation, Family Agriculture and Resource Management Services (FARMS) is advocating for black farmer rights not only for today, but also for future generations. With only 2% of the country’s farm population consisting of black farmers, the services this organisation provides aids vulnerable farmers who often face discrimination by the USDA and who lose land at a rate of 30,000 acres per year. These services are available for all farmers from historically disadvantaged group in South Eastern states in the United States and their legal and technical assistance, including grant application help, fundraisers, agricultural law and foreclosure help, aid in retaining ownership of their land. Furthermore, the FARMS to Food Bank program aims to support farmers in selling surplus produce and meat at a reduced price to the food banks in their communities, thus also contributing to food insecurity solutions in these areas. Photo credit: Jilian Hishaw

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

9 09, 2020

Wildfires And Weather Extremes: It’s Not Coincidence, It’s Climate Change

2020-09-09T22:16:53-04:00Tags: |

The acceleration of forest fires in the West has made fire season 2 to 3 months longer than it was just a few decades ago. Climate change and wildfires are linked by mechanisms like higher temperatures, increased aridity, invasive species, earlier melting of snowpack etc. Climate change is not the single responsible factor for these fires and the natural ecosystem drivers of fire should be recognized.

9 09, 2020

Wildfire Smoke Threatens Air Quality Across The West

2020-09-09T22:13:58-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Bonnie Holmes-Gen, chief of the health and exposure assessment branch in the research division of the California Air Resources Board shares the links between health problems and wildfire smoke. During the COVID-19 pandemic, unhealthy air quality is a serious public health emergency. This summer, as California’s coronavirus cases continue to surge and the state struggles to implement safety measures, wildfire season is worsening air quality, complicating evacuation plans, perpetuating unjust impacts on Black, Brown, and Native communities, and further endanger those already at greatest risk of COVID-19.    

8 09, 2020

California Wildfires: Intersecting Crises & How To Respond

2020-09-09T22:23:23-04:00Tags: |

During a public health crisis centered around a respiratory disease, the last thing we need is more pollution that worsens respiratory problems and deepens already disproportionately higher risks of COVID-19 for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities. While getting real about the root issues is urgently important, millions of Californians are being forced to deal with the immediate task of safety and survival. Greenpeace created a California Wildfire Crisis Emergency Response Guide to help communities stay safe and healthy during these uncertain times. Photo Credit: David McNew / Greenpeace

8 09, 2020

Earth Defenders Warn Against Democrats Undermining ‘Rights of Nature’ Movement With Watered-Down Approach

2023-01-25T12:37:01-05:00Tags: |

Jessica Corbett explains that although Rights of Nature activists are encouraged by the Democratic Party’s recent acknowledgement of their demands, they are concerned that the policies that follow might be based on “watered down” understandings of the Rights of Nature movement. Because the movement advocates deep system change, it is unlikely that a corporate-friendly DNC platform could align with its aims; in fact, it could potentially undermine the transformative change that activists have worked so hard to enact and marginalize (or ignore) the voices and expertise of Indigenous Nations and grassroots organizations. Corbett mentions the true aims of the Rights of Nature movement will be centered in the upcoming 2020 documentary, Invisible Hand. Executive producer Mark Ruffalo has said that the documentary will demonstrate "how to fight the forces that put profit above all else while addressing the root cause of our flawed system." Photo credit: Invisible Hand/Flickr 

6 09, 2020

In California Wine Country, Undocumented Grape Pickers Forced To Work In Fire Evacuation Zones

2020-10-05T16:49:57-04:00Tags: |

Amid pandemic economic impact, many Latin American Indigenous immigrants have no choice but to do farm work in hazardous conditions during wildfires, increasing their vulnerability to COVID-19 due to their exposure to smoke. Movimiento Cultural de la Unión Indígena, an Indigenous workers’ group, is pushing for appropriate working regulations, in addition to providing economic and social assistance, especially to the undocumented suspicious of federal support. Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

3 09, 2020

What Should We Know About Wildfires In California

2020-09-09T22:57:12-04:00Tags: |

This Greenpeace article lists trends impacting the occurrence of both forest and wildland fires today and solutions to those trends. The climate crisis is fueling extreme weather events, including an exceptionally dry winter and record-breaking heat waves which leave more dried up wildland vegetation to kindle the fires.  Despite this, the Trump Administration and the logging industry regularly use wildfires as opportunities to make the case for more logging under the guise of fuels reduction and fire prevention. Photo Credit: 2016 Erskine Fire in Central California, © US Forest Service

30 08, 2020

Indigenous Activists Brace For Worsening Wildfires Under Climate Change

2020-11-20T17:37:27-05:00Tags: |

The Three Sisters Collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico is leading local efforts to address climate change impacts in Indigenous communities. Carrie Wood, member of the Navajo Nation, and Christina M. Castro, member of the Taos and Jemez pueblos, are two of the women who have been supporting critical local responses such as making air purifiers for elders in the Nambé, Tesuque and Pojoaque pueblos who have dealt with excessive smoke from the Medio Fire combined with other wildfires in the western US. Their support stems from long-held mutual aid traditions led by Indigenous women, stressing the importance of investing in Indigenous knowledge and tribal fire management techniques for community resilience. Photo credit: Cody Nelson/NM Political Report

13 08, 2020

The Women Battling Wildfires And Breaking Barriers In The American Wilderness

2020-09-09T19:33:02-04:00Tags: |

Hannah Gross is one of 10,000 female wild land firefighters in the United States. In this historically male-dominated field women often face implicit bias, sexism, and gatekeepers who didn’t make them welcome.  Various initiatives have been created to increase the number of women in fire, foster their leadership capabilities, and improve their operational confidence in the field. Thanks to some of these initiatives women are  present in every facet of the wildland fire world. Photo Credit: Alex Potter

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)

24 06, 2020

Where Do You Draw The Boundaries Of Home? Understanding Bioregions Might Give You An Idea

2023-03-05T23:49:37-05:00Tags: |

Carlita del Sol explains the concepts of bioregionalism and place-based governance. In pre-colonial times, Indigenous Peoples lived on their ancestral territories for thousands of years, and hyper-localized knowledges of their regions were passed down through generations. These knowledges allowed Indigenous Peoples to live in reciprocal relationship with the land, taking care of the region and its “lifesources,” while also depending on the land, animals, and local food systems for their own survival. del Sol includes a list of steps that people can take to re-orient themselves with the bioregions that they are already in relationship with. Photo credit: Mervin Windsor (Haisla-Heiltsuk), from Decolonial Atlas

29 05, 2020

Gardens Have Pulled America Out Of Some Of Its Darkest Times. We Need Another Revival

2021-02-16T20:31:45-05:00Tags: |

As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the United States’ economy, issues of food security have been magnified. Consequently, the importance of local gardens have been emphasized. From Victory Gardens during the first and second world war, to the emergence of urban vegetable gardens throughout US cities in the 1970s and 1980s, the United States has a rich history of local gardening initiatives. The pandemic has forced Americans to re-evaluate the many way local gardens benefit a community. In Richmond, California, Doria Robinson of Urban Tilth provides 227 families with weekly CSA vegetable shares. Serving low-income residents in a city with only one grocery store per 100,000 residents, Robinson’s work at Urban Tilth makes a great difference in the local community, especially in light of COVID-19. Photo Credit: Karen Washington 

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

3 07, 2019

Nurdle by Nurdle, Citizens Took on A Billion-Dollar Plastic Company — and Won

2020-11-20T17:34:49-05:00Tags: |

A federal judge recently ruled that Formosa Plastics, a petrochemical company outside Port Lavaca, Texas, can be held liable for violating state and federal water pollution laws. The company could face a penalty of up to $162 million. Thanks to data collected by resident volunteers, the nonprofit San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper brought a lawsuit against the company in 2017. According to the lawsuit, the company violated its environmental permits for years, dumping millions of small plastic pellets - called nurdles - into Lavaca Bay. Among the volunteers is Diane Wilson, a retired shrimper who has been trying to get Formosa to stop dumping in the bay since the early ’90s. Since the trial started, pollution levels haven’t changed, so she keeps gathering evidence with her kayak. Giving up is not an option for her. Photo credit: Wikimedia

31 05, 2019

Environmental Justice Activists Are Leading a Green New Deal Revolution

2023-03-29T11:18:42-04:00Tags: |

The Green New Deal is often considered ambitious, yet for Indigenous communities and people of color across the United States, it is an essential catalyst for organizing and advocacy. The resolution, which highlights the need for action grounded in “justice and equity,” centers around the need to consult and include frontline groups most gravely impacted by climate change. This article explains the significance of the Green New Deal by following activists who are implementing justice-based environmental initiatives across America. Jayeesha Dutta works with Another Gulf is Possible, an organization uplifting women of color’s voices on environmental issues in the Gulf South. She shares her perspective on how to help communities in regions dominated by oil companies, and how to implement a just transition to a regenerative economy. Colette Pichon Battle, the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, discusses her vision for rebuilding infrastructure, creating inclusive green jobs, and leading grassroots change when progressive climate legislation is lacking. Photo Credit: Laura Borealis

23 05, 2019

How Black Farmers Are Trying To End Centuries Of Racism In America’s Food System

2023-11-08T12:36:18-05:00Tags: , |

Kiesha Cameron is part of a movement of Black farmers pushing for reparations and equal opportunity in agriculture. America’s wealth and power is due to the hard work of exploited enslaved people. Their work in tobacco and cotton fields in today’s terms would have been a multi-billion dollar industry. Now, systemic racism has pushed Black farmers to the margins of these practices through violence, lack of legal support, prejudice, and poverty—in turn, barring them from opportunities to create sustainable, wealth-building communities. Savi Horne, the director of the Land Loss Prevention Project, emphasizes the need for land rights to be central in reparations. This is a complicated process and there is much more work that needs to be done on governmental levels. Cameron, Horne, and many others are working to reclaim farming for Black communities. They are taking back power and control to combat centuries of exploitation and racism, instead replacing it with autonomy and healing. Photo credit: Lynsey Weatherspoon/HuffPost

16 05, 2019

These Five Black LGBTQ+ Activists Are Literally Saving The Planet

2020-11-07T17:58:13-05:00Tags: |

Explore what the environmental justice movement looks like led by those most impacted. Meet 5 Black LGBTQ+ community organizers and activists Asha Carter (she/her), Dominique Hazzard (she/her), Dean Jackson (they/them), Jeaninne Kayembe (she/her,they/them), and  Rachel Stevens (she/her,they/them). Follow their stories of activism to learn how creative and impactful movements within their communities have responded to healing environmental racism. Photo Credit: Asha Carter

15 05, 2019

‘It’s my homeland’: the trailblazing Native lawmaker fighting fossil fuels

2023-03-29T11:50:38-04:00Tags: |

Deb Halaand, a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, became one of the first two Native American women to be elected to Congress when she won her campaign for representative of New Mexico’s 1stCongressional District. After her victory, Rep. Halaand focused her attentions on the controversy surrounding Utah’s Bears Ears national monument. The monument is home to many sites sacred to Native American peoples but in December 2017, the Trump Administration declared the boundaries would be reduced for the benefit of oil, gas and mining industries. In response, Halaand proposed various bills for the protection of national monuments but the future of these bills remains uncertain. Halaand’s effort are not solely concentrated on protecting native land but also combating climate change. Photo credit: Jason Andrew/The Guardian

14 05, 2019

How To Craft Climate Financing That Helps Minorities And Lower-Income Americans

2023-02-26T12:42:32-05:00Tags: |

In  this article, Rebecca Stoner highlights a model for non-extractive climate financing that aims to support and serve worker-owned, grassroots-level just transition projects. The Our Power Loan Fund, a Climate Justice Alliance initiative, works at the intersections of economic, racial, and environmental justice through its mission to support sustainable agriculture projects led by people of color from low-income communities. These communities are often the most impacted by social and environmental injustice but are the least likely to receive the necessary financing to implement solutions. The Our Power Loan Fund centers the needs of under-resourced workers by lending technical support and coaching to get projects “loan-ready” before offering loans that do not need to be paid back until the business is profitable. This model empowers local organizing -- rather than exploiting it -- by providing the resources necessary for frontline leaders to create pathways toward place-based environmental justice. Photo credit: Matt Feinstein/Global Village Farms

8 05, 2019

Teen Girls Are The Best At Convincing Parents That Climate Change Is Real, Study Finds United States

2023-04-16T15:04:41-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Anne Gaviola details the findings of a 2019 study, which revealed teen girls most effectively express the urgency of the climate crisis to their parents, even when compared to adult experts and journalists parents see in the media. The North Carolina State University study focused on 238 American youths (ages 10-14) and their parents to measure parents’ level of concern about climate change to see who was most influenced by which informants. The study showed that the people who had initially been the least concerned about climate change — conservatives and fathers — were the most impacted by the conversations they had with their children about the issue. Young girls were shown to be the most effective and persuasive communicators in this age group. Gaviola notes that this is positive news for the young women and youth who are climate activists; their voices have the potential to make a large impact. Photo credit: Stephanie Zollshan (The Berkshire Eagle/Ap)

13 04, 2019

GirlTrek: When Black Women Walk, Things Change

2019-04-13T16:36:26-04:00Tags: |

Morgan Dixon is the co-founder of ‘GirlTrek’, a national help organization addressing the disproportionate effects of the current health crisis in African American women. Starting with 530 women in their first year, the organization has since grown to about 100,000 African American women who walk together every day. Together the women of ‘GirlTrek’ not only boost their own physical health, they also improve the health of their families and communities while reshaping the narrative around health for women of color. Video Credit: National Sierra Club

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

4 04, 2019

How A Female Fast Food Worker Became An Activist

2020-11-20T17:32:47-05:00Tags: |

Shantel Walker is a manager within the fast food industry and an organizer for proper living wages in NYC. After working over two decades at Papa John’s Pizza where Walker was paid a minimum wage of $7.50, Walker started working with organizations such as the Fight for $15, and Fast Food Forward campaigns to champion the 3.7 million Americans working in Fast Food. Walkers advocacy also addresses the disparities in healthcare coverage, workplace and scheduling policies. Photo Credit: Alex Swerdloff

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

28 01, 2019

How Three Black Women Use Food As Tools For Resistance

2019-04-13T16:33:22-04:00Tags: |

Monifa Dayo, Carrie Y.T. Kholi, and Binta Ayofemi are three women using food as a vehicle for social change. They are amongst a host of Black women exiting from the restaurant industry after experiencing racism and sexism in the workplace. Monifa Dayo runs her own supper club while consciously incorporating social justice into her business model. Similarly, Carrie Y.T. Kohli’s ‘Hella Black Brunch’ brings people together around food and the African diaspora experience. Binta Ayofemi’s ‘Soul Oakland’ focuses on Black urban sustenance and restoration. Each woman views herown work as a form of resistance to the current political climate, and seeks to inspire communities of color in doing so. Photo credit: Richard Lomibao

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

11 01, 2019

Air Pollution ‘As Bad As Smoking In Increasing Risk of Miscarriage’

2020-09-02T20:51:19-04:00Tags: |

A recent study, the first to focus on the effects of short-term exposure to pollution by women in urban areas, has found that air pollution is just as bad as smoking for pregnant women when it comes to increasing their risk of miscarriage. The findings of the study mention that air pollution is already known to harm foetuses by increasing the risk of premature birth and low birth weight. But this recent research found pollution particles in placentas. Rising levels of nitrogen dioxide emissions around the world has increased the risk of losing a pregnancy by 16%. Researchers compare it to how the increased risk of tobacco smoke in a woman’s first trimester can result in pregnancy loss. They recommend the best course of action is to cut the overall levels of pollution in urban areas. While they also recommend pregnant women to avoid exertion on polluted days and consider buying indoor filters, they recognize that in the developing countries, these are luxuries many can’t afford. Photo credit: Rex/Shutterstock

4 12, 2018

The Co-op That’s Keeping Community Money Out Of Big Banks

2023-02-02T16:02:50-05:00Tags: |

Me’Lea Connelly is the founder of Blexit, a nonprofit that facilitates boycotts of extractive financial systems that have profited from exploiting Black communities. She also developed the Village Financial Cooperative, a Black-owned credit union that specializes in “regenerative finance,” which gives marginalized groups access to and control of capital. Connelly was inspired by her experiences living in Minnesota, which is the second-most racially unequal state in the United States. She aims to address the economic inequities that have resulted from oppression and help families accumulate generational wealth. The Village Financial Cooperative collaborates with other organizations including the Climate Justice Alliance for its justice-oriented financial services. It also aims to improve financial literacy in Black communities. Photo Credit: N/A

4 12, 2018

The Co-op That’s Keeping Community Money Out Of Big Banks

2023-07-30T14:04:56-04:00Tags: |

Me’Lea Connelly is leading efforts to redirect financial control and growth into historically underserved communities, contributing to community development and fostering racial economic justice. The founder of Blexit, a grassroots nonprofit that worked to boycott extractive systems that harm Black communities, went on to create the Village Financial Cooperative: a Black-owned credit union. The goals of the organization are to directly involve impacted communities in their finances and eliminate larger exploitative systems. This group is working towards “regenerative finance” to put control and capital into the hands of historically underserved communities to foster sustainable development. This would allow communities to reclaim their finances and counteract systems of power, specifically by stopping the removal of natural resources, discriminatory banking and housing processes, and growing sustainable initiatives. This project has provided BIPOC communities with tangible solutions and substantial hope for the future.   

20 10, 2018

The Bearded Seal My Son May Never Hunt

2020-11-07T18:07:29-05:00Tags: |

The author Laureli Ivanoff is an Inupiat, a northern indigenous population with communities from Alaska to Greenland. She reflects on the future of her people who now have to learn to live without the cold: last winter there was less ice in the Bering Sea that any winter since the 1850 when record-keeping started. The Inupiat need the northeastern Bering Sea to stay cold so that the creatures they traditionally rely on can thrive. She particularly thinks about her newly born son Inuqtaq, to whom hunting was going to be an act of intentional decolonization, a way of keeping alive a custom that’s become sacred and of staying connected to his heritage and identity. As she hurts for him and for her family, Laureli hopes the world quickly adapts and also respects the earth as they have for millennia. Photo credit: Ash Adams/The New York Times

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

15 10, 2018

A Water Walk In New York City

2020-10-07T00:43:14-04:00Tags: |

During the month of July, women and men, engaging in a “water walk,” walked two miles through the streets of New York City carrying empty buckets. Two miles is about the length women and girls walk in developing countries each day to obtain water, so this walk was carried out in order to symbolize their hard work. Moreover, the walk ended at the United Nations Building, so it was intended to remind policy makers about the importance of clean water as well as urge them to consider water a human right. The walk also called attention to the fact that access to water is important but if distance, cost, or other factors make that access prohibitive, then simple “access” is not enough. Photo credit: Water Aid

10 10, 2018

Are Females The Future Of Western North Carolina Farming?

2021-01-27T20:44:10-05:00Tags: |

Women have historically played important roles in the Western North Carolina (WNC) farming industry. In more modern times, many WNC women are pursuing careers in agriculture and continuing the legacy of female farming in North Carolina. Prominent women in the WNC farming agriculture community include Susan English of English Dairy and English Farmstead Cheese, and Annie Louise Perkinson of Flying Cloud Farm. Both of these women manage farms that have been in their families for multiple generations. On the other hand, Gabi White of Patchwork Urban Farm and Lauren Rayburn of Rayburn Farm found careers in farming after studying agriculture-related subjects in college. Although many female WNC farmers hesitate to label themselves as farmers or as primary operators of the farm, together they are reshaping the traditionally masculine “farmer” stereotype. Photo Credit: Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP)

5 10, 2018

Women In The US Food System Are Speaking Up About Domestic Abuse

2020-10-05T21:50:51-04:00Tags: |

From female farmers to female restaurant workers, women are consistently subject to sexual harassment at every level of the US Food System. Mostly depending on immigrant labor, the US Food System workforce is the lowest-paid and most exploited workforce in the country. The workers have little legal protections that are rarely enforced. For women, especially immigrant women, this means that sexual harrasment and unequal treatment on the basis of sex prevail. In recent years, initiatives such as the #MeToo movement, the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and the Fair Food Movement, support and encourage women to fight against the patriarchal oppression they face. Photo Credit: Donald Lee Pardue

2 10, 2018

Ouch! Yes, That Glass Ceiling Still Exists In The Environmental Movement

2023-02-02T16:08:36-05:00Tags: |

This op-ed by Zoe Loftus-Farren, the managing editor of Earth Island Journal, discusses the absence of women at the helm of environmental nonprofit organizations. Loftu-Farren argues that women, especially women of color, are at the frontlines of the climate crisis but often trapped behind glass ceilings in the environmental movement. Although women comprise over half the workforce in the field, they are underrepresented in key decision-making roles and often passed over for promotions. By presenting statistics along with observations from her own experiences in nonprofit work, Loftus-Farren makes the case that the environmental movement must undergo reforms related to board selection, employee retention efforts, and policies for equity and inclusion. She also emphasizes the tangible and intangible benefits of women’s leadership in the workplace.

28 09, 2018

Olympia Auset Is Tackling Systemic Racism, One Vegetable At A Time

2020-10-10T19:27:42-04:00Tags: |

Olympia Auset is the founder of SÜPERMARKT, a low cost, organic pop-up grocery store which is addressing food inequality in southern Los Angeles. Auset sees food as a tool for liberation and seeks to free her own community from identifying as a food desert where people statistically live 10 years less than wealthier white communities. This reality steams from a history of white flight after slavery became illegal. Auset’s SUPERMARKT  is changing the local narrative and has plans to expand given her success and demand. Her model is also being replicated in food deserts across the country. Photo Credit: Sara Harrison

28 09, 2018

Olympia Auset is Tackling Systemic Racism, One Vegetable at a Time

2023-02-02T16:18:00-05:00Tags: |

Olympia Auset is the founder of pop-up grocery store SÜPRMARKT, which offers affordable and organic food to the South Los Angeles community. Although California is a major food-producing state, many of its residents live in food “deserts,” where fresh produce is expensive and difficult to access. Noticing that food insecurity persists because of structural racism in local policies, Auset established a supermarket that collaborates with local farms, buys wholesale, offers produce delivery, and regularly pops up in community centers and parks across underserved areas. With a team of local volunteers, Auset is transforming the neighborhood’s food landscape through social entrepreneurship and a community-based model, as well as a 501(c)3 nonprofit called SÜPRSEED that raises awareness about food injustice and raises donations to sustain the pop-up supermarket. Photo Credit: Civil Eats

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

14 09, 2018

At The GCAS In San Francisco, The Youth Have A Voice—But Only One

2023-04-16T14:39:36-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Jamie Margolin, founder of Zero Hour, discusses her activism and the invitation she received to speak at the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. At only 16 years old, Margolin is the summit’s youngest speaker and the only voice invited to represent the concerns and activism of Gen Z. She intends to use her platform to call attention to the pressing, yet often ignored and overlooked, concerns of youth and frontline communities of color about the connections between climate crisis and capitalism. Photo Credit: Zero Hour

1 09, 2018

The Environmental Movement Can Learn From #TimesUp

2019-03-04T01:37:29-05:00Tags: |

Greenpeace USA Executive Director, Annie Leonard traces the intersections between the environmental movement and the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements, calling for more diversity. As more women name their harassers and seek justice, the environmental movement needs to reckon with the growing spotlight on power imbalances across gender, race, and class lines. Leonard, a white woman, writes how these movements have made her reexamine her own privileges and responsibilities within a movement that has been historically dominated by White men. Knowing that the best solutions come from those most affected, she calls for greater representation and meaningful spaces for often marginalized voices to be heard—not to achieve a diversity quota but to ensure deep, lasting change. Photo credit: Tim Aubry/Greenpeace

18 08, 2018

The Grazing Expert Helping Farmers Build Resilient Ecosystems

2023-03-29T12:16:00-04:00Tags: |

Sarah Flack is a Vermont-based livestock grazing consultant and author who strives to improve the environment by making farms more sustainable through managed grazing. Her philosophy lies in individualization of livestock farms. Flack argues that the differentiated needs of the plants, animals and soil of each individual farm must be taken into account to create a system in which each farm will thrive on its own system rather than conforming to a more generalized system.  Flack’s advice on “grass-based livestock farming” has been found to yield healthier soil, more robust pastures, improved animal welfare and a more financially sustainable operation for the farmers. Photo Credits: Sarah Flack

6 08, 2018

PastureMap Brings a High-Tech Approach to Sustainable Grazing

2023-03-29T12:11:42-04:00Tags: |

PastureMap is a software platform developed by entrepreneur Christine Su that enables farmers and ranchers to raise climate-friendly animals. This software ensures regenerative agriculture by promoting strategic grazing to keep track of herd information and document grass and soil health. Given the increasing annual average beef consumption amongst Americans, PastureMap strives not only to improve farming practices that minimize the environmental impact of beef consumption but also to provide the ranchers with a competitive advantage amongst consumers. This article takes a deeper look into Su’s journey and the inspiration behind PastureMap. Photo Credits: Pasturemap

4 08, 2018

Environmental Toxins Are Seen As Posing Risks During Pregnancy

2020-12-02T21:37:25-05:00Tags: |

In recent years, maternal-fetal medicine has responded to the risk that environmental toxins pose to pregnancy, calling for action to identify and reduce exposure to toxic environmental agents while addressing the consequences of such exposure. However, despite increasing awareness, a recent survey suggests that most doctors don’t discuss exposure to pollutants with their pregnant patients. While chemicals are virtually impossible to avoid completely, people can reduce contact with some of the most harmful and common toxins to prevent harmful consequences on fetal development, a critical window of human development. Initiatives like Project TENDR, Toxic Matters and SafetyNest, offer practical recommendations to prevent exposure. Photo credit: iStock

2 08, 2018

‘You’re The Naive One’: Youth Activist’s Open Letter To A Candidate For Governor

2020-10-13T20:14:56-04:00Tags: |

In this article, young environmentalist Vic Barrett responds to gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner who dismissed a fellow activist as “young and naïve” when asked about his campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry. Barrett cites the urgency of a climate crisis that is already impacting the lives of many, and the fact that youth will have to pay for the apathy and greed of individuals like Wagner. While Wagner and others choose to demean and undermine the youth’s vision for a healthy and sustainable earth, she argues that youth will continue to hold politicians accountable and build a better future. Photo credit: Handout

21 07, 2018

Meet the Teenagers Leading A Climate Change Movement

2023-03-19T08:00:42-04:00Tags: |

In this article, writer Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks features six organizers of the youth-led climate justice coalition, Zero Hour. Jamie Margolin, the founder of Zero Hour, is a 16-year-old organizer from Seattle, WA who began her advocacy work by writing op-eds on climate justice and has since formed the coalition to connect youth leading the climate movement in the U.S. Other lead organizers interviewed include Kallan Benson from Crownsville, MD, Madelaine Tew from Teaneck, NJ, Iris Fen Gillingham from Livingston Manor, NY, Nadia Nazar from Baltimore, MD, and Zanagee Artis from Clinton, CT. Each of these climate activists bring unique passion to their collective efforts ranging from art, to fundraising, to event organizing as they collaborate to fight for a safe and sustainable future for their generation and those to follow. Photo credit: Erin Schaff/The New York Times

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

5 07, 2018

Activist Jamie Margolin Organizes Teen Climate Change March In Washington

2023-02-26T12:50:57-05:00Tags: |

This video highlights the work of teen climate activist Jamie Margolin. As the founder of Zero Hour, Margolin’s work aims to make young people's voices and perspectives heard, bringing public awareness to the urgency of their climate concerns and advocating commonsense climate change laws. In the video, Margolin asserts that climate change is the most pressing issue of our time, and her work is dedicated to demanding action from political leaders who have often prioritized their partnerships with fossil fuel companies over the people they serve. In 2018, she worked with Mrinalini Chakraborty, the head strategist of the Women’s March, to organize a Youth Climate March at the National Mall in Washington D.C. The march was followed by two days of lobbying and activism, all of which centered the voices of youth whose futures will be directly impacted by politicians’ inaction. Margolin hopes that this collective organizing will inspire politicians to take the necessary measures to secure a livable world and viable future for the next generation. 

15 06, 2018

Immigrant Women Are Providing A Taste Of Oaxaca In California’s Central Valley

2020-10-05T16:55:59-04:00Tags: |

In Madera, California, Sylvia Rojas and Rosa Hernandez own Colectivo Sabor a Mi Tierra, a restaurant that offers traditional Oaxacan dishes such as tamales, picaditas, pozole, and mole. Many of these dishes have indigenous roots and reflect the migration from indigenous Mexican communities to the United States. Formerly farmworkers, Hernandez and Rojas opened up the restaurant with support from organizations such as the Pan Valley Institute, a group that focuses on uplifting women and building inter-ethnic relationships amongst rural Californian farming communities in the Central Valley. Photo Credit: Lisa Morehouse

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

4 06, 2018

A Woman’s Reparations Map For Farmers Of Color Seeks To Right Historical Wrongs

2020-04-24T16:12:49-04:00Tags: |

Leah Penniman and her organization Soul Fire Farm have developed a new mapping and reparations resource for black and brown farmers. Launched via Google Maps, the reparations map identifies over 52 organizations, their needs, and how to contact each farming operation. The project is an extension of a global movement for food justice, and the return of stolen lands and resources to Indigenous and black farmers. Consequently, the project directly addresses the significant wealth gap between farmers of color and white farmers. The site has had over 53,000 visitors to date. Photo Credit: Jonah Vitale-Wolff

4 06, 2018

A Reparations Map for Farmers of Color May Help Right Historical Wrongs

2023-02-02T16:10:54-05:00Tags: |

Leah Penniman is the founder of Soul Fire Farm in New York, which aims to dismantle racism and injustice in the food system not only through sustainable farming, but also through reparations. Centuries of slavery and racism left many Black Americans uncompensated for their agricultural labor, and this is directly connected to the persistent racial wealth gap we see today. Penniman has created an online mapping tool to connect donors with farmers of color who seek financial payments to compensate for past and present inequities. She is also training farmers to speak up through advocacy and storytelling, while writing a “Definitive Guide to Liberation on Land.” This article delves into the history of the movement for reparations, which dates back to the Civil War, and the work Penniman is doing to advocate for system and policy change. Photo Credit: Soul Fire Farm

31 05, 2018

Marion Nestle Looks Back At 30 Years Of Agitating For Better Food

2020-09-02T22:31:18-04:00Tags: |

Marion Nestle, an NYU professor in nutrition and an influential voice in food advocacy, has been working in changing the landscape of the food system for the past thirty years. A pioneer of the Food Studies program at NYU, this interdisciplinary field looks at food through a political lens throughout its course of production, consumption, and waste. For her, there exists so much confusion about what people should eat because of the power dynamics at play with agribusiness aiming to sell as much as possible at the lowest cost. Despite the consumer ‘movement’ influencing what companies put into their foods, top-down change is required to deal with systematic issues such as hunger. It is this sort of regulation that is extremely lacking in the Trump administration’s food policies. Whilst the food movement is fragmented in terms of goals and issues at stake, Nestle is optimistic with the role that young people can play in food advocacy, especially at a local level. Photo Credit: Bill Hayes.

31 05, 2018

Colonialism And The Lost Indigenous Housing Designs

2023-04-16T16:20:54-04:00Tags: |

Kayla DeVault, an Anishinaabe/Shawnee woman and Master’s candidate in American Indian studies at Arizona State University, discusses the relationship between colonialism and architecture. DeVault describes Sky City, a village in the Pueblo of Acoma that has existed in (what is now known as) Arizona for about 2,000 years. Presently, the federal government controls a large portion of the Pueblo’s tribal housing program, with most of the funding coming from a grant program embedded in Western design principles that do not account for traditional cultural needs. DeVault highlights Wanda Dalla Costa, a Saddle Creek Cree woman and visiting professor at Arizona State University, whose work engages with the Gila River Indian Community to learn about traditional Indigenous building techniques/architecture, and the importance of these practices to cultural continuity. DeVault elaborates on the importance of traditional architecture, as it not only provides social and cultural benefits, but is also important for climate resiliency. Traditional construction methods have been developed over thousands of years and are well-adapted for local climates. Through her work, Dalla Costa hopes to integrate the teaching of these important traditional values into Western architectural programs, while also reviving traditional architecture throughout Arizona. Photo Credit: Illustrations by Julie Notarriani

31 05, 2018

Jaylyn Gough Asks: Whose Land Are You Exploring?

