John,
My name is Vic Barrett. I’m one of the 21 youth plaintiffs in Juliana v United States, a constitutional climate lawsuit supported by Our Children’s Trust against the federal government for knowingly causing climate change. On September 20, I spoke at the 300,000-strong Climate Strike in New York City to share my story and urge everyone who attended to join me in fighting for our constitutional rights to a safe future.
As a 20-year-old, first-generation Garifuna-American, I was born into a world where my past and my future are uncertain. My people were pushed from our homeland on St. Vincent by British colonial power, settling on the eastern coast of Central America in Honduras and Belize in the 18th Century. Despite overwhelming adversity, we organized our community and emancipated ourselves to protect our future as a people.
As sea levels rise and the coral reefs we depend on disappear, the future of my people is unknown. Because of this, my mother left Honduras and raised me in White Plains, New York — a place she thought would promise relief from climate disasters. Then, Superstorm Sandy happened.
The climate crisis isn’t something we can outrun. That’s why I joined the Juliana v. US lawsuit and the Global Climate Strike. The story of the climate crisis isn’t finished yet — and we get to decide the ending. We can do that by organizing, mobilizing, and getting out the vote in our communities. And suing the government.
Watch the video below to learn more about my story — then share this video with your friends and network. Let’s get to work writing a new story for all of us.
I’m taking on the US federal government because my history and my future demand it. My experience of the climate crisis isn’t distinct from the identities I inhabit: transgender, first-generation, Black, Indigenous, Latinx. The varied and layered truths of my life inform what this crisis means for me, just like it does for you.
Indigenous lands all over the planet are being flooded, polluted, and destroyed. My Black siblings of all genders are being gunned down by police. Migrant children are dying at the border. Trans people are being murdered. Violence is in the air that we breathe — and for so many of us, the climate crisis is just the next chapter in a story of violence that began before we were born.
There is a lesson I’ve learned from my ancestors. My people were stripped of their humanity and made into a product. They fought back so that I could exist. And I know it’s my duty to them and to generations to come to keep that fight going. I hope you’ll join me. We get to decide how this story ends. We must do whatever it takes.
Watch here to learn more about my story. Then, share the video with your friends and family.
Forward,
Vic Barrett
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