Inspiring Womxn in the Environmental Movement

Welcome to my page! My name is Emily and I am a climate change activist here to raise awareness about some amazing womxn in the environmental movement. I hope to push the boundaries of what it means to be an environmentalist and the topics that come to mind when thinking about climate change. If you have any questions or just want to start a conversation, feel free to message me! If you have any requests for womxn I should post about, please leave me a message! I'm always looking to expand my current body of knowledge.

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Jacqueline Patterson

Jacqueline Patterson is currently the Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. With a Masters in Social Work and Public Health, Patterson has worked on an endless list of issues including but not limited to: women’s rights, HIV and AIDS, violence against women, racial justice, economic justice, and environmenal justice. She has also served as co-founder and coordinator of Women of Color United, an organization whose goal is to end violence against all women and their communities. Patterson served in many roles across the globe before being director, working for groups such as ActionAid, IMA World Health, John Hopkins University, and was a Peace Corps volunteer. She ties the issues of climate justice, racial justice, and women’s rights into all of her work, leaving a lasting impact and paving the way for future generations.

Read an interview with Patterson here. 

Listen to a conversation with her here. 

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The Green New Deal

The Green New Deal is a resolution sponsored by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Senator Ed Markey outlining a ten year plan for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, stirring about controversy through both political parties. Its main focus is addressing climate change justly, by switching to 100% renewable energy and 20 million green jobs catered to solve the climate crisis. All communities and workers are accounted for, ensuring just transitions. Because climate change is happening and will continue to affect everything, investments will be made in weatherization, public transit, modern infrastructure, and high-speed broadband. The 14 page resolution also includes global change, such as contributing to the Paris Agreement and the Green Climate Fund.

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We don’t have time to sit on our hands as our planet burns. For young people, climate change is bigger than election or re-election. It’s life or death.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before her democratic primary debate with Rep. Joe Crowley. Knock Down the House (dir. Rachel Lears, 2019)

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[politicalsci]

“People’s lives are not commodities…. You cannot ask the question ‘How much will you pay to live?’ Because the answer is everything. The answer is you will pay $10. You will pay $1000. You will go into debt. You will do anything to live.” - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, also known as AOC serves as a US representative for the 14th congressional district of New York, covering the eastern part of the Bronx and north-central Queens. Her office is run on a progressive platform, rejecting corporate funds and committing to working class people advocating for social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. 

AOC advocates for an endless list of issues, following through with every punch and collaborating with other congresspeople who see her vision. She summarizes it as ‘A Just Society’, orienting all legislation towards the goal of combating economic inequality. The Green New Deal Resolution calls for a remaking of our economic systems in order to empower communities and protect the planet. 

Learn more about the GND in my next post!

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Dana Alston (part 2)

There is so much more to Dana Alston that the world doesn’t know about. I figured I’d put her bio into two parts to include more information about the amazing work she’s done. 

Alston worked to build a financial network of resources catered to justice organizations. With the National Black United Fund, she served as president for two years and through a lawsuit allowed for workers to contribute to Black-led and organized groups. 

In 1991, Alston worked with the Public Welfare Foundation as a program officer for the environment. There, she created funding resources for groups working specifically towards environmental justice projects, especially the ones with least access to funding. 

Because of her great work, Alston received the Bannerman Fellowship in 1992, recognizing her leadership and work in the environmental justice movement. Today, the fellowship is known as the Alston Bannerman Fellowship Program. 

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I've Never Known a World Without Climate Change Anxiety

Growing up in Iran, pollution was inescapable, and it threatened my brother's health.

“My generation may feel the weight of climate anxiety ready to drag us down, but our hope is stronger, giving rise to a new wave of political activism behind the vision of a sustainable future in which blue skies are accessible to all.We are ready to fight with every ounce of our strength for a Green New Deal. We are ready to bring back the light.“

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My message is that we'll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Yet I am one of the lucky ones. People are suffering.

