Dear John
My colleague Lucie from our communities and networks team was hoping to write to you today to celebrate the launch of our 200th Climate Action Group [1] to coincide with World Environment Day… but we’re still just shy of the double century (197 and counting!) so you’ll have to wait a little bit longer for that email.
Instead I wanted to write to introduce myself as our interim lead climate campaigner. Aaron’s headed off to pastures new after 5 years at Friends of the Earth, so while we recruit to the role (take a look at our jobs pages if you’re interested) I’m going to be leading the team.
These are both interesting and troubling times to be taking the reins of a campaign that’s firmly focussed on both environmental and social issues.
The coronavirus pandemic has devastated many people's lives and changed our country dramatically. But with your support, and by working with organisations from across many different sectors, we’ll be doing everything we can over the coming months to help the country build back better, fairer and greener.
The past weeks’ protests against institutional racism and police brutality across the US have also shone a spotlight on the injustices and inequalities in societies across the world.
Friends of the Earth has always fought to protect both people and planet – that’s why I came to work here in 2017. We believe in the right to protest. In the right to live free of violence and discrimination, and for all people to be treated equally. But these rights aren’t currently being afforded to black people in many countries around the world, including here.
It’s also important to recognise that our campaigning mustn’t exist in a green bubble. And that tackling the climate crisis means tackling racial injustices head on – something that’s still a work in progress for us and other parts of the climate movement.
The people who’ve been hardest by climate breakdown – and will continue to be – are overwhelmingly people of colour from developing countries, even though they’ve contributed the least to causing the crisis. In the words of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “people who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally or otherwise marginalised are often highly vulnerable to climate change.”
I hope you’ll join us in standing against state violence and systemic racism. And please consider supporting the many organisations helping those working to end these abuses, like Black Lives Matter UK, Stand Up To Racism, the Stephen Lawrence Trust, the Red Card and the Runnymede Trust.
Finally, I wanted to say a big thank you for your support, especially over the past few months. I’m really looking forward to campaigning together over the coming weeks.
Best wishes,
Muna
Interim Lead Climate Campaigner
Friends of the Earth
PS. On Monday we’ll be taking to social media, along with some of our sister organisations around the world, to recognise those communities who’ve been hit hardest by coronavirus. Links to our channels are below – check them out on Monday for ways to get involved.
NOTES:
[1] Climate Action groups are groups of people working together to make their communities more climate-friendly. Find out more.
|
|
|
|