2020-10-07T01:10:59-04:00Tags: |

Jaylyn Gough, a Diné outdoors woman, is addressing and changing colonial narratives of the outdoor industry. In 2017, Gough launched Native Women’s Wilderness. What began as a platform for Native girls and women to share photos of their outdoor experience has since morphed into a movement. One of Native Women’s Wilderness’ key initiatives is growing awareness around whose land is being explored and addressing the exclusivity and white centric culture of the outdoor industry. One idea is a symbolic reclaiming of the ancestral Paiute trade route, today known as the 210-mile John Muir Trail. Gough is optimistic that the shift towards reconciliation of the genocidal history of the United States can begin with the outdoor industry. Photo credit: Jayme Moye

30 05, 2018

Mother Justice Is Environmental Justice

2019-04-13T15:42:56-04:00Tags: |

Low to moderate income families and families of color often take on a disproportionate energy burden, sacrificing funds that would otherwise be used on food or medical expenses, to pay for utility bills. Energy companies do little to nothing to help ease this burden. And more time than not, these communities are in areas that are poorly maintained and plagued by pollution. In fact, studies have shown that 71% of African Americans live in counties with federal air violations, compared to 56% of the overall population. 70% of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, which generated 30% of the U.S. electricity in 2016 and discharged millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. African Americans face the brunt of the health impacts associated with long-time exposure to toxins emitted at plants; children and the elderly are especially sensitive to such risks. These long lasting impacts take many forms, resulting in emotional, psychological and economic costs for these communities. Photo Credit: NAACP

27 05, 2018

Op-Ed: Dear Media: We Need More Stories About Resilience To Climate Change

2023-02-26T13:01:52-05:00Tags: |

In this op-ed, Elizabeth Arnold challenges the media to shift the climate narrative away from disasters and their “victims” to also center climate resilience and the ways that people in different communities across the globe are actively working to address climate change. This added focus would help to address what researchers are calling the “hope gap,” the feeling of hopelessness that people feel when the news evokes feelings of misery, fear, or doom. When people are exclusively confronted with the terrifying realities of climate disaster, they begin to believe that climate change is inevitable, and there is nothing they can do to help prevent the situation from escalating. Arnold argues that the kinds of stories the media chooses to cover matter; if a variety of stories are told in ways that empower those who are working to make a difference for the planet, others will be more likely to find ways to contribute to action. Photo credit: Al Grillo / Associated Press

25 05, 2018

Navajo Women Struggle To Preserve Traditions As Climate Change Intensifies

2018-12-19T17:33:57-05:00Tags: |

Lorraine Herder belongs to a shepherd family: she grew up raising sheep and using its wool in a remote area on the Navajo reservation. But now, shrinking water reservoirs due to climate change are making it difficult to keep this tradition alive. Dr. Margaret Redsteer, a scientist at the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff, notes that the amount of groundwater has decreased drastically over the past century, putting a strain on the animals’ health and the Navajo way of life. The water crisis is also caused by other factors like coal mining, according to Nicole Horseherder, founder of non- profit organization “Scared Water Speaks”.  Photo Credit: Sonia Narang/PRI

24 05, 2018

Dolores Hayden’s Non-Sexist City

2023-05-26T14:56:45-04:00Tags: |

Irina Vinnitskaya describes Dolores Hayden’s (1980) essay “What would a Non-Sexist City Be Like? Speculations on Housing, Urban Design, and Human Work” as it relates to creating egalitarian and supportive urban environments for women. Here, Vinnitskaya elaborates on Hayden’s main argument, that the construction of cities and places are centered around the phrase “a woman’s place is in the home.” This saying translates into the perception that men belong in public life while women are domestic. Vinnitskaya highlights Hayden’s appeal for change to this system, as Hayden suggests that viable solutions will be found through community building, not through market answers (i.e. fast food chains to replace home cooked meals). Hayden proposes a solution for more egalitarian cities through the creation of participatory groups called HOMES: Homemakers Organizations for a More Egalitarian Society. These groups would be founded upon grassroots organizing and collective bargaining to obtain zoning permits and other accommodations to create proposed communal structures and spaces. Hayden suggests modeling HOMES after limited equity housing cooperatives as a way for collective arrangements to be organized, with any number of households being able to take part in the communal services of a HOMES group. Photo Credit: Routledge, 1999

23 05, 2018

Data At The Intersections: Advancing Environmental And Climate Justice Using A Human Rights Lens

2021-02-16T20:47:00-05:00Tags: |

Trends in human rights funding have shifted in the recent years. Currently, seven percent of all humans rights funding from foundations is earmarked for Environmental Justices and Resource Rights (EJ&RR). This indicates a 145 percent increase in EJ&RR funding between the years 2011 and 2015. However, funding peaked in 2014 and has since been declining, due to a few major foundations discontinuing their work. Another change has been the shift towards awarding smaller grants to smaller groups, in contrast to the historical practice of awarding large funds to established organizations. Thirdly, funding for human rights defenders increased 133% between 2011 and 2015 though the amount provided remains small. On the other hand, funding for Indigenous Peoples decreased to $15 million from $40 million during this time. Funding Indigenous Peoples is a crucial part of climate justice and particularly needed in our current state. Photo Credit: Human Rights Funders Network.  

21 05, 2018

Meet the Farmworkers Leading the #MeToo Fight For Workers Everywhere

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

In the United States, an estimated 500,000 women labor in the fields, where sexual violence is a prevalent concern. Nearly 4 out of 5 female farmworkers experience coercion, assault, catcalling, or other forms of sexual harassment. Unequal power relations complicate their ability to pursue justice and accountability, as authorities and managers are frequently male. Eradicating gender-based violence in U.S. agriculture is one of the key aims of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an alliance of farmers and agricultural workers based in Florida. This immigrant worker-led human rights organization has created a Fair Food Workers program that aims to secure workers’ rights through legal action. It has pioneered a model for protecting human rights known as “worker-driven social responsibility,” which was recognized by the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights and received a 2015 Presidential Medal from President Obama. By addressing the structural issues enabling and perpetuating sexual violence, the Coalition is dismantling unjust labor systems. It has also served as a blueprint for change in other areas, like the dairy and fashion industries. Photo credit: Coalition of Immokalee Workers    

21 05, 2018

Female Farmworkers Leading The #MeToo Fight For Workers Everywhere

2020-10-10T19:20:50-04:00Tags: |

Daughters of field workers are participating in a five day “Freedom Fast”, and joining the Time’s Up Wendy’s March in Manhattan. Their demonstration calls upon Wendy’s to sign onto the Fair Food Program which addresses many of the structural issues enabling sexual harassment in the workplace. The demonstration is taking place alongside the Time’s Up and #MeToo movement which has drawn global attention to the treatment of all women in the workforce. Women working in agriculture are strong voice in this movement as they report especially high rates of sexual assault in the workplace. So far the women’s efforts to suede Wendy’s have been unsuccessful. Photo Credit: Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)

18 05, 2018

Sarah Myhre: Scientists/Feminist/Activist, All In One

2020-11-20T18:05:59-05:00Tags: |

Authored by Karin Kirk, this piece presents feminist, non-profit activist and academic researcher Sarah Myrhe, who argues for an entire new leadership to bring radical change to address climate change. She advocates addressing climate change through a humanist perspective, asserting that women are creative leaders in empathising with marginalised and discriminated peoples adversely affected by climate change. In the face of misogynist opposition within science, academia and the public sphere despite her scientific successes, Sarah became a founding board member for 500 Women Scientists; and co-founded, with Guiliana Isaksen, the non-profit Rowan Institute. The Institute’s mission is to integrate science and social justice into public leadership through compassion, information and equity as core principles; and develop ‘a future of strong and resilient leaders, grounded in human rights, integrity, and planetary stewardship’. Sarah was voted Most Influential People of 2017. Photo Credit: Unknown

18 05, 2018

The Entrepreneur Making Healthy Food Accessible To Her Brooklyn Neighborhood

2020-10-05T17:16:03-04:00Tags: |

Francesca Chaney is working to alleviate food insecurity and make the wellness movement accessible in her neighbourhood of Bushwick, New York. A dream since she was 19 years old, the café, Sol Sips, started as a pop-up shop and evolved into a permanent fixture in the community. With a popular brunch menu and sliding scale prices, a diverse range of community members visit the spot ranging from indigenous, Latinx, and people of colour to old-timers and families. She serves a community that has largely been left aside by the mainstream health and wellness movement and Sol Sips remains a contrast to the majority of vegan and plant-based restaurants. Chaney wants to counter the trend that to eat healthy is a privilege only for those who can afford it. This socially conscious space that pays mind to the demographic of the neighbourhood is one of a range of businesses fighting to make vegan and healthy food accessible. Photo credit: Sol Sips

17 05, 2018

Methodist Women From Around The Globe Descend On Columbus, Hoping To Leave Lasting Impact

2019-01-21T19:43:55-05:00Tags: |

Nearly 6,000 Methodist women from around the world came together in Columbus, Ohio for a social justice summit celebrating 150 years of their organization, United Methodist Women. The organization is the service-oriented arm of the broader United Methodist Church, focusing on maternal and child health, mass incarceration, economic inequality and climate justice. Attendees heard Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and volunteered with local community justice initiatives, including the Poor People’s Campaign. Every four years, the group hosts gatherings where women activists can revitalize local communities and grow interfaith movements for equality. Photo Credit: Danae King The Columbus Dispatch @DanaeKing

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

7 05, 2018

5 Indigenous Voices on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womxn and Girls | by Indigenous Rising Media | Medium

2024-02-14T11:54:16-05:00Tags: |

This article highlights five Indigenous leaders speaking out to address the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women within the United States. In 2016, there were 5,712 known incidents of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Legislation such as Washington State House Bill 2951 and the Savannah Act are aiming to provide proper resources to protect the lives of women and girls from violence. The article celebrates these pieces of legislation and shares five resources, including articles, podcasts, and videos, on how people can educate themselves further on the topic. Notably, one of the resources discusses the intersection between extractive economies that contribute to climate change and violence against Indigenous women. Five organizations with valuable statistics, resources, and facts are also shared, and include: Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Database, Who Is Missing, and No More Stolen Sisters. Photo Credit:  Jonathan Canlas for Who Is Missing

1 05, 2018

Climate Solutions: #LeadingWomen – Alaska & Global Warming: Climate Genocide

2019-02-09T19:48:09-05:00Tags: |

Faith Gemmill sees the effects of climate chaos firsthand, and has the solutions: she is executive director of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL), a grassroots Indigenous environmental network fighting to protect Indigenous land and culture in Alaska. Gemmill, Pit River/Wintu and Neets’aiiGwish’in Athabascan, lives a land-based, subsistence lifestyle in an Alaskan village next to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 110 miles above the Arctic circle. Her community’s livelihood depends on the Porcupine Caribou Herd -- but oil companies directly target this sacred birthplace and nursery, and rising temperatures have already caused many climate refugees to relocate. REDOIL provides knowledge and resources to build resilience in this vulnerable region. Because Gemmill’s community lives in intimate interdependence with the “biological heart” of the Arctic Refuge, they have been fighting for human rights for decades, with no sign of stopping. Photo Credit: MrsGreensWorld

28 04, 2018

Preserving Arizona’s Aspens: U.S. Forest Service Partners To Treat Infested Aspen Groves In Northern Arizona

2021-04-09T13:09:34-04:00Tags: |

In Williams, Arizona, the Kaibab National Forest, the USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection, Northern Arizona University, and the Arizona Elk Society are working together to treat Aspen trees that have been infested by Oystershell scale, tiny insects that are threatening the Aspen tree species. The research on this project is primarily led by Dr. Kristen Waring, professor of silviculture at Northern Arizona University’s School of Forestry. Photo Credit: Wendy Howell/WGCN

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

Delaware Riverkeeper Maya Van Rossum honored With ‘Woman Of The Delaware Watershed’ Award

2020-11-20T18:02:14-05:00Tags: |

Maya van Rossum, head of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN), has been awarded with “Woman of the Delaware Watershed” in recognition for her work protecting the environment. During her time as leader of DRN, the organization advocated for rivers and their associated communities, ensured adherence to environmental law, as well as restored particular streams. A current major goal of van Rossum is the constitutional recognition of environmental rights to the extent that other rights, such as free speech, are given constitutional recognition. To that end, van Rossum was a lead petitioner in the environmental rights case “Robinson Township, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, et al vs Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” Photo credit: Bucks Local News

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

11 04, 2018

The Women Reviving Heirloom Grains And Flour

2020-10-06T23:19:28-04:00Tags: |

A group of women bakers in Los Angeles, California were selected to speak at the panel, “Bread Winners: A Conversation with Women in Bread,” organized by the California Grain Campaign in honor of Women’s History Month. The group of women assembled included baker Kate Pepper, California Grain Campaign Organizer Mai Nguyen, miller Nan Kohler, and baker Roxana Jullapat. The panel focused on the women’s involvement in the California Grain Campaign’s goal to push bakers to use 20 percent whole-grain, California grown-and-milled flours. During the panel Nguyen brought up the historical importance of women in agriculture, specifically in terms of seed conservation. Nguyen also expressed gratitude to cotton breeder Sally Fox, and chemist Monica Spiller, whose seed projects made Sonora Wheat a more familiar food amongst consumers. Photo Credit: Civil Eats

28 03, 2018

Female Farmers In The East Bay Cultivate A Sense Of Community

2020-09-02T22:42:25-04:00Tags: |

Kanchan Dawn Hunter of Spiral Gardens, Kelly Carlisle, founder of Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project, and Gail Myers, founder of Farms to Grow, are three women of colour who are challenging the dominant image of white, male farmers in the agricultural industry. Females farmers are underrepresented both in terms of ownership but also with respect to the power dynamics in the agricultural system. For them, the act of growing food is intrinsically political, and is a way of empowering marginalized communities to re-establish their food sovereignty and restore their connection with themselves and planet Earth. Spiral Gardens provides free educational programs taught at its community farm and hosts community work days. Acta Non Verba aims to empower young people through urban farming and conducts field trips and farm visits. Farms to Grow supports marginalized farmers around the country who are practicing sustainable agriculture. Other organizations such as MESA and Urban Tilth also work to support a sustainable and equitable food industry. Photo Credit: Andria Lo.

28 03, 2018

ONE100 Oakland – Jing Jing He

2018-08-14T13:58:23-04:00Tags: |

Jing Jing He is a community organizer with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), helping to uplift the voices of Asian immigrant communities in Oakland and Richmond, California. Due to her work as a fierce female leader championing renewable energy and jobs in her community, she was recognized by the national 100% Campaign and received a billboard in her honor. Photo credit: 100isNow

23 03, 2018

Meet The Women Growing The California Seaweed Economy

2020-10-10T20:11:50-04:00Tags: |

Salt Point Seaweed is an all-female Bay Area company that is leading the way for global food insecurity solutions. Tessa Emmer, Catherine O’Hare and Avery Resor are harvesting wild seaweed from an open-water farm off the coast of Mendocino County. Having drawn inspiration from East African communities, particularly female aqua-farming in Zanzibar, this company hopes to popularize local varieties of seaweed (such as Gracilaria) in Northern California’s avant-garde, health-centered culinary scene. Seaweed’s ability to de-acidify waters coupled with virtually zero inputs required for growth, it’s numerous health benefits and budding potential to substitute for fossil fuels, as well as massive potential in contributing to increasing the world’s food supply mean that it is a global solution in the fight against climate change, ocean acidification, and unsustainable food systems. Photo credit: Salt Point Seaweed.

22 03, 2018

‘It’s About Taking Back What’s Ours’: Native Women Reclaim Land, Plot By Plot

2020-04-24T15:42:34-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women are decolonizing land in the Bay Area through the Sogorea Te Land Trust, a grassroots, women-led organization that aims to reclaim Ohlone land. Refusing to have their culture and land erased by development, Corrina Gould, activist and leader of Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone, and Johnella LaRose of Shoshone-Bannock and Carrizo, founded the organization in 2012. After a food justice organization donated a quarter-acre of land to the trust, other local NGOs, LGBTQ, faith groups and affluent residents are showing support. Leaders want to see the repatriated land return to Indigenous stewardship, through community gardens and ceremony, which will also generate more sustainable spaces. The Sogorea Te Land Trust has the potential to decolonize not only the land, but the minds of who is on that land.  Photo Credit: SOGOREA TE LAND TRUST AND PLANTING JUSTICE/HuffPost

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

8 03, 2018

They’re Walking Five Days Straight to Honor Harriet Tubman—and Black Women Everywhere

2019-02-09T19:57:57-05:00Tags: |

GirlTrek, a national nonprofit organization, empowers Black women in the US by following in the footsteps of Black women leaders who have come before. Under the leadership of co-founders Vanessa Garrison and Morgan Dixon, the organization has motivated more than 100,000 Black women to prioritize self-care and social justice through public health campaigns. One group of women walked the entire length of Harriet Tubman’s Great Escape path on the Underground Railroad, paying tribute to the prominent Black feminist. Tubman’s legacy of liberation and emancipation carries the promise of freedom and justice for Black women all over the United States. By celebrating this radical history, GirlTrek gives Black women unapologetic courage to take control of their mental and physical health and wellbeing.  Photo Credit: Yes Magazine

8 03, 2018

Activism As Art: Giving Dolores Huerta Her Rightful Place In American History

2018-07-13T16:31:28-04:00Tags: |

The new documentary, Dolores, celebrates the life of revolutionary Dolores Huerta. Huerta is an activist, organiser, cofounder of the United Farm Workers (UFW), and founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Due to sexism and discrimination she never received the same recognition as her UFW cofounder, Cesar Chavez. This documentary aims to make amends to this by demonstrating Huerta’s fearless leadership in the Farm Workers Movement. Huerta is also depicted raising awareness about the United States’ reliance on pesticides and industrial agriculture including the effects of exposure to toxic synthetic chemicals. Photo credit: Bioneers.

6 03, 2018

Why Can’t Renters Get Solar Power?

2018-07-13T17:34:04-04:00Tags: |

Steph Speirs founded Solstice with the vision of democratizing access to clean energy through community solar panels. With about 80 percent of Americans unable to install rooftop solar—whether it be due to building ownership, rooftop conditions, or cost barriers—she hopes to facilitate access to security, dignity, and opportunity by establishing an online marketplace for shares of neighborhood-based solar farms. Photo credit: Sierra Club

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

3 03, 2018

This Badass Woman Explores The Deep Sea To Help Us Save It

2018-07-13T17:30:19-04:00Tags: |

Dr. Samantha Joye is a marine biologist at the University of Georgia dedicated to exploring and protecting the deep sea ecosystem. After witnessing the environmental damage of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, she is working on Our Blue Planet initiative with BBC Earth and OceanX Media to inspire social media engagement and increased understanding of the ocean environment. Dr. Joye’s work is especially urgent as federal proposals for offshore drilling risk additional oil spills and negative ocean population impacts. Photo credit: OceanX Media

2 03, 2018

Maryland Must Stay Committed To Clean Energy

2018-07-13T16:41:27-04:00Tags: |

In this article, policy leaders Brooke Harper and Nicole Sitaraman outline the urgent need to realize Maryland’s clean energy future. They describe how access to clean energy, such as rooftop solar, offers an economic boost through energy savings and job opportunities as well as significant public health benefits and reduced healthcare costs. These benefits are in stark contrast to the high risks of asthma and cancer in African American communities due to disproportionate siting of oil and gas power plants. They go on to describe the year-long Solar Equity Initiative to facilitate this economic opportunity by providing workforce training, solar installations, and policy advocacy. Photo credit: Courtesy photos/LinkedIn

28 02, 2018

Legacies of Snow and Love

2023-02-26T12:57:55-05:00Tags: |

In this personal narrative from Torrey House Press’ Voices Rising collection, Ayja Bounous describes her profound connections with her grandfather and the land she grew up on. She parallels descriptions of her aging grandfather with the changing landscape in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah; she explains that time wears on her grandfather’s silvery hairline the same way climate change has gradually receded glaciers and snow. Bounous describes the frustration she feels when her grandparents fail to take climate concerns seriously, knowing that there will still be snow on the ground when their lives come to an end, but there is no guarantee that the same can be said for her own generation. This knowledge leads to Bounous’ declaration that she will spend her life fighting to protect the earth.

19 02, 2018

Realizing The Potential Of Wool: Q&A With Marie Hoff Of Full Circle Wool

2018-07-13T17:20:14-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Marie Hoff shares her efforts to embed environmental stewardship in local agricultural practices. An industrious entrepreneur committed to sustainability, she operates the Capella Grazing Project and launched Full Circle Wool last year, marrying the principles of carbon farming with wool production. Hoff produces wool and wool products that reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change by leveraging sustainable production processes and by displacing petroleum-based products. She hopes to improve people’s perception of wool as a resource through Full Circle Wool and by promoting the growth and expansion of industrial mills in the United States. US-based processing and manufacturing. Photo credit: Food and Fibers Project

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

8 02, 2018

Our Relationships Keep Us Alive: Let’s Prioritize Them In 2018

2020-10-13T20:10:37-04:00Tags: |

This article as part of “Visions of 2018” explores the theme of transformation in activist movements. Written by Ejeris Dixon, a female grassroots organiser, we gain insight into how relationships can be improved within our groups, drawing on Dixon’s 15 years of experience. Call-out culture, neglect, secret maneuvers and a misalignment of values and actions can splinter and break groups. However, honesty, loyalty, integrity, accountability and commitment to personal transformation can repair relationships and rebuild trust. Essential transformations if social justice movements are to thrive in these oppressive times. Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout

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

3 02, 2018

Atlanta Women Surprised By Billboards Honoring Their Clean-Energy Work

2018-03-02T20:15:42-05:00Tags: |

Felicia Davis, Malissa “Mali” Hunter, and the Rev. Kate McGregor Mosley are the “Atlanta Power Women” - recently honored with billboards by ATL100, a national campaign celebrating clean energy leaders with equitable visions for the future. Davis directs Clark Atlanta University’s Building Green Initiative, which advances carbon-reducing strategies across historically black colleges and universities across the nation. Hunter promotes healthy eating and renewable energy as a chef and partner of Tree Sound Studios. As executive director of Georgia Interfaith Power & Light, McGregor Mosley helps the faith community reduce its carbon footprint. Photo credit: Itoro Umontuen

23 01, 2018

No Indigenous Women, No Women’s Movement

2018-08-14T14:16:07-04:00Tags: |

The term “feminism” continues to be debated in tribal communities. Laura Tohe, Indigenous scholar states, “There is no word for feminism in my language,” affirming, “there was no need for feminism because of our matrilineal culture”. Indigenous women, like Tohe seek to reconnect to the matriarchy and egalitarian roots of the land. The lived experiences of Indigenous women have been and continue to be different from those of white women. White women are oppressed by the patriarchy, but Indigenous women know that patriarchy alone is not the only source of their oppression. Colonialism, capitalism, racism, and rugged individualism work with patriarchy. Indigenous women have been organizing events and attending Women’s Marches across the United States to rematriate the space and spotlight the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). Photo Credit: Ted S. Warren / AP

21 01, 2018

At Women’s Marches, A Spotlight On Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women

2018-07-12T17:13:08-04:00Tags: |

At 2018 Women’s March events across the United States, Indigenous women stood in visible contrast to the bright pink pussy hats worn by the other marchers. Indigenous women donned red in remembrance of the missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) in the United States and Canada. The red color shows solidarity against discriminatory practices of the state, judicial system and the increasing violence against indigenous women. Sarafina Joe, a tribal citizen of the Diné (Navajo) Nation marched holding a red banner with the name of her sister, Nicole Joe on it, Nicole Joe, who died due to domestic violence. Devastatingly, her culprit was only charged with aggravated assault rather than murder. The number of such cases has been increasing among young Indigenous women, a tragedy still left unspoken by the masses and mainstream media. Photo Credit: Jenni Monet/ PBS

21 01, 2018

At Women’s Marches, A Spotlight On Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women

2018-02-15T13:05:22-05:00Tags: |

Instead of wearing pink “pussy hats” at the Women’s March in the United States, Indigenous women and their allies wore red to highlight the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and transgender people. From Phoenix, Arizona, to San Francisco and Seattle, Indigenous people led demonstrations, addressed the crowds and remembered their “stolen sisters”. 4 out of 5 Native women will encounter violence in their lifetime, more than half will experience domestic violence or sexual assault and in some areas the murder rate of Native American women is 10 times the national average. This violence which has been occurring for decades often goes unresolved, leaving loved ones feeling let down by, and sceptical of the justice system. Photo credit: Jenni Monet

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

12 01, 2018

Protecting The Waterways Of The Navajo Nation

2018-02-06T15:13:09-05:00Tags: |

The video series ‘Breakthrough: Portraits of Women in Science’, profiles Karletta Chief, Chief Hydrologist with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Indigenous woman of the Diné (Navajo) Bitter Water Clan. For many years, Karletta has been leading out work to study the quality and properties of water on the Navajo Nation, an arid region which is home to over 250,000 resident spread across sections of Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. The land has been desecrated for decades by coal and uranium mining, as well as the oil and gas industry. In August 2015, the Gold King Mine spill dumped millions of tons of toxic waste water into local river systems, contaminating the Animas River which is a vital source of life and livelihoods across the region. Karletta is working ceaselessly with the community to address the many issues faced due to this latest toxic water threat. Photo credit: Science Friday

10 01, 2018

How Rebecca Solnit Became ‘The Voice Of The Resistance’

2020-10-23T23:21:38-04:00Tags: |

Feminist writer and activist Rebecca Solnit has earned another title amidst the political turmoil of 2017: “the Voice of the Resistance.” Often reflecting on unjust and inept systems that target communities of color, the working class, and women from all walks of life, her writing has served as a beacon of hope and roadmap for action for many people confronting a Trump administration that continues to collude with Russia, dismantle environmental protections, and violate human rights. She is both energizer of and energized by the fervent wave of community organizing that has taken the streets and sounded the alarm. Photo credit: Shawn Calhoun

10 01, 2018

These Kids Are ‘On Fire’ For The Earth!

2023-02-26T12:54:39-05:00Tags: |

Chrysula Winegar discusses a new film series, Young Voices for the Planet, which features children and youth who passionately take a stand against environmental destruction and fight for more sustainable futures. Filmmaker Lynne Cherry is dedicated to helping young people share their stories, and her film series has been positioned in some school districts as part of the curriculum, inspiring countless children and youth to take action in their own communities. In these academic spaces, children and youth are encouraged to consider the local problems that need to be addressed, and, in class, they work together to formulate viable solutions that could make a positive, sustainable impact on their communities. These films – and the academic conversations they encourage – help young people to understand that they should not allow their age to limit their potential as climate justice leaders. 

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

8 01, 2018

#Oursolutions: Conversation With Jacqui Patterson (NAACP)

2020-04-24T16:09:08-04:00Tags: |

Jacqui Patterson has been fighting for social justice for years, bringing this expertise to her work as the   Environmental and Climate Justice program director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Her international work started with HIV/AIDS advocacy, and she has uplifted stories of resilience from women across the U.S. and around the world. Patterson has spoken with South African women facing  increased sexual violence because of climate-induced drought and food insecurity, interviewed women across the U.S. impacted by climate change and fighting for justice, and volunteered with Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. Seeing a need for more gender and race analysis in climate change conversations, Patterson helped co-found Women of Color United, a global solidarity network. As an African-American woman, she brings a rigorous intersectional analysis of race, gender, class and other social identities into all climate justice work, fighting for a just transition rooted in deep democracy.

6 01, 2018

Diane Archer Uses Art To Ground A Sense of Place

2018-02-06T15:23:04-05:00Tags: |

Diane Archer, an artist from the United States, has dedicated her life to creating mixed media art pieces including drawings, quotes and embedded objects, which are inspired from geographical places, science, philosophy and deep ecological movement. One of the recurring features in her creations is maps, using them to represent and unfold stories about sense of place and our understanding of world outside and world within us. Photo Credit:  Diane Archer / Earth is Land

5 01, 2018

6 Reasons To Reclaim Resilience From The Ground Up

2023-03-19T08:34:34-04:00Tags: |

Jill Mangaliman is a queer, Filipino American writer and community organizer from Seattle, Washington. They are the executive director of Got Green, a grassroots environmental justice organization advocating for bottom-up community-led solutions to climate change. Mangaliman describes how the term “resilience” has become another form of greenwashing used by many businesses and government entities, arguing that communities of color and poor communities must take back this concept as the original experts of creating resilience through struggle. They discuss the need for leaders in Seattle to create a truly resilient green city for all, not just for wealthy individuals and corporations. Photo credit: Renotography/The Seattle Globalist  

1 01, 2018

Our Movement Needs Radical Change: A Conversation With May Boeve

2018-03-02T13:59:37-05:00Tags: |

May Boeve, co-founder of the international climate action organisation 350.org and winner of the 2006 Brower Youth Award, talks to the Earth Island Journal about the direction of the climate movement. Boeve represents one of the few young women among top leaders in big environmental groups in the United States. She highlights the need for the climate movement to engage with diverse communities, bridge political divides, and construct a strong narrative that doesn’t reinforce fear and hopelessness around climate change, but instead engages people based on their everyday lived reality. The interview concludes with a vital question; how broad can we grow the global climate movement, and more importantly, can we do it fast enough? Photo credit: Zoe Loftus-Farren

24 12, 2017

Photographer Julie Dermansky Captures The 2017 Climate Movement

2023-03-19T08:15:38-04:00Tags: |

Writer, photographer, and climate advocate Julie Dermansky chronicles the year 2017 through images of the climate movement in the United States as well as the industries and politicians that contribute to the harmful impacts of climate change. Her powerful photos include the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., the battle against the Bayou Bridge pipeline, and the shadows of coal power plants in West Virginia. Her work seeks to shine a light on the dichotomy between the science and real human and planetary impacts of climate change compared to the lack of leadership on climate solutions at the political and industrial levels. Dermansky’s photography provides a visual tribute to the scientists, activists, educators, and communities that speak truth to power. Photo credit: Julie Dermansky/Desmog 

20 12, 2017

Ask A Solar Vet: Uniting Women Across Sustainable Sectors With WRISE’s Kristen Graf

2018-02-20T17:40:12-05:00Tags: |

For over eight years, Kristen Graf has served as the executive director of Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE), formerly Women of Wind Energy (WOWE), empowering women in the renewable energy industry. Graf and WRISE have been instrumental in building community and fostering leadership to chart a path for women’s advancement and the industry’s success. Photo credit: WRISE

15 12, 2017

How Female Farmers Are Fighting Big Ag’s Gender Injustice By Taking Control Of Their Food Systems

2018-02-15T12:29:02-05:00Tags: |

Women farmers in the United States are taking a stand against the exploitative, male-dominated, profit-oriented, conventional food and agricultural sector. In fact, since 1978, the number of U.S. women farm operators has grown by nearly 300 percent. Combating the gendered and racialized food system, these women are shifting the tides of injustice by growing food, organizing their communities, and changing policy. Photo Credit: Impact Photography   

14 12, 2017

Photos: It’s Been 20 Years Since Julia Butterfly Fought Big Logging – By Living In A Tree

2018-02-14T22:19:59-05:00Tags: |

On December 10, 1997, environmentalist Julia “Butterfly” Hill, a member of Earth First! advocacy group, climbed to the top of a 200-foot-tall redwood tree in Northern California. Hill was protesting the destruction of nearby redwood forests by the Pacific Lumber Company. She slept on a 8 x 8 ft plywood platform in the 600-year-old tree named “Luna” for 738 days, withstanding El Niño storms and cold, wet winters. While her “tree-sitting” received criticism from Humboldt and lumberjacks, her nonviolent protest grabbed the attention of the press, and she was able to save the tree while simultaneously shedding light on the work of fellow environmental activists, and inspiring a generation of new young activists. Photo credit: Yann Gamblin/Paris Match via Getty Images

14 12, 2017

The Radical Movement To Make Environmental Protections A Constitutional Right

2018-02-14T22:13:42-05:00Tags: |

Maya van Rossum is leading the Green Amendment Movement to establish the constitutional right to a healthy environment at both the state and federal level. Currently, only two states—Pennsylvania and Montana—have similar provisions, but momentum for “environmental constitutionalism” is growing among policymakers and stakeholders, with the goal of mending the gaps in current environmental protection laws, and addressing increasing U.S. environmental degradation. In Pennsylvania, van Rossum and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network successfully invoked the constitutional provision against pro-drilling and fracking legislation in the state, despite a conservative Supreme Court, signaling a jumpstart to expanding this inalienable right across the nation and demanding government accountability.

13 12, 2017

Meet The Woman Who’s Boosting Arizona’s Mom-And-Pop Business Culture

2018-07-13T17:17:42-04:00Tags: |

Kimber Lanning is a distinguished advocate for local economic development in Arizona. Starting in 2003, she has built, Local First Arizona, into the largest alliance of local businesses in the United States. She actively eschews the tools and frameworks of traditional community developers who create jobs through large subsidies to big corporate chains. Lanning recognizes the benefits of a robust local economy, including economic competitiveness, greater diversity, commitment to sustainability, and intrinsic community-building and place-making value. She helps to level the playing field for Arizona’s homegrown businesses through myth-busting campaigns, an annual festival, a public directory, a Spanish micro-entrepreneurship program, and adaptive reuse programs to leverage old buildings for local entrepreneurs. Photo credit: YES! Magazine

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

26 11, 2017

Indigenous Women Lead Effort To Reclaim Ancestral Lands

2018-07-13T15:22:19-04:00Tags: |

In Oakland, California, Indigenous women have established the Sogorea Te Land Trust in order to buy back stolen Indigenous territory. Led by Corrina Gould and Johnella LaRose, the Land Trust is a chance for Indigenous groups to undo, at least in part, centuries of cultural erasure. From Spanish Missions to the Gold Rush, native Californians have endured centuries of illegal land grabs and treaties that failed to recognize tribes. The idea for the Land Trust began seven years ago when a piece of waterfront on the Carquinez Strait was slated for development. Indigenous groups occupied the land and were able to successfully block contractors, but a lack of legal mechanisms to collectively own property made it impossible for them to claim the land for themselves. They decided to establish the women-led Trust with the hope that one day they would have blocks of land on which they could pray, dance, and create shared cultural space to reconnect with the land. Photo credit: Brian Feulner, Special To The Chronical

22 11, 2017

How Alaska Native Women Are Healing From Generations Of Trauma

2023-04-16T16:18:12-04:00Tags: |

In this video, Kunaq (or Marjorie) an Iñupiaq woman from Nome, Alaska discusses her work in reviving her culture’s tradition of chin tattoos. Kunaq describes the role of these tattoos and how they traditionally acknowledged spirits and honored animals and future generations. This practice, along with many others, was banned by missionaries who attempted to “civilize” the Iñupiaq People. Today, these tattoos are making a comeback as a mode of healing and cultural reclamation. When Kunaq received her own chin tattoo in 2012, there were only a handful of other women who had them. Realizing this, Kunaq started tattooing to make traditional tattoos more accessible to other women who want them. She emphasizes the powerful ceremonial significance this practice has. The ink used in tattooing is traditionally made from seal oil lamps, or nanuk, which means light. The design that Kunaq tattoos is one that is only tattooed by women artists, and it is a signifier of strength and womanhood. Kanuq explains that these traditional tattoos are an act of defiance and an acknowledgement of her ancestors’ survival. 

