Greetings fellow Bioneers!
Climate change affects every aspect of our environment and, increasingly, our day-to-day lives, from rising temperatures to more common and more intense natural disasters. Things are getting strange—as Brock Dolman notes, we ought to call it “global weirding.” The reality of the toll greenhouse gas emissions have on natural environments and human society is shocking, and the need for action is immediate. Next week, the Bay Area will play host to the Global Climate Action Summit. Leading up to the big event are a number of other opportunities to learn more and take action in the Bay Area, from Bioneers sponsored and partner events, including the Pathway to Paris Concertand the Climate Action Speakers Series, to those featuring Bioneers allies and speakers, like the Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Women Leading Solutions on the Frontlines of Climate Change on September 11. Check out our picks for the week.
In this week’s newsletter, you’ll hear from climate activists, authors, and clean energy industry leaders on the myriad effects climate change has on us and our environment and how we have the power to make it right. Feeling fired up to fight for our planet? Join in on the Global Day of Action and Climate March this Saturday, which invites everyone to hit the streets to show support for environmental preservation and meaningful climate legislation. |
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The Big Question: Ignite Climate Action
The wildfires currently raging on the West Coast are just one example of the extreme dangers facing our planet if nothing is done to alleviate climate change—and fast. According to one study, a continued rise in greenhouse gas emissions would nearly double the frequency of extreme wildfires in which state by the end of century? (Read to the bottom of the email to find the answer.)
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Wise Words
“Now is the time to pass local resolutions that ban all new fossil fuel infrastructure and commit our towns and cities to a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy for all. Together, we can provide the vision that our president lacks. Our parents’ generation raced to the moon. Our generation is racing to make sure we can survive on our planet. This isn’t something that can wait, we need it fast. Without real leadership in Washington, we must turn to one another and build the fossil free world we deserve.” — May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, on how to turn the climate crisis around in the age of Trump. Read more at The Hill. |
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| Indigenous Rising - Solutions to the Climate Crisis |
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Video to Watch: Fight For Our Planet
Visionary Indigenous leaders highlight the need for mainstream understanding of the benefits of protecting human rights as they apply to resource extraction and Mother Earth. In this presentation from the Indigeneity Forum at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference, Kandi Mossett, Indigenous Environmental Network; Dallas Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network; Eriel Deranger, Indigenous Climate Action; and, Tara Houska, Honor the Earth, discuss how we can solve our most pressing environmental and social issues.
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This Week on Bioneers Radio & Podcast
Harm to one is harm to all—and prevention is a question of human survival. From oil refinery accidents in California to the aftermath of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf South, leaders Pennie Opal Plant and Colette Pichon Battle are on the frontlines, organizing their communities to stop the harms of the extraction economy and climate disruption. Activist-attorney Adrianna Quintero is making sure the voices of those most affected are heard helping awaken the “sleeping giant” of Latino voters.
Subscribe to the Bioneers podcast now: iTunes | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube |
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Person to Know: Eriel Deranger
For more than a decade, Eriel Deranger, Indigenous activist and founder/executive director of Indigenous Climate Action, has been an important voice within the environmental justice movement. Recently, she’s been working with fellow activists and environmentalists to halt oil extraction from Canada’s tar sands and bring awareness to the connection between environmental preservation and Indigenous rights—an effort that’s gained recognition after a recent victory in Canada’s Federal Court of Appeals. The court rejected the government’s approval to triple the capacity of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain and brought construction to a swift halt. Read more about Deranger’s work in this transcript from her talk at Bioneers 2015.
Today, we are facing a global crisis—climate change. Indigenous People are not only threatened by colonial policies to eradicate our rights, our cultures and identities that are intrinsically linked to our places of origin. We are now threatened by manmade climate change. Coastlines are rising, weather patterns are changing, and we’re experiencing floods, droughts, out-of-control forest fires, and species disappearing. It’s Indigenous Peoples and land-based peoples that feel it first and most adversely.
So, who am I? I’m an Indigenous person. And like many Indigenous People who work and walk within the environmental movement, I’ve never actually considered myself an environmentalist. First and foremost, I’m a proud member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, the “people of the willow,” a reference to the Delta where my people have lived since time immemorial.
My people’s rights and culture are in the crosshairs of the largest project on Earth, the tar sands. The legacy of this project is one of contamination and out-of-control pollution that puts us all at risk. It consists of toxic lakes that cover 240 square kilometers, seeping contaminants into the river systems that my people rely on. It creates as much greenhouse gas emissions as all of the vehicles in Canada combined. And if left unchecked, it could double, if not triple. It’s out of control.
And yet with all these facts and stats, I’m still just that little Indigenous girl. I’m an Indigenous woman working to ensure that my children and the generations to come have an ability to understand our culture, our identity, and our connections to our places of being. Read more here. |
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Take Action: #RiseForClimate
Want to join the fight for clean energy and climate action? This Saturday, September 8, hit the streets with thousands of other climate activists and protesters to make your desire for protecting our planet heard. In the lead up to the big event, be sure to spread the work via your social media accounts by using hashtags and sharing posts that are designed to create momentum. For ideas on how to put together impactful posts and ways to spread the word about Saturday’s events within your community, learn more at Rise For Climate here. |
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Featured Sponsor:
Bioneers is thrilled to partner with Pachamama Alliance for this year's conference. Pachamama Alliance is a global community that offers people the chance to learn, connect, engage, travel, and cherish life for the purpose of creating a sustainable future that works for all. Learn more here. |
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What We’re Tracking
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The oil and gas industries are championing a taxpayer-funded project to create a barrier on the Gulf Coast that will help protect reserves outside of Texas and Louisiana from natural disaster and climate change—a request that doesn’t sit well with climate change activists. (via Associated Press)
In order to protect tribal food systems, advocates and attorneys are writing comprehensive food codes that can be adopted by tribes and used to circumvent federal food safety codes. (Tristan Ahtone via Yes!)
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Soil fertility has long been misunderstood by modern industrial agriculture whose methods actually destroy soil life. David R. Montgomery, author of Growing a Revolution: Bringing our Soil Back to Life and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington, describes the fascinating partnership between plants and microbial life that drives fertility, thereby improving soil life, in this short video from the Center for Food Safety’s Soil Solutions series. |
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The Big Question, Answered: Ignite Climate Action
Said to be one of the most “climate challenged” states in the Union, California is already feeling the negative effects of climate change. In an effort to assess the impending threats to its infrastructure, ecosystems, and residents, the state publishes a Climate Change Assessment every five years to address problems and analyze potential solutions, the fourth of which was released at the end of August. |
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