Democracy and Climate Change at the Crossroads

With climate and democracy facing a crossroads, six leaders in the environmental justice movement came together to discuss our way forward at an event hosted by Tides Foundation’s Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund (WE LEAD). Together, Beulah Osueke (New Voices for Reproductive Justice), Vianey Olivarria (Chispa Arizona), Jacqui Patterson (Chisholm Legacy Project), Asti Davis (Power Coalition for Equity and Justice), and Judith LeBlanc (Native Organizers Alliance) discussed how they came to this work and what’s at stake in a conversation moderated by Raya Salter of the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center.

Watch highlights from the discussion or read selections from their conversation below. To watch the full panel, click here.

Getting Started in Environmental Justice

JACQUI PATTERSON: My first introduction to environmental justice work was living within three miles of three coal fired power plants on the south side of Chicago. But I didn’t know that that had anything to do with the kids in school who had asthma or the folks in church who had respirators they brought to church.

ASTI DAVIS: I’m from a small town in Baton Rouge called Alsen, Louisiana, and Alsen, Louisiana was actually the first class action suit by a community in Louisiana, because there was a landfill. There’s also a polymer plant there. There’s a Superfund site, all sorts of other things. And moving to New Orleans, going to school, I was kind of shocked that that wasn’t everybody’s norm, because if you drive through North Baton Rouge, you can see the chemical plants along the major interstate there.

Once I realized that this wasn’t everybody’s norm, to have a siren on Wednesdays for emergencies, or to take a field trip to a landfill to say “Hey, these are the great things we’re doing in your community while also being too close to people who live there” — also some of the residents there are now saying that it may not even be properly lined…. It was just kind of like, who’s fighting for us, who is speaking up for Black people with this issue?

JUDITH LEBLANC: I came up in the late 60s and the early 70s, when Indian country — when every community — was in a magic movement moment. The anti-war movement. The women’s, the gay rights movement, the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, on and on and on. And the American Indian movement, as a movement, was playing its role, standing beside all the other communities, and it inspired me to think about what is the meaning of my life from what now I know to be an Indigenous framework. Where am I on the time continuum? How did I get here? Where am I going? What should I do right now? And so that’s how I got involved, and it’s a slippery slope. Let me tell you, as you just stay and stay and stay because it becomes part of your way of thinking about your relationship to all things, your relationship to the natural world, your relationship to social and economic phenomena.

VIANEY OLIVARRIA: Coming from Arizona, my introduction to the social justice movement was actually to the immigrant justice movement in Arizona. We have battled, for decades, a long history of anti-immigrant narrative that really attacks and disproportionately impacts the Black and brown communities of Arizona. So that’s how I got introduced, honestly, through just the space in general. And I did not see myself in the mainstream environmental movement for a long time, so I didn’t think that was my thing to do. I was like, I’d rather fight against people’s deportation than trying to save the whales right now, because I really care about people. Through my own education, I realized that this was all very much connected, that these communities that were over policed or targeted by those were the same communities that were highly impacted by air pollution, by dirty water, by extreme heat, and that’s how I joined.

BEULAH OSUEKE: For me it was when I was coaching and half of my team had asthma. And when I was growing up, in the white suburbs, none of my teammates had asthma. And so when I started understanding why half of my team had asthma, and all the things that they were having to navigate just to get to school, just to compete on the court, just to give themselves a chance, I started seeing all the things. So that’s what really helped me start understanding the impact, not just of environmental racism, but capitalism and all the other “isms” we can name, and I couldn’t unsee it after that.

What’s at Stake

VIANEY OLIVARRIA: In Arizona we have a two page ballot….That means that a lot of people are gonna skip over and in that ballot, you know, there’s issues around environmental justice, there’s very heavy attacks on the immigrant community. There’s the abortion ballot issue. There’s many issues that are going to be showing up for people….

So there’s a lot happening at a moment where prices are high. Arizona is still dealing with 100 degree weather as of today. You know, a day into fall, people are still paying over $700 on their utility bill. People are still struggling to pay rent or pay for their groceries, and at the same time, now they’re being bombarded all this bad information as well about the elections. So there’s a lot at stake.

