Climate Change Activists

"the climate crisis can continue unabated only with immense concentrations of economic and political power."

"The GND's vision of power is one of redistribution: from private to public, from employer to worker, from the historically advantaged to the historically disadvantaged."

"Highway expansion and urban renewal programs during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s displaced hundreds of thousands of residents-mostly people of color-without adequate financial assistance, erasing decades of wealth for those who owned homes and businesses. Because of this, the thought of an economic mobilization understandably frightens millions of Americans. The Green New Deal must directly address these fears, or risk losing the public support it needs to sustain itself across a decade."

"Every economic mobilization in American history has exploited marginalized people. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC)-created during the New Deal to provide loans to homeowners facing foreclosure-often labeled predominantly black neighborhoods as "high risk," which discouraged lending and encouraged redlining. Today, 74 percent of the neighborhoods labeled "high risk" are low- to middle-income neighborhoods, and 64 percent are predominantly minority-meaning that these areas are still racially and economically segregated to this day."

"Only the federal government wields the power to lead a national mobilization that can decarbonize the economy fast enough."

"The Green New Deal is designed, first and foremost, to address the climate crisis at the speed, scale, and scope required to prevent catastrophic levels of warming."

"The Green New Deal is a new policy vision-one that will guide government and society through the biggest task in modern history: decarbonizing our global economy within the next ten to twenty years."

"The GND resolution proposes to achieve these goals in two ways. The first is through a set of "projects" that, if completed, would nearly eliminate carbon emissions in the US. The second is through a set of policies that aim to protect Americans from the disruption and instability that transitioning away from fossil fuels will create and reduce inequity."

"Fossil fuel impunity requires intense concentrations of economic and political power among corporations and the wealthy who profit from them."

"The ability to burn fossil fuels with no limit and no legal repercussions requires two things. First, fossil fuel industries and those who control them (or profit deeply from them) can concentrate enough wealth and political power to override the will of the people-who, by and large, want to stop climate change. Second, there are people and places that can be hurt, even killed, with little consequence."

"The United States is a nation of scarcity, and increasingly so. Seventy-eight percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. As of 2018, about 40 percent of Americans could not afford an unexpected $400 expense without going into debt or having to sell off their possessions. About 25 percent of Americans skipped necessary medical care because they couldn't afford it. For most people in this country, we are not a nation of prosperity."

"When I asked my mom and grandma why Englewood looked like this, they told me about the government. About how the highway system had been built through Black neighborhoods, destroying communities that would never be rebuilt. About the city's housing authority razing public housing and scattering families in the name of "urban development," only for city officials to turn around and sell the prime real estate to developers on the cheap. About the city systematically underfunding Black schools and then shutting them down because of "underperformance." And that's just what happened to my neighborhood-not even what happened to my family."

"So, what’s really happening here is, Chevron and its allies have used the judiciary to try to attack the very idea of corporate accountability and environmental justice work that leads to significant judgments. And I think they’re not only trying to retaliate against me; they’re trying to send a broader message to the activist community, to the legal community, that these types of cases, that truly challenge the fossil fuel industry, that are intimately connected to the survival of our planet, should not be allowed to happen in court, at least not at this level."

"Meanwhile, the global support for Donziger is growing. Some 29 Nobel laureates, including nine Peace Prize winners, signed a letter calling for] “a judicial remedy for the legal attacks orchestrated by Chevron against Donziger and for the defamation of his character.”"

"bI have never seen anything like this attempt to destroy Steven Donziger. Chevron and its law firms have taken control of the awesome power of government to prosecute an environmental activist and deprive him of his liberty. They have done so with the active complicity of two federal judges. It’s something I’ve never before seen in my career."

"What’s disgraceful is that the maximum jail sentence that Donziger would face if he’s found guilty of contempt is six months—less than half the time he will have already spent locked up... It is this kind of questionable conduct from the federal bench that prompted Frisch to file an emergency motion on May 11 at the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit accusing Preska and Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who has pursued Donziger since 2011, with “abuses of power and discretion.” Donziger’s supporters argue that Chevron’s own lawyers are collaborating in the effort to persecute him."