21 11, 2017

Global Warming Might Be Especially Dangerous For Pregnant Women

2020-04-24T16:52:12-04:00Tags: |

Women scientists are finding that climate change will likely pose significant threats to pregnant women and their embyros, a group often left out of public health concerns. Rupa Basu, chief of air and climate epidemiology at the California Environmental Protection Agency, had been researching the connection between health risks and air pollution for the past decade, and looked more into the effects of temperature. Her research found that increasing heat and humidity raise the likelihood of premature and stillbirths every year. Similar conclusions were found by Nathalie Auger at Quebec’s institute for public health, as well as by Pauline Mendola and Sandie Ha at Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Mendola and Ha’s study found that a temperature increase in the top 10 percent range of a woman’s region could mean 1,000 more stillbirths every year, much higher than the researchers expected. Pregnant women are not often considered a group vulnerable to heat, according to Sabrina McCormick, a sociologist at George Washington University, which makes these findings an urgent call to reframe public health. While these and other researchers are eager to collect more data, it’s clear that pregnancy calls for more precautions and awareness amid climate change. Photo Credit: BLEND IMAGES / PEATHEGEE INC / GETTY

21 11, 2017

The Long Tradition Of Folk Healing Among Southern Appalachian Women

2018-07-13T15:26:40-04:00Tags: |

Byron Ballard is a self-proclaimed village witch who specializes in Southern Appalachian folk magic. Like many local healers, she relies on the traditions passed down from generations before her – traditions with roots in Paganism, Protestantism, and pragmatism. According to Ballard, it’s a mixture of “medicine and midwifery, omen-reading and weather-working”. The Cherokee and Choctaw were the first to really understand the natural healing properties of the Appalachian resources. This knowledge fused with understandings of medicine and religion that came with the arrival of Europeans. Appalachian folk medicine recognizes an interconnectedness of the mind, body, and spirit; it is, at its core, a presumption of the highest goodness of nature. Since families in Appalachia often live far from urban centers and hospitals, these healers continue to be an important part of communities from West Virginia to Mississippi. Photo credit: Anjo Kan/Alamy

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

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

7 11, 2017

Jackee Alston Talks About Her Inspiration To Sprout The Grow Flagstaff Seed Library

2020-11-07T17:34:23-05:00Tags: |

During a visit to Brandon, Vermont, Jackee Alston stumbled upon the town’s seed library. An avid gardener, the Brandon Seed Library inspired Alston to create her own seed library in Flagstaff, Arizona. She calls it The Grow Flagstaff Seed Library. Alston describes the difficulties of gardening in Flagstaff’s high elevation and explains that saving local seeds adapted to the climate makes it easier for residents to garden. Alston also emphasises the social aspect of the seed library by discussing the stories that seeds can tell and the deep land-based historical narratives that accompany seeds. Photo Credit: SeedBroadcast 

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

26 10, 2017

Congresswomen And Environmental Groups Urge Congress To Pass The OFF Act To Combat Climate Change

2018-08-14T14:03:22-04:00Tags: |

Representatives Tulsi Gabbard, Barbara Lee, and Nanette Diaz Barragán held a press conference urging Congress to pass the OFF Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act (OFF Act). The Act prioritizes the safety of the Earth and protects vulnerable populations from the negative impacts of toxic emissions. Furthermore, the new legislation aims to turn the U.S. to a 100% clean energy economy by 2035. It will also contribute to the well-being of American people and increase the country’s competitiveness in the global scene. With climate change threatening the welfare of the planet, urgent action is needed, and this Act is a step forward. Photo-credit: Flickr

25 10, 2017

This 18-Year-Old From New York Is Suing The Trump Administration Over Climate Change

2018-10-11T18:42:31-04:00Tags: |

Vic (Victoria) Barrett is among the 21 youth who have filed an unprecedented lawsuit against the U.S. government for violating their constitutional rights by supporting fossil fuel production and its resulting CO2 pollution. The lawsuit, Juliana v. the United States, argues that the federal government’s actions have driven climate change impacts that violate the youth’s rights under the Fifth Amendment to not be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” and that the judiciary should require the government to reduce CO2 pollution. Vic’s fight for justice is inspired by their mother’s roots in Honduras, which is severely impacted by sea level rise despite not being a major contributor to climate change, and their mission to make sure youth’s voices are heard at the decision-making table. Photo credit: Vic Barrett

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

23 10, 2017

Minnesota ‘Water Walker’ Hopes To Save Waterways From Contamination

2019-01-21T19:32:28-05:00Tags: |

Sharon Day, executive director of Indigenous Peoples Task Force in Minneapolis and a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, is a woman of substance: she has been walking many miles to bring people’s attention to the importance of water and how waterways have been polluted. She has walked along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, joined by a core team of five companions and anyone else who wants to join. Known as Nibi Walks (nibi is the Ojibwe word for water), the walks are prayers, not protests. She is deeply inspired by the grandmother of the Nibi Walks movement, Josephine Mandamin.  Photo Credit: Sharon Day

23 10, 2017

Celebrating Women Of Color “Solutionaries” In Detroit

2018-01-23T17:55:44-05:00Tags: |

Women in Detroit, Michigan constitute 53 percent of the population, and 91 percent of all women in the city are women of color. Despite the high numbers, women of color continue to be excluded from decision-making processes when it comes to Detroit’s economic and social development. This report emphasizes the significance of including women of color by profiling 20 women from diverse backgrounds who are committed to empowering a just and sustainable future for Detroit through their work. Among the women profiled is Rev. Roslyn Bouier, who after overcoming domestic violence and drug addiction, managed to establish the largest food pantry in the city. Photo-credit: idreamdetroit.org

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

15 10, 2017

How To Turn Neighborhoods Into Hubs Of Resilience

2017-10-31T01:14:57-04:00Tags: |

Connectedness and equity are two key aspects of how we can change, reverse, avoid and mitigate climate change. Elizabeth Yeampierre, director of Uprose, a grassroots organization in New York, works with the Center for Working Families to build a participatory process for its resilience approach to climate change while maintaining quality and safe jobs. People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) is a community group in Buffalo, New York that fights high energy costs through renewable and alternative energy projects, improving the urban landscape through their 25-square-block Green Development Zone (GDZ). Richmond, California is a historically black neighbourhood fighting toxic pollution and contamination by Chevron refinery. A coalition of local nonprofits  including the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment(ACCE), and Richmond Progressive Alliance, Faith-Works organized the community to win local elections and bring about change. Photo credit: PUSH Buffalo

10 10, 2017

Mother Nature’s Daughter

2020-12-15T21:52:39-05:00Tags: |

Authored by Erin Peterson, this article introduces us to St Olaf’s alumni Anne Christianson, a Minnesota native, feminist and environmental scientist. In 2016, along with 75 STEM women from around the world, Anne was selected to partake in the Homeward Bound leadership initiative, a 3-week expedition to Antarctica. For Anne, such an experience in an isolated and wild environment was both an impactful and powerful opportunity to build a significant network of allies, as it promoted collaboration, connection and support amongst the participants in meaningful ways. Interested in the intersection between politics and the environment, this expedition gave Anne a chance to consider new ways of bringing awareness to the troubling effects of climate change on women. The expedition provided these women scientists and leaders with coaching support for career and leadership strategies within their science and technology fields; and strategies for improved science communication and effective research disseminate world-wide. Photo Credit: Unknown

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

4 10, 2017

Kandi Mossett On The Hidden Costs Of Modernity 

2023-04-30T14:25:33-04:00Tags: |

In this For the Wild podcast episode, host Ayana Young speaks with Kandi Mossett, an Indigenous (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) woman who is the current Lead Organizer on the Extreme Energy & Just Transition Campaign at Indigenous Environmental Network. Mossett’s work is centered on raising awareness about the countless negative social and environmental impacts of hydraulic fracking. Mossett has witnessed these impacts herself and describes the changes she has seen within her own community in North Dakota since the oil industry was established there. She recounts stories of friends and loved ones dying due to acts of violence, as well as increases in asthma and upper respiratory conditions because of the natural gas flares that have continued for over a decade. The influx of oil rig workers in the community has made rent prices unaffordable, resulting in many local people being displaced, including elders. Mossett emphasizes the ways in which these systems of industry and government are broken and how they must be restructured on a foundation of trust, strength, and equality for true change to occur. She calls for everyone to think about the big picture and for each individual to consider what type of impact they want to leave on this world. 

2 10, 2017

Post-Hurricane Recovery Efforts Must Include Women’s Voices

2020-09-02T21:41:29-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Dr. Heidi Hartmann and Geanine Wester center the lived experiences of low-income black women impacted by post-Katrina recovery in New Orleans twelve years ago as a lesson for policy planning and development post-Irma and post-Harvey. They outline how women are more likely to live in poverty—especially women of color—and represent more of the elderly population, which make them more vulnerable to climate disasters and gender-based violence both before and after disasters. For the women in public housing prior to Hurricane Katrina, they faced recovery policies that effectively eliminated their homes to make way for mixed-income developments, dispersed and curtailed public services for low-income families, and devastated key community support networks. These stories underline the importance of including women, particularly poor women and women of color, in the process of rebuilding whole communities post-disaster.

28 09, 2017

Why Does the Colorado River Need to Sue for Rights?

2017-10-28T23:33:17-04:00Tags: |

On September 26, the Colorado River sued the State of Colorado in a first-in-the-nation lawsuit requesting that the United States District Court in Denver recognize the river’s Rights of Nature. Currently, most legal systems treat Nature as “property” allowing and encouraging environmental destruction. By recognising rights to the ecosystem, such as the rights to exist, flourish and evolve, Deep Green Resistance and the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund are urging the American legal system to move to a holistic approach which protects both humans, animals and Nature. Photo credit: Alex Proimos/Flickr/CC-BY-NC-2.0

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

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

20 09, 2017

Open Letter To The Women Of Congress From Climate Change Activists, Actors, & Average Moms

2018-03-02T14:08:11-05:00Tags: |

Women across the United States have presented an open letter to the women in Congress following the Trump Administration’s exit from the Paris Agreement and proposed 31 percent budget cut to the Environmental Protection Act (EPA). Hollywood elite, CEOs, advocates, and thousands of community activists have banded together to tell Congress, “Not on our watch!” In their letter, co-signers urge women of Congress to start getting serious about climate change. They point to the water crisis in Flint, fires in California, hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and air pollution in Utah as they plead for policy change that will protect the country’s children. As women, they say, the connection between climate change and gender is lived every day. They end their letter by urging Congress to provide full funding to the EPA in an effort to protect the constituents they are meant to serve. Photo credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images

11 09, 2017

Winona LaDuke: “Time To Move On” From Exploiting, Ignoring Nature

2018-02-20T18:53:16-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous rights activist, and advocate for women and the Earth, Winona LaDuke, addressed a crowd at Johns Hopkins University as part of the JHU Forums on Race in America, “Time to move on”. LaDuke is part of the Ojibwe or Chippewa Tribe in Minnesota, the founder of the Indigenous Women’s Network, White Earth Land Recovery Project, and Executive Director of Honor the Earth. Sharing stories from her life, LaDuke emphasizes the importance of Indigenous knowledge and the need for society to move from an economy based on exploitation and the rights of corporations, to one based on life and the rights of nature. Photo credit: Will Kirk/ Homewood Photography

4 09, 2017

They Don’t Call Her Mother Earth For Nothing: Women Re-Imagining The World

2017-09-04T12:37:37-04:00Tags: |

Jean Shinoda Bolen, Akaya Windwood, Alice Walker, Nina Simons, Joanna Macy, and Sarah Crowell are feminist icons and leaders who have centered much of their work on the inseparable links between women, race and the environment. This audio conversation between them delves into the complex issue of transforming relationships between people and the earth in order to bring gender and racial justice to our societies. Restoring the feminine and masculine balance in our world and in each of us is at the center of their explanation of how to enact long-lasting justice for both people and the planet. Photo credit: KRCB-FM Radio 91

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

1 09, 2017

CEJA Statement on Sexual Harassment in the Capitol

2020-09-03T00:29:16-04:00Tags: |

The letter illustrated the  between power structure and gender inequality. TheirThe pervasiveness of sexual harassment and asrelationsault has become the recent subject of public debate in the California legislature. With the help of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus and CEJA, an environmental justice organization, 200  women signed a statement against sexual harassment in Capitol. Many of these women spoke in front of the California Assembly Rules Subcommittee to bravely share their experiences of sexual harassment. This is a step in the right direction to ending sexual violence and a culture that permits and promotes the devaluation of women and gender non-conforming people. Photo Credit: CEJA

31 08, 2017

Troubled By Flint Water Crisis, 11-Year-Old Girl Invents Lead-Detecting Device

2017-10-31T22:54:30-04:00Tags: |

Gitanjali Rao, 11, was horrified upon learning about the continued drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan. In response, she invented a device using carbon nanotubes and a smartphone app that will allow residents to test their drinking water for lead quickly. For her efforts, she was awarded the title of "America's Top Young Scientist." Photo credit: Bharathi Rao

31 08, 2017

Living On Ohlone Land — What We Learned From Indigenous Women Leaders

2017-10-31T22:52:58-04:00Tags: |

At a panel organized by SURJ Bay Area entitled "Indigenous Women Leaders Discuss Building Reciprocity With Local Indigenous Communities" in Huichin/Oakland, Corrina Gould (Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone), Ruth Orta (Him*re-n Ohlone, Bay Miwok, and Plains Miwok), Ann Marie Sayers (Mutsun Ohlone), Chief Caleen Sisk (Winnemem Wintu), and moderator Desirae Harp (Mishewal Wappo, Diné) discussed how people can practice solidarity and allyship with Indigenous peoples. Each of the women panelists are formidable women leaders: Corrina Gould is working to protect the Ohlone Shellmounds, the burial sites of her ancestors, and cofounded Indian People Organizing for Change (IPOC), while Ann Marie Sayers established Indian Canyon, California as a cultural haven for Indigenous peoples. At the panel, Caleen Sisk, the Spiritual Leader and Tribal Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, discussed water protection and her work restoring salmon runs on the McCloud River. Singer-songwriter Desirae Harpcontributes to Indigenous justice through the arts, and is the founder the Mishewal Ona*staTis language revitalization program. Photo credit: Christopher McLeod

30 08, 2017

Color of Climate: Meet Valencia Gunder, A Power Player In Miami’s Fight Against Climate Gentrification

2017-10-30T03:35:18-04:00Tags: |

Valencia Gunder, resident of a working class, predominantly black neighbourhood in Miami, is one of the main activists against the gentrification of another similar neighbourhood: Little Haiti. She works at an organization called New Florida Majority, which aims to empower marginalized segments of society. In this piece, Valencia tells us about how in the past, poor and black communities were pushed far away from the sea, into higher and cheaper grounds. Nowadays, with the sea-level raising, we see the gentrification and forcing out of communities like Little Haiti for richer and higher-end developments. Valencia is an active voice fighting for racial and climate justice, on behalf of those who usually do not get to speak out. Photo credit: Ashley Velez/The Root

30 08, 2017

Interview With Vien Truong, Director Of Green For All

2017-10-31T15:49:19-04:00Tags: |

In this podcast, Vien Truong shares her story as an activist for social and environmental causes at the organization Green for All. Being a refugee in a large family herself, Vien has experienced first-hand how poor and marginalized people are often left out of decision-making processes. The organization Green for All tackles poverty at the national, regional and local levels through inclusive and green economy. Listen to her interview to know more about her solutions and achievements. Photo credit: Mrs. Green’s World

29 08, 2017

Earth Scientist Targets Sexual Harassment With NFS Grant

2017-10-27T20:19:53-04:00Tags: |

Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe was awarded funding by the National Science Foundation, an effort to include more women in the STEM field. Berhe is a biogeochemist, and her work is dedicated to climate change impacts in the land of Sierra Nevada; she received an ADVANCE grant (part of the NSF program), in the value of more than 1 million dollars, in order to research about the issue of gender-based harassment in the earth sciences and look for new solutions. Her research team, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is led by Professor Erika Marín-Spiotta. Focus groups at many University of California campuses (including UC Merced) have been created in order to test the efficacy of possible strategies to combat sexual harassment against women in STEM fields. Photo credit: UC Merced

27 08, 2017

Tia Hatton Is Suing The U.S. Government Over Climate Change

2017-10-27T15:12:54-04:00Tags: |

Tia Hatton, a University of Oregon student majoring in environmental studies, published this essay in Sierra Magazine about why she became a plaintiff in the case Juliana, et al. v. United States of America. Hatton and 21 other young climate activists are suing the U.S. government in a landmark case for failing to take meaningful action on climate change. The trial begins in early February 2018. Lawyers hope to prove that the US government knew for decades about CO2 pollution and rising global temperatures. Photo credit: Tia Hatton

27 08, 2017

Meet the Oregon Attorney Suing President Trump Over Climate Change

2017-10-27T12:06:09-04:00Tags: |

Julia Olson of the legal non-profit “Our Children’s Trust” is suing the federal government and agencies like EPA for neglecting to act on climate change. Olson maintains that the U.S. government has been aware of climate change and its impacts on people since George Bush took office, yet did nothing. Carbon dioxide levels have increased from 220 ppm to 440 ppm from 1789-2013.  Olson argues that the government is clearly violating the right of the kids to live sustainable lives by permitting the use and development of non-renewable energy sources like coal. She hopes the case Juliana v. United States will lead to concrete legal steps to curb greenhouse effects. Photo credit: Our Children's Trust

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

22 08, 2017

This Female Farmer Is Growing Fresh Produce In The Snow

2017-08-22T09:05:50-04:00Tags: |

Farmers in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula often struggle to make a living as poor soils, epic snows and a fleeting growing season threaten their livelihoods. However, women like Landen Tetil are working towards a more food secure future. Landen was the sole participant in an incubator farm project that provided her with training and tools to overcome punishing climate extremes and start a professional enterprise. She now grows 147 varieties of crops, most of them outside, and provides her community with fresh food. Photo credit: Civil Eats

18 08, 2017

Climate Justice Is Racial Justice Is Gender Justice

2020-09-08T21:50:16-04:00Tags: |

Though climate justice is not typically thought of as integral to civil rights or women’s rights, Jacqueline Patterson, director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, asks us to see their overlapping nature. Marginalized communities are often marginalized in many ways simultaneously: black populations are concentrated in poor neighborhoods, as is food insecurity, as are toxic waste facilities. While combatting climate change then, the concerns of marginalized communities need to be centered. Thus, access, affordability and viable livelihoods should be of high priority—as is consistent with a just transition. Photo Credit: Unknown

17 08, 2017

A Future We Can Vibe With

2017-10-08T22:48:41-04:00Tags: |

Artist Marcela Szwarc hosted a charity event entitled "A Future We Can Vibe With." It took place in Brooklyn, New York, and included artwork that focused on a sustainable future. The sales of the different artwork were given to Global Greengrants Fund. Marcela discovered the Fund when she researched about the 2014 Summit on Women and the Climate, due to her strong passion about the themes of climate justice and human rights. The artist stated that she believes in the power of art as a tool to help with climate change awareness, and she made use of this to raise the funds to help ensure that women are part of decision-making processes on climate. Photo credit: Global Greengrants Fund

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

4 08, 2017

Running The Salmon Home: Lifeways And Waters Of The Winnemem Wintu

2017-09-03T21:03:41-04:00Tags: |

The Winnemen Wintu, also known as the Middle Water People, can be found along the McCloud River in Northern California. Winnimen Wintu legend has it that their ancestors gained the ability to speak from Salmon, in exchange for eternal protection from external threats. Chief Caleen Sisk is organizing a Run4Salmon, to generate public awareness for the need to replenish the Chinook Salmon stock, which is endangered by climate change and the construction of dams. Photo credit: Toby McLeod

1 08, 2017

Native American Women Begin Walk Along The Missouri River

2017-09-03T21:01:43-04:00Tags: |

Women from different natives tribes are gathering at Three Forks, Montana to begin their month and a half walking journey along the Missouri River. Among the walkers are Lori Watos of the Dakota and Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Roxanne Ornelas, a Geography professor at the University of Miami, Ohio, and Sharon Day, executive director of the Indigenous People’s Task Force and leader of the walk. The walk is scheduled as a tribute to our most precious natural resource, water, which is under various threats from oil and gas production to agricultural run-offs. The aim is to understand and nurture human connection with water. Photo credit: Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management

1 08, 2017

Climate Justice Is Racial Justice And Gender Justice

2017-11-01T00:40:33-04:00Tags: |

Jacqueline Patterson is an activist with the NAACP for women and women of color. In her interview, she tells us how much intersectionality there is around climate change - it is a multiplier of injustices and is intrinsically related to civil and human rights. She recommends that people who want to start fighting climate change-related issues start locally, at a welfare’s group, or any type of group that attempts to diminish injustices for the most marginalized segments of society. Photo credit: Cyrus McCrimmon

27 07, 2017

Louisiana Teen Joins Environmental Litigation Filed By 21 Young People

2017-10-27T10:59:14-04:00Tags: |

The United States has known for the past five decades that carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels causes global warming yet has not taken the necessary steps to prevent it. Twenty-one young people from around the United States have filed a lawsuit to protect the people of the coasts and future generations from coastal erosion and oil spills, and to remind the federal government to step in and address the harm if people, companies and industries are not within emission limits. 14 year old woman leader, Jayden Foytlin, resident of Rayne, Louisiana, is one of the teens dedicating her self to this lawsuit, following the example of her mother, renowned Indigenous rights activist, Cherri Foytlin.  Photo credit: Katc

26 07, 2017

Winona LaDuke On How To Be Better Ancestors

2017-10-26T17:43:03-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Winona LaDuke, an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development renewable energy and food systems, reflects on how to be a good ancestor and on intergenerational accountability. She uses Standing Rock as an example and she explains that it should not be seen only as a place but rather as a state of mind. In Standing Rock we can see this unity, hope and will to protect and free Mother Earth from exploitation. She calls us to act as responsible ancestors, protect Mother Earth and care about our children’s future. Photo credit: Center for Humans and Nature

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

26 07, 2017

Community Seeks Justice And Wants Measures To Be Taken Regarding Soil And Water Contamination By Health-Threatening Chemical Elements

2017-10-26T00:24:05-04:00Tags: |

Susie Worley-Jenkins and Vickie Pizzion of West Virginia tells us stories about chemical pollution, cancer, and abortions linked to environmental toxins in their communities. Out of 251 members of their community, at least 86 died from or are fighting cancer in the past two years. Many blame it on the PCB contamination dumpsite from Shaffer Equipment Company closeby. The lack of knowledge and warnings regarding PCB’s effects, combined with poor maintenance made it so that water, soil and air was polluted due to erosion and floods, explains Pamela Nixon, a former environmental advocate. Not only that, but this population faces yet another threat to their health through toxic fracking waste disposal, with hazardous volatile compounds contaminating their water. This has prevented residents from using their tap water and has even caused chemical burns, including in children, reports Sandra Keeney. Photo credit: Project Earth

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

21 07, 2017

Across The Nation, Indigenous Women Are Fighting For Renewable Energy

2017-10-22T00:02:16-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous environmental leaders Faith Gemmill of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL), Fawn Sharp of the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington State, Kandi Mosset of the Indigenous Environmental Network, and Wahleah Johns of Native Renewables and the Black Mesa Water Coalition are among the many Indigenous women in North America combatting climate change by advocating for renewable energy and resisting fossil fuel dependence. Photo credit: Molly Adams

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.

17 07, 2017

Democracy And An Ecologically Sound Future

2017-10-08T22:57:31-04:00Tags: |

This article highlights the work of Heather McGhee, the president of the public policy organization Demos, which means "the people." Heather works towards more equatable economics, as well as for environmental justice. She was one of the speakers at the Bioneers conference in October 2017, titled "Uprising Bioneers," in San Rafael, California. Photo credit: Bioneers

14 07, 2017

Bay Area Gentrification, Global Warming And Community Justice Collide In The Hilarious New Trailer for the ‘The North Pole’

2017-10-08T22:33:47-04:00Tags: |

The North Pole is a television series that about Oakland’s residents of color who are up against the violence of gentrification and environmental destruction in the East Bay of the San Francisco metropolitan area. Produced by Josh Healey, the series focuses on communication and unity between residents of the area and new residents who are contributing to the gentrification of the area. Writer Chinaka Hodge, leading character Reyna Amaya, and former Black Panther party member Ericka Huggins are all women storytellers engaged in the creation of this intersectional climate justice initiative.  Photo credit: Colorlines

14 07, 2017

A Soil Scientist With A Plan For A More Resilient Food System

2018-07-19T14:27:10-04:00Tags: |

Civil Eats interviews Laura Lengnick, a major player and thinker on agriculture and the environment, delving into her background, career, and philosophy. Lengnick has published extensively on the current unbalanced food system and problems generated by the U.S. industrial food system. Her most notable work, “Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate” has contributed greatly to this field. During her versatile career Lengnick has acted as a soil scientist, policymaker as a Senate staffer, USDA researcher, professor, sustainability consultant, and advocate. She was also selected as a contributor to the Third National Climate Assessment, the authoritative U.S. Climate Report. Currently she lives in the North Carolina mountains where she bio-intensively tends to her 3,000-square-foot micro-farm. Photo credit: Climate Listening Project

13 07, 2017

Women In The Lead: One Milestone On The Path To Equity, Justice, And Inclusion

2017-10-08T22:55:19-04:00Tags: |

Lauren Lantry is the media coordinator for the Sierra Club's Gender, Equity, and Environment Program, the Electric Vehicles Initiative, and the Green Transportation Program. Lantry writes about the recent election of officers of the Sierra Club Board of Directors, and the fact that it is the first time in its history of 125 years that the executive committee was made up of females. Loren Blackford is the new Board President, Susana Reyes is the Board Vice President, Robin Mann is the new Secretary, Liz Walsh is the treasurer, and Margrete Strand-Rangnes is the fifth officer. This milestone towards a more equitable world is important for climate justice, as the Sierra Club works in the protection of the environment. The National Program Director of the Sierra Club, Sarah Hodgdon, stated that with the newly-elected all-female executive team, there is a great set of skills available to deal with the issues pertaining to climate change. Photo credit: Sierra Club

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

10 07, 2017

Struggle For Water And Sovereignty

2017-09-03T20:50:39-04:00Tags: |

In this emotional video, Temryss Xeli'tia Lane of the Golden Eagle Clan, Lummi Nation, speaks about protecting her people’s waters, the main source of their livelihood, from TransCanada’s pipeline projects and other threats. She speaks about how the water is their land, and without fishing, her culture and ancestry are endangered. Photo credit: Desk Gram

7 07, 2017

Afro-Latino Fest NYC 2017: Women, Climate Change And Rural/Urban Displacement

2017-10-29T21:48:03-04:00Tags: |

Afrodescendant communities in the West are particularly displaced by the negative impacts of climate change in cities. Women of color are on the urban frontlines of these communities. They are leading the struggle through mobilizing their communities and offering strategies to fight urban displacement caused by environmental issues and gentrification. This incredible Afro-Latino Fest in New York City video panel includes women speakers Nyasha Laing, Nasha Paola Holguin, Dr. Kesha Khan Perry, Ana Cristina da Silva Caminha, Zelene Pineda, and Thanu Yakupitiyage in dialogue about the issues at hand. Photo credit: Afro-Latino Fest NYC 2017

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

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.

1 07, 2017

Biography Of Denise Abdul-Rahman

2017-11-01T17:52:30-04:00Tags: |

Denise Abdul-Rahman is a powerful woman leader who has spent her career working at the intersection of racial, climate and economic justice. For example, she has facilitated community trainings on “Bridging the Gap: Connecting Black Communities to the Green Economy,” and led the Just Energy Campaign to stop Indianapolis Power Light from burning coal. Abdul-Rahman holds a variety of titles: she serves the NAACP Indiana as an Environmental Climate Justice Chair, sits on the Climate Justice Alliance Steering Committee, was a Credentialed Delegate to Paris COP21 with the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, and was a USCAN 2016 Conference Steering Committee member. Photo credit: Kheprw Institute

1 07, 2017

Woman, Scientist, Activist: Female Researchers Take Charge

2017-11-01T03:39:39-04:00Tags: |

Dr. Sarah Myhre writes about intersectional feminism in this article for Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. An ocean scientist, Myhre explains how women are stepping up in an era of increased misogyny ushered in by the election of Donald Trump, and highlights women scientists' leadership in the climate movement, such as with the organization 500 Women Scientists. Photo credit: Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock

1 07, 2017

Tanya Fields And The Homegrown Food Revolution In The Bronx

2017-11-01T01:51:39-04:00Tags: |

Tanya Fields, founder of the organization Libertad Urban Farm, shows in this short movie how growing organic food in urban settings, as well as in rural places, is so important for black communities’ empowerment. When considering the high use of agrotoxins and other chemicals inside vegetables that most people consume everyday, Tanya’s work is opening a space for urban farming, where people from South Bronx grow their own food. This improves the community’s access to quality food. Her initiative supports young people and also builds a stronger sense of community, autonomy and food security. Photo credit: The Root

1 07, 2017

Beata Tsosie Peña: “I Do Not Separate The Struggle From My Spirituality”

2017-11-01T01:23:13-04:00Tags: |

Beata Tsosie Peña is a Tewa Indigenous woman from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico who is fighting for environmental justice and protection of her people's ancestral land and the health and well being of the larger regional community. The region has been heavily impacted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a United States federal laboratory producing nuclear weapons and doing biological and chemical testing, which contaminates of water, soil and air. Beata joined TEWA Women United (TWU), an inter-tribal organization that seeks to empower women, and works jointly with Las Mujeres Hablan (The Women Speak) and Communities for Clean Water (CCW) in order to fight for environmental justice, cultural preservation, reproductive rights, health, and food security. Beata has a holistic approach to her fight, and the manner in which she stands up against contamination on Mother Earth as a dual attack on bodies, rituals, spirituality and beliefs. Photo credit: International Journal on Human Rights

30 06, 2017

Women Reclaiming Our Democracy: Resistance And Renewal

2017-10-30T02:23:02-04:00Tags: |

During a 2017 Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network online Education and Advocacy training, ‘Reclaiming Our Democracy: Resistance and Renewal’, women leaders from across the United States shared pointed analysis and thoughts on how best to organize and pursue grassroots-driven systemic change, and make a difference in local and national politics, particularly in the context of the United States Trump presidential administration. Cindy Wiesner, National Coordinator of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJA) and Co-Chair of the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) and the Our Power Campaign shares thoughts on the importance of long term capacity and relationship building between communities on the frontline of ecological and social injustices in order to support each other around sites of local struggle. A’shanti F. Gholar, Political Director for Emerge America, shares information on the status of women, particularly women of color, in electoral politics - and why and how women across the US must stand up and take action to fill the gap. Liz Van Cleve, an environmental media and outreach communications professional and volunteer with the Indivisible Project, discusses her work and what has been learned surrounding effective ways to engage and affect local and national political outcomes. Photo credit: WECAN International

27 06, 2017

Leaving Paris For All The Wrong Reasons

2017-10-27T16:13:05-04:00Tags: |

Two women earth defenders and activists, Sara Mersha and Carol Schachet, co-wrote this editorial in response to President Trump withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement. The women underscore the influence the fossil fuel industry had on the decision to ultimately withdraw. Nevertheless, the women countered this dramatic and uncertain shift in U.S. climate policy with Grassroots International’s four “key priorities” for climate justice work going forward. Sara Mersha is the Director of Grantmaking and Advocacy at Grassroots International and Carol Schachet director of development and communications at Grassroots International. Photo credit: Grassroots International

27 06, 2017

Mom’s Clean Air Force Interviews Ohio Representative Kristin Boggs

2017-10-27T16:09:56-04:00Tags: |

Mom’s Clean Air Force published this exclusive Q&A interview with State Representative Kristin Boggs (D) on what truly makes Ohio’s natural resources unique and worth preserving. Boggs also discusses how as a mother she is concerned about climate change and the ways this will impact children’s future. Boggs underscores the importance of a bipartisan effort to enact progressive climate legislation, one that does not change course after each election. Photo credit: Mom’s Clean Air Force

27 06, 2017

Jodie Evans Rising With Women For Peace And Justice

2017-10-27T15:24:03-04:00Tags: |

Jodie Evans is determined to end U.S. and global militarism and support reinvestment in communities by influencing national policy and promoting peacemaking in war zones. As co-founder and co-director of CODEPINK, she mobilizes antiwar protests of executive actions, such as the U.S. invasion of Iraq, drone strikes, and use of Guantanamo Bay prison. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

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

20 06, 2017

Mom Detective: Here’s An Innovative Solution To Microfiber Pollution

2017-10-16T18:34:00-04:00Tags: |

Rachael Miller founded the Rosalie Project, an initiative which has designed the Cora Ball to collect harmful microfibers from clothes washers before they enter our waterways. Miller speaks about how her ocean nonprofit is working to clean up marine debris and tackle the problem at its source, designing a 100% recycled soft plastic device that was inspired by the natural filtering functions of coral. Photo credit: Moms Clean Air Force

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

19 06, 2017

Transit Riders Unions Versus Climate Change, White Supremacy And Disaster Capitalism

2017-09-24T18:29:25-04:00Tags: |

Social and ecological activist, author and co-founder of Collective for Social and Environmental Justice in Vancouver, Desiree Hellegers, is sounding the alarm on how a Trump election has further intensified the vulnerability of and violence against frontline communities of color in the face of climate change. Here, Hellegers shows how climate change is part of a white supremacist system driven by disaster capitalism. Hellegers explains how Transit Riders Unions are pushing back against this oppressive structure in the midst of antiracist and antifascist clashes in Portland, Oregon. Photo credit: WECAN International

18 06, 2017

The Victories Against Trump Are Mounting

2017-09-06T21:34:36-04:00Tags: |

Respected feminist author and activist Rebecca Solnit is putting women and the climate at the center of her articles about the dangers of the Trump presidency. Paying homage to growing transgender rights activism, Teen Vogue’s feminist coverage, Mormon women mobilizing in solidarity with undocumented families, and American politicians and activists pledges to continue their commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, Solnit reminds us of our vast mobilizing power. Solnit is a movement and media voice amplifying the proliferation of feminist and climate action resisting Trump and the underlying inequality and oppression that has existed before him. Photo credit: UPI/ Bancroft Images

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

15 06, 2017

Black And Latina Moms Are Most Concerned With Climate Change

2018-02-15T12:58:54-05:00Tags: |

A recent air pollution and climate study found that U.S. mothers and grandmothers are troubled by the impending effects climate change has and will have on their children – with Black and Latino mothers leading the pack. Specifically, the Public Policy Polling found that 87% of Latinas and 84% of Black mothers and grandmothers agreed with the statement: “We are not doing enough as a nation to protect clean air and clean water for your children and grandchildren in the coming years and decades.” Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

13 06, 2017

Full Interview: Naomi Klein On Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics

2017-10-31T20:35:02-04:00Tags: |

Naomi Klein’s book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate has been called the bible of the climate justice movement. It cuts straight to the chase in identifying capitalism as the principal culprit of climate change, through stories from the global movement that widely uses the slogan “system change, not climate change.” Klein also notes that the ‘capitalist patriarchy’ is subordinating women’s bodies and the earth. In her new book No Is Not Enough, Klein takes on the catastrophic decisions President Trump is making on global climate progress by denying that climate change exists and by infamously pulling out of the acclaimed 2015 Paris climate accord. Yet, despite the setbacks caused by Trump, Klein explains that the climate movement is stepping up and fighting hard against the dangerous impacts that climate change policy will have on the interlinked issues of race, gender and economic inequality under Trump’s administration. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

13 06, 2017

Hurricane Survivor Jayden Foytlin Fights Climate Change In Oil Country

2023-03-19T08:31:25-04:00Tags: |

Jayden Foytlin is a 14-year-old hurricane survivor and one of 21 young leaders suing the federal government for inaction on climate change. She experienced the destruction of climate change firsthand in her hometown of Rayne, Louisiana where she woke up to a half a foot of water during a storm that flooded her home. Foytlin describes the isolation of being a teenage climate activist in the conservative town of Acadia Parish where offshore oil and gas is a major industry to journalist Neela Banerjee who grew up in southeast Louisiana. Although she experiences alienation from her local community, she connects closely with the other youth plaintiffs from different states leading the Our Children’s Trust lawsuit. Foytlin has the support of her mother Cherri and her sister Erin who are engaged in the movement and co-speak at public climate events. Photo credit: InsideClimate News/ Neela Banerjee

12 06, 2017

Native American Student Proves Traditional Chokecherry Pudding Is Medicine

2017-09-22T22:39:09-04:00Tags: |

According to one Native American student, Destany “Sky” Pete, of the Shoshone and Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Idaho and Nevada, chokecherries have medicinal properties that include cancer-fighting agents. This vitamin- and mineral-rich fruit has been a staple food of North America’s Indigenous people for millennia. Photo credit: Barbara Pete    

12 06, 2017

Seventy Miles In Nine Mile Canyon

2017-09-04T20:12:45-04:00Tags: |

Climate activist and storyteller Brooke Larsen has transformed her 3-day bike tour across the Colarado Plateau into a biographical story that educates on the multifaceted socio-political layers of environmental destruction. By juxtaposing the scenic terrain and the scent of wild sage wafting pass her as she pedals, to that of a landscape speckled with oil rigs, Larsen unveils the ecological impact of “progress” through her writing. Oil and gas corporations, the endangered prairie dog, and the history of the displacement of Indigenous peoples all come together in Larsen’s account of her bike trip. Personal reflections of individual contradictions, and challenging questions of how climate activists can form alliances with coal miners and unions are at the center of Larsen’s reflections on how to change the system and not the climate. Photo credit: Brooke Larsen

6 06, 2017

Asia’s Indigenous Women Set Examples In Fight For Justice, Influence And Equity

2017-09-22T22:36:07-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Julie Koch, director of the Asia Indigenous Peoples' Pact, writes about the crucial role of Indigenous women's leadership in international and local policymaking. Women like Rukka Sombolinggi (Torajan; Indonesia), Piy Macling Malayao (Philippines) and Jannie Lasimbang (Malaysia) are advocating for the rights of Indigenous people, highlighting Indigenous women's specialized knowledge in biodiversity preservation, forest protection and food security. Because a lack of data tends to impede advocacy efforts, the Asia Indigenous People's Pact recently launched the Indigenous Navigator, a digital tool that helps Indigenous people monitor the level of recognition and implementation of their rights. Photo credit: Asian Development Bank/Flickr

6 06, 2017

Interviews With Andrea Carmen And Kaimana Barcarse

2017-09-22T22:33:08-04:00Tags: |

Andrea Carmen (Yacqui) of the International Indian Treaty Council discusses how young Indigenous women are on the forefront of the climate struggle through instances of fossil fuel resistance like Standing Rock. Additionally, native Hawaiian Kaimana Barcarse draws the connection between language, environment and climate change. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

6 06, 2017

Blackfeet Researcher Leads Her Tribe Back To Traditional Foods

2017-09-22T22:22:13-04:00Tags: |

Researcher Abaki Beck  published a report entitled “Ahwahsiin: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Food Sovereignty on the Blackfeet Reservation” (ahwahsiin translates to “the land where we get our food”), featuring oral history interviews with nine Blackfeet elders who discussed the nation’s traditional foods and the health issues connected to a modern American diet. Beck partnered with Saokio Heritage, a community-based and volunteer-run organization on Blackfeet. The report was funded by a $10,000 grant from the First Nations Development Institute and is available on the organization’s website. Photo credit: Yes! Magazine  

4 06, 2017

While Trump Withdraws From Paris Climate Agreement, Teenagers Are Fighting the Climate Crisis

2017-09-04T13:00:22-04:00Tags: |

Teenage women are rising climate movement leaders. 15-year-old Jamie Margolin writes about being born onto a warming planet exacerbated by the Trump administration. She is being loud and clear about generation Z’s reality of living in a world where water, air and the survival of the planet are threatened. Yet, despite this grim reality, Margolin is emphasizing the importance of teenagers mobilizing against climate change, while simultaneously holding previous generations accountable for their complacency on the issue. In her extra time, she attends activist meetings, takes 3 trips yearly to her state capitol to lobby for climate policies, and puts together civic action projects to protect the planet. Photo credit: The Huffington Post

2 06, 2017

Linda Black Elk On Plant Medicine

2017-10-01T16:21:53-04:00Tags: |

Before Tylenol or Tums, Native people had a vast knowledge of plant medicine to help heal the body and spirit. Although fewer Native people have this knowledge today, it’s still an important part of Native culture, health and ceremony. In this program, Linda Black Elk (Catawba) discusses the importance of plant medicine to her people. She also explores how land and environmental issues are impacting the growth and harvest of medicinal and sacred plants. Photo credit: Linda Black Elk 

1 06, 2017

Kari Fulton Talks About Climate Change And The Threat Of Extreme Weather

2017-11-01T17:47:16-04:00Tags: |

Cultural historian and environmental justice advocate Kati Fulton speaks about the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Paris accord. Fulton points out that such an action reduces the amount of funding for climate change adaptation and mitigation measures, the impacts of which are not isolated to the United States but will be felt worldwide. She urges politicians to stop denying the threat posed by extreme weather, such as Hurricane Irma, and take measures to ensure environmental justice. Photo credit: CGTN America

1 06, 2017

Whitney Tome Of Green 2.0 On Building An Environmental Movement That Looks Like America

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

Whitney Tome tells her story about working for over a decade in the environmental movement and often being the only woman of color present. Her experience led her to found, Green 2.0, an initiative that is working to bring more people of color to environmental organizations and building a movement that better represents all of the United States. Photo credit: Green 2.0

1 06, 2017

Women Of Color Are Tired Of Being Targeted By Toxic Marketing, Toxic Products

2017-11-01T02:34:20-04:00Tags: |

Amber Garcia is the Field and Advocacy Manager for the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), a collective of Latinas dedicated to reproductive rights. Amber participated in the Feminine Care Rally in March, when she spoke against the media and mainstream propaganda that sells an unattainable image and ideal, which has a strong impact on women of color. This can also be seen by the disproportionate amount of women of color being targeted for self-care, hygiene and beauty products, which contain undisclosed toxic and hazardous elements that affects one’s health. Garcia speaks out against these practices and demands transparency of ingredients and chemicals used in sold products. Photo credit: Women’s Voices for the Earth

1 06, 2017

Five Questions With The Woman Keynoting A POC-Only Environmental Gathering

2017-11-01T01:44:46-04:00Tags: |

The summit “People of the Global Majority in the Outdoors, Nature and Environment” was convened as a first-of-its-kind gathering for people of color in environmental work. Carolyn Finney, the keynote speaker and Professor of Geography at the University of Kentucky, addressed questions regarding how we can do environmental work with a racial justice lens. Photo credit: Peter Forbes

1 06, 2017

Centering Equity, Inclusion And Justice In All Of Our Work: Lessons Learned So Far

2017-11-01T01:02:02-04:00Tags: |

Nellis Kennedy-Howard is the Director for the Equity, Inclusion and Justice department at the Sierra Club and has an extensive background in law, natural resources and environmental justice issues, professionally and personally. The main goal for this sector is to manage the organization’s activities and its transformation into an anti-oppressive entity, while continuing to work with environmental and participation and community engagement’s issues. Three other women compose this department, namely Jessica Ronald, Cait Lull and Allison Chin. Resources are scarce and limited manpower list among some of the practical challenges Nellis and her team face. Photo credit: Sierra Club

31 05, 2017

Alice Hinman And Natural Beekeeping At Apiopolis

2017-10-31T22:42:55-04:00Tags: |

Alice Hinman is the founder of a bee sanctuary and sustainable honey company in Raleigh, North Carolina. A natural beekeeper, she see the decline in pollinator and honeybee population worldwide as an opportunity to tackle a global challenge, to which she is responding by producing honey for Raleigh's network of local restaurants. She is passionate about supporting local food and creating green jobs rooted in sustainability and community. Photo credit: Johnny Gillette

31 05, 2017

Urban Farmer Transforms Community Into Thriving Local Food Haven

2017-10-31T01:41:03-04:00Tags: |

Sheryll Durrant is a leader of the urban farming movement in New York City, which engages with more than 600 community gardens throughout the city with the GreenThumb program. She began volunteering at a community garden in her neighborhood during the financial crisis in 2008 and has since gotten higher education in farming. Through her work at the Sustainable Flatbush garden, Sheryll saw the importance of reaching out to the community to understand their needs, which increased member attendance at events and engagement with the garden. Sheryll also expanded her work to other neighborhoods with high levels of food insecurity or with many refugees, working as a garden manager and a seasonal farm coordinator at the Kelly Street Garden and the International Rescue Committee's New Roots Community Farm, respectively. Margaret Brown (Natural Resources Defense Council) who works on food issues, also reiterates how important these places can be for more access to fresh and quality food, as well as a place for socialization, integration, and nutritious education. Photo credit: Keka Marzagao/Sustainable Flatbush

31 05, 2017

Soul Fire Farm Co-owner To Talk About Working To End Racism And Injustice

2017-10-31T01:34:25-04:00Tags: |

Leah Penniman is a farmer, educator and co-owner of Soul Fire Farm, advocating for food sovereignty and racial justice. Through her work, she reaches out to black, Latino and Indigenous communities, including youth, empowering them with jobs and trainings regarding land rights, oppression, and agriculture. She aims to improve access to quality and natural food for people of color. Penniman believes in the intersectionality of fights and that food security is also related to access to quality education, and healthcare. She also explains more about her trajectory and mentions her experience at The Food Project, a youth leadership project. Photo credit: Leah Penniman

31 05, 2017

10 Female Urban Farmers Setting The Tone For Sustainable Cities

2017-10-31T01:17:07-04:00Tags: |

Ten female urban farmers are changing the urban agriculture movement: Erika Allen carries out multiple food system projects in Chicago, while Natasha Bowens is a writer and advocate for the black farming movement. Kelly Carlisle is the founder of the grassroots NGO Acta Non Verba, which focuses on teaching youth about gardening, businesses and finance. Natalie Clark established the Harvest Blessing Garden in Jacksonville, an urban lot in where she teaches sustainable and urban farming. Gail Myers is an academician with a documentary Rhythms of the Land and a non-profit Farms to Grow, through which she explores food equity and racial relations. Read the article to learn about the work of Jamila Norman, Leah Penniman, Karen Washington, Yonnette Fleming, Lindsey Lunsford and more!

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.

29 05, 2017

Meet The Ladies Who Are Growing Food In Los Angeles

2017-10-29T00:46:32-04:00Tags: |

Manju Kumar, manager of Sarvodaya Farms in Los Angeles, believes that today’s problems are rooted in our disconnection with nature. Her permaculture urban farm provides a pathway towards reconnecting with the land through growing food within city limits. For Kumar, farming is also act of women’s resistance because of the autonomy that comes with digging your hands deep into soil. Farming is still extremely male dominated in the United States. Moreover, in Los Angeles, 1 in 10 families suffer from food insecurity or go hungry despite Southern California holding claim to one of the most agriculturally productive territories in the world. Katie Lewis, Zoe Howell, Leigh Adams, Mireya Arizmendi de Haddad, and Lindy Ly are fellow women urban farmers and gardeners who are leading the way in making food more accessible for all. Photo credit: Link TV

27 05, 2017

A Feminist Revolution Demands Climate Justice

2017-11-01T00:36:24-04:00Tags: |

Bridget Burns, co-director of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) reflects on her experiences joining the People’s Climate March on 29 April 2017 with other global women leaders challenging our environmental crisis and fighting against multiple form of injustice. Bridget speaks on grassroots movements like the Chipko movement in India, COPINH in Honduras and the Sioux Tribe of Standing Rock as examples of resistance and the transformative power of the voices of diverse women raised for the Earth.  Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN

27 05, 2017

Susan Ladd: Women Can Be Powerful Agents Of Change

2017-10-27T11:28:10-04:00Tags: |

After the 2017 inauguration of United States President Donald Trump, Susan Ladd highlights evidence of women’s leadership, from the Women’s Marches around the globe to grassroots women, as a solution to the sustainability challenges we face. Photo credit: Andrew Dye/BH Media

26 05, 2017

The Laura Flanders Show: Women And The New Economy

2017-10-26T23:03:44-04:00Tags: |

In “Women and the New Economy,” The Laura Flanders Show features interviews with Sarah Leonard, senior editor at The Nation; Shirley Sherrod, founder of Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education; Farah Tanis, co-founder and executive director of Black Women’s Blueprint; Ai-Jen Poo, director of National Domestic Workers Alliance and co-founder of Domestic Workers United; and Pavlina R. Tcherneva from the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. This video provides an overview of how women bear the burdens of a neoliberal economic system. Photo credit: The Laura Flanders Show

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

24 05, 2017

‘My House Is In A Superfund Site’

2020-09-02T20:58:58-04:00Tags: |

In this video, Grist fellow, Vishakha Darbha shares how residents of East Chicago, Indiana are fighting widespread lead contamination in the soil and targeted displacement from public housing. Despite long standing knowledge of unhealthy levels of contamination since 1985 and Superfund designation in 2008, cleanup efforts have been slow and uneven, with some communities being ignored and evicted. Tara Adams is among the 1,000 residents evicted from West Calumet Housing Complex that are being left to fend for limited affordable housing and search for cleaner land and water. The Trump administration is also seeking to cut Superfund program funding by $273 million, leaving many more communities to suffer from historical pollution. 

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

18 05, 2017

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

2017-09-04T22:08:51-04:00Tags: |

Isabella Zisi is a young Indigenous woman who stands up for clean air, water, soil and life on Mother Earth. She participated in the first-ever White House tribal youth gathering and took part in an environmental workshop where she was able to express the challenges her community faces to federal officials. Isabella believes that she is blessed to be surrounded by Indigenous grandmothers and according to her, our ancestors, our non-human relatives, and the next seven generations should be our focus during these movements and moments in time. Photo credit: Peg Hunter, Leon Sun

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

18 05, 2017

Savvy Seniors Enjoy Their Golden Years Off The Grid

2017-09-24T16:39:46-04:00Tags: |

Retirees Bette Presley, Dani and Adele are making big commitments to a sustainable lifestyle by moving into customized tiny homes. Solar power, small-scale appliances, and space efficiency characterize these sustainable houses. Retiree Dani’s, a disabled widow, has constructed an accessible home with a custom wheelchair ramp and a wide-set front entrance. A custom made chair lift transports her to her sleeping loft. Photo credit: inhabitat

17 05, 2017

Dear Tomorrow: A Letter To Our Children

2017-10-08T22:46:35-04:00Tags: |

Dear Tomorrow is an organization founded by two women, Jill Kubit and Trisha Shrum, who are both mothers and worry about the impacts of climate change in their children's lives. Dear Tomorrow is a platform where people can send letters to their loved ones in the future, so they know everything that each person is doing to fight climate change. The content of these letters is shared with the public with the purpose of engaging more people in climate action, so the future can be a better place for our children. Photo credit: Moms Clean Air Force

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

16 05, 2017

Defending The Forests From Above With Ruddy Turnstone

2020-12-15T21:57:21-05:00Tags: |

The second installment of the Dogwood Alliance Forest Defender Series focuses on Ruddy Turnstone, an activist with the Global Justice Ecology Project and Everglades Earth First. Based in the Everglades, Ruddy describes her experiences climbing and living in trees during direct action campaigns against deforestation. Ruddy also trains fellow activists in these direct action strategies. Ruddy emphasises her individual connection with nature and the powerful bonds between humans and the nature surrounding them. Photo Credit: Global Justice Ecology Project

11 05, 2017

Women Are Transforming The Energy Sector

2017-09-29T19:06:44-04:00Tags: |

Women are at the forefront of the fight against climate change and the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Kris Mayes is co-author to the renewable portfolio standards of Arizona, which requires the increasing adoption of renewable energy sources. Lorena Aguilar is global senior gender adviser to International Union for Conservation of Nature and advocates for the integration of women in the renewable sector. Suzanne Bertin, as executive director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance, explains the various opportunities for women in a field dominated by men and encourages female participation.

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

Molly Rauch Speaks Of Moms Clean Air Force At The Moms Social Good Summit

2017-12-07T18:01:47-05:00Tags: |

During the Global Moms Challenge Social Good Summit, Molly Rauch of Mom’s Clean Air Force discusses how climate change impacts human health, particularly for moms and children. She speaks on air pollution, heat waves, wildfires, increase of pollen and allergens, and other impacts being felt on a daily basis across the US and around the world. Focusing on air pollution, she notes impacts to not only the respiratory system, but also the heart and mental health. Photo credit: Moms Clean Air Force

5 05, 2017

Women Lead The Way: From Violence To Non-Violence, From Greed To Sharing, From Hate To Love

2018-07-13T16:26:13-04:00Tags: |

Internationally recognised activist, scholar, and director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology, Vandana Shiva, was the keynote speaker at The J. Jobe and Marguerite Jacqmin Soffa Lecture on the April 27th, 2017. This lecture series brings renowned women from around the world to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to speak on contemporary issues of global significance. Shiva’s speech, which can be watched in full, headlined the 2nd Annual 4W Summit on Women, Gender, and Well-being. Shiva spans issues of human rights, militarisation, agriculture, poverty, economy and global cooperation. Highlighting that women are leading the fight for an economy of life that prioritizes community wellbeing. Photo credit: Seed Freedom

4 05, 2017

Winnemen Wintu Chief: California WaterFix Fixes Nothing

2017-08-26T15:57:27-04:00Tags: |

California Governor Jerry Brown’s “Legacy Project,” the Delta Tunnels, promised to restore water security to a state plagued by drought and renew local ecosystems. However, Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual leader of the Winnemen Wintu tribe, is speaking out against this project, which she and many others in the community maintain will destroy the sensitive nursery for salmon, other fish species and all aquatic life. Chief Caleen’s resistance to this project is rooted in the traditional ecological knowledge of her people and centuries of resistance against destructive development projects. Photo credit: Dan Bacher

3 05, 2017

LL Belone Speaks About The History Or Uranium On Navajo Land

2017-10-01T16:04:31-04:00Tags: |

LL Belone created this video to explain the history of uranium mining on Navajo land. The work narrates how the over 500 uranium mines impact drinking water, cattle, human health, and environmental safety. This video clip discusses the history of colonization, environmental racism, and breaches of sovereignty that enabled this extraction. Through interviews with members of the local Environmental Protection Agency, Navajo people discuss the challenges of funding the cleanup of these sites. 

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

Why Cameron Russell and the Model Mafia Think the Fashion Industry Needs to Take a Stand on Sustainability

2019-01-21T19:37:03-05:00Tags: |

Cameron Russell, a fashion model, cares about climate change, and is working to get the fashion industry on board too. When the 2017 People’s Climate March called for supporters, she got a handful of models to bring art and their voices to the streets, forming the Model Mafia. These models are using their cultural capital and media spotlight to spread awareness: Hawa Hassan, a Somali-American woman, wants more people to know about climate refugees. Ebony Davis wants to highlight how people of color are disproportionately affected by climate change. While sustainable fashion is often a buzzword, these models want to push for lasting changes in production and consumption habits that lead to climate justice. Photo Credit: Gabriela Celeste

1 05, 2017

NAACP Florida State Conference Joins The NAACP Jackson County Branch Demanding The Scott Administration Deny The Pending Deep Injection Disposal Well Permit

2017-11-01T17:58:58-04:00Tags: |

Ronstance Pittman, President of NAACP Jackson County Branch, has played an instrumental role in opposing the injection of leachate (garbage juice) into the ground in her community. Pittman has been a vocally urging the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to deny the permit to the companies requesting permission, citing the negative impacts on communities of color and the Florida Aquifer.  Adora Obi Nweze, President of NAACP Florida State Conference and member of the National Board of Directors, echoed Pittman's concerns about the impacts of such environmentally destructive practices on communities.

1 05, 2017

Women Climate Champions Spotlight: Dr. Katharine Hayhoe

2017-11-01T03:38:06-04:00Tags: |

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is both an Evangelical Christian and a leading atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University. She authored the second and third editions of the US National Climate Assessment, and has over 120 peer-reviewed publications to her name. Hayhoe is both a powerful woman climate leader and a woman of faith, two identities that don't have to be contradictory. Photo credit: The Climate Reality Project

1 05, 2017

“Resistance As Daily Existence”: One Woman’s Story As A Climate Scientist Under Trump

2017-11-01T03:36:10-04:00Tags: |

Jane Zelikova is the founder of 500 Women Scientists, a group founded after she and a few friends circulated a letter rejecting the hateful rhetoric of the Trump campaign and affirming the women and people of color in the sciences. Zelikova works at the U.S. Department of Energy, which has seen cuts in funding since Donald Trump took office, however, she is committed to her career and fighting for action on climate, even in tough circumstances. Photo credit: Grist

1 05, 2017

Why This Muslim Woman Marched And Fights For Climate Justice

2017-11-01T00:45:08-04:00Tags: |

In 2007, Nana Firman, the co-founder of the Global Muslim Climate Network and Muslim outreach coordinator for GreenFaith, saw first-hand the devastating impact of climate change when severe flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia killed at least 40 people and displaced an estimated 450,000 people. Seven years later Nana would move to California, where she now works with faith-based networks which focus on climate justice issues. Her work is guided by her Muslim faith, which she states encourages stewardship of the Earth. Nana’s work also highlights the importance of having climate justice work firmly centered on analyzing and challenging the rising connection between markets and religious fundamentalisms, anti-black and brown racism, and the disproportionate impacts on women. Photo credit: Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences

30 04, 2017

When Women Lead, The Environment Wins

2017-10-30T20:49:52-04:00Tags: |

In fall of 2016, A. Tianna Scozzaro was elected as commissioner to the Washington, D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission. In this post via Rachel's Network, she highlights the need for increased women’s leadership at all levels of policy-making, especially given new attacks on Clean Power Plan and rollbacks to environmental regulation. Photo credit: A. Tianna Scozzaro

28 04, 2017

Elizabeth Yeampierre On The Importance Of Activism To Combat Climate Change

2017-10-28T22:47:15-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Elizabeth Yeampierre focuses on the significance of climate justice as the human rights movement of our time with a growing worldwide movement. She speaks to the intersection between racial justice and climate change, and how vital it is that most impacted communities are speaking out, joining together, and advocating on the frontlines of climate marches and policy and grassroots actions. Photo credit: BUILD Series

28 04, 2017

One More Barrier Faced By Women In Science

2017-10-28T22:29:48-04:00Tags: |

In this Scientific American article, Lily Cohen, an arctic researcher studying climate change, shares her experience as a female scientist in the field. She illustrates the lack of female representation in science and how this has resulted in inequitable policies and programs, even down to the lack of access to women’s clothing for scientists. Photo credit: Eli Duke/Flickr

28 04, 2017

A Conversation With Juana Alicia

2017-10-28T22:25:22-04:00Tags: |

Juana Alicia is an instructor at the Berkeley City College in San Francisco, California, and a muralist. The renowned artist was inspired by Diego Rivera's murals growing up in Detroit, and paints about her Latina background, immigrants, and powerful women. Her mural "Derrame" was inspired by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, and "Las Lechugueras" shows a pregnant woman picking lettuce in a scenario where it is raining pesticide, making reference to the issue of ecological disenfranchisement of women of color. Photo credit: Beth LaBerge

27 04, 2017

Rowen White Returning Native Seeds To Their Roots

2017-12-27T18:13:34-05:00Tags: |

Rowen White, a Mohawk Indigenous woman leader, has built a life for herself as a farmer, educator and guardian of traditional and Indigenous seed varieties. Through her organization, Sierra Seeds, based in Northern California, Rowen is growing indigenous-centered seed education and action, including the ‘re-matriation’, or returning of varieties of seeds which had been removed from their traditional communities, back to the hands of their original stewards in Indigenous communities across North America.  Photo credit: Civil Eats

27 04, 2017

Pediatrician Warns That EPA Budget Cuts Will Harm Children’s Health

2017-10-27T15:35:28-04:00Tags: |

In response to budget cuts put forth by the Trump Administration, Dr. Jennifer Lowry has been crafting editorials, phoning her elected officials, and encouraging others to speak out against drastic budget cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Lowry has worked with the EPA as a toxicologist, pediatrician, and medical director in Kansas City to protect children’s health; however, she fears the administration’s proposed cuts will debilitate the EPA’s ability to regulate harmful chemical and environmental exposures, fund research into exposure, and thus, negatively impact children’s health. Photo credit: Jennifer Lowry

27 04, 2017

Women Artists Are Bringing the Reality of Climate Change Into Your Living Room

2017-09-04T12:29:27-04:00Tags: |

Women artists are freezing time by documenting parts of our intact environment before climate change destroys them. For example, win sisters Christine and Margaret Wertheim have discovered a mathematical algorithm that enables them to crochet the world’s dying coral reefs. Spectacular multi-colored yarn, crocheted into prickly and wavy patterns, have inspired a worldwide, majority-women movement of coral reef crocheting, and an outcry from the public to save dying coral reefs. Furthermore, visual artist Zaria Forman’s paintings of unbelievably realistic glaciers are breathtaking, while also evoking a feeling of dread and urgency in the viewer who knows they are melting and causing rising tides. The Wertheim sisters and Forman’s art acts as climate education that inspires people to take action. Photo credit: Jenna Bascom, Courtesy of the Museum of Arts and Design & Zaria Forman, Courtesy of Winston Wächter Fine Art

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

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

26 04, 2017

Northbrook Activists Working To Save Monarch Butterflies In Northern Illinois

2017-10-26T13:35:24-04:00Tags: |

Sierra Club volunteers Dale Duda and Cindy Blue are making Northbrook, Illinois the “way station” for the resurgence of the monarch butterfly. They are encouraging the planting of milkweed, a food source for the butterflies by engaging with local residents, while working towards passing a bill that would revoke the “noxious weed” status given to the milkweed in many towns. The focus for Duda and Blue is on schools, students, staff, and parent organizations in spreading the good word on the plant and encouraging the revival of the monarch butterfly, through garden clubs, farmers markets, and various civilian and municipality-aided green initiatives. Photo credit: The Chicago Tribune

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.

19 04, 2017

Meet Kelly Charley, The Teen Inventor Working To Get The Navajo Nation Off Coal

2017-09-28T21:01:04-04:00Tags: |

Kelly Charley, a student at the Navajo Preparatory School, has developed a solar heater that is helping bring solar energy to Navajo households. Seeing her grandparents laboriously chop wood and use harmful coal for energy inspired her to find a way to bring renewable energy to Navajo homes. Read her story and get inspired by watching this video about her quest for a just and sustainable way of life. Photo credit: Fusion

14 04, 2017

6 Queer Women Literally Saving The World Through Environmental Justice

2018-02-14T22:11:39-05:00Tags: |

The voices of six inspirational queer leaders are highlighted to challenge the lack of representation within the environmental movement. Included are Rachel Carson, whose landmark text, “Silent Spring”, paved the way for the modern environmental movement; Mahri Monson who works for the EPA in Washington; and Rikki Weber who works for the environmental law firm EarthJustice, who have spearheaded fights for climate justice, while also making their workplaces more inclusive for LGBTQ and gender non-conforming people. Also featured is Rebekah Paci-Green, co-director of an NGO that helps schools become more resilient to natural disasters, alongside Judi Brown and Lindi von Mutius, board members of “Out4Sustainability”, an NGO that seeks to mobilise the LGBTQ community to take part in environmental action. Photo credit: Earthjustice

11 04, 2017

Going It Alone

2020-12-15T21:48:06-05:00Tags: |

Rahawa Haile is an Eritrean American writer. In this piece, she shares her experience of being a queer black woman backpacking across the Appalachian Trail and challenges the preconceived notion that ‘blacks don’t hike’. Rahawa addresses the politics, history, survival kills and fear inherent to the relationship between black peoples and the outdoors in a predominantly whites-only mind-set; and highlights that access restriction to natural sites are linked to the park system, Jim Crow laws and Native American removal campaigns. She cites Evelyn C. White, author of ‘Black women and the wilderness’, who describes wilderness as both an access to the past and a trigger of race-based suffering, since these places have history of abuse, eradication and persecution of non-white hikers. Rahawa also notes how this relationship is changing with black public figures like Oprah promoting a new vision of black people enjoying hiking through the wilderness. Photo Credit: Rahawa Haile

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

6 04, 2017

Corrina Gould On The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust: An Urban Indigenous Women-Led Land Trust

2017-12-06T14:50:21-05:00Tags: |

Corrina Gould, a Chochenyo and Kerkin Ohlone woman leader, born and raised in Oakland, California, speaks about the history and work of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an Indigenous-woman led initiative to reclaim and protect ancestral lands in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. She also speaks about her family's history, and the history of erasure, colonization and forced removal in the Bay. The recorded presentation comes from the second annual “Religion & Ecology Summit” at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Photo credit: Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion Program.

1 04, 2017

Speaking Of Nature

2017-09-05T23:06:54-04:00Tags: |

In Potawatomi, the word “Aakibmaadiziiwin” translates into “being of the Earth.” There is no equivalent word in English. Potawatomi Indigenous woman and botany professor Robin Kimmerer explains how the nearly extinct language is a language of animacy — a semantic and grammatical concept that expresses language according to how alive the noun is. Kimmerer explains that listening to a bird occurs with a different verb than hearing a plane, however insects, berries and animals are referred to with the same grammatical value as a human. Unlike English, a language whose grammatical principals have worked to objectify, extract from, and colonize the Earth and the animal world, Potawatomi does not refer to nature, critters, and plants as “it.” Historically, these same English grammatical mechanisms aided in determining slaves as three-fifths human and women less human than men. Instead, Kimmerer provides an outstanding articulation of the revolutionary potential an Indigenous language brings to human and environmental life. Photo credit: Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Gallery, New York

1 04, 2017

Jill Mangaliman – How Can The Economy Be Equitable And Environmentally Sustainable?

2017-11-01T21:27:14-04:00Tags: |

Jill Mangaliman is the Executive Director of Seattle-based Got Green, a people of color-led organization that works on climate change, racial and immigrant justice, and economic empowerment. In this talk at the Next System Teach-In, they discuss Indigenous economic models of abundance that centered on health of people and the land as an alternative to capitalist and colonialist exploitation, and discussed the fight against the erasure of people of color in the environmental movement. Photo credit: TalkingstickTV

31 03, 2017

Color of Climate: Is Climate Change Gentrifying Miami’s Black Neighborhoods?

2017-10-31T01:49:25-04:00Tags: |

Paulette Richards, from Liberty City, tells The Root how lately, many neighbours from one of Miami’s previously undervalued and black neighborhood are moving out due to a new type of gentrification: the climate gentrification. With the rise of the sea level, places like Richards’s home, farther from the ocean and higher than coastal areas, are now deemed as good neighborhoods to live. This is what drove Richard to start raising awareness and involvement of her community through different leisure activities revolving around climate change issues and also a summer program called “Climate and Me” targeted at youth members of the community. She is committed to making a change and helping her community face this gentrification, in addition to Marleine Bastien, from Little Haiti, another low-level income predominantly black neighborhood facing climate gentrification in Miami. Bastien is the executive directress of Fanm Ayisyen nan Miyami (Haitian Women of Miami), an organization that is focused on poor Haitian women, their families and their needs. Photo credit: Ashley Velez/The Root

31 03, 2017

Interview With Nancy Le: Using Nature As A Classroom

2017-10-31T01:20:06-04:00Tags: |

Nancy Le is the chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of Inspiring Connections Outdoors (ICO), a club that arranges outdoors experiences for urban youth from underprivileged communities. In her interview, she discusses the challenges of the program such as finding funding for trips, finding volunteer leaders that also come from Black and Latino communities, with whom the main public of these excursions can relate to. Encouraging youth to broaden their horizons through contact with nature is an alternative way of empowering them and hopefully they will continue to participate in the program as leaders. Photo credit: Sierra Club

27 03, 2017

Jackie Weidman Trains The Next Generation Of Energy Leaders

2017-10-27T10:45:29-04:00Tags: |

Jackie Weidman recognizes that an essential component of clean energy leadership is the participation of young people. In response, she began to recruit, train, and network a talented group of young professionals, which developed into the Clean Energy Leadership Institute. The Institute has already trained over 150 young energy leaders and is moving nationwide. Photo credit: Grist50!

27 03, 2017

Two Women Are Coaxing Los Angeles To Switch From Cars To Bikes

2017-10-27T10:43:46-04:00Tags: |

As people look to California to lead the way on climate action, Rubina Ghazarian and Avital Shavit are doing their part as Los Angeles-based transportation planners. They have been working for years to launch a bike-share system for the large, complex metropolitan area. Bike-share officially launched in 2016 and has already been credited with saving almost 300,000 pounds of CO2. Photo credit: Grist50!

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

Kait Parker Speaks Out Against Climate Change Deniers

2017-10-27T10:40:01-04:00Tags: |

When an alt-right site attempted to disprove climate change by using a misleading segment of meteorologist Kait Parker’s on-air segment, she publically challenged the site for its dubious methods. After receiving a wave of public and social media support, Kait is reaching out on Youtube to prove that climate change science is real, and is now developing a massive 50-part series titled ‘The United States of Climate Change.” Photo credit: Grist50!

