The event will be live-streamed on Grist's social media accounts. You can tune in using any of the following links: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIYs2KOjG1I Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/4884679101599820/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1YpJkZAQnDdGj As
humanity tackles the threat of climate change, it must move with urgency to ensure a liveable future. At the same time, it must also protect the lives and livelihoods of those on the frontline of the crisis today — who suffer unduly from the pollution that contributes to warming, as well as the impacts of a changing climate. Leaders from frontline communities throughout the United States have worked hard to ensure a voice for their neighbors and have also developed local, community controlled renewable and regenerative solutions to the crisis along with a framework for evaluating solutions that are just and equitable. In this discussion, leaders from across the country will discuss the framework of centering equity and justice and tackling the root causes of the climate crisis as society moves away from fossil fuels, share real-life examples of how solutions that meet that framework operate on the ground, and warn of what they see as “false solutions,” which rather than benefiting vulnerable communities will ensure they remain sacrifice zones.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Elizabeth Yeampierre | Co-Chair of Climate Justice Alliance & Executive Director of UPROSE Opening Remarks Elizabeth is an internationally recognized Puerto Rican environmental/climate justice leader of African and Indigenous ancestry, born and raised in New York City's environmentally burdened communities. Elizabeth is co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance, a national frontline led organization and Executive Director of UPROSE, Brooklyn's oldest Latino community-based organization.
Elizabeth was the 1st Latina Chair of the USEPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and opening speaker for the first White House Council on Environmental Quality Forum on Environmental Justice under Obama. Elizabeth has been featured in the NY Times as a visionary paving the path to Climate Justice. She was named by Apolitical as Climate 100: The World’s Most Influential People in Climate Policy , also featured in Vogue as one of 13 Climate Warriors in the world and a recipient of the Frederick Douglass Abolitionist Award FD200. Recently, she has spoken at Oxford University, the Ethos Conference in Brazil and the Hague. Nikhil Swaminathan | Interim CEO & Editor in Chief, Grist Moderator Nikhil is an award-winning journalist and Interim CEO and Editor in Chief at Grist. Under Nikhil’s direction, Grist has won numerous awards, including recent recognition by the Online News Association for General Excellence among small newsrooms. Nikhil began his tenure at Grist as Senior Justice Editor, founding the Environmental Justice Desk. He’s held editorial positions at Scientific American, Al
Jazeera America, GOOD, Archaeology and others. Prior to joining Grist, he was in the inaugural class of Ida B. Wells fellows at Type Investigations. Tom Goldtooth | Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) Panelist Tom is Diné and Dakota and lives in Minnesota. Since the late 1980’s, Tom has been involved with environmental related issues and programs working within tribal
governments in developing Indigenous-based environmental protection infrastructures. Tom works with Indigenous peoples worldwide. Tom is known as one of the environmental justice movement grassroots leaders in North America addressing toxics and health, mining, energy, climate, water, globalization, sustainable development and Indigenous rights issues. Tom is one of the founders of the Durban Group for Climate Justice; co-founder of Climate Justice NOW!; co-founder of the U.S. based Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative and a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change that operates as the Indigenous caucus within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Tom is a policy adviser to
Indigenous communities on environmental protection and more recently on climate policy focusing on mitigation, adaptation and concerns of false solutions. Cassia Herron | Immediate Past Chair, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth Panelist Cassia is a proud Kentuckian who has spent two decades working to transition Kentucky's agricultural and energy economies from extractive industries to
democratized, community-owned, cooperative economies that advance equity and justice. Cassia is a co-founder of the Louisville Association for Community Economics and the Louisville Community Grocery and is a consultant in cooperative development, planning and strategy. Cassia is a graduate of the University of Louisville and holds a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. Maria Lopez-Nuñez | Director of Organizing and Advocacy, Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) Panelist Maria is from Newark, New Jersey and serves as the Deputy Director of Organizing and Advocacy of Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC). She played a key role in the passage of the landmark Environmental Justice Bill (EJ Bill; S232). This bill helps the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection assess the public health and environmental risks that the renewing or expanding facilities would bring into our communities in New Jersey. She was one of the leaders of the Compassionate New Jersey Coalition, which fought to prevent evictions and foreclosures and to keep all New Jerseyans safe in
their homes during the COVID 19 crisis. Maria is on the board of the Climate Justice Alliance, The ROOTS Project, The New Jersey Civic Information Consortium and was recently appointed to serve on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council by President Biden. |
