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Last night, our friends at the HBCUs kicked off their climate conference with a panel discussion on how "We are one with Flint; It's not just about the water." Tomorrow, Anthony and I will host a panel on the role of allies with friends like Bill McKibben. Click here to RSVP or chip in a few bucks to help!
Friend,
If you're one of the thousands of Environmental Action members who've watched the Flint water crisis, Huricaine Katrina, or any number of other climate and environmental disasters hit communities of color first and worst, and wondered "what can I do?" I want to invite you to join us (virtually) for a really important discussion.
Anthony and I are in New Orleans (again) visiting, planning and strategizing with our friends from the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Climate Initiative.1 Tomorrow afternoon, we're hosting a panel on the role of allies (that's all the folks who look like me, Bill McKibben and most of you reading this email). This is a really important moment for this conversation: as the Senate continues to flounder on a response to the Flint water crisis,2 and pressure is increasing in frontline communities like the gulf for the Obama administration to ban fossil fuel extraction and #KeepItIntheGround.3 It's time to have a long overdue discussion about making our movement more inclusive and sharing power with people of color.
Will you join us live on Facebook (you don't need an account to participate) for this conversation and, if you can, chip in a few dollars to support our work with the HBCU climate initiative?
We're still about $1,500 short of our fundraising goal for this conference, so if you can, please also chip in to support us. Last year, hundreds of us pitched in to help send 30 HBCU students and faculty to Paris for the COP21 climate talks. While there, the students sent a powerful message to Congress about why they shouldn't lift the ban on crude oil exports.4 They also showed the world what front line climate leadership looks like, because many of them are from communities in Louisiana, Texas and other Gulf States that know first hand the perils of climate catastrophe.
That's why we're proud to be back in New Orleans supporting the 4th Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference. The primary goal of the conference, "is to bring together HBCU faculty and students, researchers, climate professionals and environmental justice and coastal community residents impacted by toxic facilities and severe weather events to bridge the gap between theory and the experiential realities of climate change."1
This is an important conference in an important city that knows all-too-well the worst impacts of climate catastrophe. But to make the conference a success, we need your help: Click here to chip in $20 or more to help future leaders and allies come together to take on humanity's greatest challenge.
Here's how your donation will help
Thanks again for supporting our work on Climate Justice,
Drew and the Climate Justice crew at Environmental Action
1. Deep South Center for Environmental Justice: 4th Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference - Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Experience.
2. Ryan P. Cumming, Flint Crisis Funding Lingers as Senate Opponents Take Vacay, Huffington Post, March 29, 2016
3. Drew Hudson, A New Lease on Life for the Gulf, Environmental Action Blog, March 24, 2016
4. Rogers-Wright, Anthony. Climate Justice Youth to Senate: The Ban Must Stand! Environmental Action. November 2015.
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