27 03, 2017

Ahmina Maxey Fights For Safer Water Disposal

2017-10-27T10:38:16-04:00Tags: |

While living in Detroit, Ahmina Maxey successfully implemented a much-needed citywide recycling program. Now working with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives organization, Ahmina focuses on what happens to garbage after it’s picked up. She fights for an incinerator-free future, eliminating the dangerous levels of CO2, arsenic, lead, and other deadly chemicals entering our communities. Photo credit: Grist50!

27 03, 2017

Catherine Flowers Brings Civil Rights To The Fight For Environmental Justice

2017-10-27T03:10:52-04:00Tags: |

Catherine Flowers is a long-time environmental justice fighter in her hometown. After seeing poor communities disproportionately affected by sewage and then threatened with eviction or arrest if they did not obtain unaffordable septic systems, Catherine negotiated with Alabama’s state government to end unjust enforcement policies. She is the founder of Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise Community Development Corporation and continues to advocate for disadvantaged communities. Photo credit: Grist50!

27 03, 2017

Karina Castillo Organizes Those With The Most To Lose From Climate Change

2017-10-27T03:07:43-04:00Tags: |

After working in the department of Emergency Climate Management and developing climate curriculum at the Miami Institute, Karina Castillo now works with a national coalition of parents and caregivers fighting climate change and air pollution. She is the point of contact of Florida coalition members, guiding them through meetings with policy makers and supporting their climate/clean-air advocacy work. Photo credit: Grist50!

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!

26 03, 2017

Indigenous Women Rising: Women’s March On Washington

2017-10-26T22:33:57-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women gathered from across the United States to lead the Women’s March on Washington. A half million people joined in solidarity to resist the Trump administration and advocate for indigenous rights and gender, racial, and environmental justice. Photo credit: Jamie Malcolm-Brown/Cultural Survival

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

Women Are Leading The Fight For Renewable Energy

2017-09-29T15:27:57-04:00Tags: |

Though American politics has recently become more hostile toward the renewable energy transition, women’s groups are bravely forging a path toward a renewable energy economy. One of these groups is Mothers Out Front, which inspires mothers, grandmothers, and other caregivers across the country to fight for the environment for their children and families. Kelsey Wirth, cofounder of the organization, is passionate about developing women’s leadership in the renewable energy sector.

14 03, 2017

Lyla June On Resistance And Forgiveness In The Final Years Of Patriarchy

2017-09-22T22:19:06-04:00Tags: |

At the 2017 Geography of Hope Conference, Diné (Navajo) woman Lyla June Johnston spoke about the history of gender- and race-based violence that enabled the genocide of Native Peoples across the world. She argues that we need to face this dark history and this logic of a sophisticated death culture to create a new way forward.  Photo credit: National Geographic

8 03, 2017

Indigenous Rising: The Prayers Of Our Grandmothers

2017-09-22T22:26:23-04:00Tags: |

In this thinkpiece, Rita Blumenstein reflects on being brought up by two Indigenous women, her mother and grandmother, both of whom  guided her to become the woman she is today. She emphasises how Indigenous femininity understands knowledge and power to be communally held, which goes beyond a Western standard of leadership, respect and power. She calls on an intersectional solidarity and how Indigenous, black, trans and female lives must remain at the forefront of the movement. Photo credit: Associated Press

8 03, 2017

Seventy-Six Women On A Glacier Are Changing The World

2017-10-05T17:44:21-04:00Tags: |

Seventy-six women scientists focusing on climate change made their way to Antarctica for a year-long women’s leadership program called Homeward Bound in 2017.  The program’s aim is to groom future women leaders in STEM who will also be able to lead public policy. Heidi Steltzer, a polar ecologist, and Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, concur that women’s participation in high levels of science research and policy could be improved. After seeing the melting of Antarctica, the women returned to their jobs with a renewed desire to advocate for swift action on climate change. Photo credit: Anne Christianson

1 03, 2017

Marianne Cufone Plants A New Kind Of Urban Farm

2017-08-22T09:19:11-04:00Tags: |

In Louisiana, more than 18 percent of households didn’t have access to healthy food in 2015. Responding to this widespread urban food insecurity, Marianne Cufone of New Orleans created what she calls a “recirculating farm”: she grows plants in closely packed, vertically stacked sections, while fishponds provide water cycling, eliminating the need for soil. The farm is cost and energy efficient and can be recreated anywhere, expanding urban farming in an entirely new direction. Photo credit: Grist50!

13 02, 2017

Learning To See In The Dark Amid Catastrophe: An Interview With Deep Ecologist Joanna Macy

2017-10-27T20:58:20-04:00Tags: |

Joanna Macy is an eco-philosopher, an expert on Buddhism and on deep ecology, and her work ranges from the cultivation of ecological awareness to the spiritual aspect of the nuclear age. Dahr Jamail interviews Macy and she discusses the impact of the Donald Trump election and the current moment of the "Great Turning," a life-sustaining society. Photo credit: Louis Canright

11 02, 2017

Reclaiming Native Ground: Can Louisiana’s Tribes Restore Their Traditional Diets As Waters Rise?

2017-11-11T10:35:57-05:00Tags: |

Theresa Dardar, of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe, remembers her grandparents subsisting off of shrimp, clams, livestock and a variety of fruits and vegetables on their lands off the Louisiana coast. Due to sea level rise, flooding and hurricanes, Indigenous people are losing their lands to the sea, having a harder time cultivating the native plants and fruits of the sea that their ancestors relied upon. However, Dardar is heading an intertribal effort to restore food security to the Pointe-au-Chien, Grand Caillou/Dulac, Isle de Jean Charles Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, Bayou Lafourche and Grand Bayou Village tribes under the banner of the First People's Conservation Council. She and Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar, of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians, are spearheading innovative solutions like boxed gardens that can be lifted with pulleys to avoid rising tides and discussing business models to make soft-shell crab harvesting a sustainable livelihood. Photo credit: Edmund D. Fountain/Food & Environment Reporting Network

10 02, 2017

The Planet Needs Radical Compassion

2017-10-27T20:34:08-04:00Tags: |

This article by Victoria Clayton, a writer in Southern California, discusses the urgent need for love around the world in order to solve the climate crisis. Clayton mentions Deborah Eden Tull, an environmental activist, sustainability educator and teaching assistant at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, as an advocate for radical compassion for the planet as a way to take care of the environment. Photo credit: Guillaume Delebarre/Flickr

9 02, 2017

The 11-Year-Old Suing Trump Over Climate Change

2017-10-19T23:19:12-04:00Tags: |

Avery McRae is an 11-year-old girl and part of a young movement bravely redefining what intergenerational equity around climate justice means. Together with 20 other plaintiffs between the ages of nine and 20, she is suing the federal government over its promotion of fossil fuels despite having full knowledge of the devastation that they continue to cause. Their case is known as Juliana v. United States and was filed in Eugene, Oregon. Photo credit: Robin Loznak

9 02, 2017

Havasupai Elders Dianna Baby Sue White Dove Uqalla And Colleen Kaska: Stand Up To Uranium Mining Company

2017-09-08T22:06:44-04:00Tags: |

Although the Obama administration banned new mining claims on the 1 million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon, four mines were grandfathered before the 20 year moratorium and continue to function today. One of those is located five miles north of Red Butte, where miners “sink shaft," or dig an extremely deep hole, as they get ready to blast uranium out of the ground. Each year millions of visitors to the Grand Canyon drive by Red Butte without taking much notice. But for Havasupai women Dianna Baby Sue White Dove Uqualla and Colleen Kaska, this hill is central to their belief system. The tribe says a nearby uranium mine threatens this sacred place and its drinking water. Photo credit: Fronteras

2 02, 2017

12-Year-Old Marley Dias Is Publishing An Activism Guide For Children And Teens

2017-09-13T10:36:17-04:00Tags: |

Twelve-year-old Marley Dias, who gained fame with her #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign, will publish an activism guide targeted for kids aged 10 and over. In the guide, Dias places special emphasis on the roles of social justice, equality, and inclusion in volunteerism and activism. Dias hopes to help kids influence change on a large scale through passion and books. Photo credit: Andrea Cipriani Mecchi/Scholastic

1 02, 2017

Black History Month: Honoring Beverly Wright

2017-11-01T18:04:11-04:00Tags: |

In this piece, the Trust for Conservation Innovation honors Dr. Beverly Wright. Wright is a professor of Sociology and the founding director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ). The center is an innovative community/university partnership that works to mitigate environmental and health inequities suffered primarily by people of color in the Lower Mississippi River Industrial Corridor. This region is often called "Cancer Alley" due to the high level of industrial pollution in the area. Wright also received the EPA's Environmental Justice award for her work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Photo credit: Trust for Conservation Innovation

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

31 01, 2017

Architect June Grant Designs For Change

2017-10-31T16:28:46-04:00Tags: |

June Grant is a Jamaican architect in the United States focused on technology and design. She has a technology firm called Blink!Lab, through which she applies new technology and 3-D printers to make prototypes and designs that save energy and deal with waste on many fronts: water, energy, heat, etc. She tells us how small details and the use of topographic and geographic data can make a big difference in saving energy and resources. At the moment, June is working at San Francisco Bay Area, dealing with the rise of the sea level and its dangers to those living to close to the water, and has come up with an innovative wastewater treatment plant that could tackle a lot of the community’s environmental issues. Photo credit: Lori Eanes

29 01, 2017

Indigenous Sisters Resistance Leads Women’s March in Seattle

2018-02-20T18:50:26-05:00Tags: |

The 2017 Women’s March against the Administration of President Donald Trump was one of the largest actions in U.S. history, and Indigenous women’s resistance played an important role. At the Seattle, Washington March, American Indian, Alaskan, Native Hawaiian and other global Indigenous and frontline women leaders led the over 3.6 mile march, and raised calls for human rights, Indigenous rights, and social and environmental justice. Photo Credit: Chris Stearns

27 01, 2017

Women Scientists Advocating For Equality Surge To 14,000 Strong

2017-10-19T23:17:17-04:00Tags: |

The group “500 Women Scientists” was created as a direct response to President Donald Trump and his administration’s war on science by a group of women scientists who connected the anti-science rhetoric with the deep misogynistic culture pervasive in their fields. But this initial concern has also grown to focus on the need to make science more inclusive and accountable to the ways in which science and scientists have been used to further entrench deep racial, class and gendered inequalities for people of color and Indigenous communities. Photo credit: NASA HQ

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!

24 01, 2017

A Day With The Women Scientists Protesting Trump

2017-10-19T22:56:26-04:00Tags: |

Hundreds of women scientists joined together with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators at the Women’s March on Washington on the 21st of January, just a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States of America. After Donald Trump won the election in one of the most controversial and polarized presidential races ever witnessed in the country, a new advocacy group called “500 Women Scientists”  was established. Women scientists face incredible institutional and systemic barriers such as sexism/misogyny, racism for black/women of color scientists, elitism/classism, in order to become and succeed as scientists. In the face of a president who has openly declared war on the science community, these women scientists are boldly fighting back but also striving to bring justice into their own work. Photo credit: Robinson Myer/The Atlantic

19 01, 2017

Climate Activists Bring It All To The Women’s March In Washington

2017-12-13T13:57:16-05:00Tags: |

The Women’s March on Washington in January 2017, planned in response to the election of the U.S. Trump Administration, brought together thousands of woman from across the US, and around the world, standing for women’s rights, racial equality, environment and other vital causes. Profiling women leaders such as Cindy Wiesner of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, A. Tianna Scozzaro of Sierra Club, Bridget Burns of Women's Environment and Development Organization, and representatives of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network - this article explores why women marched for climate justice as part of the Women's March, and how women around the world are both disproportionately affected by climate change, and essential to solutions. Photo credit: Women’s Environment and Development Organization

19 01, 2017

Why We March Against Trump: Violence Against Women And The Earth Is Linked

2017-11-01T13:27:55-04:00Tags: |

WECAN (Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network) cofounder and director Osprey Orielle Lake details how and why women of the United States march against their incoming President, Donald Trump. With the seriousness of the incoming president’s beliefs on minorities, immigrants, women and the environment, the Women’s March is important in voicing the people’s true beliefs which are not in line with those of Trump. A call for action is made for all to join in to support social and ecological justice in the nation. Photo credit: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

17 01, 2017

Rachel Carson : The American Experience

2020-11-20T17:41:36-05:00Tags: |

Writer and biologist Rachel Carson published the controversial book Silent Spring in September, 1962. Prior to writing Silent Spring, Carson was already one of the most celebrated writers in the United States, known for her work’s emphasis on the natural world. In Silent Spring, Carson unveils the damaging effects of the renowned synthetic pesticide DDT. She provides a counter-argument to the narrative of human domination of the natural world, and warns that humans need to take caution against the detrimental environmental effects their actions create. Silent Spring forced the United States to question its relationship with the environment, as well as its rapidly industrializing methods of agriculture. Photo Credit: Screenshot

14 01, 2017

Erin Brockovich Speaks Out About Human-Induced Earthquakes

2017-07-17T21:43:42-04:00Tags: |

Environmental and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich addressed residents of Oklahoma about the alarming number of human-induced earthquakes affecting the area. Recent years have seen a steep increase of earthquakes, which are linked to the injection of large volumes of wastewater from oil and natural gas productions, or fracking. Photo credit: EcoWatch

9 01, 2017

Spotlight On Lauren Jabusch: Leading The California Student Sustainability Coalition

2017-10-31T16:14:43-04:00Tags: |

As the Chair of Board of Directors with the California Student Sustainability Coalition, Lauren Jabusch has supported and connected students across the state to enhance sustainability in their schools. Lauren is performing research as part of her Ph.D. in Biological Systems Engineering, which she hopes will aid in the development of next generation clean biofuels. In this interview, Lauren talks about climate advocacy, sustainability, and community leadership. Photo credit: Cristian Heredia

5 01, 2017

Indigenous Water Ceremony – Video

2017-09-03T15:07:03-04:00Tags: |

An indigenous water ceremony marked the opening of the historic 2017 People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C. Indigenous women such as Gabrielle Tayac of Piscataway Indian Nation and allies from all over the country took part in the ceremony to protest President Trump’s steps to roll back environmental regulations and assert their right to safe and clean water. Watch as these women share their reasons for participation. Photo credit: Democracy Now

1 01, 2017

What Does Environmental Justice Organizing Look Like In The Time Of Trump?

2017-11-01T21:29:40-04:00Tags: |

Miya Yoshitani, executive director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), got her start as an organizer in the 1990s. In her career she has worked on fossil fuel resistance, for example stopping the expansion of a local Chevron refinery, and also on building a just transition to a new economy. APEN has been collaborating with organizations like Cooperation Richmond, which builds local wealth by nurturing worker- and community-owned co-ops. Yoshitani is a powerful climate woman leader who is not backing down in the Trump era. Photo credit: Grist

1 01, 2017

Why We March Against Trump: Violence Against Women And The Earth Is Linked

2017-11-01T10:10:30-04:00Tags: |

Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, shares an analysis in advance of the Women’s March on Washington, regarding the importance of diverse women across the United States standing up to decry the abuses of the Trump presidential administration, from social and economic, to environmental. Osprey offers insights into the manners in which global women are putting their bodies on the line everyday for health for their communities and the Earth; and raises a call for women to march and raise their voices in solidarity with each other to push back against the violation of women and the Earth which threaten to increase under US president Trump. Photo credit: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

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

1 01, 2017

Women Of Color Lead: A Call To Grow The Resistance Against Trump, To Converge In Washington

2017-11-01T01:55:28-04:00Tags: |

“It Takes Roots to Grow the Resistance” is a delegation of over 100 grassroots leaders from frontline communities impacted by the Trump’s administration’s policies. This delegation is organized by the Climate Justice Alliance,the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Right to the City Alliance. It aims to grow local power through a series of direct actions, marches and workshops. The importance of grassroots, communities of color and low-income representation in the movement is  highlighted by leaders such as Sylvia Lopez (Domestic Workers organizer, Mujeres Unidas y Activas), Ahmina Maxey (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)) and Angela Adrar (Climate Justice Alliance). Photo credit: It Takes Roots to Grow the Resistance

1 01, 2017

#ItTakesRoots At The People’s Climate March

2017-11-01T01:14:36-04:00Tags: |

In this short documentary of Aidan Un, we see a compilation of the People’s Climate March, which happened on President Trump’s 100th day in office, to protest his environmental policies and refusal to recognize climate change and its effects. The initiative included a water opening ceremony led by the Indigenous Environmental Network, and 150,000 people. Among those, Yuki Kidokoro, from the Climate Justice Alliance, speaks about the sacredness of water; Keema Green from ACE/REEP Right to the City, discusses the intersectionality of racial, social and environmental justice; and Elizabeth Yeampierre, from UPROSE, talks about the need for citizen and local participation to tackle climate issues. This initiative was a joint effort from Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, the Our Power Campaign and the Right To The City Alliance, among many other frontline organizations. Photo credit: Aidan Un

1 01, 2017

Wave Of Feminist Actions: #GOPHandsOffMe

2017-11-01T00:57:30-04:00Tags: |

The #GOPHandsOffMe online movement started as a reaction to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s comment in 2005 about grabbing women “by the pussy” without consent. Grassroots Global Justice Alliance National Coordinator Cindy Wiesner shares her concerns with such a sexist comment and ponders about Hillary Clinton’s responsibilities as well. Another big concern was the negligence of climate change and how it affects women the most during the election. Jill Mangaliman, Executive Director of GGJ member organization Got Green, also points to the importance of having women at the forefront of change, resistance and solutions. Photo credit: Grassroots Global Justice Alliance.

30 12, 2016

Climate Change And White Supremacy

2017-10-30T02:18:12-04:00Tags: |

Bani Amor, woman journalist of Brooklyn and Ecuador, analyzes the connections between environmental degradation and white supremacy, both historically, and in the light of the US Trump administration. She discusses environmental racism in the placement of toxic facilities around black and brown communities, as well as how extractive, industrial economics has displaced sustainable, place based economies of people of color.  Photo credit: Alexxander Dovelin

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

20 12, 2016

Mothers, Babies Of Navajo Nation Exposed To High Levels Of Uranium

2017-11-01T13:39:05-04:00Tags: |

Researchers with the Navajo Birth Cohort Study are taking ongoing action to expose the harms to mothers and babies posed by the brutal legacy of uranium mining on Diné lands in the Four Corners Region of the United States. Despite an end to intensive uranium mining many decades ago, insufficient clean up efforts, historical injustices, and violation of Indigenous rights have left 500+ open abandoned uranium mines which continue to threaten the lives and futures of residents every day. Photo credit: Kristy Blackhorse/Malcolm Benally

17 12, 2016

Alaskan Native Villages Are Threatened By Rising Sea Levels And Coastal Erosion

2017-10-19T23:03:31-04:00Tags: |

Lucy Adams, an elder of the Kivalina tribe in northern Alaska, speaks out about the impacts of climate change on the island of Kivalina. Millie Hawley, Kivalina Tribal President, and Colleen Swan, former city council official, speak about the severe erosion that many coastal villages are experiencing, forcing them to evacuate with no government assistance. At a certain point, adaptation is out of the question; relocation is the only option left. Photo credit: Al Jazeera/Facebook

9 12, 2016

A Last Resort That Might Work: Small Town Voted In Community Bill Of Rights To Ban Fracking

2017-07-20T19:21:07-04:00Tags: |

Mother Kelly Jacobs is an advocate against the NEXUS natural gas pipeline proposed to run through her neighborhood in Ohio. She successfully rallied her community to vote on an amendment to their town charter that would include a community bill of rights to block proposed pipelines and guarantee their right to clean air, water, and soil. The amendment passed in November 2016. Photo credit: Yes! Magazine

7 12, 2016

It Was A Blighted City Block, But This Woman Is Turning It Into A Solar-Powered Ecovillage

2017-09-29T15:18:02-04:00Tags: |

After running for Highland Park’s city council three times, Shamayim Harris decided that she needed an alternative plan to make things better in her city, which has a history of administrative negligence. That’s when the idea of Avalon Village was born: an ecologically sustainable neighborhood that hosts a variety of community services, such as a center for children to eat meals and receive help with homework, all powered by clean energy sources. Photo credit: Zenobia Jeffries

6 12, 2016

Every Climate Protection Is In Trump’s Crosshairs. We Must Fight Now

2017-12-06T14:52:26-05:00Tags: |

Annie Leonard, Bay Area, California mom and author of the film and book The Story of Stuff, shares a call to action following the United States election of Donald Trump. Citing threats to environment and democracy, and dangerous increases in racist and abusive rhetoric and policy, Annie speaks up for fellow activists and concerned people to organize and take action on a national and electoray level, and in their home communities and daily lives.  Photo credit: Mike Nelson/EPA

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

Janine Benyus: Biomimicry As A Cooperative Inquiry

2017-10-27T21:19:05-04:00Tags: |

Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry, speaks at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference, with an introduction by Paul Hawken. Benyus presents biomimicry and how nature-inspired breakthroughs in agriculture are becoming part of a system-savvy healing. She also introduces a few of the entries of the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge. Photo credit: Bioneers

1 12, 2016

Protecting Our Precious Subsistence Resource, Walrus Ivory

2017-10-27T19:47:13-04:00Tags: |

Susie Silook, a sculptor and founding member of Sikuliiq: Alaska Native Artists’ Advocacy Group, writes about the problems that Indigenous artists face due to confusion around the Executive Order on Combating Wildlife Trafficking aimed at ending the elephant ivory trade. She explains how Indigenous peoples who are not poachers or sports hunters of elephant ivory have been banned by association, despite their rights. This constitutes a major loss for Indigenous artists, and Susie demands change, as this isn’t just about financial resources—it is about the conservation of Indigenous art. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

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

1 12, 2016

Tara Houska Stands With Anti-Pipeline Activists

2017-10-14T16:16:52-04:00Tags: |

Attorney and Director of Honor The Earth Washington D.C., Tara Houska provides legal support for non-violent water protectors that are resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Her work has brought her from the Sacred Stone Camp in North Dakota to the United States congress to lobby for Indigenous rights. She has also promoted the interests of Native Americans as an adviser to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. Photo credit: grist 50!

1 12, 2016

Kandi Mossett Is Fighting Fracking

2018-03-01T12:23:28-05:00Tags: |

Kandi Mossett grew up on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota and experienced first-hand how unfairly Indigenous communities are affected by oil drilling and fracking. Since 2007, she’s been focusing on educating people about the environmental, social, and health impacts of fracking. She helped her Fort Berthold community prevent a solid waste disposal pit from being placed nearby, and also kept wastewater injection sites from being placed too close to water sources. Mossett's plan for the future is to find out if the rise in asthma in certain Indigenous communities is related to fracking’s impact on water and air quality. She is also planning to found a nonprofit that teaches food sovereignty and encourages reservations in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota to adopt renewables. Usually, Mossett’s tribal leaders are all male and she would like to see more women stepping forward to fight. Photo credit: grist 50!

30 11, 2016

Winona LaDuke: Economics For The Seventh Generation

2017-09-24T20:29:49-04:00Tags: |

Renowned Anishinaabekwe leader, writer and activist Winona LaDuke presents a case for an economics that considers much more than economic profit and growth. Just two days after the election of President Donald Trump, LaDuke spoke to Oregon State University about the future of Standing Rock and the overlapping issues of Indigenous rights, energy, food sovereignty and climate justice. Her outstanding multidimensional presentation proposes paths forward to a post-carbon economy where mother earth is respected and gender relations balanced. Photo Credit: Oregon State University School of History, Philosophy, and Religion

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

An Open Letter To And From Female Scientists

2017-10-27T02:58:40-04:00Tags: |

Following the recent 2016 United States presidential election, women scientists from around the country united to express their diversity, unity and unwavering commitment to strengthening their collective work for just and innovative solutions to the climate crisis and all manner of challenges faced by the global community. Photo credit: Sarah K. Wagner

27 11, 2016

What A Trump Presidency Means For Environmental Justice Leaders

2017-10-27T01:34:50-04:00Tags: |

Several environmental and climate justice leaders, including Madeline Stano, staff attorney for the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, Cindy Weisner, national coordinator for the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Anne Rolfes, founder of Louisiana Bucket Brigade and Michael Leon Guerrero, executive director of the Labor Network for Sustainability, voice their concerns over the inauguration of Donald Trump and his environmentally detrimental campaign pledges. They provide sage advice for protecting the environment and rights of minorities, and suggest ways in which  everyone can contribute. Photo credit:  Jeff Swensen/Getty

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.

25 11, 2016

Was A Mississippi Lab Owner Jailed Because Of Her Activism?

2017-07-20T17:51:16-04:00Tags: |

Tennie White is a Mississippi lab owner who has spent years speaking out to protect vulnerable communities impacted by pollution and environmental racism. Tennie was charged, convicted, and jailed for allegedly fabricating testing results by lawyers from the Environmental Protection Agency, an agency which she often criticized for their treatment of marginalized communities. Photo credit: Nicole Craine for The Intercept

22 11, 2016

From Standing Rock To Morocco: Women Against Corporate Polluters

2017-07-16T13:45:48-04:00Tags: , |

Women around the world are fighting for climate justice: Indigenous Moroccan activist Moha Tawja points out the parallel efforts between her community in Amazigh and the community of Standing Rock in North Dakota. Both groups of women are advocating against extractive industries and a lack of respect for tribal sovereignty.. Though a world away geographically, their efforts point to the global nature of Indigenous resistance against the exploitation of water, and the depth and strength of the movement. Photo credit: Nadir Bouhmouch  

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

1 11, 2016

Climbing PoeTree: Creativity Is The Antidote To Destruction

2017-10-27T20:02:43-04:00Tags: |

Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman, spoken word artists and activists of the group Climbing PoeTree, take the stage at the 2016 Bioneers Conference. In their performance, they discuss the intersection of oppressions of state violence, displacement and climate crisis—and how performance, music, and other forms of expression and art can serve as tools for collective liberation, as well as understanding and addressing social and ecological injustice. Photo credit: Bioneers

1 11, 2016

2016 Goldman Prize Recipient Destiny Watford Protects Communities From Pollution

2017-11-01T18:06:34-04:00Tags: |

When a plan to build the nation's largest trash incineration just a mile away from her high school was proposed, Destiny Watford sprung into action. Watford co-founded the student organization Free Your Voice, which helped organize young people from the community of Curtis Bay in Baltimore, Maryland to halt the construction of the site. Watford was honored by the Goldman Environmental Prize for her efforts. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

1 11, 2016

Vien Truong On Creating An Equitable Environmental Movement

2017-11-01T02:52:32-04:00Tags: |

As the Director of Green For All, an organization based in the United States, Vien Truong works to position social equality and social justice at the forefront of climate policy making and the green economy movement. She gave this presentation at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference and (in the video) offers her perspective and experience on the ways in which green energy and sustainable economies can and do bring justice to low-income communities and people of color. Photo credit: Bioneers

1 11, 2016

Women Make Their Mark In The Environmental Sciences

2017-11-01T01:43:15-04:00Tags: |

In this video we meet women of Western North Carolina, US standing for the Earth and their communities. Sheryl Bryan, is fisheries and wildlife biologist in North Carolina, has enormous love for ecology and is one of few women working in this male-dominated field. She explains that the conversion rate of women from ecology studies to full-time jobs is very poor. Katie Hicks, associate director at nonprofit Clean Water, encourages the local community to fight for their fundamental environmental rights. Judy Mattox, executive committee chair of WENOCA Sierra Club, speaks on her extensive work shutting down coal plants and trying to prevent a peaking gas power plant. We also hear from Melissa Williams, Senior Press Secretary for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, and Dayna Reggero, an environmental filmmaker working on project called “The Climate Listening Project.” Photo credit: Citizen Times

1 11, 2016

Reflections From Tanika Thompson On The 10th World March Of Women International Meeting

2017-11-01T00:55:52-04:00Tags: |

Tanika Thomson is a Food Access Organizer at Got Green, an organization in Seattle, Washington, which supports people of color to fight for good jobs for youth, food security, and the implementation of participatory processes when dealing with climate change. She became in contact with the World March of Women and developed herself further as a feminist and food security advocate. Having attended the 10th World March of Women International Meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, alongside other two representatives of the United States, Beva Sanchez and Helena Wong, Thomson had the opportunity of exchange experiences about women’s situation all over the world while strengthening her notion of the importance of solidarity worldwide, networking and female leaderships. Photo credit: Grassroots Global Justice Alliance.

1 11, 2016

Cynthia Malone Pushes For Inclusivity In STEM Fields

2017-11-01T00:54:21-04:00Tags: |

Cynthia Malone is a conservation scientist and a current PhD student at the University of Toronto. During the Black Lives Matter movement, Malone got involved and worked with the Black Youth Project 100, an organization, whose approach to racial justice employs direct action and educational tools. She also co-founded the Diversity Committee at the Society for Conservation Biology, and her objective is to have more diversity in the scientific field. In order to achieve that, she also leads a network of scientists and activist of color from her field. Photo credit: Grist!

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

The Guerilla Gardener

2017-10-31T02:00:07-04:00Tags: |

Natalie Flores and Sarah Klein started a garden in an occupied lot that was unused and grew it into a community garden with collaboration from neighbors to start Sunshine Partnerships. They continued and expanded their gardening into other neighborhoods across Los Angeleas, California, inviting the community in, and occupying places and hosting parties that tap into an existing network of urban gardeners. Sunshine Partnerships also collaborates with Transition Mar Vista, a grassroots community groups that has a project called Good Karma Gardens, to foster a network of people helping neighbors to build gardens in their homes. Julie, co-founder of The Learning Garden at Venice High School, is an example of someone positively affected by this project, turning her front yard into a vegetable garden. Photo credit: Ted Soqui

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

Judy Wicks Discusses Local Living Economies At Bioneers Event

2017-10-26T22:48:11-04:00Tags: |

Judy Wicks, entrepreneur, activist and co-founder of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), presented this discussion, “Business for the Common Good: Building Local Living Economies in the Age of Climate Change” at a 2016 Bioneers event. Wicks explains what the local living economy movement is about and why businesses should focus on this model that maximizes human relationships over profit and respects the rights of nature. Photo credit: Bioneers

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

26 10, 2016

Reimagining Native America: Matika Wilburs “Project 562”

2017-10-26T16:40:35-04:00Tags: |

Matika Wilburs of the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribe is taking action as an Indigenous woman photographer and educator to help tell the stories of  Indigenous peoples from every federally recognized tribal nation in the United States. She hopes to humanize Native peoples through her diverse portraits, and through this work combat discrimination and continued rights violations. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

24 10, 2016

The Women Fighting Hunger One Neighborhood At A Time

2018-01-24T19:02:50-05:00Tags: |

East Boston, Massachusetts’ Community Soup Kitchen’s, Alleman Nijjar, along with head of Boston Office of Housing Stability, Lydia Edwards, have established a community soup kitchen to address issues of hunger, obesity, and diseases such as heart attack and diabetes, among the homeless and economically vulnerable people of the city. Monica Leitner-Laserna, a member of the soup kitchen and its menu-planning committee, also owns her own cafe which followed the principles of worker-owned co-operative restaurant. Both Alleman Nijjar and Monica Leitner-Laserna hope to continue their work bringing all East Boston citizens together at one table for a plate of good nutritious meal. Photo credit: Casey Walker

25 09, 2016

Jennifer Padilla Of Isleta Pueblo Discusses Seeds, Healing And Ancestral Wisdom

2017-09-25T10:02:24-04:00Tags: |

In this podcast, Jennifer Padilla of Isleta Pueblo, a community garden organizer in New Mexico, discusses seeds, community healing, ancestral wisdom and climate change. She talks about her intergenerational knowledge line (typically reserved for men) which taught her about seed saving, agriculture and gardening. The garden has been an important gathering place for her community to learn and engage with each other as a means of self-sufficiency and sovereignty. Photo credit: SeedBroadcast

22 09, 2016

Rebecca Burgess Is Stitching Together A Local Clothes Movement

2017-10-31T20:36:13-04:00Tags: |

Inspired by the success of sustainable, local textile production in Thailand and Indonesia, Rebecca Burgess is uses renewable energy-powered mills, compostable clothes and natural dye farms in her sustainable clothing network: Fibershed. Burgess’s new economy has bloomed into 54 communities, composed of spinners, farmers, dyers, designers, sewers and ecologists, who are countering the extensive health problems of waste and pollution caused by the clothing industry. Fibershed is creating sustainability by shaping a local economy that incorporates care for its water, its working landscape and the health of its well-paid workers. Photo credit: grist

22 09, 2016

Nicole Bassett Revives Dead Threads

2017-10-31T12:10:51-04:00Tags: |

Nicole Bassett is taking on the 14 million tons of waste in textiles that Americans put in landfills each year. The apparel industry’s economic model depends on overproduction: the industry often throws out surplus clothing that doesn’t sell, and consumers are incentivized to throw out used clothing or clothing with minor defects instead of repairing it. To combat this wastefulness, Bassett cofounded the Renewal Workshop, a company working to create a circular economy for the apparel industry. It reuses and recycles unused and malfunctioning clothing, making it shiny, new and ready for purchase online. Photo credit: grist

22 09, 2016

Davida Herzl Creates Fitbit-Like Tools For the Planet

2017-09-22T22:54:47-04:00Tags: |

Davida Herzl is the co-founder and CEO of Aclima, a company that builds sensor networks that monitor environmental impacts - including pollutants, carbon footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions - at a hyperlocal scale. Herzl hopes the information provided by the sensors will help people understand how the burning of fossil fuels is impacting the environment in which they live, and motivate them to seek out sustainable alternatives as consumers. Photo credit: Grist

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

18 09, 2016

Ho-Chunk Nation General Council Approves Rights Of Nature Constitutional Amendment

2017-10-31T16:39:25-04:00Tags: |

The Ho-Chunk Nation is the first tribal nation in the United States to enshrine Rights of Nature in their tribal constitution. This is a significant step towards the prohibition and recognition of fossil fuel extraction as a violation of Rights of Nature. It also symbolizes Ho-Chunk solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux in opposition to the Dakota Access oil pipeline, recognizing the destructive impact of fossil fuel extraction. The human right to a healthy environment is dependent on the health of Mother Earth. Accordingly, this human right can only be fulfilled by recognizing in law Nature’s right to be healthy and thrive.