"The Chevron corporation’s legal onslaught against the environmental lawyer Steven Donziger continues. The oil giant and two federal judges in New York are apparently in a de facto alliance to persecute Donziger, who in 2013 helped win a landmark $9.5 billion legal victory against the company for polluting vast stretches of rain forest in Ecuador... Federal Judge Loretta Preska, who has already kept Donziger under huse arrest in New York City for the past 10 months, on May 18 refused his request to relax his confinement before his trial for contempt, which will not start until September 9. Donziger’s attorney had asked Preska to allow him out of his Upper West Side apartment for three hours a day. Preska said no. She repeated her preposterous claim that Donziger could be a flight risk, saying, “I could be to the airport and on an airplane in three hours.” Donziger lives with his wife and 13-year-old son. He has already surrendered his passport."

"I was not prosecuted by the U.S. government. I was prosecuted by a private law firm, Seward & Kissel, appointed by a federal judge after the U.S. government declined to prosecute me. And the judge never disclosed that the law firm had Chevron as a client. So, essentially, I’m being prosecuted by a Chevron law firm, a partner in a Chevron law firm, a private law firm, who deprived me of my liberty... this is the first corporate prosecution in U.S. history... What’s really happening here is Chevron and these two judges and, really, allies of the fossil fuel industry are trying to use me as a weapon to intimidate activists and lawyers who do this work, who do the frontline work of defending the planet. What’s... at stake is the ability to advocate for human rights in our society."

"Steven Donziger has been under house arrest for over 580 days, awaiting trial on a misdemeanor charge. It’s all, he says, because he beat a multinational energy corporation in court."

"Ahead of Steven Donziger's sentencing scheduled for Friday, five United Nations human rights experts ruled that the American attorney who won a multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron in Ecuadorian courts has been "arbitrarily" detained in the U.S. for 787 days... The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, made up of independent experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, said that it was "appalled by uncontested allegations in this case," noting that the U.S. government did not respond to its request for input... the working group called on the U.S. government to "take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr. Steven Donziger without delay and bring it in conformity with the relevant international norms, including those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

"We are relieved that Steven Donziger will finally recover his freedom after almost 1,000 days of arbitrary detention, which included 45 days in prison and over 900 days under house arrest. He should have never been detained for even one day, as it has been clear the whole process against him has been in retaliation for his human rights work that exposed corporate wrongdoings"

"It has become clear to me in recent months that my unprecedented house arrest is the result of apparent misconduct and conflicts of interest by a number of people in the judiciary. It feels like Chevron has taken over the role of government to deprive its main litigation adversary of his freedom. That’s a terrifying prospect for me and my family, but also for everybody who cares about the nature of freedom and advocacy in our society. I don’t think it has ever happened before. I hope it never happens again."

"This goes way beyond me. It goes to really what kind of society we want in America. How does one man get so targeted by an oil company such that he's being prosecuted by one of their law firms? What does that mean for other advocates? What does that mean for environmental justice advocates and corporate accountability advocates and lawyers? What does that mean for our planet? Because if you can't do this kind of legal work to hold these polluters accountable, the destruction of the earth will happen at a faster pace."

"As the case was coming to an end in Ecuador, Chevron's lawyers and executives made it clear they would never pay the judgment. They sold their assets in Ecuador, so the Ecuadorians would have nothing to collect. They threatened the Indigenous peoples with “a lifetime of litigation” if they didn't drop their case."

"Climate activism has always been associated with the white middle class demographic and not that of people of color or indigenous peoples. We don’t want to be tokenized. Within this movement people tend to forget that those who are in power have a sense of privilege and or are white, The way we narrate the movement must evolve to be more inclusive of black, indigenous and people of color activists/advocates."

"In 2020, amidst record-breaking temperatures and the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Greenland Ice Sheet has passed the point of no return; warming oceans are bringing unprecedented double hurricanes, floods and storms throughout the Caribbean, Gulf and Atlantic Coasts; rare derechos are bringing hurricane-like conditions to Iowa and the Midwest. Year-round fires from the West Coast to Colorado are forcing people from homes, causing rolling blackouts, poisoning air and water, and threatening workers, food, and health... On Wednesday, September 9, 350 US will hold the second of four mass Solidarity School calls, during which we’ll address “Defund, Abolish & Divest: Climate, Racial & Economic Justice.”"

