|
Friend,
I just want to make sure you saw my email from earlier this week about the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. In two weeks I will be joining our friends from Gulf South Rising and a slew of other organizations to commemorate the costliest and deadliest climate-fueled storm in American history.
But without your help, our Katrina-10 commemoration won't include some very special guests -- displaced families who were never able to make it back home to New Orleans after Katrina. The Climate Justice Express is a fleet of buses bringing displaced residents back home to NOLA, some for the first time since Katrina, to stand with all frontline communities at risk of climate disaster.
Click here to donate any amount you can to the Climate Justice Express. As an added bonus, all donations over $35 will be entered into a raffle for a brand new women's fleece jacket from our friends at Patagonia Foundation.
Let's get the Climate Justice Express rolling on home to the Big Easy.
Thanks for all you do,
Anthony for Environmental Action
PS You can read my email from earlier in the week with more background and details below.
This August thousands of climate activists will be in New Orleans for the 10 year commemoration of Hurricane Katrina. For some, it will be their first trip back home since becoming America's first climate refugees. Donate here to send them home for climate justice.
Friend,
Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina changed everything by showing us the worst effects of climate fueled storms. The storm was the costliest in American history, accounting for nearly $151 billion in damages.1 Katrina claimed nearly 2,000 lives and displaced over 400,000 people from the Crescent City -- many of them never to return.2 The vast majority of the displaced were people of color, who's homes were never rebuilt or were sold off to developers who saw the storm as an opportunity to cash in.3
Next month our friends at Gulf South Rising will be throwing the Katrina-10 Commemoration (K-10) to celebrate the region's recovery, while also remembering those who were lost and displaced. K-10 is a critical opportunity to call on our lawmakers to make our cities more climate resilient and protect the most vulnerable from future climate catastrophes.
It would be wrong if the people most affected by Katrina weren't there for the week of remembrance. But many of those displaced simply can't afford to make the trip. We can help by pitching in to fund a fleet of Climate Justice Express buses to transport displaced New Orleanians from across the Gulf South region back to the Big Easy.
That's why I am asking for your help to bring displaced folks home for the first time in many years. Click here and donate $35 or more and as an added bonus, you'll be entered into a raffle for a brand new women's fleece jacket from our friends at Patagonia Foundation who support K-10 and the fight to stop climate change.
- $50 buys a seat on the Climate Justice Express for one displaced activists;
- $200 sends a family of four displaced to the K10 commemoration;
- $1,650 rents a whole round trip bus from a city like Houston or Mobile to the Big Easy for climate justice.
Many displaced New Orleanians are willing to risk Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which could be triggered for former residents upon their arrival.4 These brave activists still hold New Orleans in their hearts and recognize the importance of taking part in this important event. While New Orleans is recovering, the communities of color and low wealth that many of those who were displaced came from have been left out.5
I can't even imagine what these folks have been through, seeing their homes and city destroyed, forced to relocate and leave everything behind and then essentially told they could not return because the "recovery" effort priced them out of their town -- and still they have the courage to return in the name of climate resistance.
Lack of funds shouldn't keep displaced New Orleanian from attending K-10 to show the world the stakes of our fight for the climate. It was Nelson Mandela who said, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." Displaced New Orleanians are ready to triumph over the fears and triumph over climate change. Let's help them with this undeniable display of courage: Click here to help send New Orleanians home and enter for your chance to win a new Patagonia fleece.
Thanks for all you do,
Anthony for Environmental Action
1. WDAM Staff. U.S.Census Bureau: Special Edition Hurricane Katrina 10th Anniversary. WDAM. July 30, 2015.
2. Whoriskey, Peter. Katrina Displaced 400,000 People, Study Says. The Washington Post. June 7, 2006.
3. Adelson, Jeff. Hurricane Katrina Transformed New Orleans, The Region's Makeup After Unrivaled Exodus In U.S. The New Orleans Advocate. July 25, 2015.
4. Reiss, Jeanine. The Hurricane Katrina Anniversary Can Bring On Depression, PTSD. The Gambit. June 22, 2015.
5. Brentin, Mock. Housing Choices For Poor Families Were Bad Before Katrina, And Still Are. The Atlantic. July 8, 2015.
|