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  

13 09, 2016

Meet The Woman Litigating The “Biggest Case On The Planet”

2017-07-20T17:52:24-04:00Tags: |

Julia Olsen is leading one of the most important court cases in United States history. She is the chief legal counsel of Our Children's Trust, helping 21 young people to sue the federal government of the United States over their insufficient action on climate change. She is bringing the suit on behalf of young people who don’t have a vote or voice, and have more to loose than adults from climate change. Photo credit: CNN

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

10 09, 2016

The Art Of Saving Oceans

2017-09-21T16:48:53-04:00Tags: |

Angela Pozzi, an artist and the founder of Washed Ashore, constructs artistic sculptures in the form of sea creatures using plastics collected from Oregon beaches to raise awareness about marine pollution. Her works have been displayed at several zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens throughout the United States, including the Smithsonian National Zoo exhibition. Her sculptures were shown at the State Department during the Our Oceans Conference in 2016, to influence policy makers on core decisions about protecting the world’s oceans. Starting in 2017, Washed Ashore offers international training workshops for people who want to use art to raise awareness of ocean litter. Photo credit: Nachama Soloveichik

6 09, 2016

Princess Daazhraii Johnson On Vimeo

2023-04-30T14:22:46-04:00Tags: |

This video highlights Princess Daazhraii Johnson -- a Gwich’in actress, activist, and writer -- discussing her connection to the land of her community, just outside of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Johnson explains how she cannot imagine oil development on the land because her culture’s survival is dependent upon the health and longevity of the wildlife refuge. In Gwich’in, the land is known as a “sacred place where life begins” as it is a birthing ground and is importantly connected to the surrounding community’s livelihood.

1 09, 2016

Women Of Color Speak Out On Break Free Pacific Northwest And Allyship For Climate Justice

2017-11-01T22:59:05-04:00Tags: |

Four members of ‘Women Of Color Speak Out’ discuss lessons they are learning in their collective work in movements for fossil fuel divestment, environmental justice, and decolonization. They share some of the challenges they are facing as diverse women of color working within an environmental world that too often remains controlled by white leaders and voices; reflect on some of the ways they are taking action to make climate spaces just and useful for POC and most impacted communities; and provide thoughts on what real white allyship looks like. Photo credit: Women Of Color Speak Out

1 09, 2016

Women Of Faith Working For Climate Justice

2017-11-01T03:03:06-04:00Tags: |

Increasingly women of faith are not only accepting the science of climate change, but are also working for justice for the primary victims of its impacts. This narrative shift can be accredited to the work of activists like Keya Chatterjee (Executive Director, U.S. Climate Action Network), Shantha Ready Alonson (Executive Director, Climate Justice Ministries), and Alaura Carter (Climate Justice Associate, Sojourners). In this video, the women tell stories about how they’re utilizing their faith to bring more people to the movement and working for climate justice. Photo credit: Sojourners

1 09, 2016

Women Leading Us To A Toxic-Free Future

2017-11-01T02:08:51-04:00Tags: |

Rachels Network introduces us to Erin Switalski and the work of Women’s Voices for the Earth. Within their projects, the organization has paid close attention to women’s beauty and hygiene products’ composition and the presence of toxic elements. In 2013, they found hazardous elements in Tide directed for moms; more recently, they found worrying elements in menstruation pads. For both discoveries, they have organized a campaign through social media, petitions, and offline demonstrations, attracting the media’s attention and pressing for changes and answers from the targeted company, with their voices being heard. Photo credit: Rachel’s Network

29 08, 2016

You Are What Your Ancestors Ate: The Pueblo Food Experience Cookbook

2017-10-01T16:32:17-04:00Tags: |

In 2013, internationally renowned Santa Clara Pueblo sculptor Roxanne Swentzell joined the Pueblo Food Experience project, when 14 volunteers of Pueblo descent agreed to eat, for three months, only the foods available to their ancestors before the first Native contact with the Spanish in 1540. Swentzell took that locavore goal one step further, stating that humans are not only what and where we eat, but are also what and where our ancestors ate. Photo credit: NMHM/DCA

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

20 08, 2016

The Farmers’ Advocate: Mary Berry

2017-08-20T09:35:25-04:00Tags: |

The daughter of prominent environmental activist Wendell Berry, Mary Berry is adding to her family’s legacy by running a rural advocacy organization in Kentucky that works to guarantee fair and reliable crop prices for farmers. The Berry Center hopes to make farming a sustainable and reliable career path, focusing on building long-term contracts between producers and buyers to help farmers enjoy job security while transitioning to organic livestock feed. Photo credit: grist 50!

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.

7 07, 2016

Women Farmers Are Changing Agriculture In The United States

2017-07-19T21:08:48-04:00Tags: |

The landscape of agriculture is changing across the United States, as women now represent 30% of farm operators in the country. As the fastest growing demographic in agriculture, these female farmers are leading a shift in modern farming. A group of female authors have taken a closer look at women in farming and reveal that women most often favor small-scale, diverse, and sustainable methods which prioritize sustainability, nutrition, community and diversity over cash crops and industrial methods. Photo credit: Civil Eats

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

28 06, 2016

Meet The Woman Who Pushed Massachusetts Toward The First Carbon Fee In U.S. History

2017-10-19T23:09:50-04:00Tags: |

Jessica Langerman, a former high school teacher turned freelance writer, was accidentally catapulted into the world of climate science and taxes in 2009 when she found herself at a lecture organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Listening to the grim statistics about how climate change would impact not just the world as a whole but her own state of Massachusetts and the slow response, she began to lobby for a statewide carbon tax, which would collect fees from fossil fuel companies importing oil into the state and thus making it a very costly and prohibitive venture for them. Photo credit: Eric Haynes

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

The Women Behind Harlem’s Farmers’ Markets

2017-10-26T00:26:07-04:00Tags: |

In New York city, food markets that provide an alternative to commercial produce overwhelmingly cater to white privileged neighborhoods. In turn, low income areas are left with minor accessibility to healthy food. However, women are at the forefront of bringing healthy food markets to New York’s historically low-income neighborhoods. Sonya Simmons has been offering Harlem quality produce for 11 years by running the Grassroots Farmers Market. Martiza Owens helped teen mothers gain access to healthy food in the Bronx in 1993 and then went on to establish two farmer’s markets in the South Bronx. Today she is the executive officer of Harvest Home, bringing quality farmers markets to all five boroughs. Carey King of GrowNYC is also a leader in reinvigorating impoverished Harlem neighborhoods through healthy food. These women are literally partaking in sustaining the health of these communities. Photo credit: Patrick Kolts

21 06, 2016

Meet The Modern Urban Farmer: Robin Emmons

2017-07-19T21:12:37-04:00Tags: |

After seeing one of her family members surviving on canned food, Robin Emmons uprooted her entire yard to grow healthy and nutritious food. With the help of a local farmer who taught her to cultivate crops at scale, Robin now works on 10 acres of donated land, and runs a non-profit that harvests an estimated 35,000 pounds of produce annually. Pop-up farm now distribute the bounty in an area formerly considered a food desert. Photo credit: Alissa Hessler

16 06, 2016

Oglala Sioux Activist Wins Award For Sticking Neck Out

2018-03-01T12:24:50-05:00Tags: |

Charmaine White Face, an Oglala Sioux scientist, environmentalist and activist, has been named a Giraffe Hero by the Giraffe Heroes Project, a nonprofit organization that encourages people to "stick their necks out for the common good.” She has been recognized for her battles against corruption within tribal governments, as well as her fight against uranium mining in the Black Hills. White Face says she has been threatened by uranium companies, but vows that she and the Defenders of the Black Hills will continue to educate people and push for South Dakota and Wyoming congressmen to keep the air and water clean from radioactive particles. Photo credit: Rapid City Journal  

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

1 06, 2016

Defending San Francisco Bay Area Communities From Polluters

2017-11-01T21:31:24-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Vivian Yi Huang, Campaign and Organizing Director for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) speaks with Earthjustice about her work on environmental justice in immigrant communities and communities of color. APEN is a leading player in advocating for justice specially for Asian Pacific Islander communities, who face health issues related to industrial toxins while overcoming issues with access to language services and healthcare. Huang works organizing communites in the San Francisco Bay Area on projects like oppose the expansion of a Chevron refinery and building an new worker-centered economy. Photo credit: Chris Jordan-Bloch/Earthjustice

31 05, 2016

Gender Inclusion Critical For Sustainable Urbanization

2017-10-31T00:41:26-04:00Tags: |

Women from UN-Habitat, Cities Alliance, the Huairou Commission and UN Women are putting gender on the of top their urban cities and climate change agenda. Deputy Executive Director of UN-Habitat Aisa Kaycira emphasizes the importance of empowering women and girls as the leaders of transformation on the New Urban Agenda, a UN framework which blueprints how cities can be transformed into sustainable urban spaces through women’s empowerment. The New Urban Agenda looks to center grassroots women as the principal agents towards sustainable urbanization. Photo credit: UN Habitat

30 05, 2016

Young Plaintiffs Sue The United States Government

2017-07-20T18:50:41-04:00Tags: |

Mary Christina Wood, a law professor at the University of Oregon, is supporting a group of young plaintiffs to sue the U.S. government for failing to protect their environment. They argue that the federal government has a responsibility to care for the “atmospheric trust” of clean air, water and a stable climate for future generations. Photo credit: Viewminder/Flickr

27 05, 2016

Climate Policy Shaper: Heather McGhee

2017-10-27T02:56:22-04:00Tags: |

Heather McGhee is the President of Demos, a non-profit research and advocacy organization that fights against economic and political inequality with policy aligned with climate sustainability. The organization’s work is directly influencing national policy. Currently McGhee is developing a vision for a clean energy economy that will see benefits going to all communities. Photo credit: Grist 50!

26 05, 2016

Daughter Of Exxon Scientists Confronts CEO Over Oil Giant’s Decision To Fund Climate Lies

2017-07-17T21:59:22-04:00Tags: |

At the annual meeting of ExxonMobil, shareholders rejected a number of resolution calling for climate action. Anna Kalinsky, granddaughter of a former Exxon scientist who warned of the realities of climate change, questions the Exxon CEO over the company's track record. Photo credit: www.havanatimes.org  

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

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

9 05, 2016

Making Art Out Of Environmental Injustice

2017-09-05T23:03:52-04:00Tags: |

Ebony Stewart is a trailblazing spoken word artist who addresses environmental justice in John Fiege’s new film In the Air. At the heart of the film lies the fossil fuel industry’s disproportionately negative effects on people of color and poor communities in the Gulf Coast of America. Her poetry illuminates the lived realities of growing up in an extraction region. Plot lines and stories are told exclusively through artist performances including dance, visual art, music and spoken word. Photo credit: John Fiege

7 05, 2016

Florence Robinson Protected Communities Of Color From Pollution

2017-07-20T17:54:25-04:00Tags: |

“Cancer Alley” is an 80 mile strip of land along the Mississippi River where low-income communities of color co-exist with petrochemical plants, hazardous waste incinerators, and landfills. Florence Robinson, a resident of Alsen and a biology professor at Southern University, organized her neighbors in order to dismantle a hazardous waste disposal pit in 1993. She is the recipient of a Heinz Award for her work against environmental racism. Photo credit: heinzawards.net

2 05, 2016

How One Small Town Is Winning The Water War Against Nestle

2017-07-12T20:01:14-04:00Tags: |

Donna Diehl, a 55 year-old bus driver, is amongst those leading the fight against Nestle’s plan to extract and bottle water in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania for profit. They have joined the efforts of thousands of people across the United States who are passing local ballot initiatives to protect their water sources. Photo credit: Flickr

1 05, 2016

Revolutionary Mothering: Mothers Are Not The Ones Destroying The Earth

2017-10-27T19:55:20-04:00Tags: |

Guests including China Martens, Mai’a Williams, Victoria Law, and Cynthia Dewi Oka explore “revolutionary mothering” on the Laura Flanders show. Mai'a Williams, poet and former journalist for teleSUR English, speaks regarding the important role of mothers in standing up on the frontlines to combat environmental violence and create community systems for the health of all. Photo credit: Laura Flanders Show

29 04, 2016

Women In Food: Karen Washington Forges Path For Black Farmers

2017-10-31T14:30:20-04:00Tags: |

Karen Washington knows it’s not possible to talk about food systems and sustainability without addressing the race and gender dynamics of who has been and is tending to the land. She emphasizes that food is at the intersection of environment, education, labor and health. In the 1980s, with no former farming experience, Washington transformed an empty lot into an urban garden with guidance from elders and from Mother Nature herself. One of the most difficult hurdles she came across was buying land as a woman of color. She went to on to be one of the leaders of the black farming movement in the United States after working hard to dispel stereotypes around black farming. Today she’s a pioneer and leader in the black farming movement and is co-founder of the Black Farmer and Urban Gardeners Conference. Photo credit: Karen Washington/SeedStock

27 04, 2016

The Environmental Equalizer: Sudha Nandagopal

2017-10-27T03:04:07-04:00Tags: |

Sudha Nandagopal oversees Seattle’s Environmental Justice Initiative, a unique program that recognizes environmentalism is typically unequal in the distribution of benefits and burdens of policies. As a means of increasing equality and community-driven solutions, Sudha convenes a working group representing the interests of people of colour, immigrants and refugees, low-income, and limited-English individuals to participate in environmental decision-making. Photo credit: Bill Phillips

26 04, 2016

Metro Buses Converted Into Mobile Food Markets For Low-Income Neighborhoods

2017-10-26T00:02:13-04:00Tags: |

Women are taking economic and political leadership in Toronto by transporting quality food to low-income neighborhoods through mobile food markets made from reused city buses. FoodShare, a non-profit working with Toronto communities and schools to improve the quality of food for all people, has teamed up with United Way Canada and the city of Toronto to make the project possible. The mobile buses offer a selection of everything from onions to lettuce to apples, and travel to low-income neighborhoods twice a week, transforming the quality food accessibility in the Toronto region. Photo credit: Blackbuisness.org

24 04, 2016

How One Woman Is Helping Climate Refugees Face The Realities Of Relocation

2017-10-31T20:33:15-04:00Tags: |

Dr. Robin Bronen is an international expert in the forced migrations of people. Her research explores the permanent disappearance of land due to climate change, and the impacts of warming on populations and migration.  Using her experience as an immigration attorney and her knowledge of the law, Bronen developed a legal “relocation” framework for people and countries facing climate-induced displacement to advocate for the rights of those impacted by “climigration,” now a term in the climate change lexicon.

21 04, 2016

U.S. Women Leaders Reflect On Health And Climate Change: What Is At Stake, What Can Be Done?

2017-11-01T13:51:39-04:00Tags: |

During a session of online U.S. Women’s Climate Justice Initiative Education and Advocacy trainings presented by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, women leaders Dr. Sylvia Hood Washington, Cherri Foytlin, Pramilla Malick and Dr. Perry Sheffield share their experiences as frontline community leaders and professionals working with issues of environmental pollution and human health impacts from climate change. Dr. Sylvia Hood Washington, Co-Advisor on the Environmental Justice Advisory Board of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, shares on industrial pollution in Illinois and disproportionate impacts on communities of color; Indigenous leader Cherri Foytlin speaks on environmental racism and impacts of fossil fuels in Louisiana; Pramilla Malick of Protect Orange County and Stop the Minisink Compressor Station speaks on her community investigation to expose health impacts of fracking and gas infrastructure; and Dr. Sheffied, Environmental Pediatrician, presents on how toxic exposure and environmental degradation affects children’s health. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN

21 04, 2016

Health and Climate Change: What Is At Stake, What Can Be Done? 2016 Training Recap

2017-07-17T21:59:57-04:00Tags: |

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network hosted a webinar training on the connections between health and climate change. Four outstanding women leaders - Dr. Sylvia Hood Washington, Cherri Foytlin, Pramila Malick, and Perry Sheffield - discussed their efforts fighting for environmental justice and the latest science on climate change and health impacts. Photo credit: Emily Arasim, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

19 04, 2016

To Empower Communities Of Color, Power Our Country With Clean Energy

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

Among the many initiatives that aim at expanding the use of renewables in the United States, the work of Wahleah Johns is a remarkable example of energy democratization. She is a member of the Navajo nation and works to broaden access to renewable energy across her people’s territory. Her work as a vice-chair of the Navajo Green Economy Commission entails advancing economic opportunities related to renewable energy and her community’s traditional economic practices.

18 04, 2016

This Baltimore 20-Year-Old Took Out A Giant Trash Incinerator

2017-10-31T15:40:13-04:00Tags: |

Baltimore is one of the most polluted cities in the United States, and the neighborhood of Curtis Bay is particularly afflicted by respiratory disease caused by industrial emissions. Upon learning of a proposed trash incinerator in Curtis Bay, Destiny Watford led a four-year campaign to halt the construction of this harmful incinerator next to many of Baltimore’s public schools. Photo credit: Doug Kapustin/The Washington Post

9 04, 2016

Daughter Of Murdered Activist Berta Cáceres Continues Her Mother’s Work

2017-07-20T17:39:58-04:00Tags: |

26-year-old Bertha Zúniga Cáceres is demanding justice for the death of her mother Berta Cácares Flores. Zúniga has criticized the Organization of American States and called for an independent investigation into the death of her mother, who won the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work protecting forests and rivers, and other climate activists who have disappeared or been murdered for their opposition to the construction of mega-dams. Photo credit: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post

4 04, 2016

One Of The World’s Most Influential Women In Climate Finance: Barbara Buchner

2017-07-20T18:53:16-04:00Tags: |

Named one of the 20 most influential women in climate change, Dr. Barbara Buchner advises leaders on climate, energy, and land use investments around the world. She is an Executive Director at the Climate Policy Initiative and regularly speaks as an expert in climate policy and climate finance. Her work involves bringing together key financial institutions to actively engage in green, low-emissions finance. Photo credit: Climate Policy Initiative

1 04, 2016

The Milk Maven: Katie Hinde

2017-11-01T02:56:16-04:00Tags: |

Scientist Katie Hinde is pursuing environmental justice through research on breast milk. Recognized as an environmental leader by Grist, Hinde believes that understanding how milk shapes immune and metabolic systems can generate solutions to tackle disparate health impacts on poor communities. Through analysis of milk samples across the globe, Hinde is uplifting women’s role as mothers and supporting better alternatives for breast milk. Photo credit: Cary Allen-Blevins

1 04, 2016

Women Leading Direct Action And Non-Violent Civil Disobedience: Tools For Your Advocacy Work

2017-11-01T02:21:08-04:00Tags: |

The second Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network’s online education and advocacy training of 2016 was called “Direct Action and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience: Tools for your Advocacy Work.” Molly Dorozenski, Media Director at Greenpeace U.S., discussed the dilemma of putting our own bodies on the line for a cause and shared stories of six women in London, activist Faiza Oulahsen, and the #ShellNo Seattle movement led by Indigenous leaders. Sharon Lungo, co-founder of the Indigenous People’s Power Project (IP3) and Executive Director of the Ruckus Society, spoke about racial justice and grassroots action in an intersectional manner, and how these direct actions and civil disobedience can bring about change. She also exemplified the South Central Farm’s non-violent struggle in Los Angeles to save the farm. Marla Marcum of the Climate Disobedience Center works with faith-based, youth and grassroots groups. She supported campaigns and projects such as Climate Summer, Better Future Project and 350 Massachusetts, among many other civil disobedience efforts. Photo credit: Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

31 03, 2016

Scaling Up Community Resilience In The Shadow Of Chevron – With Doria Robinson Of Urban Tilth

2017-10-31T01:46:42-04:00Tags: |

Doria Robinson is the co-founder of the Richmond Food Policy Council and Executive Director of Urban Tilth, a grassroots organization from Richmond, California, that works with growing healthier and just food in a sustainable manner. Through her organization, Doria hires and trains community members to be able to cultivate 5% of their own food supply. She has experience with organic farms, permaculture design, gardening and nutrition, and through her work, advocated for healthier options with salads in every Richmond school, and also campaigned for accountability after the explosion of the Chevron refinery, which ruined the region’s crops. Photo credit: Transition US

31 03, 2016

Elizabeth Yeampierre And Allies Standing For Social And Climate Justice, Not Gentrification

2017-10-31T01:10:16-04:00Tags: |

Elizabeth Yeampierre is a former civil rights lawyer and dean at Yale, who currently leads an initiative called Uprose and participates in the Working Families Party and a labor unions’ coalition, both local organizations from the industrial waterfront of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York. Their goals are to revive the area, maintain it as a working and active place, make greener, more sustainable and climate-change resilient jobs, products and public spaces locally. Yeampierre has achieved quite a lot with these organizations, but reminds us that now the area is being scoped by big enterprises, who want to build a streetcar line until Astorias, Queens. These top-down projects are not on their best interests or commonly made, opposed to long-term community improvements and claims made by Yeampierre and other grassroots initiatives’ works at the waterfront. Photo credit: David Gonzalez/New York Times

28 03, 2016

Testing Ecuador’s Rights of Nature: Why Some Lawsuits Succeed And Others Fail

2017-10-28T23:35:19-04:00Tags: |

In this paper, Pamela Martin and Craig Kauffman explore how Ecuador’s rights of Nature are applied in practice and the reasons why Rights of Nature are upheld in some cases and not others. Ecuador’s legal framework is used as an example, as its establishment coincides with the promotion of Rights of Nature at the global level. Because few studies focus on the implementation of Rights of Nature, the authors analyze the application of Rights of Nature in Ecuador and then proceed to an analysis of the interaction between global and local governance and the lessons learned from Ecuador’s case.

27 03, 2016

The Climate Power-Shifter: Vien Truong

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

Vien Truong is the director of Green for All, an advocacy group focused on clean energy, green jobs, and income equality. The organization, along with a coalition of other environmental justice groups, collaborated to get California’s SB 535 Bill passed, which requires companies producing large amounts of pollution to cut down on their emissions or be held financially responsible. Photo credit: Grist 50!

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

15 03, 2016

Farm-To-Table Community Agriculture Led By Women

2017-07-19T21:28:08-04:00Tags: |

Leah Roberts, 37, sells produce from her farm to local Oregon residents and restaurants, an arrangement that falls under the umbrella of community-supported agriculture (CSA). Just this year, Roberts' Rockwood Urban Farm and about a dozen other CSAs started working with two local nonprofits to offer a new payment system that makes it easier for people of all incomes to purchase a CSA share. Photo credit: Pamplin Media Group, Jonathon House

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

11 03, 2016

Women Act For Climate Justice: 10 Days Of Global Mobilization

2017-10-31T23:48:28-04:00Tags: |

The Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network (WECAN) International is supporting grassroots advocates to safeguard the rights of women and Indigenous communities in the face of climate change. In 2016, WECAN kicked off 10 days of global mobilization to highlight the environmental challenges affecting girls and women and called for communities to shift the equation. Women shared their photos and statements, and participated in educational events and projects, protests, and marches. Photo credit: WECAN

1 03, 2016

Environmental Racism: A Letter From New Mexico To Flint

2017-10-08T22:59:59-04:00Tags: |

This is an op-ed by Beata Tsosie-Pena, the environmental justice organizer of Tewa Women United in New Mexico. It is a letter addressed to the families of Flint, United States, who have suffered due to the water crisis in their region. Beata tells them about the struggles of native communities in New Mexico with water after the Animas River and the San Juan River were contaminated with toxic waste. She explains how crucial water is for the emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental health of the native communities of New Mexico, only to highlight the issue of environmental racism against these communities, seen as "collateral damage" for companies. Photo credit: WECAN International

1 03, 2016

Young Girls Learn About Gender Justice And Environmental Stewardship

2017-11-01T01:03:37-04:00Tags: |

Mary McLeod Bethune had advocated for civil rights for African Americans her entire life and led multiple initiatives for education. For example, she spearheaded a partnership between the Sierra Club and the National Park Trust to host an event for the Washington School for Girls in Anacostia, composed of mainly African Americans, called Every Kid in a Park. The idea is for everyone to have access to their public and free park as a way to put youth more in contact with nature and help educate the next generation of environmental leaders. Kirin Kennedy and Margaret Mills spoke to the students and explained how anyone can be an environmental steward and how gender equality is essential. Photo credit: Sierra Club

27 02, 2016

Miya Yoshitani On the Solutions To Climate Change

2017-10-27T01:52:49-04:00Tags: |

At a Climate One event about environmental equity, Miya Yoshitani, the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, points to the buying power that each person has, and how this impacts climate change. Miya talks about the importance of people's actions in the climate movement, along with other tools, such as policy, as a way to mitigate and adapt to the current environmental issues. Photo credit: Climate One

23 02, 2016

Carol Ann: Urban Farmer From Texas

2017-10-01T18:49:42-04:00Tags: |

Carol Ann has turned her interest in farming and growing her own food into action by starting an urban farm in Austin, Texas. Boggy Creek Farm opened its doors in 1982 and since then has added agriculture buildings, a chicken house, processing sheds, and two hectares of growing fields void of any tractor paths, since her farm only uses foot paths. Planting, harvesting and cultivation is also exclusively done by hand. Her employees have helped her contribute to an urban farm economy that is dramatically more sustainable than a factory farm. At her farm stand, you can find her selling her wide array of veggies, fruits and eggs harvested on the same land that it stands on. 

22 02, 2016

Handle With Care

2017-10-28T13:49:11-04:00Tags: |

Artist Courtney Mattison handmakes porcelain coral reefs to raise awareness to the precarious situation of coral reefs in the ocean through art. She has displayed her installation, a show called Sea Change, at the Virginia Museum Of Contemporary Art and at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Photo credit: Artur Evans/Courtney Mattison

11 02, 2016

Women in Science Daily: Kate Furbish

2018-10-17T18:20:25-04:00Tags: |

This video recounts the legacy of Kate Furbish, a botanical collector and painter born in New Hampshire in 1834. Bucking the conventions of her time, Kate roamed the forest all by herself to learn about the ecology. She collected nearly 5000 specimen, most of which are now housed in Harvard natural history collection. She was well regarded by other botanist for painting the endangered plants, Pedicularis Furbishiae which grows only in Maine and was extinct till 1976. Its rediscovery actually prevented to construction of 1.3 billion dollar dam. Photo Credit: Brilliant Botany

10 02, 2016

A Kentucky Domestic Violence Shelter Helps Women Grow Food And Confidence

2017-07-19T21:38:33-04:00Tags: |

Donna, a resident of Greenhouse 17, is just one of many women benefiting from new skills and confidence at this shelter for victims of domestic violence. The shelter's innovative model includes a small farm business, which provides employment to women who harvest vegetables and produce handmade crafts to sell. Photo credit: Sarah van Gelder

8 02, 2016

This 25-Year-Old Is Asking Politicians Tough Questions About Climate Change

2017-07-20T18:54:40-04:00Tags: |

Yong Jung Cho worked at environmental group 350 Action during the 2016 presidential primary election. She organized and trained hundreds of volunteers to follow candidates on the campaign trail and ask them tough questions about climate change. Photo credit: Fusion

6 02, 2016

Good Things Happen When A NAACP Leader Becomes A Climate Activist

2017-07-20T18:28:02-04:00Tags: |

Kathy Egland serves on the NAACP National Board committee on environmental and climate justice. As a child, she protested racial segregation, and now she is fighting for a clean, safe environment. Hurricane Katrina was a turning point for Egland, who has made environmental justice a priority ever since. Photo credit: grist.org  

2 02, 2016

These Three Women Attended A Monsanto Shareholders Meeting Demanding Answers

2017-07-19T21:42:37-04:00Tags: |

Anne Temple, Rachel Parent and Beth Savitt represented three generations of women when they attended a Monsanto annual shareholders meeting to highlight the health dangers of genetically engineered crops and pesticides such as Round-Up. Photo credit: Food Integrity Now

30 01, 2016

Vien Truong Celebrated With CLCV Environmental Leadership Award

2017-10-30T02:15:32-04:00Tags: |

Vien Truong is a fearless advocate of climate solutions that benefit low-income communities and communities of color. She currently leads Green for All’s work building a green economy and was a key driver of the California Senate Bill 535, the Charge Ahead Initiative, and the California Climate Credit, all of which directs state resources to benefit disadvantaged communities. Photo credit: California League of Conservation Voters

27 01, 2016

Women As Leaders On Environmental Policy And In Government

2017-10-27T15:33:59-04:00Tags: |

Heather Taylor-Miesle (Director of the Ohio Environmental Council, and former director of NRDC Action Fund) and Debbie Welsh (Director of the Center for American Women and Politics) discuss in a Q&A style story published by Rachel’s Network the systematic barriers that American women must overcome when running for political office. Both women conclude that electing more women is key to implementing stronger environmental policy. Photo credit: Rachel’s Network

27 01, 2016

Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš Is Bringing Latinos To The Climate Policy Table

2017-10-27T15:32:26-04:00Tags: |

Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš, founder of Azul, explains in this article the ways that the conservation movement can be more equal and inclusive. Gutiérrez-Graudiņš is working to dismantle institutional barriers in the environmental movement and increase the presence of Latino voices in California’s climate policy making. She wrote in the introduction for La Verde Paper: Latino Perspectives on Conservation Leadership, released by La Madre Tierra and Resource Media, that although the conservation movement has failed to adequately engage people of color, on-the-ground movements exist and are engaging with and impacting policy in communities. Photo credit: Resource Media

27 01, 2016

The Environmental Educator: Emily Graslie

2017-10-27T02:51:11-04:00Tags: |

Through her work as the Chief Curiosity Correspondent at the Field Museum, Emily Graslie is known as the science educator for millennials.  Her reputation as a science and nature expert has given her the opportunity to speak directly with the Chief of the Environmental Protection Agency. Emily’s work focuses on having communities understand the broader effects of climate change. Photo credit: Tom McNamara

23 01, 2016

The Butterfly Effect

2018-01-23T17:13:38-05:00Tags: |

Nancy Hill, a writer and photographer living in Portland, Oregon, writes about the importance of new initiatives to engage prisoners and inmates at correctional facilities in opportunity to re-gain a dignified and purposeful life through working as part of programs cultivating plant species needed for restoration efforts. Photo credit: Nancy Hill

20 01, 2016

Damayan Cleaning Cooperative: Labor Trafficking Survivors Open Co-Op

2017-10-31T19:49:57-04:00Tags: |

In this episode of The Laura Flanders Show, the Damayan (which means "to help each other") Cleaning Cooperative is introduced, an initiative in the United States by female survivors of labor trafficking from the Philippines: women who were sent to the U.S. to work in housekeeping or babysitting without earning a salary and having no breaks. The cooperative was launched in September 2015, and the female owners are part of the Damayan Migrant Workers Association, an organization that supports Filipino women who are migrant workers. Photo credit: The Laura Flanders Show

20 01, 2016

The Woman Who Loved Orcas

2017-10-23T19:25:12-04:00Tags: |

This is the story of Eva Saulitis and her love for orcas (or killer whales). Marine biologist, poet, and author, Eva—who passed away in 2016—spent most of her life studying and writing about the plight of orcas. She observed and recorded the movements and health of numerous orcas near Alaska. The population of AT1 orcas had already suffered; then the Exxon Valdez oil spill devastated them. Eva published a memoir of her life among the killer whales; at one point she described how visualization of orcas even helped her through chemotherapy. Her memoir includes stories of individual orcas whose lives she passionately studied and documented. Photo credit: Chris Mueller

1 01, 2016

Emily Kirsch, Co-Founder And CEO Of Solar Startups Incubator

2017-09-21T21:19:00-04:00Tags: |

After working with Van Jones on the policy side of the green jobs movement, Emily Kirsch became interested in small-scale solar finance while working at a startup that experimented with crowdfunding solar projects. She noticed that such startups often struggle to attract seed funding and in-kind donations that nascent businesses need to grow. Kirsch went on to co-found Powerhouse, a business dedicated to funding and supporting small-scale solar startups. In her profile for Grist magazine’s “50 People You'll Be Talking About in 2016,” she emphasizes the importance of women in renewable energy. Photo credit: Grist

1 01, 2016

Nicky Phear’s Innovative Climate Change Curriculum

2017-09-28T17:30:51-04:00Tags: |

Nicky Phear was central to the establishment of the Climate Change Studies program at the University of Montana, the first undergraduate program of its kind in the United States. Through the program, students are encouraged to develop clean energy solutions and advocate for sustainability. Phear designed unique classes that make the program stand out, such as the Cycle the Rockies course, in which students learn about clean energy and climate change while cycling through Montana. Nicolette also developed a similar initiative in Bhutan. Photo credit: Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Awards

1 01, 2016

Nine Women Receive Clean Energy Education And Empowerment Awards

2017-09-28T17:25:59-04:00Tags: |

The fifth Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Women in Clean Energy Symposium granted awards to nine women active in the field of renewable energy who have demonstrated exceptional leadership. The C3E began as a commitment made by the United States at the Clean Energy Ministerial, a forum of 24 major-economy governments, to close the gender gap and stimulate women leaders within clean energy. The award is divided by categories, such as entrepreneurship, advocacy, business and research. Meet nine women who are at the forefront of renewable energy solutions. Photo credit: Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Awards

1 01, 2016

Elena Lucas Brings Energy Data Into The Light

2017-09-22T16:14:19-04:00Tags: |

Worried about how the lack of accessible data storage for energy producers impacts energy startups, Elena Lucas decided to find a solution. Elena is a co-founder and CEO of UtilityAPI, a startup that wrangles energy data and delivers it to the companies who need it—and has brought the cost of installing solar panels down by 5 to 10 percent. Lucas believes that more opportunities should be open for women in tech-related fields, making a point to employ an equal number of women and men at UtilityAPI. Photo credit: Grist

1 01, 2016

Steph Speirs Plants Community Solar Gardens

2017-09-22T16:11:44-04:00Tags: |

Steph Speirs believes that the democratization of solar energy is the way to mainstream the use of solar technology. She is co-founder and CEO of Solstice, a company that plans community solar projects for those who may not own their properties or don’t have the means to afford their own panels. The idea has already spread throughout Massachusetts, with a goal to expand it nationwide. Photo credit: Grist

1 01, 2016

Erika Symmonds: The Solar Economy Should Benefit Everyone

2017-09-26T13:39:40-04:00Tags: |

As jobs in the renewable energy sector grow, opportunities tend to be more accessible to privileged groups. In response, Erika Symmonds offers capacity-building courses to individuals from low-income backgrounds. She is the Director of Workforce Development at GRID Alternatives, an organization specialized in providing training for people of color and low-income communities. Photo credit: Grist

1 01, 2016

The Toxic Assault On Black Women’s Health

2017-11-01T03:08:51-04:00Tags: |

Erin Switalski, Executive Director of Women’s Voices for the Earth, writes as a white ally about how Black women’s health has often been underrepresented in the reproductive justice conversation and yet, Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with diseases linked to toxic chemical exposure and/or experience premature births and low birth rates due to environmental contaminations. Additionally, Women’s Voices for the Earth examines how many beauty products marketed specifically for Black women contain the highest rates of toxic components on the market. The organization calls for everyone reading the article to come together and uplift the needs and health concerns of Black women--as voiced by the women themselves. Photo credit: Women’s Voices for the Earth

23 12, 2015

Filipina Trafficking Survivors Launch A Cleaning Co-Op

2017-09-24T20:12:07-04:00Tags: |

Judith Daluz is organizing Filipina women into a cleaning business cooperative she created after breaking free from an exploitative employer. All of the workers at Damayan Cleaning Cooperative are also part owners, and approximately 50 percent of them are trafficking survivors. The co-operative has created an avenue towards labor independence, where these women workers own and control their modes of production and enjoy health care and better pay, freeing them from dependence on abusive labor arrangements. Photo credit: Damyan Cleaning Cooperative

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

25 11, 2015

Reproductive Rights In Native America

2018-02-22T20:10:09-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous peoples around the world are experiencing dire impacts from colonization, fossil fuel, mining and other extractive industries - and Indigenous women are additionally facing major violations and challenges to their bodies and health. Indigenous women face disproportionately high levels of sexual violence, and are often restricted in their access to reproductive health care. However many Indigenous-women led groups are pushing for change. The Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Centre (NAWHERC) on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, South Dakota, and young leaders in the Diné (Navajo) Nation, Keioshiah Peter and Jake Skeets who have created the #RezCondomTour to promote safe sex and expression in Dinétah. By connecting the campaign to Diné culture and philosophy, as well as the decolonization and climate justice movements, they have attracted many young followers. Photo credit: Medium

18 11, 2015

Women Of Color Speak Out: Systems Of Oppression

2023-04-16T16:31:01-04:00Tags: |

Climate activist group ‘Women of Color Speak Out’ is changing the face of the white-dominated climate space by uplifting the voices of women of color through educating and informing their communities on the climate crisis. At the Ethiopian Community Center in Seattle, climate activists Sarra Tekola, Afrin Sopariwala, Zarna Joshi, and Yin Yu of the Women of Color Speak Out group speak on how racist systems of oppression have created and maintained our climate crisis. Women of Color Speak Out highlights the historical and current uneven impacts of capitalism, colonialism, and the prison industrial complex on the environment and people, as well as solutions for just system transitions. Emphasizing that marginalized communities have been/are bearing the brunt of violence from these oppressive systems both directly and indirectly through climate change, this educational presentation is rooted in truth telling and a call to action for local and global solidarity. 

