Welcome to Washington Youth Climate Strike’s newsletter. We will be sending out weekly briefs to catch you up on the latest news and events. On the first Monday of every month, we will also be sending out more in-depth newsletters with activists spotlights and much more!
RUNDOWN
This week, we have something super important to highlight: the December 6th strike!
We are striking for climate justice and demanding the following:
1. Put a halt to the Tacoma LNG plant
2. Declare a Statewide climate emergency
3. Carbon neutral by 2025 in Washington
4. Honor the treaties with indigenous nations with sovereign land within Washington by embodying environmental justice
5. Deny all fossil fuel infrastructure and projects
6. All decisions made by the government are tied to scientific research
Join us in one of the 6 strikes in Washington this Friday – details below and click on the name of the city to RSVP:
– Seattle – 11-12pm: Gather at Lake Union Park, 12-1pm: March to Seattle City Hall, 1-3pm: Rally at City Hall
This month, we are highlighting the Protectors of the Salish Sea. The Protectors of the Salish Sea are a group of individuals demanding that Washington officials rise to action, confront the climate crisis and honor the treaties made by the U.S. government and native nations of Washington State. Near the end of September 2019, founder Paul Cheyokten Wagner and the Protectors of the Salish Sea walked 40 miles to protest the rising number of fossil fuel emissions in Washington state and the lack of movement from Governor Jay Inslee. In a recent video with The Olympian, Wagner stated, “These people need to have open eyes. They need to see that the world is dying in front of them and they need to step up right now.” The Protectors of the Salish Sea are fighting vehemently for action to be taken, and they lead by an example we should all follow.
FEATURE: INTERSECTIONALITY: NOT AN AFTERTHOUGHT
Hi everyone! I’m Kimaya, one of the executive directors for Washington Youth Climate Strike. I recently had the opportunity to give a keynote called It’s Our Future: Reimagining Environmental Justice with our wonderful National Executive Director Feliquan Charlemagne. This title in and of itself is of utmost importance to understanding what the climate crisis is, in terms of environmental justice. The climate crisis has historically been mischaracterized by focusing solely on the environment, on things like atmospheric chemistry, applied physics, and warming charts, without recognizing the humanity affected by the issue. By creating this false dichotomy between “human issues” and “environmental issues”, advocacy in and for minority communities has been called “social justice”, not “environmental justice”, even though these fights are one and the same.
In order to actually achieve anything meaningful in the fight for climate action, we have to understand how issues of affordable housing, immigration reform, prison reform, LGBT+ rights, womxn’s rights, economic inequality, racial inequality, and more, all intersect with the climate crisis. It is imperative that we recognize how systems of oppression that our world was founded on, specifically colonialism and capitalism, are directly responsible for the catastrophe we find ourselves facing, so that the solutions we pursue are truly solving this crisis, not just putting a Bandaid on a bullet hole.
I appreciated having the opportunity to deliver this speech because for once, the climate crisis was framed as the intersectional crisis that it is. This is indicative that the conversation and mindset is shifting, and people are beginning to understand the causes, perpetuators, and immediate victims of climate change. Without this realization, there is no climate justice. There is no “saving the planet” without intersectionality at the core of climate action.
This is a lesson I’ll keep learning. Let’s remind one another of the unity necessary to defeat the fossil fuel execs, the corrupt politicians, and everyone in between as we strike together this Friday, December 6th!
– Kimaya Mahajan, Co-Executive Director of WAYCS, 15, Interlake High School
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