SGVCC Exhibit 2022 – Climate & Environmental Justice

SGVCC Exhibit 2022 – Climate & Environmental Justice

SGVCC Exhibit 2022 – Climate & Environmental Justice

“PROTECT WATER, CLIMATE & COMMUNITIES”

September, 2019 – San Francisco Financial District

At 7:30 am, Native Women with Idle No More SF Bay lead a long march of Climate Justice activists up Montgomery Street, in the heart of the San Francisco Financial District, to shut down the street and blockade the banks that are financing the fossil fuel industry and threatening future generations and the health of the planet.

Over the course of the day, beautiful giant street murals would be painted covering 2 long city blocks, envisioning solutions to the climate crisis.

CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

The Bay Area is home to a large, vibrant and diverse community of Climate and Environmental Justice activists.  Their campaigns bring attention to both local and global issues.

Locally, the East Bay Refinery Corridor is home to numerous oil refineries and related industries, and San Francisco is a global financial center to many banks and investment institutions that finance the fossil fuel industry.  Frontline communities from Contra Costa County to Bayview Hunters Point and Treasure Island are speaking out about the Environmental Justice issues their communities are facing.

Powerful Youth and Indigenous Women led campaigns also work to tie local issues to broader campaigns for Climate Justice, Indigenous Sovereignty and the health of future generations.  Financial institutions are being challenged both in the streets and in the board rooms, for their investments in industries that hurt communities and the planet.

“No Forest Offsets!”

September 2018 – Global Climate Action Summit

San Francisco

An indigenous leader from Brazil joins thousands of indigenous and non-indigenous people in the streets of San Francisco outside a global climate conference organized by then Governor, Jerry Brown.  The message from the streets to those in the conference:  perceived Climate Solutions that cater to corporate interests in the global north often result in the forced displacement of the indigenous communities in the global south who have been caring for the land since time immemorial.

 

 

“Stop Environmental Racism”

April 23 (Earth Day), 2022

San Francisco

On Earth Day this year, a huge energized gathering of Bay Area Youth called for Climate Justice for the neglected communities of Bayview Hunters Point and Treasure Island and for the immediate cleanup of toxic and radioactive waste left from the sites’ naval shipyards.

CalSTRS – Divest from Fossil Fuels!

(California State Teachers’ Retirement System)

January 30, 2020 – Sacramento, CA

Young people drenched in fake ‘oil’ and an oil tanker on wheels were pulled down the Capital Mall in Sacramento to CalSTRS headquarters, to protest CalSTRS $6BILLION investment in fossil fuel holdings.  Youth groups and environmental groups have been pressuring the CalSTRS Board for years to “Divest from fossil fuels and Invest in the future”.

“Urgent” – CalSTRS Board Meeting
Youth March: State Capital to CalSTRS
Davis youth at CalSTRS
“Future On Fire”

October 29, 2021

DEFUND CLIMATE CHAOS!

BlackRock’s San Francisco headquarters

“RISE For Climate Justice”

September, 2018 

Global Climate Action Summit

San Francisco

 

Organized by Indigenous and Frontline communities, hundreds gathered outside the Governors’ Climate and Forest Task Force meeting leading up to the Global Climate Action Summit, to demand an end to false solutions that allow continued harm to their communities.

 

Photography Exhibit

Photography Exhibit

San Geronimo Valley Community Center – September, 2022

From the streets of Oakland and San Francisco, to the Guapinol community in Honduras, the Anishinaabe in Minnesota, and the fenceline communities of the Bay Area refinery corridor…  unique and yet intertwined stories of communities protecting what they need to survive and creatively building towards a world where they can thrive.

This exhibit was tied in with a month of activities at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center related to the UN International Day of Peace on September 24th.  On the 23rd, I had the very great pleasure of sharing my exhibit with the middle schoolers at Lagunitas Middle School… about 75 6th, 7th and 8th graders. I was able to share with them a wide range of social justice stories and some really creative/beautiful actions happening around the Bay Area that involve many different communities fighting for change.  Their very thoughtful questions and observations seemed to reflect sparks of genuine interest and curiosity.

Thanks so much to Cory VanGelder and Greenstitch Climate Action for making this happen!