12 11, 2015

In The Land Of My Ancestors: Native Woman Stands Her Ground In Ohlone Territory

2017-09-04T22:02:59-04:00Tags: |

Ann Marie Sayers, a Costanoan Ohlone, is a rare example of a Native woman who continues to live in her ancestral land. California Indians suffered a brutal history of colonization, disease, violence and servitude during the Gold Rush and California Missions era. As the population of Indigenous people shrunk during the Gold Rush, the Canyon served as a safe haven. The canyon has a large arbor, where Indigenous Peoples from around the world are gathered every year - from the Maoris of New Zealand to the Gwich'in of Alaska. Sayers remains committed to educating and empowering youth to reconnect their sacred relationship to Earth. In her interview, she mentions that the Earth is alive and it is a reason for living. Photo credit: Rucha Chitnis

11 11, 2015

Andrea Carmen Of The Yaqui Nation On Climate Change And Knowledge Sharing

2017-10-01T15:58:41-04:00Tags: |

In this Global Sparks interview, Andrea Carmen of the Yaqui Indian Nation, the executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council, advocates for the inclusion of grassroots Indigenous food producer perspectives in international discussion about climate change. Filmed at the third annual Food Sovereignty Summit held by the Oneida Nation, First Nations Development Institute, she discusses the dangers of climate change and how Indigenous people can come together and share information and traditional knowledges to find global solutions. Photo credit: Global Sparks  

11 11, 2015

Historic Indigenous Women’s Treaty Calls For Action For Earth

2017-10-12T14:08:28-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous woman leader Pennie Opal Plant, co-founder of Movement Rights and Idle No More Bay Area, reflects on the creation and signing of the historic “Indigenous Women of the Americas – Defending Mother Earth Treaty Compact 2015” that was surprising, powerful and deeply rewarding for all involved. In this article, she emphasises her deep connection to Mother Earth which her and her colleagues felt in writing this treaty allowing for Indigenous peoples across the earth to connect and assert their solidarity. Photo credit: Movement Rights Blog

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

2 11, 2015

The Future Of Work: Consider The Changing Climate

2019-01-21T19:59:03-05:00Tags: |

Juliet B. Schor, sociology professor at Boston College, wants to talk more about how climate change, and not just new technologies, will affect the future of work. Her research has found that countries with fewer work hours also have lower carbon emissions: more leisure, rather than production, is maximized. She outlines her vision of a short-hours, high satisfaction economy in the book “Plenitude”. Long hours not only degrade an employee base but also the environment. These key findings provide insight into how to lower emissions and boost economic and social well-being. Photo Credit: Tatiana Grozetskaya/Shutterstock

2 11, 2015

A Conversation With Plastic-Free Champion, Beth Terry

2017-10-31T19:34:08-04:00Tags: |

Diane MacEachern, from the Moms Clean Air Force, interviews Beth Terry, writer of the book Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too and author of the blog "My Plastic-Free Life." Beth talks about the increasing threat of plastic pollution to the planet, and rates the alternatives to plastic, such as the BPA-free plastic bottles, as well as the practice of recycling. Photo credit: Moms Clean Air Force

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

1 11, 2015

Indiana NAACP Environmental Climate Justice Chair, Denise Abdul-Rahman Speaks At Indiana Mama Summit April 8, 2015 At The Indiana State House

2017-11-01T17:54:41-04:00Tags: |

At the Indiana Mama Summit 2015, climate leader Denise Abdul-Rahman called for the state of Indiana's Department of Environmental Management to halt the burning of coal and the dumping of coal ash, practices which disproportionately impact people of color and low-income communities. Denise Abdul-Rahman was instrumental to passing the NAACP Clean Power Plan Resolution, which calls for coal ash to be defined as “special waste” and calls for special disposal to avoid the harmful health impacts of coal waste. Photo credit: Indian Green Outreach

1 11, 2015

Cindy Wiesner: Global Climate Politics – Paralysis Above and Movement Below

2017-11-01T03:59:06-04:00Tags: |

Cindy Wiesner shares the story of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance with university students as a part of ‘"Sustainability" or Survival? Popular Responses to Global Climate Change’, a video series highlighting the work of global and local NGO and movement leaders at the forefront of critical mobilizations efforts for climate justice. Photo credit: Pitt Global Studies

1 11, 2015

Environmental Racism: Black Communities Face More Health Risks From Industrial Pollution

2017-11-01T02:59:03-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Jacqui Patterson speaks about her work fighting environmental racism as Director of NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program. She is leading an investigation that aims to show this disproportionate health impacts of industrial pollution on low-income communities and communities of color. For example, 68% of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant and residents of Stokes County, North Carolina, in particular, suffer severe nerve damage and cancer risk from coal ash pollution. Photo credit: RT America

31 10, 2015

Women On The Land: Creating Conscious Community

2017-10-31T22:59:01-04:00Tags: |

The film "Women On The Land" via the Green Horns highlights the work of women in a North Californian coastal village over the past decades on their collective farming, feminist ecological practices and stewardship of natural resources. The film argues that the local food movement is crucial to addressing the challenges posed by economic and climate injustice. The women speak about how they published a magazine called "Country Women" to share their work as part of the back-to-the-land movement. Photo credit: MendocinoCoastFilms2

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

US Women: Let’s Talk About Climate Solutions

2017-10-31T19:26:45-04:00Tags: |

Marianne Gabel, founder of the Delaware, Ohio chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, advocates for swift climate action in Ohio and Washington D.C. with other women climate leaders such as Sheila Fox, Alice Frazier, and Lindsey Kohlenberg. In 2014, they walked with 800 CCL volunteers to support “Political Will for a Livable World” and as a group, advocated to over 500 members of Congress. Gabel discusses the idea of taxing carbon, which would generate revenue to promote green energy jobs. Photo credit: Rachel's Network

31 10, 2015

Expert Q&A With Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist

2017-10-31T19:24:33-04:00Tags: |

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is a world-renown climate scientist who played a key part in writing the Third National Climate Assessment, a report which surveys the impacts of climate change in the United States. She spoke with Rachel's Network about the political challenge posed by climate change, the joys of motherhood, and how her faith informs her work. Photo credit: Rachel's Network

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

28 10, 2015

Should Nature Have Standing to Sue?

2017-10-28T23:36:50-04:00Tags: |

In the 1970s, the Sierra Club sued to stop a ski development in Sequoia National Forest, California, but the Supreme Court rejected the club’s reasoning, unwilling to accept that Nature had standing to sue in court. However, one justice, William O. Douglas, was persuaded by the Sierra Club’s original reasoning and later supported allowing Nature’s voice to be heard in the courtroom. Despite Douglas’ efforts, Nature is still excluded by courtrooms. Today, climate change and environmental crises require major reforms in the legal systems. For this reason, it is time for us, humans, or at least our organizations, to advocate for Nature’s standing in Courts. Photo credit: Jena Cragg, Rhett Wilkins, NOAA

28 10, 2015

Rinku Sen Speaks: ‘Both/And/All: Environmentalism And Racial Justice’

2017-10-28T22:36:38-04:00Tags: |

Rinku Sen, a dynamic and influential social, racial and gender justice activists shares an inspiring speech at Bioneers Conference, calling all people to face and address our completely intertwined ecological and social justice crises. At the same time, we must learn how to do it without losing our minds, our friends or our fights. Photo credit: Bioneers

27 10, 2015

When Women Lead: A Decade Of Women’s Environmental Voting

2017-10-27T11:05:38-04:00Tags: |

In this piece, Rachel’s Network argues that gender equality in politics is essential for achieving more environmentally sustainable policies. They show how women legislators tend to vote in sync with international commitments towards the environment. So, Rachel’s Network argues, if states want to champion protecting the environment and public health, they should support and elect more women to public office. Photo credit: Rachel’s Network

26 10, 2015

Young Women Fight Against The Use Of Palm Oil In Girl Scout Cookies

2017-10-26T23:07:48-04:00Tags: |

At ages 10 and 11, now Brower Youth Award winners Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva began their fight against the use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies, founding Project ORANGS. They learned about how the rise in conventional palm oil has resulted in rainforest deforestation, the destruction of endangered species habitats, and widespread human rights abuses. During the 2012 Bioneers National Conference, the young women shared their story about working with the Rainforest Action Network to build an online campaign against conventional palm oil use in Girl Scouts cookies. Photo credit: Bioneers

26 10, 2015

California Woman Helps Neighborhood Become Locavores, One Locally Grown Meal At A Time

2017-10-26T22:42:33-04:00Tags: |

Kimberly Leeds, resident of Aliso Viejo, California, is helping to bring community together and increase climate resiliency and sustainability through potluck meals designed to help guest think about the source and impact of their food - and grow a network to garden and exchange produce locally. Photo credit: TransitionUS

26 10, 2015

Young Women Representing At Black Farmers And Urban Gardeners Conference

2017-10-31T15:58:44-04:00Tags: |

Oakland resident Karissa Lewis is a black radical farmer focused on providing people with quality food in the face of rising rents and living costs in the East Bay’s quickly gentrifying landscape. The founder of Full Harvest Urban Farm, and employee at the Center for Third World Organizing, Lewis’s political commitments have included issues of environmental racism, while also engaging in struggles that deal with police brutality. She is a member of the Bay Area Black Lives Matter chapter and the BlackOut collective. Photo credit: Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners Conference

21 10, 2015

Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud Provides An FAQ On Being An Indigenous Ally

2017-09-08T22:25:38-04:00Tags: |

Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud provides an overview of the definition of an “ally,” explains how to start the process of becoming an ally, and reviews government policy that impacts First Nations people, cultures, and languages. She then proceeds to give a brief list of do’s and don’ts of being an ally: a healthy resource for those new to Indigenous activism and seeking to get more involved. Photo credit: Red Rising Magazine

20 10, 2015

Unleashing The Power Of Women Via Renewables

2017-07-20T16:27:03-04:00Tags: |

Although still under-represented in the energy sector, Lorena Aguilar of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Global Gender Office stresses how women play an integral part in solving problems related to clean energy and emissions reductions. IUCN's Gender and Renewable Energy Network Platform provides a space for climate change mitigation professionals to swap resources and collaborate on gender-inclusive renewable initiatives. Photo credit: The Huffington Post

12 10, 2015

Lakota Women Lead Charge Against Uranium Mine

2017-07-17T16:51:37-04:00Tags: |

Grandmother Debra White Plume is one of the Indigenous Lakota women leading a campaign to prevent the renewal of permits for uranium mining corporations in Nebraska. The women are also working to educate their communities about the dangers of water contamination caused by mining. Photo credit WNV/Rosy Torres

6 10, 2015

17-Year-Old Deepika Kurup Combats Water Injustice With New Invention

2017-07-12T20:44:53-04:00Tags: |

Budding young scientist Deepika Kurup has developed a life-saving and sustainable solution to combat the global water crisis. Her solar water disinfection system is poised to help millions access safe and clean water. She is also forging a path for women inventors in a traditionally male-dominated field. Photo credit: Forbes Magazine

5 10, 2015

Overcoming Fear: Women And Climate Change

2017-10-28T13:56:56-04:00Tags: |

Ronnie Citron-Fink, Editorial Director of Mom's Clean Air Force, writes about gender and climate change, an issue that has been in evidence through events such as Omega Institute's Women and Power conference. Citron-Fink analyses climate justice, gender vulnerability to climate disasters, and how it led to the creation of Mom's Clean Air Force, a way to get active about the topic through empathy and education. Photo credit: Ronnie Citron-Fink

5 10, 2015

Survival Becomes A Spiritual Practice

2017-09-04T12:49:28-04:00Tags: |

Author, activist and Dartmouth College professor Terry Tempest Williams writes about how our profound connections to land and nature come from the poetic crossing between physical motion and spiritual action. For Williams, this crossing exists when standing in “the vitality of the struggle,” a phrase she borrowed from Gertrude Stein. Williams is a woman who is standing tall within the thriving vitality of the climate struggle, by writing about and speaking out against the Book Cliffs Utah tar sands mining project, the oil shale development in the Colorado Plateau, and supporting the encampments of activists who are on the ground there. Williams’ work also pays important attention to the racism and historical displacement of Indigenous peoples that occurred to create national parks to protect wilderness. Photo credit: Terry Tempest Williams

1 10, 2015

Woman’s Five Day Fast Opposes Nestlé Water Grab

2017-07-20T17:43:16-04:00Tags: |

Anna Mae Leonard went on a five-day hunger strike to protest a plan by Nestlé to build a bottled-water plant in Cascade Locks, Oregon. The plant threatened take over 100 gallons of fresh mountain water every year from the nearby Oxbow Springs and sell it under the Arrowhead brand name. In 2016, local residents halted the construction of the plant via a local ballot measure. Photo credit: Facebook/NO Nestlé in Cascade Locks

24 09, 2015

Indigenous Peoples Climate March With Ulali

2017-09-05T23:00:24-04:00Tags: |

Internationally-acclaimed female Indigenous acappella group Ulali is using song to educate about Native American issues and struggles while fighting for climate justice. At the 2014 People’s Climate March in New York, Soni (Mayan, Apache, Yaquil), Jennifer Kreisber (Tuscarora) and Pura Fe (Tuscarora/Taino) were among many women leaders educating through art as they marched, singing songs of action for Indigenous peoples and the Earth. Ulali’s songs include “Mother,” “Mother- Tribute to First Nations Women,” and “Forgive Our Father Suite.” The group has also contributed to the recording project “Honor the Earth.” Photo credit: Angelo Baca

23 09, 2015

Marian Naranjo Speaks: To Enter Right Relationship With Each Other On This Land

2017-10-12T14:17:23-04:00Tags: |

Marian Naranjo (Kha po Owingeh, Santa Clara Pueblo) spoke at the Campaign Nonviolence National Conference honoring the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as part of a panel called “Nuclear Weapons, Los Alamos, & Nonviolence.” Her speech explores the spiritual connection Indigenous people feel to the land and the responsibility we all have to protect the Earth from nuclear war and waste. Naranjo is the founder and director of Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE), a community non-profit that works at the intersection of environmental, health and youth justice. Photo credit: PaceeBene.org

11 09, 2015

Hebrew Priestess Sarah Shamirah Chandler on Judaism and the Environment

2017-10-08T22:31:19-04:00Tags: |

Female Jewish leader Sarah Shamirah Chandler pairs her faith-based practices with environmental education and activism. Chandler is part of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess movement, which taps into the sacred feminine in Judaism. Chandler brings nature and women together through Earth-based Jewish rituals for fertility, funerals, and marriages. She is also educating on Jewish traditions such as the Jewish calendar, which concentrates on caring for the earth through the agricultural cycle. Chandler is also Director of Earth-Based Spiritual Practice for Hazon’s Adamah Farm. Photo credit: Eco-Chick

8 09, 2015

Women On The Frontlines: An Untold Climate Story

2017-10-27T20:22:57-04:00Tags: |

This article on the Common Dreams website was written by Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International and Co-Chair of International Advocacy for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. Lake talks about the negative effects of climate change on women around the world, especially Indigenous women and women from developing countries, relating this issue to the problem of patriarchy and gender disparity worldwide. WECAN's founder also writes about the power women have in climate action and the influence women can have in decision-making, mentioning international environmental treaties and government participation. Photo credit: via Twitter @WECAN_INTL

28 08, 2015

5 Ways That Black Women Suffered Due To Katrina

2019-03-04T01:23:31-05:00Tags: |

A report published by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWRP) reveals the ways black women, especially those in public housing, struggled and suffered because of Hurricane Katrina. After interviewing 184 black women in public housing, the institute came away with five major insights dispelling myths about hurricane recovery. While some black women did find better lives in other cities, most of the black women interviewed wanted to come back to New Orleans. But, the report found, this transition was made very difficult because of poor recovery practices that often exacerbated existing inequalities. The report found that most women did not have enough housing to return to; the new housing situation also brought insecurities and a sense of not belonging to one place; and the vouchers provided aren’t covering their daily needs. Further, the public transportation infrastructure makes it even more difficult to get to work, and social safety nets were disrupted, making black women more vulnerable to various kinds of violence. Among IWRP’s recommendations were: improve communication among service providers, expand tenant vouchers, diversify policies for women and inclusion of low income women, and prioritize the voices of low-income women in planning decisions. Photo Credit: REUTERS/Lee Celano

20 08, 2015

Interfaith Activist Amanda Quraishi On Islam And Environmentalism

2017-10-08T22:27:55-04:00Tags: |

Interfaith activist and Muslim woman Amanda Quraishi is showing how the Muslim faith includes respect and care for the Earth. Quraishi explains how the Qur’an is a source which advocates for people to connect to the living environment and universe around them, proclaiming humans as “vicegerents,” or caretakers of creation. Quraishi recounts how her Muslim mentors and leaders taught her the importance of nature in faith-based practices. Quraishi is carrying on this message by pushing forward creation centered practices through events like the Interfaith Environmental ‘Preach Off’ she held last year. Photo credit: Eco-Chick

19 08, 2015

Food Sovereignty And Farmers Of Color: An Interview With Natasha Bowens

2018-07-19T15:28:18-04:00Tags: |

FoodTank interviews Natasha Bowens, a woman of color farmer and community activist, about her new book “The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience and Farming.” Illustrating the story of Black, Latino, Asian and Indigenous farmers through story-telling, photography and oral history, Bowen, aims to rectify the absence of farmers of color and lack of diversity in organic and local food movements. The intersection of food and race in the United States have a long and troubling history of slavery and oppression. This powerful book aims to redefine the agrarian story of people of color by showing how it is inspired by a legacy of wisdom of the land. Bowen shows how barriers exist, such as, a  lack of access to land, capital and markets but farmers of color have been successful in working outside the system and putting community first with concepts like cooperative farms. Photo credit: FoodTank

17 08, 2015

Women In The California Conservation Corps

2023-03-19T07:51:27-04:00Tags: |

In this video, young women from different walks of life describe their positive experiences as members of the California Conservation Corps. The video features testimonials from members including Sierra, Jocelyn, Gloria, Laprisha, Milissa, Kaily, Samantha, Monique, and Jessica representing members from across the state. These women leaders share their most meaningful lessons from the CCC, relaying experiences that have led to increased confidence, perseverance, and independence through the hard work and collaborative environment created by the group members and the close connection cultivated with nature. Photo credit: California Conservation Corps

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

7 08, 2015

La Finca Del Sur: Gardening For Social Justice In The South Bronx

2017-07-19T21:49:27-04:00Tags: |

Situated in the middle of a concrete jungle, La Finca del Sur is a thriving urban farmer cooperative led by Latina and Black women and their allies. Founded in 2009, the organization supports women of color to grow fresh and healthy food. Staff and volunteers are committed to building healthy neighborhoods in this low-income community through economic empowerment, nutritional awareness, food sovereignty, and advocacy for social equality and food justice. Photo credit: WhyHunger.org

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

28 07, 2015

Naelyn Pike: Young Apache Warrior Speaks Against Rio Tinto Mine

2017-07-17T17:24:10-04:00Tags: |

In 2014, prior to their multi-week cross-country caravan to Washington D.C., the advocacy group Apache Stronghold and their supporters gathered in Tucson, Arizona. In this video recording, 14-year-old Naelyn Pike speaks out to raise awareness of the Arizona land exchange, which would see Oak Flat, an Apache holy land, destroyed by international mining conglomerate Rio Tinto. Photo credit: grancanyontrust.org

22 07, 2015

Four Native Women Redefine Security And Fight For Sacred Places

2017-10-14T16:36:15-04:00Tags: |

Four Native women in California are fighting to uphold the dignity of their people and their lands. Pennie Opal Plant co-founded the Refinery Corridor Healing Walks, along with other members of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Idle No More, to highlight impacts pollution and crude-by-rail development projects in her community. At the same time, Chief Caleen Sisk, tribal and spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, has been a vocal opponent of dams and water export projects in her territory. She advocates for sustainable ecological systems and respect for the Rights of Nature. Photo credit: aircrc.org  

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

29 06, 2015

Women Leaders Speak Out To Change The Narrative On Health And Climate

2017-10-31T15:13:14-04:00Tags: |

As part of a Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network online training, women climate leaders Susan E. Pacheco M.D of the University of Texas; Pandora Thomas of EarthSeed Consulting LLC and the Black Permaculture Network; Angela Monti Fox of The Mothers Project; and Hannah Vogel with Climate Nexus shared experiences and calls to action as women working on the intersection of climate change and human health impacts. Dr. Pacheco discusses children as the “silent” climate change victims and details threats to maternal and children’s health from air and water pollution, as well as mental and emotional stress. Pandora Thomas discusses the connection between environmental racism, health impacts, climate vulnerability, economic insecurity crime and violence - and provides suggestions of strategies for engaging diverse communities in their own healing and liberation. Angela Monti Fox explores the expansion of fracking and natural gas exploitation in New York and Pennsylvania, and movements to expose and combat dangerous impacts. Hannah Vogel speaks on climate change as the largest human health challenge of the century, dependent on fundamental shifts in our energy production and consumption systems.

29 06, 2015

Women Address Health And Climate Change For Our Children And All Generations

2017-10-29T01:25:54-04:00Tags: |

Children, elders, and women are impacted with disproportionate severity by environmental pollution – and low-income communities are often marginalized and placed directly in the path of toxic sites and extreme weather events. As part of a Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network online training, three women leaders from different parts of the U.S. share their voices to expose and counter these dire impacts and injustices. Sheila Bushkin-Bedient, M.D. of the Institute for Health and the Environment presents on air pollution, and impacts including asthma, allergies, cardiac and pulmonary disease, lung and heart related hospitalizations, diminished lung function, and premature deaths. Journalist, blogger, mother, and grassroots community organizer, Pramilla Malick of Protect Orange County and Stop the Minisink Compressor Station speaks on damages caused by fracking and gas infrastructure in her community in upstate New York. Cherri Foytlin of Southern Louisiana speaks on the dual threat experienced by communities of color in her region, who face health and other hazards from oil extraction and refining, and again as climate disasters such as hurricanes hit their homes.

24 06, 2015

Why Climate Change Is A Women’s Rights Issue

2017-07-20T16:55:47-04:00Tags: |

Eleanor Blomstrom, Programme Director at the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, argues that sustainable development cannot be achieved without gender equality. Understanding the link between climate change and women’s rights is essential to fighting inequality and mitigating climate impacts. Photo credit: Shutterstock

23 06, 2015

Lucy Billings Carries A Tune In Her New Album: Carry The Water

2017-09-21T16:53:21-04:00Tags: |

After losing her job as an attorney for the State of California, Lucy Billings traveled to Nashville to pursue her musical dreams. Her songs reflect her passion for clean water access and conservation. She uses her voice to raise awareness about access to clean water, as well as making this a reality through her collaboration with the nonprofit organizations Blood:Water and Amman Imman. Photo credit: Diane Graham

20 06, 2015

Climatologist Heidi Cullen Making Climate Science Mainstream

2017-07-20T19:07:07-04:00Tags: |

Heidi Cullen is the Chief Climatologist for the U.S.-based non-profit news organization Climate Central, which analyzes and reports on climate science to the public. She is one of the leading women making climate science and change communication part of the mainstream media by acting as an on-air Climate Expert. Heidi also worked as the Chief Science Advisor for the popular documentary series Years of Living Dangerously, highlighting global warming and climate change. Photo credit: National Academy of Sciences/CC BY-NC-SA

9 06, 2015

We Are All Solar Sisters: Women For 100% Renewable Energy Training Recap

2017-10-24T19:36:17-04:00Tags: |

Spurred by the U.S. Women’s Climate Justice Initiative, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN International) held an online education and advocacy training to cultivate women climate leaders in the renewable energy space. Angelina Galiteva and Diane Moss of the Renewables 100 Policy Institute, Cathleen Monahan of Grid Alternatives, Allison Archambault of EarthSpark International, Lynn Benander of Co-Op Power, and Osprey Orielle Lake of WECAN International discussed the case for renewable energy and how women have the power to lead their nations towards an equitable, low-carbon economy. Photo credit: WECAN International

9 06, 2015

Gender Equality And Sustainable Food: The Power Of Women Farmers

2017-04-08T03:44:42-04:00Tags: |

While women make up 40% of the agricultural labor force, they continue to face problems accessing land right and resources. Audra Mulkern of the Female Farmer Project works to uplift women in farming, sharing their stories and demonstrating their influence on our food systems. Photo credit: Foodie Underground

31 05, 2015

A Tale Of Two Supermarkets: One Transition Town’s Efforts To Respond To Gentrification

2017-10-31T15:57:25-04:00Tags: |

Jeanette Origel is a Community Leader Fellow for the Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition (JP NET) and Sarah Byrnes is the Director of the New England New Economy Transition (NET) project at the Institute for Policy Studies. Both leaders write about the importance of thinking about the people in the community when planning concrete ways of improving a place’s resilience - be it through urban farms, renewable energy, or alternative ways of mobility. This is because by improving a community’s resilience, many times the neighborhood improves and then gentrifies, expelling its original inhabitants. Jeanette tells personal stories about her parents fear of prices increases and difficulties in finding products from Latin American countries after local renovations. Food access is only one example of how gentrification can affect a community. This is why Jeannet and Sarah work to bring communities closer together, teaching about climate change and how to adapt, mitigate and be resilient to it. Photo credit: NET

27 05, 2015

Expert Q&A With Keya Chatterjee, USCAN Executive Director

2017-10-27T15:20:35-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Keya Chatterjee speaks with Rachel's network on the climate movement and opportunities for growth, ranging from fundraising to community participation. Through the US Climate Action Network, Keya Chatterjee supports the coordination and collaboration of organizations engaged in building climate solutions. Photo credit: Rachel’s Network

1 05, 2015

Climate Change And Children’s Health: Armed With Facts

2017-11-01T03:07:09-04:00Tags: |

Mom’s Clean Air Force published this report, which looks at how children are particularly vulnerable to some of the initial effects of a changing global climate. Presently, children are suffering the impacts of climate change from infections caused by disease-carrying pests like mosquitoes and ticks to heat-related illnesses and allergies. The report suggests ways for mothers to contend with climate change and argues, more broadly, that now is the time to shift from air-polluting fossil fuels and extractive economies toward a green and sustainable future. Photo credit: Mom’s Clean Air Force

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

28 04, 2015

Dawn Lippert Fosters Renewable Energy In Hawaii

2017-10-02T23:34:32-04:00Tags: |

As founder and director of Energy Excelerator, Dawn Lippert facilitates the establishment of renewable energy businesses by helping startup companies secure seed funding. The work that has started in Hawaii has expanded to other areas, always taking into account the specifics of each place, as Dawn explains in this talk. She is also founder of the Board of Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE), which supports women leaders in the renewable sector. Photo credit: TedXHonolulu

24 04, 2015

The Color of Food: These Sisters Are Building A Second Career As Farmers

2017-08-22T09:22:18-04:00Tags: |

Two retired sisters in North Carolina are re-cultivating their family land and growing organic produce. The sisters are overcoming the challenges in the area of land degradation, climate change, encroaching construction, and heir property law. Joyce and Carol are now members of the Southern African American Farmers Organic Network and are thriving as producers of fresh food for their community. Photo credit: Natasha Bowens

23 04, 2015

Loving Earth Is Complicated, Says This African-American Pastor

2018-01-23T19:49:26-05:00Tags: |

In this interview, Dianne D. Glave, an African-American pastor known for her work and literature on environmentalism, aims to break the stereotype that African-Americans are not active environmentalists. She explains how the legacy of slavery has impacted the relationship between African Americans and the land. Focusing on African American women and the challenges they face, Glave makes many connections, including how black women’s hair is still deeply connected to racism, often resulting in black women investing time and energy in hair treatment to follow colonial-era beauty stereotypes, thus keeping them out away from the water and wild places. Photo credit: Grist

23 04, 2015

NAU Forester Looks For ‘Survival Gene’ In SW White Pine Trees

2021-04-09T13:12:00-04:00Tags: |

In eastern Arizona, a non-native fungus threatens the Southwestern White Pine Tree. The fungus, termed the “Blister Rust” fungus, is being combated through the work of NAU forestry professor Kristen Waring. To save the Southwestern White Pine Tree population, Waring searches for rare White Pine Tree genes that make the tree resilient to both climate change and the fungus. Photo Credit: NAU

1 04, 2015

Women Thriving in Solar Industry—In Spite of Major Gender Gap

2017-10-22T00:07:36-04:00Tags: |

Women account for only 20 percent of the solar industry’s workforce, yet they demonstrate tremendous leadership across solar education, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Eden Full heads her own solar tracking company, SunSaluter, which she launched at the age of 19 years old. Anna Bautista serves as the vice president of construction and workforce development at GRID Alternatives. Dr. Lidjia Sekaric supports technology commercialization under the Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative. As Solar Sister’s director of engagement, Caroline Mailloux helps empower rural women to expand access to electricity in their communities. These women are dedicated to advancing solar as a solution for greater health, safer living, gender equity, and economic prosperity. Photo credit: 1776

1 03, 2015

Resistance And Solutions: US Women On The Frontlines Of Climate Change Training

2017-11-01T02:13:42-04:00Tags: |

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

30 01, 2015

Alexandra Cousteau: Saving Our Water Planet

2017-10-16T18:39:58-04:00Tags: |

National Geographic Emerging Explorer Alexandra Cousteau discusses the importance of conserving Earth’s natural water resources. In this talk given to the 2008 Bioneers conference, she discusses her international expeditions and the projects she is working on to fight for water security and water justice—including the imminent problem of water refugees. Photo credit: Bioneers

22 01, 2015

This Urban Farmer Is Growing Jobs In Her Richmond Community

2020-11-07T17:31:45-05:00Tags: |

In her hometown of Richmond, California, Doria Robinson invests in the health of her community through her role as executive director of Urban Tilth. Through her environmental activism and work with Urban Tilth, Till has overseen the launch of a Richmond-based CSA, the creation of an urban garden spanning 42 blocks, the passing of Richmond’s first urban agriculture ordinance, and the initiation of various education-based community volunteer and work programs within the urban garden. Robinson’s work in Richmond emphasizes the importance of local food systems and the various ways communities benefit from food justice initiatives. Photo Credit: Twilight Greenaway

20 01, 2015

Mary Nichols, California’s Environmental Rock Star

2017-10-02T23:18:58-04:00Tags: |

Mary Nichols is chair of the California Air Resources Board, part of the California Environmental Protection Agency. An expert on air quality and climate change, Nichols advocates for stronger environmental regulations that will reduce CO2 emissions, such as California’s cap and trade program. She has been called a “rock star” by the LA Times and is considered one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Photo credit: California Air Resources Board

23 12, 2014

Ai-Jen Poo: A Caring, Sustainable Economy For The 21st Century

2017-10-31T20:04:16-04:00Tags: |

Ai-Jen Poo gave a speech at the 2012 Bioneers National Conference as part of the Re-Imagining Labor in a Green Economy theme. This American activist is the co-director of Caring Across Generations, a national coalition of advocacy organizations that are dedicated to solving the main issues in the workforce, such as the problems of immigration, long-term care and jobs. Ai-Jen Poo mentions how women workers often face difficult situations at work that impact their quality of life. Photo credit: Bioneers

22 12, 2014

Diane Wilson: An Unreasonable Woman—Unreasonableness And Where It Gets You

2017-10-27T21:21:00-04:00Tags: |

Activist Diane Wilson speaks at the 2005 Bioneers Annual Conference about civil disobedience, using her action against Union Carbide, a solidarity act to address the deaths resulting from the toxic gas incident in the company, as an example. Wilson presents the release of her autobiographical book An Unreasonable Woman. Photo credit: Bioneers

18 12, 2014

Nina Simons: Women, Purpose And Power

2017-10-28T13:22:27-04:00Tags: |

Nina Simons is the cofounder of Bioneers and has been working with the organization for more than 20 years. She has also led many Cultivating Women's Leadership workshops, and shares her experience in noticing effective women's leadership. Simon's speech was given at the 2009 Bioneers Annual Conference, also part of the Everywoman's Leadership Collection, Vol. 1. Photo credit: Bioneers

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

31 10, 2014

What’s A Mother To Do In The Face Of Climate Change?