BEULAH OSUEKE: New Voices works to build power for and alongside Black women, Black queer folks and Black marginalized people. And when we say Black marginalized people, we’re talking about people who are formerly incarcerated, currently incarcerated, sex workers, young people, solo parents, so Blackity Black Black Black. And for me, what is really at stake in this moment is a lot of people are becoming politically curious. They’re frustrated, and also I’m recognizing that people are not just lending themselves or gravitating towards despair. People want answers, and so we have opportunities to utilize narrative strategy, cultural strategy, be honest with people about the ways that they have historically been disfranchised in this country, but also offer to them real avenues and pathways of change in which they can partake and the reshaping of their individual lives and their community’s lives, and that is extremely exciting.

JUDITH LEBLANC: We Native people have to be at the forefront of helping to shape what an inclusive, multiracial democracy could be while we’re defending ourselves from the attacks of an anti-democratic movement of millions who have diametrically opposed values to what we believe to justice. And so I go to sleep and I wake up thinking about that, but I also know that since 2017 Dakota Access Pipeline, the struggle at Standing Rock, we interrupted the dominant narrative of who native people are in the 21st century. The interruption of that narrative was not a change, but it gave us the opportunity, and we have been organizing, mobilizing on the local level, on many different climate justice struggles.

In fact, in the last 20 years, every major climate struggle has been led and/or initiated by Native peoples, from the drilling in the Arctic to the KXL pipeline to saving salmon for those who fish and for those who subsist on it. So I think that right now, what’s at stake for us is to play our role alongside the other communities and to be included in that broader pro-democracy movement as partners that are decisive. Because if you want to talk about democracy being in the balance, think about the 12% of the Native population in Montana: they’re the ones who are going to decide who controls the Senate.

ASTI DAVIS: What is at stake in Louisiana? I know this sounds broad, but it’s our livelihoods…. There’s a lot of things at stake for Louisianans when it comes to disaster preparedness and coastal protections. And you know how their city prepares for these things impacts people’s livelihoods, such as their careers. We have a lot of fishermen. A lot of you guys enjoy Louisiana seafood. And a lot of those things will be changing as our environment changes. […]

It’s really important that we understand that we have to build this people power and give the power back to the people you know. So that’s what I think about when you ask me what’s at stake. Our power is at stake.

JACQUI PATTERSON: As a member of the community of the global majority, I would say what’s at stake is, on a somewhat grim note, the multiple sites of genocide that are happening across the globe right now. What’s at stake is the death of 1000 cuts that some of the communities are enduring. So for me, what’s at stake is the moment that we’re in where there is more of a recognition, more of an understanding of what’s happening globally. And I think there’s an opportunity.

Earlier, I was on a panel and I talked about the African proverb that says that when spiders unite, they can tie up a lion. And whether it’s the folks who are in this room or the folks who are who are recognizing what needs to happen… we have to recognize that we have to be much more visionary, much more transformational, in terms of the type of world that we want. And so for me, what’s at stake is us kind of waking up.

Hope for the Future

VIANEY OLIVARRIA: I think there’s a lot of real possibilities right in Arizona, I think we have shown the nation and ourselves that we can do hard things and that we can move forward, and that we can progress…. And I feel very excited about that, because quite honestly, like 10 years ago, I don’t think I would believe that we’re so close to figuring out how to work together so well. We still have a lot of work to do, but it’s exciting to see the state grow to a state that can be more mindful of the communities that inhabit it.

BEULAH OSUEKE: What excites me about justice is the feasibility of it. I think that justice is well within our reach. I think that liberation is well within our reach. And I think a lot of what we aspire towards can be achieved in our lifetime. I think of the bed of that, or the foundation of that, is true community building…. That really excites me, because I like talking with people and meeting them where they’re at and then watching the dots connect for them. And I think with a lot of the public discourse on this election, people are primed and ready to enter our movements and participate in a very real way.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Click here to learn more about Tides’ WE LEAD Fund.