JUUstice Washington

A Unitarian Universalist State Action Network

Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040

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Harry Taylor, 6, played with the bones of dead livestock on his family’s farm in New South Wales, Australia, an area that has faced severe drought. Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

The report, issued on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, describes a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 — a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population.  Read more here.

UUSC – First Peoples’ Convening on Climate-Forced Displacement

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First Peoples’ Convening on Climate-Forced Displacement

 

UUSC’s Environmental Justice & Climate Action work focuses on advancing and protecting the rights of populations at risk of climate-forced displacement caused by slow-onset climate impacts. UUSC’s program emboldens the principle of the right to self-determination by prioritizing building protections in place and when necessary and required by our partners, supporting communities to relocate with dignity.

Read on UUSC’s Climate-forced Displacement more here.

Angry at plight of southern-resident orcas, speakers rebuke NOAA in public meetings

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Mon., Sept. 17, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

Samish Nation member Leslie Eastwood, center, raises her arms with others at Deception Pass Park’s Bowman Bay on Sunday after completing a love song performed for those gathering for a vigil to remember the dead baby orca and her mother, Tahlequah, as well as the plight of other orcas. The Samish Nation hosted the two-day event, where food, song and dance were part of an ongoing ceremony. (Ken Lambert / Seattle Times)

Samish Nation member Leslie Eastwood, center, raises her arms with others at Deception Pass Park’s Bowman Bay on Sunday after completing a love song performed for those gathering for a vigil to remember the dead baby orca and her mother, Tahlequah, as well as the plight of other orcas. The Samish Nation hosted the two-day event, where food, song and dance were part of an ongoing ceremony. (Ken Lambert / Seattle Times)Scores of local residents condemned the federal agency in charge of protecting local killer whales in two packed public meetings over the weekend, highlighting growing frustration after the deaths of three of the animals this summer.

The endangered southern resident killer whales, of which just 74 remain, aren’t getting the help they need from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, speakers said at a Saturday meeting in Friday Harbor and another the following day in Seattle. The agency has also not been transparent in its efforts to bring the mammals back from the brink of extinction, they added.

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Climate Displacement, Climate Justice and Indigenous Communities

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The following text is from the UU Service Committee report on climate displacement (see Resources for the link to the full report).  Also see Climate-forced Displacement Initiative for more info.

The threat of climate-forced displacement is disproportionately acute in small developing states and indigenous communities in remote areas. These communities are often under-resourced and politically marginalized, and, in some cases, have histories that include dealing with environmental change, tribal conflict, and earlier displacement by colonialist or corporate land grabs. Communities are often carrying out resettlements or relocations without legal protections and inadequate funding from private or governmental sources. Above all, global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change must be guided by human rights norms and principles, including the rights to participation, self-determination, transparency, and nondiscrimination.

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Environmental Justice and Climate Change in Greensboro, NC

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Rev. William J. Barber II, a Baptist minister who addressed the Unitarian-Universalist Association’s General Assembly in 2017, is fighting for environmental justice in Greensboro. A coal-fired power plant is polluting the waters of a lower-income colored community with coal ash, disposed in unlined waste ponds that contaminate wells. Rev. Barber was joined in late August 2018 by Al Gore, fighting coal power generation as part of his fight against climate change. Gore linked the issues: “Both are necessary byproducts of our addiction to fossil fuels.” Rev. Barber put the issue succinctly: “Jesus said love your neighbor. I don’t care how many times you tell me you love me, if you put coal ash in my water you don’t love me. Because if there was nothing wrong with the coal ash, then put it in the wealthy communities.”

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