"After organizing global climate strike protests over the past year, Fort Worth activists were proud of their efforts to draw attention to climate issues in Tarrant County. But they didn’t want their advocacy to stop there. That’s why the environmentalists behind Global Climate Strike Fort Worth recently established a Fort Worth chapter of 350.org, an international organization focused on ending the use of fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable energy sources. The group, founded in 2008, draws its name from climate scientists’ warning that 350 parts per million is the safe limit for the amount of carbon in the atmosphere if humans seek to avoid catastrophic climate change. Among his many goals for the new chapter, 350.org Fort Worth president Chayton Creswell hopes that the group can center climate-change issues that are often secondary focuses of other local environmental organizations."

"The organizers running this campaign have sent a clear message to the fossil fuel industry: they cannot propose new fossil fuel infrastructure in New Hampshire on our watch. With the Granite Bridge pipeline dead, it is time to stop burning coal in New Hampshire and invest in renewable energy in order to save the health of our communities and our planet. “Fossil fuels are never the only option,” says Kai Parlett, from the 350NH Youth Team. “We won this fight, but there is so much more we need to do locally, nationally, and even globally to combat the climate crisis. We’re just getting started.”"

"In the past few weeks, several pipelines across the country have been denied or ordered to shut down, from the Dakota Access pipeline to the proposed Williams pipeline in New York. Yesterday, 350 New Hampshire staff and volunteers are excited to hear that the Granite Bridge fracked gas pipeline and tank will not be built through our Southern New Hampshire community. “I am thankful that there won’t be fracked methane gas infrastructure in my backyard of Raymond,” says Jennifer Dube, Pipeline Resistance Organizer with 350NH. “It is time for New Hampshire to invest in clean, local energy that will keep jobs and dollars in New Hampshire and grow our state’s economy. Every single thing the grassroots organizers and volunteers in our communities did made a difference, and we would not be celebrating this victory if it weren’t for them.”"

"[The platform] speaks to the climate movement's commitment to justice and equity. We are holding fast to our demand for the next president to take immediate and transformative action... The compound crises of Covid-19, racial injustice, and climate change are being paid for in struggle throughout the lives and livelihoods of Black and Indigenous Peoples, and poor families on every frontline, many of whom are already surviving on mutual aid, and a unified demand that democracy delivers... From a responsive civil structure and executive, to federal agencies that provide resources and empower the people, we demand the next president commits to end fossil fuels, hold polluters accountable, and stand up for climate justice and human rights."

"This is a disgraceful offering from Senator McConnell, who should be doing everything possible to ensure the people of this country have what we need to recover from COVID-19. The coronavirus pandemic and the deepening recession it’s causing are far from over – in fact, cases are on the rise in many states across the U.S. The Senate’s bill does nothing to address the stark inequity facing Black, Indigenous, people of color, and low-income communities that face the compound crisis of COVID-19, economic and racial injustice, and the climate crisis. As unemployment skyrockets, this bill would cut off much of the support offered thus far to everyday people struggling to make ends meet. We won’t let Congress pass a giveaway to wealthy corporations while leaving our communities out to dry without a fight."

"From policing to financial violence, the road to solving the climate crisis includes addressing connected predatory systems, We support the demand to defund and divest from the police and fossil fuels, and to reinvest in the resilience of people and planet for a just recovery.”"

"My mission is to show that we have the power to create a more just democracy that represents all of us."

"One person, one vote is the great equalizer of humanity."

"History shows that voting is the sword that cuts through all injustice."

"When I interned for the American Hero, the Honorable John Lewis, I learned that this will be a tough fight, yet we must be determined to stand against injustice. Civil Rights are Human Rights and human rights are Environmental Rights… NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT."

"I am here on behalf of young people worldwide. For the young girl in Guatemala starving because of drought; for the young boy in Sumatra whose entire rainforest community is set ablaze for the extraction of palm oil; for the mother in Beijing who attended her 3-year-old daughter’s funeral because she breathed in the toxic air of the city. I speak for the millions suffering at the destructive hands of the fossil fuel industry."

"I founded OneMillionOfUs to empower, educate, and register one million young people to vote in the 2020 elections and beyond. As a great and honorable president once said, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” We are no longer waiting, we are acting."

"Civil Rights are Human Rights and human rights are Environmental Rights… NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT."

