Climate Disasters Frontline Leaders, Thousands of People Join to Call Hold Fossil Fuel Execs Accountable, Leap Towards a Just Recovery

A virtual forum, "Stronger than Storms: Climate & Just Recovery Forum" was participated by thousands of peoples and climate disaster frontliners last night.

The forum became an avenue for uniting community members on the frontlines of fires, storms, fossil fuel extraction, and climate disaster.

The forum also called for a just recovery from several crises such as COVID-19, racial injustice, and climate devastation.

It is the first fully-bilingual event in English and Spanish of 350.org US, an international movement of ordinary people committed to end the age of fossil fuels and create a world of community-led renewable energy.

Amira Odeh moderated the forum; the 350.org's the Caribbean & Gulf Organizer from Puerto Rico.

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Experiences and Challenges Amid Climate Disasters, Just Recovery

The forum had an exciting line of speakers who were at the forefront of climate disasters.

They each highlighted how lives, livelihoods, ecosystems and ways of life are destroyed by the fossil-fueled disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina, Maria, Harvey and Irma, the and the Superstorm Sandy.

The participants and speakers discussed their experiences and insights on how being among the millions of those displaced from homes due to intense hurricane season is. Added to their predicament is asserting the right to migrate amidst era authoritarianism on the rise.

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Among the speakers and their experiences are :

• Jasilyn Charger, Cheyenne River Sioux Indigenous Environmental Protector. She shared her experiences in leading young people at Standing Rock in fighting the Keystone XL pipeline, and how she helped mobilize and encourage young Indigenous Peoples in South Dakota to vote in the November election.

• Cesar Aguirre with the Central California Environmental Justice Alliance in Kern County, California.He was instrumental in recounting fires in the West, organized migrant food workers as part of a growing movement to challenge environmental racism and demand California Governor Gavin Newson to stop fracking in California.

• Verónica Noriega with Mentes Puertorriqueñas en Acción. Three years after Hurricane Maria, she organized young people to be involved in the social and climatic transformation of PuertoRico and continually exercise active citizen participation in the country.

• Troy Robertson, a leader of Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (GCCLP) from New Orleans. In commemoration of the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, he helped organize to protect Black lives and amid several hurricanes that battered their region this year, assisted in the development of a Green New Deal for the Gulf South.

• Judy Sheridan-González, RN, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) President. With the COVID-19 bringing them in the center of the pandemic storm and the role of nurses in the aftermath of climate disaster, she emphasized the importance of Universal Health Care as a part of Just Recovery.

• Xiye Bastida NYC youth climate leader with Re-Earth Initiative. Having experienced the floods in Mexico and Superstorm Sandy in NYC herself, she gave the updates on the global youth climate strikes, political education on environmental racism.

The speakers emphasized the need to demand a Just Recovery that centers on community-led recovery, especially in the hardest-hit communities. It also calls for protection of workers, upholding the country's democracy, providing immediate relief and assistance to affected people, stopping the use of fossil fuels and investing in a Green New Deal that centers on racial justice.

Active Participation

Participants did various activities throughout the forum, including watching a GOTV/climate video and sharing with hundreds of people.

They also signed up for 350.org US' national get out the vote demand which made more than 100,000 calls already.

After an inspiring discussion on Just Recovery, the organizer is also inviting everyone to its next forum next Wednesday, October 7, in the Solidarity School political education mass call series. The forum will feature connections between voter suppression and climate crises, and taking actions to get out the vote.

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