West Coast Climate Convergence–September 20th

The West Coast Climate Convergence was organized by the Mobilization for Climate Justice West and took place in Richmond, CA from September 18^th through the 21^st.

Richmond was a venue of significant because of a recent victory of a number of organizations including Communities for a Better Environment,  Asian Pacific Environmental Network and the West County Toxics Coalition who banded together to file a suit, facilitated by EarthJustice, an ecological law firm, against the City of Richmond in order to gain  an injunction against an oil refinery expansion by Chevron Oil Company.  According to Communities for a Better Environment, “Chevron’s 107-year-old Richmond refinery is the largest industrial polluter in the region, and communities in Richmond, particularly low-income and communities of color, already suffer from industrial pollution-related health problems. This victory represents years of grassroots organizing and building a movement to halt the refining of low-quality and more toxic crude oil that will impact community health. The decision is being hailed as a significant step toward stopping U.S. oil refinery expansions across the country to accommodate heavier, dirtier crude oil.”

I went to the Convergence with excitement to learn about issues facing the West Coast and also to engage and build relationships with activists in the region given WOCU’s role as a national organizer.  Our aims were achieved in that we were able to reconnect and deepen ties with old friends, gain a face to face acquaintance with folks we had only met online, and meet new friends as well as learn about new issues/struggles.

I reconnected with the great folks at Movement Generation for Change whose framing and messaging around ecology justice have served as much of the foundation for WOCU’s engagement on climate justice. They were instrumental in helping to pull this meeting together. I was able to meet more of the folks from organizations I met at the Movement Generation retreat last year such as Communities for a Better Environment, and  also others I had met through subsequent activism, like the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative.  I was able to meet in person Amanda Lee Tan of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives who has done so much as part of MCJ as well as working on issues of incineration and mountain top removal in the Appalachian region, and other struggles, that he is practically an institution into himself, though thoroughly integrated into the movements as a leader and organizer. I was able to hear the testimony of Elouise Brown of the “Dooda Desert Rock” Initiative to block the establishment of the third coal burning power plant within a 50 mile radius of Farmington, NM.

I participated in workshops on disaster preparedness “Surviving the Coming Cataclysm” by the Ruckus Society and Rising Tide, a Climate Justice 101 session, a workshop to prepare and organize in the lead up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, a session on “A True Green Economy—not Green Capitalism which challenges some of the co-opting of “greening”,  and  another on developing a plan of action and timeline for activism in the lead up to the US Social Forum including the G20 meetings, the UNFCCC, and other events. 

However, given the racial diversity in the Bay Area and the disproportionate impact of climate change on communities of color, I was dismayed that there were sessions I attended (2) where I was the only person of color in the room. (judging superficially)  What does this mean for how we are organizing? How is this impacted by how these issues are being framed and messaged?  What are the lingering residual effects of a movement (environmentalism at large, the reputation of which clearly impacts the environmental justice movement) that was previously perceived as being largely comprised of elites and white persons and largely focused on animals/wildlife/land conservation/etc with little regard for people?

As I am at the very start of the road tour, these are some questions to which I hope that we have some answers by the end of our time on the road.