November Newsletter
A lot has happened since we last connected. How are you doing? In our first Hoodwinked meeting post election we took time to sit with that question. Some were feeling fear of what is to come, some unsurprised yet rightfully concerned. Another reminded us that all empires fall, and the average amount of time empires last is around 250 years.. around the age of the United States. To our Hoodwinked community and beyond, how are we balancing legitimate fear and concern for what is to come, absorbing the gravity of this new and likely worse reality, despite knowing many have already been living in survival mode and need support and resources right now, not only post inauguration.
To meet this moment, we’re leaning into questions and curiosity, how can we show up for one another, how can we double down on our support for grassroots movements, further our mutual aid work, what collective care already exists in your community and what are gaps that need to be filled? What skills could we learn from one another and how can we be more intentional about where we put our time?
What’s sustaining you right now?
Let us know! We talk a lot about false solutions over here… but if we don’t also center the world we’re fighting for, we can lose sight of why we’re in this fight. Here are a few things giving us hope and motivation
- A powerful speech from Jesús Vásquez of Organización Boricua and La Via Campesina at COP29. “Globalize the struggle, globalize hope.”
- We Grow The World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition
- Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions works. New Victory: Carrefour closes all branches in Jordan due to BDS pressure
- Return of land to the Wiyot Tribe in Northern California, 𝗔𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘄𝘂𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗸𝗹𝗵: The Wiyot Tribe’s reclaimed coastal dunes and rare forest ecosystem
- Indigenous Climate Action – Colonial Borders Can’t Divide Us
- Breaking: Coho Salmon Return to Upper Klamath River Basin After 60 Year Absence!
One thing we know with certainty,
the fight for climate justice continues.
For many in the U.S. and beyond, the threat of what is to come post election presents real material dangers to housing, livelihood, healthcare, and overall safety. These risks are greatest for our BIPOC trans, two-spirit, queer and non-binary loved ones. For folks who are undocumented, experiencing homelessness, and barely scraping by, the risks are further amplified. We want you to know, we stand with you and we have your back.
Over here at Hoodwinked HQ, we have a lot in the works. We’ve listened to requests of frontline organizers, and we’ve started to work on a Spanish audiobook version of Hoodwinked. Hablas español? Have a good podcast voice or interested in getting involved? Let us know!
Our roundtable discussion group on land and liberation for land defenders, farmers, food sovereignty advocates, and grassroots movements for land, food, and climate justice internationally is planning a virtual political education teach-in, looking at past movements and their successes and shortcomings, and situating ourselves in this precarious moment in history as we discuss where do we go from here and strategize on collective next steps.
In Colombia, 500 copies of Hoodwinked in Spanish, English, and Portuguese traveled with Indigenous Environmental Network, Climate Justice Alliance, and allies to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 in Cali, Columbia where they were widely distributed. Thank you to all who supported these Hoodwinkeds getting into the hands of many!
Hoodwinked at COP16
At COP16, the Hands Off Mother Earth Alliance and the movement against false climate solutions had a historic win against geoengineering, reaffirming that geoengineering is a risk to climate and biodiversity as well as the call for a global moratorium on nuclear geoengineering.
While Indigenous peoples and civil society had a large presence at COP16, so did big green NGOs, the corporates, the conservationists, and false solutions profiteers. There was a major push for “nature positive biodiversity offsets,” “biodiversity markets” and a plethora of techno-fixes. As Jim Thomas puts it, “there was a different kind of COP going on in Cali; a Davos-style neoliberal eco-trade fair mixed with norm-setting committees for enabling emerging biodiversity markets and next-generation high-tech gadgets.”
Hoodwinked at COP29
In late November, Hoodwinked member organizations, allies, and 1,700 coal, oil and gas lobbyists were at the UNFCCC COP29 in Azerbaijan that ended with an extremely lacking “bad deal” for climate justice, with the wealthy polluting nations refusing the climate justice movements’ call for a $1 trillion finance plan. La Via Campesina and civil society stand strong in their critique of false solutions: “current climate agenda is nothing short of disastrous as false solutions are promoted as climate mitigation tools.” In an interview, Dr. Tamra Gilbertson of Indigenous Environmental Network states, “Article 6 is not about saving the planet. The COPs are not about climate change. This is about profit.” HOME Alliance issued a Press Release at the start of COP29 warning of the Disastrous Start to COP29 As Countries Bulldoze Ahead with Carbon Markets Paving Way for Risky Geoengineering Technofixes.
Despite increased repression of activists in Azerbaijan leading up to COP29, civil society groups have issued the Baku Forest Declaration, calling for climate justice, Indigenous rights and forest protection to be the priority at the COP amidst an array of false solutions. Looking toward COP30 in Brazil, civil society groups are planning to convene for COP30, centering a “Common Climate Justice Agenda for Belem People’s Summit.” Make sure to check out and follow La Via Campesina, Indigenous Climate Action, NIRS, and Indigenous Environmental Network for their coverage and analysis on the ground.
