5 Empowering Videos for Climate Justice Champions
Right now, climate action is at the forefront of newsworthy conversations surrounding everything from economic growth and politics to social justice and responsible investing. On the heals of jarring reports detailing the necessity for urgent climate action, there’s no doubt that the time for climate leadership is now.
To be certain, tackling such an enormous challenge requires leadership from the top: Politicians, movement champions and industry leaders have a critical role to play in shifting our trajectory toward a cleaner, more sustainable future. But citizens everywhere are using their voices to challenge systems that brought us to this dangerous place. People throughout the U.S. and the world are taking powerful action, especially young people, for whom the stakes couldn’t be higher. The Green New Deal proposal and recent grassroots organizing provides solid evidence that citizen voices can make waves. (Find tons of background on the Green New Deal here.)
Here are five inspirational talks from leaders with dramatically different backgrounds and skillsets. They’re raising their voices to accelerate solutions that mitigate climate change. Are you ready to join them?
May Boeve: Climate Change is Changing the World — Now We Too Must Change
As Executive Director of 350.org, the groundbreaking grassroots international climate change campaign whose innovative organizing and mass mobilizations have helped generate a mass global sense of urgency and action, May Boeve shares her eagle’s-eye perspectives on the current state of the climate struggle. She illustrates 350.org’s learnings and strategies moving forward, including ways of learning about and incorporating justice and equity. She illuminates pathways our species must take to keep 80% of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground and radically accelerate the shift to 100% clean energy.
Charlie Jiang — Climate Change Activism and a New American Dream
Climate change, racism, and rising inequality threaten our communities. Charlie Jiang, a son of immigrants and a leading SustainUS youth delegate to the 2017 United Nations climate negotiations, will offer a vision of active hope, arguing that out of the compounding crises we face, we have a singular opportunity to mend the wounds of our past and usher in a brighter future.
Vien Truong: Creating an Equitable Environmental Movement
Vien Truong, National Director of Green For All, has worked tirelessly to bring equity, social justice and climate justice to the frontlines of the environmental movement and public policy. She has been a central force in putting environmental justice at the center of California’s groundbreaking climate policy, legislation and cap-and-trade funding. Vien shares her wise perspectives on how to build a new clean-energy economy that brings prosperity and justice to low-income communities and communities of color.
Indigenous Rising — Solutions to the Climate Crisis
Visionary Indigenous leaders highlight the need for mainstream understanding of the benefits of protecting human rights as they apply to resource extraction and Mother Earth.
Justin Winters — One Earth, an Ambitious Plan to Slow Global Climate Change
With contributions from scientists and partners around the world, One Earth, an initiative of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF), has developed a bold, new plan to avert a climate crisis and protect our biosphere. Justin Winters, LDF’s Executive Director, explains the three goals humanity needs to achieve by 2050.