Greta Thunberg, at UN Summit in New York

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They are invaders': Brazil indigenous group takes on mining giant

As Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro seeks to authorise mining in indigenous reserves, a conflict with 12,000 members of the Mura indigenous group over a big potash mine in a remote area of the Amazon rainforest may forewarn troubles that lie ahead, report Sue Branford and Thaïs Borges from Autazes.

The company wanting to open the mine is Potássio do Brasil, a subsidiary of the Canadian conglomerate Forbes & Manhattan. Potash is an important fertiliser used heavily by agribusiness.

Potássio do Brasil quickly obtained authorisation from Brazil's mining agency to drill exploratory wells and began prospecting in 2013.

But then the indigenous communities woke up to what was happening. Speaking beside one of the exploratory wells, located on what the Mura claim is ancestral land, Aldinélson Pavão, the leader of the village of Urucurituba, could not hide his indignation.

"I am 47 years old," Mr Pavão said. "I was born here and brought up here. My parents and grandparents too. So I won't be told by Potássio, that comes from outside, that this land isn't ours. It is our land and they are the invaders."

One of the by-products of potash mining is vast amounts of salt.

The company insists it will prevent this salt leaching into aquifers and rivers. But the Mura remain concerned, given the region's high rainfall, extreme heat and its location on a flood plain.

Continue reading.

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Brazil: Amazon land defender killed by illegal loggers

A young indigenous land defender has been shot dead and another wounded by illegal loggers in Brazil's Amazon.

Paulo Paulino Guajajara was reportedly attacked and shot in the head while hunting on Friday inside the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao state.

He was a member of Guardians of the Forest, a group formed to combat logging gangs in the area.

The killing increases concerns about escalating violence against Amazon forest protectors.

"I'm scared at times, but we have to lift up our heads and act. We are here fighting," he told Reuters news agency this year.

"There is so much destruction of nature happening, good trees with wood as hard as steel being cut down and taken away," he added.

"We have to preserve this life for our children's future."

Continue reading.

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Dana Alston

Dana Alston

Dana Alston (1951-1999) was an environmental justice advocate best known for planning and hosting the 1991 National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, a gathering made to redefine environmental issues to include African, Latinx, Native, and Asian Americans from across the 50 states. Following the conference, she attended the 1992 Earth Summit and Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Before making waves on the international scale, Alston advocated for people of color in any capacity she held. With countless papers published under her name and connections with organizations reverberating her cause, Alston paved the way for environmental justice to be incorporated into all conversations concerning both institutionalized racism and environmental issues.

 In her early career, Alston received a masters in occupational and environmental health from Columbia University, worked for the Red Cross where she addressed issues rising from toxics and nuclear power problems, and also served as staff on Rural America, an organization made to deal with pesticides and its exposure to farmworkers. She served on the founding board of the Southern Rural Women’s Network which sought to give rural women more power over their economic lives by providing better access to healthcare and education. Alston also directed the Environment, Community Development, and Race Program at the Panos Institute (now known as the Panos Network). The organization was focused on developing countries, but Alston facilitated a program catered to domestic people of color organizations whose niche was environmental justice. It led her to take part in the planning committee for the First National People of Color Environmental Summit in 1991, one of the defining moments in the environmental justice movement. 

Although Alston has made waves in bringing the environmental justice movement to an international scale, many still do not know her name. 

Learn more about her and the Summit here: https://www.reimaginerpe.org/20years/alston

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To people that complain that children are too politicized these days

You could have avoided it. All you had to do was keep fighting for them, keep ensuring their future was bright, that success was attainable. instead, you’ve rolled over and accepted the corporate, corrupt status quo, you’ve left them  to fend for themselves, then have the audacity to be shocked when they are protesting, showing up at the UN and showing you just how lax you’ve become with your own species’ survival. If you ever want to know why kids are so into politics these days, you just have to look at yourself and see where you gave up.

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Millions around the world took part in a global climate strike, all following the lead of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. 

The Swedish teenager spoke to Kelly Cobiella before she sailed to New York City. 

“When a child says, ‘You are stealing my future,’ then people feel very guilty,” Thunberg said.

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We must protect her at all costs