"My message to him, my message to President Trump, would be that there is no more time to continue to accept money from the fossil fuel industry. There’s no more time to continue to be bought off and paid for, because this is our lives that we’re fighting for. We’re fighting for our children. We’re fighting for our sisters and brothers. We’re fighting for people that are drowning."

"It is only in the cracks of division that corruption can seep in and pollution can spew out."

"My name is Alexandria Villaseñor. I’m 14 years old. I’m from New York. And I am here because 30 years ago the world signed a contract between generations that the present world would leave a world worth inheriting to the future. And today I want to tell the world, you are defaulting on that contract, and we’re here to collect."

"We’re here as citizens of the planet, as victims of the pollution that’s been carelessly dumped into our land, air and sea for generations, and as children whose rights are being violated. Today we are fighting back. 30 years ago the world made a promise to us. Virtually every country in the world agreed that children have rights that must be protected. And those countries that signed the 3rd Optional Protocol on Communication have committed to allowing us to appeal to the United Nations when those rights are being violated. So that’s exactly what we’re doing here today. Each one of use had our rights violated and denied. Our futures are being destroyed."

"Many people in the US aren't aware of the youth climate movement that was started by 16-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg in August 2018 and has inspired students in countries all across the world to come together to protest for climate action weekly. But the fact that Fridays for Future (FFF) is less well known stateside doesn't mean that young activists in the US are less passionate... A couple of hours north of the Capitol, Alexandria Villasenor was striking in New York City. The 14-year-old moved to the big apple from Davis, California, last August. In November 2018 she was back in California for a visit and experienced the raging Paradise wildfire first hand. "The smoke was so bad I had to go back to New York early," the middle schooler, who suffers from asthma, said. "Then I learned about the connection between the wildfires and the climate crisis. It made me angry." She also runs her own organization, Earth Uprising. How does she balance all of that with her school work and regular student life? "I can do pretty much anything when I get enough food and five hours of sleep," Villasenor said with a laugh."

"She took the stage at Battery Park on Friday before a crowd of two hundred and fifty thousand climate strikers. “Hi, everyone!” she hollered, a huge smile on her face. She told the story of how she started striking, then introduced Thunberg. “She is an icon of our time, and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize,” Villaseñor said. “And now she’s here with us today. What I want to tell you about Greta Thunberg, though, is that she is the nicest, kindest, most humble person I ever met.” As Thunberg walked onstage, she gave Villaseñor a big hug."

"Alexandria Villasenor is a powerhouse in the climate change world — and she’s not even old enough to vote.... when she learned that rising temperatures caused by climate change are making wildfires more commonplace and destructive than ever — and that the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 to avoid disastrous, irreversible consequences of an overheated planet — Villasenor knew she had to act fast."

"Eighty years from now, our grandchildren can yell, 'Hey Zoomers.""

"I see more of the structures that society has put in place. And that’s why my generation has been so impactful with the climate movement. We’re organizing outside of the structures that adults work in. Since getting involved, I just see how the system is broken, and it’s one of the things that needs to change."

"On Monday (25 Feb 2019), the Sunrise Movement, in the form of roughly 250 Kentucky high schoolers, occupied McConnell’s Senate office, resulting in 35 arrests. Some protesters held up a banner that read “Mitch, Look Us in the Eyes,” while others lined the halls outside his office... While the sit-in got little attention in the press, it appeared to have gotten McConnell’s. The majority leader, who is up for re-election in 2020, had recently been eager to put the Green New Deal on the Senate floor. All of a sudden, however, he suggested that it would come up at some point before the August recess. “This wouldn’t have happened without thousands of people across the country pressuring senators of both parties. Two weeks ago, McConnell was excitedly telling the media about his plans. Now, he seems happy to let this vote be forgotten,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of Sunrise. “You can bet Mitch McConnell was hearing from his own caucus about this vote. There were sit-ins and rallies at the offices of the Republicans most vulnerable in 2020: Ernst, [David] Perdue, Collins, Gardner, and of course, McConnell himself. They’re smart and don’t want to stand on the wrong side on the Green New Deal, which is very popular in their states.”"

"I don’t know how @DNC leaders can look themselves in the mirror tonight. When @TomPerez & Dem Party leaders rejected a climate debate last month they promised us that they would ensure this issue got the attention it deserved. Tonight their check bounced."