2017-10-31T19:21:01-04:00Tags: |

Rebecca Wodder, former president and CEO of American Rivers, writes about the importance of hopeful narratives in the face of climate change. As a Fellows with the Center for Humans and Nature, she is working on a book project entitled "Rivers of Revival:  Stories of Freshwater Stewardship & Resilient Communities." The book will gather hopeful stories of both new and old ways humans can healthfully relate to the natural world. Photo credit: Rachel's Network

30 10, 2014

Beata Tsosie-Peña, An Activist Artist With The Future In Mind

2017-10-30T02:24:44-04:00Tags: |

Beata Tsosie-Peña, Indigenous artist, activist, mother and community leader from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, in the Southwest U.S. - shares her thoughts on what feminism, climate justice, and self care mean to her in her work as coordinator or Tewa Women United’s Environmental Health and Justice program, and in her daily life. She reflects on the intersection of her work in many areas, including with protection of traditional Indigenous agricultural seeds; opposition to ongoing regional nuclear contamination; Indigenous language reclamation; birth and midwifery work; and in confronting violence against women and the Earth. Photo credit: Third Woman Press

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

27 10, 2014

Can Annie Leonard Help Greenpeace Broaden Its Reach?

2017-10-27T02:12:16-04:00Tags: |

As Greenpeace’s executive director, Annie Leonard has spent years helping others see the ways in which economic inequality, women’s rights, civil rights and environmental justice are systemically linked. For Annie, it is important that ordinary people and individual activists everywhere move from the present paralysis brought about by the grim political reality and actively build a collective voice through re-politicizing the work of environmental justice and effective organizing work. Photo credit: Erin Lubin

26 10, 2014

Roxanne Brown On Working Together To Secure A Sustainable Future

2017-10-26T22:46:26-04:00Tags: |

Roxanne Brown, coalition builder, labor-movement leader, and legislative lobbyist, presented this speech at the 2011 Bioneers National Conference. In the video, Brown poignantly articulates why society cannot build a sustainable economy for the future unless it honors worker’s safety and economic security. Her presentation is part of Bioneers’ “Re-Imagining Labor in a Green Economy Volume 1 Collection.” Video Credit: Bioneers

26 10, 2014

Former Black Panther Launches Oakland Urban Farm To Give Ex-Prisoners A Fresh Start

2017-10-26T00:46:26-04:00Tags: |

In West Oakland, former Black Panther Elaine Brown is using her tradition of revolutionary action to support ex-prisoners with job opportunities in urban gardening. West Oakland Farms is blooming with a colorful palate of peppers, corn, kale, squash and tomatoes. The inspiring 72-year-old radical envisions a joint project that will offer affordable housing, a fitness center, a juice bar and a grocery store, all run by her NGO, Oakland & the World Enterprises. Brown’s objective is to connect poor Black women and men to autonomously run land based resources that provide economic opportunities in a dramatically gentrifying city. Photo credit: Twilight Greenaway

29 09, 2014

Women March With The Message “No Climate Justice Without Gender Justice”

2017-06-19T21:47:52-04:00Tags: |

Women are on the front lines of climate justice advocacy, and they demonstrated their passion during the historic People’s Climate March in New York City. A diverse group of women and organizations gathered for the march and despite the diversity, one coherent message rings clear– there are inseparable links between the climate crisis, the prevailing economic model, and women’s marginalization. The depth of the movement and the strength of women’s voices are undeniable. Photo credit: Julie Gorecki

25 09, 2014

Women’s Voices: Mom To Mom – No More Conflict Palm Oil

2018-10-17T18:25:41-04:00Tags: |

The 2014 People's Climate March in New York City brought out over 400,000 people - an incredible showing of the grassroots momentum behind the climate movement. Shortly after the march, mothers Debra Mahony, Susan Rubin, and Harriet Shugarman wrote a letter to another mother, Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsico, to urge her to halt the use of conflict palm oil in her company's products. As part of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) Snack Food 20 Campaign, the mothers delivered a powerful message about the harmful impacts of deforestation on people around the world and urged Pepsico to stop its destructive practice. Photo credit: Debra Mahony, Susan Rubin, Harriet Shugarman

24 09, 2014

Extreme Energy, Climate Change And Violence Against Women

2017-09-26T13:25:11-04:00Tags: |

Sherrie Anne of the FANG Collective spoke at the#FloodWallStreet action after the 2014 People’s Climate March in New York City. In her speech, she emphasizes the interconnected nature of gender-based violence, racial oppression, climate change, and fossil fuel extraction, drawing on examples from Hurricane Katrina to the Bakken Shale fields of North Dakota. Photo credit: The FANG Collective

19 09, 2014

Kelsey Juliana On Climate Change: The Next Generation

2021-03-03T19:55:34-05:00Tags: |

In this video, 18 year-old Oregonian Kelsey Juliana is interviewed about her life-long journey of activism on climate change issues. Following in her parents’ environmental activist footsteps, she was invited by Our Children’s Trust to take part as co-plaintiff in a major lawsuit that could force the state of Oregon to take stronger action against carbon emissions, the cause of global warming and natural disasters. This legal strategy aims to protect the atmosphere based on the public trust doctrine developed by Mary Christina Wood in her book Nature’s Trust. Wood advocates that government should be accountable for any failure to protect the environment and resources that are held in public trust and needed for citizens to survive. Besides the legal route, Kelsey took part in the Great March for Climate Action across America, reaching Washington on 1st November for the UN global summit on climate. Video Capture: Bill Moyer

16 09, 2014

Sisters To March In Support Of Climate Change Solutions

2023-03-19T08:25:29-04:00Tags: |

Writer Beth Griffin captures the growing number of supporters from various Catholic religious and women-led groups including the Sisters of Mercy who are leading their supporters as advocates for climate action. The Sisters of Mercy are one of the 850 sponsors of the People’s Climate March of 2015 in New York City prior to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change scheduled for December 2015 in Paris. Featured leaders include Dominican Sr. Arlene Flaherty, director of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Office for the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sr. Mary Pendergast, ecology director for the Northeast Community of Sisters of Mercy, and Patrick Carolan, executive director of Franciscan Action Network. The march is viewed as both action and prayer for the Sisters who advocate for climate solutions under their faith and belief in protecting God’s creation. 

11 09, 2014

Voices Of Hope/Elizabeth Yeampierre: “There’s Nothing More Sustainable Than A Poor Person”

2023-04-16T16:28:45-04:00Tags: |

Elizabeth Yeampierre is a Puerto Rican attorney with African and Indigenous ancestry who has been an integral part of New York City's environmental justice efforts. She is highly experienced in community organizing, adaptation and resilience. At the Voices of Hope symposium, Yeampierre draws on her years of activism and lived experience to identify the biggest challenge to addressing the climate crisis: privilege. Throughout her speech, Yeampierre speaks to many ways in which power and privilege is hindering the transformative change to climate justice as well as solutions from the perspective of a frontline, grassroots level. Yeampierre poses questions for the listeners to reframe/redefine what they think of as community, place, potential, and being an American. 

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

28 08, 2014

Deon Haywood: Nine Years After Hurricane Katrina, It’s All About The Takeover

2017-11-13T18:58:38-05:00Tags: |

Deon Haywood, Executive Director of Women with a Vision, explains her work fighting for reproductive justice, LGBTQ rights and justice for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. She points out that recovery efforts in New Orleans have been multifaceted—on the one hand, economic growth has helped certain parts of the city grow, while other neighborhoods are still dealing with property loss and food deserts. She links the fights against colonization and imperialism to current racialized patterns of gentrification and wealth creation in New Orleans. Photo credit: The Laura Flanders Show

26 08, 2014

Mother Nature’s Daughter

2017-10-26T00:41:31-04:00Tags: |

Kristina Erskine, Iyeshima Harris and Maggie Cheney are part of the growing movement of urban farmers planting and harvesting their produce at the Bushwick Campus Farm in Brooklyn. So are Pam and Esther of Hell’s Kitchen — a rooftop garden, and Jennifer, and Charlotte, and Kennon and Leah of Queens County Farm Museum, and Sarah, and Kate, and Shella, and Chelsea of East New York Farms. According to the New York Times, the approximately 900 food gardens and farms New York harbors are run by a predominantly women run pink-collar labor force. Photo credit: Erin Patrice O’Brien/New York Times

17 07, 2014

J&P Cleaners Aims To Be Greenest Local Laundry—With Help From Neighbors

2017-10-31T19:37:29-04:00Tags: |

Myra Vargas used to work in the dry cleaning business, but the chemicals threatened her pregnancy, which led her to quit the job. She then founded J&P Cleaners, hoping to be a pioneer in Massachusetts with the method of "wet cleaning" (removing the use of the chemical tetrachloroethylene). The process, however, is quite expensive, and that is why the community group Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition is crowdfunding to raise money for J&P Cleaners and promote a less toxic environment. Photo credit: Transition United States.

11 07, 2014

These Women-Run Co-ops Are Pushing Back Against The Feminization Of Poverty

2017-06-27T21:29:35-04:00Tags: |

Women in the United States still work in two thirds of the country’s minimum-wage jobs. However, several women-led cooperatives, such as Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security (WAGES) are challenging the status quo. WAGES runs five eco-friendly house cleaning cooperatives where the employees vote on business decisions and the profit is distributed equally. Photo Credit: The Working World  

6 04, 2014

Women Key To Curbing Water Pollution

2017-09-03T20:44:30-04:00Tags: |

Minnesota’s lakes and streams are increasingly polluted due to nutrient runoff from farm fertilizers. Nicole Helget, a university of Minnesota graduate student, and her team of four women are working on solutions through the Plum Creek Initiative. Through the initiative, rural women are paid to inform farmers about increasing statewide water pollution and help farms reduce the water pollution they produce. Photo credit: Flickr CC/Aaron Carlson

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

10 02, 2014

Mallika Dutt: Changing The Frame

2017-10-28T13:19:14-04:00Tags: |

Mallika Dutt speaks at the 2010 Bioneers Annual Conference, and her speech is part of the Everywoman's Leadership Collection, Vol. 1. Dutt shares her experience in the organization Breakthrough and the power of cultural tools (including art and the media) to create a dialogue and shift the direction for the planet. Photo credit: Bioneers

6 02, 2014

Shifting Gears: Lessons Learned Visiting Women Farmers by Bicycle

2017-09-05T22:50:04-04:00Tags: |

Shifting Gears is at the intersection of women farmers, today’s food activists and bicycles. Run by Lake Buckley and Caitrin Hall, the project is a bike tour that travels from coast to coast to meet and learn from the special knowledge and contributions that American rural and urban women-led farming offer to sustainable agriculture. Buckley and Hall are telling stories of how a widespread pattern of female farming is harboring agricultural resilience by cutting destructive consumption through modes of production that put the environment first. Yet, despite their success, women farmers face old patriarchal challenges. For example, In Fairfield Idaho compost delivery is refused to women. Yes, you read that correctly. Yet, Buckley and Hall have no doubt that the courage, compassion and holistic female energy of women’s farming will prevail over these patriarchal norms, while also building towards a more sustainable farming system. Photo credit: Civil Eats

3 02, 2014

Noelene Nabulivou’s Speech At The OWG 8 Morning Session: Oceans And Seas

2018-10-17T18:36:22-04:00Tags: |

Noelene Nabulivou, representative of the Diverse Voices and Action for Equality Fiji, DAWN, and the Women's Major Group, speaks to the eighth session of the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals in New York. She calls for urgent action on the impacts of global warming and environmental degradation on our oceans and seas. Nabulivou recommends a biosphere approach—recognizing the interconnectedness of air, land, and sea—to working on oceans and sustainable development. She also emphasizes the importance of gender equality, human rights, and effective governance.

18 01, 2014

Native Hawaiian Pua Case On Sacred Mountain Mauna Kea

2017-10-12T14:14:54-04:00Tags: |

In this video, Native Hawaiian Pua Case asks supporters to protest the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope and the excavation of over five acres of the sacred landscape of the Mauna Kea volcano. To native Hawaiians, this mountain is a sacred site which is seminal to their spirituality, health and wellbeing. She frames the construction as yet another instance of colonialism and connected to broader Indigenous environmentalist movement across the world and fossil fuel resistance. Pua Case makes a call for people across the world to stand with them to save Mauna Kea. Photo credit: Living Ocean Productions  

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

15 12, 2013

Wind And Solar Power Best For Navajo Nation

2017-09-26T14:54:18-04:00Tags: |

Wahleah Johns, a Navajo member, clarifies the reasons why wind and solar power are beneficial for Navajo communities and should be promoted as necessary alternatives to coal. Among many arguments, she points out that unlike coal, wind and solar are renewable sources of energy. Wahleah also demonstrates that these sources of renewable energy are more economically viable than coal.

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

Roxanne Swentzell And The Pueblo Food Experience

2017-12-07T18:21:23-05:00Tags: |

Roxanne Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, is the Director of the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, through which she works for Indigenous rights and cultural protection and revitalization, including work in education, art, farming, and seed stewardship. The project, the Pueblo Food Experience was also brought to life with her care. A group of Pueblo peoples committed to eating only Indigenous, local foods, and experienced profound and important change in their health, happiness, sustainability and connection to culture and the land. This short documentary features the work of Roxanne, and the experiences and thoughts of those who participated in this important, and ongoing project for Indigenous sovereignty, health and lifeways. Photo credit: Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute

4 12, 2013

Vandana Shiva And Jane Goodall On Serving The Earth And How Women Can Address Climate Crisis

2017-10-27T21:06:41-04:00Tags: |

Vandana Shiva and Jane Goodall, two powerful climate activists and experts, were interviewed during the International Women's Earth and Climate Initiative Summit in New York on their thoughts on the climate crisis. Vandana Shiva, who was born in the Himalayas and is a renowned environmental leader and author, she talks about the preciousness of Earth elements, while Jane Goodall, born in England, talks about how she found her love for nature and eventually went to Africa to work with chimpanzees. Both women discuss the barriers they faced by being women working on environmental issues. Photo credit: Democracy Now

31 10, 2013

Construction Underway For Second Earthship Greenhouse In Philadelphia

2017-10-31T01:06:31-04:00Tags: |

Rashida Ali-Campbell is looking to build an Earthship in Philadelphia, a building which serves as an off the grid educational center. Campbell is the leader behind Earth Philly, an initiative that has already successfully constructed an earthship greenhouse in the Philly Emerald Street Urban Farm. Photo credit: Kim Glovas

29 10, 2013

Lessons From The Women Who Are Leading The Sustainable Cities Movement

2017-10-29T00:56:44-04:00Tags: |

Young women are holding the reigns of sustainable transformation in municipal government. Via associations like the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, women are coming together to share best practices. Gayle Prest, Sustainability Director for the City of Minneapolis, and fellow leaders Susan Torriente (Fort Lauderdale) and Vicki Bennet (Salt Lake) describe commonalities in their work using local cultural norms and habits to introduce sustainability. Photo credit: Grist/Shuttershock

29 10, 2013

Patricia Siemen At TEDxJacksonville: The Rights Of Nature

2017-10-29T00:11:26-04:00Tags: |

Patricia Siemen is a Dominican Sister from Adrian, Michigan and a civil attorney licensed in the states of Florida and Michigan. She argues that just as human rights are protected by legal systems, the rights of the rest of creation must be protected by Earth jurisprudence. She also explains that human rights cannot cancel out the rights of other beings. Siemen proposes to grant basic rights for all Earth’s systems and creatures such as the right to exist, to habitat and to flourish. Photo credit: TEDxJacksonville

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

26 10, 2013

Indigenous Women Changemakers: Dalee Sambo Dorough

2017-10-26T16:53:42-04:00Tags: |

In this radio interview, Dr. Dalee Sambo Dorough from Alaska, talks about her early engagement in the politics of Indigenous peoples’ land rights, and explains why the Indigenous defense of land and property needs extra international legal attention. She urges Indigenous peoples as well as leaders and activists to be optimistic despite the challenges, and to take “the long view” approach to making progress in the protection of Indigenous rights.

21 10, 2013

Native Hawaiian Hawane Rios On Sacred Mountain Mauna Kea

2017-10-12T14:15:36-04:00Tags: |

Native Hawai’ian Hawane Rios explores her connection with the Mauna Kea volcano in the context of the threat of the construction of the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope. She has humbly seen spirits and connected to the land there, and argues that it is not time to build more on Hawai’i; rather, it is time for people to harness a spiritual, traditional wisdom to remember this connection and recall our place as stewards of the earth.

16 10, 2013

Women In The World: An Interview With Anne Marie Miller

2017-09-24T16:29:39-04:00Tags: |

Anne Marie Miller is the founder and CEO of Sustainable Waste Design, a New York-based company that integrates waste disposal, environmental protection, energy production, and material recycling to create closed-loop economic systems. Taking inspiration from WECAN’s 2013 International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit (IWECI), Miller believes that women, who make 85% of purchasing decisions in the United States, are key to engaging in just, compassionate, living economies like the ones her business helps to create. Photo credit: 1 million women

30 09, 2013

Time For Sanity On Climate Change, Goodall And Shiva Tell Amanpour

2017-10-27T21:02:14-04:00Tags: |

This is an interview by Christiane Amanpour of CNN with Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a primatologist, and Dr. Vandana Shiva, an environmental activist, during the Women's Earth and Climate Change Summit in New York City. Goodall and Shiva talk about the main issues of climate change and its impacts, as well as the role of women and young people in solving the environmental crisis. Photo credit: CNN

25 09, 2013

How Environmental Toxins Harm Women’s Reproductive Health

2017-10-25T23:51:32-04:00Tags: |

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, two leading groups of doctors and researchers, have found that environmental contaminants can adversely affect reproductive health. Their findings suggest that toxins in the environment are harming women’s ability to have children, as well as threatening the health of mother and child during pregnancy. The joint committee has issued a call for domestic policy changes, and are urging greater action by physicians to help prevent chemical exposure during pregnancy. Photo credit: Diego Vito Cervo/Dreamstime

1 07, 2013

Vanessa Rule Tells The Story Of Mothers Out Front

2017-11-01T03:05:16-04:00Tags: |

Hundred of mothers came together in 2013 to co-write the “Declaration of Protection For Our Children Against Climate Change.” This act ultimately solidified the mission for Mothers Out Front and continues to empower mothers, grandmothers and caregivers from around the U.S. to join the climate movement and protect their children from the impacts of climate change. Vanessa Rule, who tells her story in this recording, is the Co-Founder and Director of Learning and Expansion at Mothers Out Front. Photo credit: mgielissoc

1 06, 2013

Activist Dolores Huerta Speaks Out About Sexual Assault On Female Farmers

2017-11-01T00:43:29-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Dolores Huerta, a Latino labor leader, civil rights activist and founder of the United Farm Workers of America, recounts her experience in the agricultural labor movement from the 1960s until today. She gives us insights into women farmers’ vulnerability to violence, sexual harassment and rape. A lack of information, knowledge on their rights, language barriers and spatial isolation, combined with  fear of retaliation and unemployment not only for the women, but to the whole family, makes it harder and rarer for women to come forward against this kind of violence. Dolores also speaks about union movements as a way of tackling impunity and defending farmers’ rights before agribusinesses. Photo credit: PBS

16 04, 2013

Lori Gibbs Advocated For Health, Against Toxic Dumping For Decades

2017-07-20T17:32:43-04:00Tags: |

Lois Gibbs’ children started showing signs of illness after her family moved to Love Canal, New York and attended a school built above a landfill and toxic waste site. Gibbs mobilized the community in order to demand for fair compensation and cleanup, and formed the Center for Health, Environment and Justice to help communities advocate for themselves to industry and the government. Photo credit: Associated Press

9 01, 2013

Learn From This Activist’s Legacy: Rebecca Tarbotton Of Rainforest Action Network

2018-10-17T18:29:04-04:00Tags: |

This memorial of Rebecca Tarbotton, former Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network (RAN), explains how she left a powerful legacy of social activism and campaigning to the next generation of climate activists. Through RAN, she was well-known for convincing Disney to eliminate its use of paper connected with the destruction of forests and endangered wildlife in all their operations, from publications to theme parks and cruise ships. Her aim of promoting and preserving the environment was not just for addressing climate change but also for transforming everything about the way we live on this planet. Photo Credit: Flickr: EX_MAGICIAN

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!

1 01, 2013

Erica Mackie: Working For More Accessibility To Solar

2017-09-28T17:35:18-04:00Tags: |

Erica Mackie is the co-founder and CEO of GRID Alternatives, a not-for-profit dedicated to providing low-income communities with access to solar energy. She is an engineer who works to implement renewable energy projects. Her awareness of the underprivileged communities’ unique need for affordable energy has made her partner in the organization. Photo credit: Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Awards

1 11, 2012

Harriet Shugarman On Climate Change And Making Your Vote Count For Our Kids – Post Sandy

2017-11-01T23:18:13-04:00Tags: |

Climate leader Harriet Shugarman of Climate Mama writes on her blog about her personal experiences in her home community following Hurricane Sandy on the US East Coast. She calls on her follow parents and concerned people across the United States to ensure that they get out to vote with these impacts, and the futures of their children, in mind. Photo credit: Harriet Shugarman

1 11, 2012

Beverly Wright: Justice And Equity In The Face Of Climate Change

2017-11-01T18:01:56-04:00Tags: |

Beverly Wright is the Founder and Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. A powerful environmental justice advocate, she spoke to about justice and equity in relationship to climate change at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation's (CEC) Joint Public Advisory Committee workshop entitled "Resilient Communities in North America" in New Orleans. Photo credit: CECweb

26 10, 2012

Photographer Aliza Eliazarov Combats Food Waste Through Art

2017-10-26T23:11:39-04:00Tags: |

Inspired by 17th-century still life paintings, New York photographer Aliza Eliazarov staged food she rescued from garbage dumpsters for beautiful photographs that feature wasted food. Eliazarov hopes her work will increase public awareness and even curb food waste. She called the series “Waste Not” and gathered the produce with help from a freegan directory and organizations in NYC that are working to combat food insecurity with food waste such as City Harvest and Dan Barber’s wastED popup. Photo credit: Aliza Eliazarov

17 10, 2012

Food Rebel Annie Novak Of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm

2023-03-29T12:20:36-04:00Tags: |

The cofounder and head farmer at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn, New York, Annie Novak acknowledges the importance of urban farming and its mass revitalization seen in recent years. Novak explains the ways putting soil back into an urban environment can radically transform the community, and the ways in which local farming initiatives have the capacity to further connect residents to themselves, their greater community, and their food systems. Photo Credit: FoodForwardTV

1 10, 2012

Create In California: Del Rio Farm Ride

2017-10-01T18:50:17-04:00Tags: |

Author Suzanne Ashworth is the owner of a 70-acre certified organic farm, where she houses 1600 varieties of seeds. Ashworth has decided to spread her diversity of seeds across California by selling her organic veggies to restaurants who want to flourish the organic food economy. Ashworth is linked to The Coalition Green Restaurant Alliance Sacramento (GRAS), who is on board with developing good quality food across the restaurant industry, but is also engaged in an impressive full-circle compost program that targets eliminating food waste as well.

18 08, 2012

Reclaiming The Honourable Harvest: Robin Kimmerer At TEDx Sitka

2017-10-01T16:17:52-04:00Tags: |

Robin Kimmerer, a botanist, writer and member for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, is the director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at SUNY-ESF. In this Ted Talk, she examines ways in which traditional Indigenous approaches to the environment, such as the harvesting of berries as practiced by the Potawatomi, can teach us valuable lessons about healing our own relationship to the living earth. Photo credit: TEDx Sitka

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

12 05, 2012

Rachel Carson And The Legacy Of Silent Spring

2018-01-12T14:01:28-05:00Tags: |

Rachel Carson was pioneer of ecofeminism and the modern sustainability movement in United States.her first book, “The Sea Around Us”, published in 1952, focused on her expertise in marine biology. In 1962, her book “Silent Spring” was released to worldwide acclaim. It warns Americans that if they did not start taking care of their environment, they will face massive contamination with dangerous and lethal impacts on the land, biodiversity, and people. Her book has become only more relevant in 21st century in the face of the climate crisis. Photo Credit: Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

1 11, 2011

Kari Fulton, Climate Leader

2017-11-01T17:49:29-04:00Tags: |

Kari Fulton is a powerful voice in the movement for environmental justice. A proud graduate of Howard University, Fulton is the co-founder of Checktheweather.TV, a digital community that amplifies the voices of young people of color working for environmental justice. She has worked at Green For All and also served as Interim Director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, and as the National Youth Campaign Coordinator for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC). Fulton helped coordinate Power Shift 2009, the largest lobby day and youth summit on climate change in United States history. Fulton was included in Ebony Magazine's 2010 Power 100 list. Photo credit: Green For All

1 11, 2011

Where Are The Women At Occupy Wall Street? Everywhere, And They’re Not Going Away

2017-11-01T00:29:04-04:00Tags: |

Sarah Seltzer speaks with a dozen women involved in instilling a lens of equality to the Occupy Wall Street movement at Zuccotti Park in New York City. The horizontal structure of the movement, preserving direct democracy, creating safe spaces, and creating power outside of a misogynistic arena, are discussed as successful anti-oppression tactics for the Occupy movement, and all other movements seeking justice and equity for all. Photo credit: AP Photo/Andrew Burton

31 10, 2011

Lessons From Ag. Street Landfill, An African American Neighborhood Built On Toxic Dump

2017-10-31T01:13:03-04:00Tags: |

Elodia M. Blanco, an environmental justice advocate on the Gulf Coast, tells us about moving to a black neighbourhood in New Orleans around 30 years ago, built on top of a landfill, and its many deadly consequences - and how that turned her into a fighter for environmental justice. Elodia fought for more than 20 years for rights and reparations for her community, who did not know their houses were built on the toxic dumping ground for Hurricane Betsy. She became the President of Concerned Citizens of Agriculture Street Landfill, and after years of struggle, offline lobbying and advocating for justice, some results from their class action lawsuit have been coming out recently. She strongly recommends people to never forget to ask questions when moving into a new place, because if people do not ask them, they are not going to be told willingly. Photo credit: Thom Scott/The Times-Picayune

31 05, 2011

A Garden In My Apartment

2017-10-31T00:34:33-04:00Tags: |

Britta Riley is not letting her urban lifestyle stop her from growing her own food — arguably one of the best individual environmental actions we can take. In her tiny New York City apartment, Riley and some friends of hers are transforming old plastic bottles into planters to grow herbs and veggies. Tired of having to depend on others for everything, Riley is deciding to harness the power of co-dependence instead. After many trials and experiments, Riley and her friends have created a system that brings the delights of an outdoor garden plot into the urban apartment setting. Photo credit: TEDxManhattan

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

27 10, 2010

Lynn Henning Exposes Factory Farm Pollution

2017-10-27T16:21:57-04:00Tags: |

Lynn Henning is the recipient of the 2010 Goldman Prize, from North America. Henning is an activist who successfully exposed livestock factory farms that pollute the land and water in Michigan. She first started as a volunteer for the Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club, and was able to call on the state government to deal with the issue of water quality violations in these farms, as well as officials from the Environmental Protection Agency. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

23 08, 2010

A Hard Fight For Political Representation In Biloxi, Missouri

2017-08-26T15:40:50-04:00Tags: |

Sharon Hanshaw first gathered a group of women to rebuild their lives after Hurricane Katrina in funeral home, one of the only buildings left standing amid the devastation in Biloxi, Missouri. A beautician turned activist, Sharon helped found Coastal Women for Change, a group that advocates for low-income people and people of color that are often overlooked in the redevelopment process. Traveling with the tour Climate Wise Women, Hanshaw continues to tell her story, highlighting the intersections of environmental racism, classism, gentrification and the disproportionate burden women continue to shoulder in the face of climate change. Photo credit: Debbie Elliott/NPR

6 12, 2009

Nobel Economics Prize Won By First Woman

2017-12-06T14:40:38-05:00Tags: |

Elinor Ostrom, a female political scientist from Indiana University, has become the first woman ever to win the Nobel prize for economics. The award was received for her work investigating ways that people come together to protect collective resources, and what this implies for strategies to combat climate change. Photo credit: Getty Images

1 11, 2009

Climate Hero Sharon Hanshaw

2017-11-01T02:06:50-04:00Tags: |

Sharon Hanshaw became a climate change advocate and leader for her community after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her house, workplace and community in Mississippi. After that, she gathered with other women to think of how to recover from the damage and became the director of Coastal Women for Change, a NGO created to foster economic empowerment and recovery, training for jobs and climate change resilience. In this interview, she tells us more about this process and how she has been trying to raise awareness in the communities and also with politicians about how climate change hazards increases the likelihood of natural disasters, which affects poor communities the most. Photo credit: Liliana Rodriguez/Oxfam America.

30 10, 2009

Las Mujeres Hablan (The Women Speaking) Against Nuclear Contamination

2017-10-30T02:41:35-04:00Tags: |

Las Mujeres Hablan is a network of women leaders from New Mexico who are working for global nuclear disarmament. For decades, the Los Alamos National Laboratory has manufactured plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads and weapons on occupied Pueblo Indigenous land, in the Pajarito Plateau of the Jemez Mountains. The women are speaking out by building relationships with decision-makers and drawing attention to the issue, advocating for peace and nuclear disarmament. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

11 10, 2009

After Hurricane Katrina, Sharon Henshaw Founded Coastal Women For Change

2017-05-07T10:16:02-04:00Tags: |

Sharon Henshaw became a leader on climate change after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home, her beauty parlour, and the homes and livelihoods of her neighbours. Henshaw and several dozen women met regularly to discuss how to meet the community’s needs in the context of climate change and the increased risk of natural disasters. They founded Coastal Woman for Change, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the community and the local economy recover, providing emergency preparedness training and gaining government support. 

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

30 10, 2006

Environmental Justice Campaigns Provide Fertile Ground For Joint Efforts With Reproductive Rights Advocates

2017-10-30T03:27:30-04:00Tags: |

Black people and communities of color (mostly low-income) have for centuries borne disproportionately the impacts of environmental degradation as well as racist reproductive health policies. While the two issues have been a point for strong organizing and movements over the years, it has become imperative to treat these two justice issues as mutually reinforcing and connected oppressions that these communities face. In finding common ground, activists across the United States are analyzing and actively dismantling environmental racism and discriminatory health policies that are built on market fundamentalisms and building more just world for their communities and others.

1 06, 2006

Majora Carter: Greening The Ghetto

2017-07-20T17:56:40-04:00Tags: |

Majora Carter is a leader in urban environmental justice and a key organizer of the grassroots movements to "green the ghetto," pushing for South Bronx's first open water park and a greenway along the waterfront. Through her work with Sustainable South Bronx, Majora Carter has spearheaded sustainable job training programs and the development of urban green belts and parks in underserved and low-income communities across the city. In this TED Talk, Majora discusses environmental racism and the impacts of industry on people of color, and how a critical environmental justice framework can help people re-claim and re-green public spaces. Photo credit: ted.com

23 12, 2003

The Interconnectivity Of Water

2017-10-31T15:02:52-04:00Tags: |

The contamination of our Earth’s fresh water, such as the Great Lakes Basin, means pollutants and harmful chemicals like PCBs are moving up the food chain and being passed on to our children through pregnancy and breastfeeding. Katsi Cook, a traditional Mohawk midwife, explains the connection between the pollution of the Earth and degrading human health. Photo credit: Feminist Midwife 

1 11, 1997

Terri Swearingen Recieves Goldman Environmental Prize For Waste Safety Work

2017-11-01T01:50:08-04:00Tags: |

Terri Swearingen is a former nurse and environmental activist who, since the 1990s, has been fighting against waste incinerators industries, bringing about many important changes regarding environmental safety and waste management throughout the United States. Through her fight against the company Waste Technologies Industry (WTI) in Ohio, she and the Tri-State Environmental Council, a grassroots coalition of citizens from three states that she co-founded, are given credit for bringing attention to the debate about waste incinerators, prompting the governor of Ohio, the EPA, Congress and even the Clinton administration to start reviewing waste incineration laws and rules. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

26 10, 1993

JoAnn Tall Acts Against Nuclear Weapons And Hazardous Landfills On Indigenous Land

2017-10-26T16:25:12-04:00Tags: |

Oglala Lakota woman leader JoAnn Tall, recipient of a 1993 Goldman Environmental Prize, has spent her life working to stop uranium mining and successfully halt a proposed Honeywell nuclear weapons testing facility in North Dakota’s Black Hills. Using her own Indigenous-owned and run radio station, JoAnn brought community awareness to the dangers, and acted as a catalyst for a peaceful resistance camp built on the site of the proposed nuclear facilities, which ultimately resulted in the company abandoning their plans.  After founding the Native Resource Coalition, JoAnn also worked throughout her life to prevent the construction of hazardous landfills on Indigenous lands of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota. Photo credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

20 08, 1991

Robyn Van En: The First Lady Of Community Supported Agriculture

2020-11-20T17:28:59-05:00Tags: |

Robyn Van En of Indian Line Farm and Jan VanderTuin started the first United States-based CSA program in southwestern Massachusetts in 1985. They started the program by selling 30 shares of the local farm harvest before the start of the season, and calling it the Community Supported Agriculture project. Van En found inspiration to start the CSA from the development of similar programs in Japan and Western Europe. She emphasises the ways in which CSAs cultivate a more local food system by facilitating a closer relationship between farmers and their local communities. According to Van En, CSAs should be embedded in every community, including prisons and other large institutions. Photo Credit: Clemens Kalischer

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