Climate justice activism: ‘To call a place home’

Becoming involved in Tar Sands resistance exposed me to injustices that I’d been sheltered from for my entire adolescence in a corporate suburb and a private liberal arts college. Learning about “environmental justice” in a course or workshop didn’t give me the understanding I’ve since gained from coming to know and love people whose communities and lives are inundated with industrial poisons.

I’m still in Texas, and I’m still in the climate justice movement, because my experiences and friends in the struggle have transformed my values—especially when it comes to appreciating what it means to connect to a place, fight for a place, and call a place home. Before fighting the Keystone pipeline in Texas, I had little connection or appreciation for my home, because all I saw there was corporate and consumer entertainment culture. I wanted nothing more than to jet set out. Now, leaving the South would feel like quitting and abandoning communities, people, and places I care deeply about.

In addition to my love for my people and a desire for a more equitable society where we don’t poison or otherwise sacrifice entire communities for economic convenience, I stay in the struggle for climate justice out of conviction that what we do—or fail to do—right now has a tremendous impact on the trajectory of all life on Earth for thousands of years. I’ve read scientific studies comparing rates of modern biodiversity decline to the rates of Earth’s previous mass extinctions evident in fossil records, and the forecast is not good. I’ve completely taken to heart the conclusion of one of these studies: what we do now will determine whether a biological mass extinction event will occur over one to three hundred years…or ten thousand years. I’ll take the ten thousand.

Current UU climate justice activity 

Unitarian Universalists around the country have observed Climate Justice Month from March 22 (World Water Day) through April 22 (Earth Day) with the Commit2Respond initiative for three years now. This year, Climate Justice Month follows Joanna Macy’s “Spiral of the Work That Reconnects”: opening to gratitude, honoring our pain for the world, seeing with new eyes, and going forth. Unitarian Universalists are particularly “going forth” by opposing federal government actions and budget proposals that will drastically worsen the effects of climate change—through phone calls and faxes, hand delivering letters from congregations to Capitol Hill, and participating in the global March for Science on April 22 and the March for Climate, Jobs, and Justice on April 29.

How UUs can participate in climate justice work

1. Join Commit2Respond—the main UU climate justice campaign—if you haven’t already. Check out the Commit2Respond Climate Justice Month toolkit.
2. Engage your UU congregation or justice task force in the UUs for Social Justice (UUSJ) Write Here! Write Now! Climate Justice Month letter-writing campaign. If your letters are mailed to UUSJ by May 4, they will be hand-delivered to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., by UU volunteer advocates on May 9.
3. Act locally for Earth Day, the Science March, or the March for Climate, Jobs, and Justice—or plan a trip to Washington, D.C. Register your local events on the UU Ministry for Earth map and share your photos in the Commit2Respond Google Photo folder.
4. Plan to attend “The Seas Are Rising and So Are We” climate justice program track at General Assembly, June 2017 in New Orleans—with eight workshops and presenters from more than fifteen programs and organizations.