Live from COP29: Climate Justice Activists Demand Action as Trump’s Return Looms Over U.N. Summit (Video)
Repression Intensifies in the Country Hosting a Major Climate Meeting – The New York Times
“In the months leading up to a high-profile global climate summit in November, the government of Azerbaijan has been intensely preparing for its role as host, renovating building facades, training volunteers and retrofitting a stadium for tens of thousands of delegates.
The energy-rich nation in the Caucasus Mountains region has engaged in more ominous activity as well: It has locked up dozens of activists and journalists in what experts describe as the country’s most aggressive campaign of repression in years.”
Cop summits ‘no longer fit for purpose’, say leading climate policy experts | Cop29 | The Guardian
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What else has Hoodwinked been up to this Fall?
Copies of Hoodwinked in English and Spanish were distributed at the No Dirty Hydrogen in the Midwest rally in East Chicago, Indiana on Saturday, November 16th, hosted by Just Transition Northwest Indiana, Southeast Environmental Task Force, and EarthJustice. Northwest Indiana community members already overburdened by pollution from industrial activities are fighting the proposed Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen (MachH2) Hub, which was just awarded $1 billion from the Department of Energy. A BP hydrogen production facility near the Whiting, Indiana refinery will use fracked gas to create “Blue Hydrogen” and capture and pipe the CO2 southward via a proposed pipeline for storage. For more information on the campaign and how to take action visit Hydrogen Hub Campaign – Just Transition NWI.
Action Items
BP is proposing a new project called “Project Crossroads” to build hundreds of miles of pipelines to carry highly pressurized liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) created from the hydrogen-making process to service Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. This method, known as carbon capture and storage (CCS), is risky and has a long history of problems.
- TELL CONGRESS TO PROTECT OUR COMMUNITIES – Send an email to Congress telling them to do the right thing and OPPOSE the Energy Permitting Reform Act (EPRA) of 2024, which fast tracks fossil fuel projects by eliminating community decision-making power.
- Join the Global Week of Action for Sanctions, November 20 – 29th
- Mark your calendars! The Campaign for Healthier Solutions National Week of Action is this December 2-8, 2024! Our friends at the Campaign for Healthier Solutions are working hard to get toxic products off of dollar store shelves in order to protect workers and environmental justice communities, and they need our help to pressure major dollar stores!
- Visit your local dollar store and deliver a letter to management. Ask the store manager to send the letter to headquarters.
- Email the executives/post on social media.
Will you commit to join us? Sign up to receive additional materials, information and support to help you take action.
Events
- Navigating Arctic Climate Challenges – All In One Virtual Event
Nov 26, 2024 at 10 AM Alaska/11 AM Pacific/2 PM Eastern/9 PM Stockholm
This webinar aims to deepen understanding and foster dialogue around the entangled issues of carbon offsets, the emerging “blue carbon” economy, deep-sea mining and geoengineering within the context of Arctic Indigenous communities.
Panel presenters will discuss the direct impacts of top-down climate mitigation policies on their communities, such as geoengineering testing and carbon markets/offsetting, as well as the climatic changes they face. They will share their experiences, critiques and concerns, while also highlighting the importance of Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and Cosmovision in guiding climate policies and strategies through accountability and knowledge born of the land.
More info here.
- Join Global Justice Ecology Project on Sunday, December 1 at 2:00-3:00 EST for an online discussion on “Global Insights and Action on GE Trees.”
Join us to hear from Lucy Sharratt, CBAN’s Coordinator, and Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project (US). They will provide information and insights into the next steps we can take to protect communities and the world’s forests from the threat of genetic engineering, and take your questions.
The event will feature updates from the International Campaign to STOP GE Trees programs in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and North America.
Lucy and Anne play a central role in the International Campaign to STOP GE Trees and both recently attended an industry science conference on GE trees.
We will be giving you the latest information about what’s happening in the lab and on the ground with genetically engineered (GE) trees, and how you can get involved.
In 2023, Lucy and Anne participated in a fact-finding visit to communities in Brazil impacted by industrial eucalyptus tree plantations and pulp mills and Anne has just returned from Chile where she was part of a delegation investigating the ecological and human rights impacts of monoculture tree plantations, and future industry plans for GE trees.
They will also share updates from the global meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity which just finished in Colombia, and new information on the attempts to commercially release the GE American chestnut.
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84900206302?pwd=azibGcNaFveBdd8GdkBkJ5uckpGhux.1
Meeting ID: 849 0020 6302
Passcode: 206139
Climate News
- This Land Is Our Land: South Dakota voters rebuke carbon pipeline legislation
- Hungry for Energy, Amazon, Google and Microsoft Turn to Nuclear Power
- Corporations using ‘ineffectual’ carbon offsets are slowing path to ‘real zero’, more than 60 climate scientists say
- Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to restart to power Microsoft AI operations
- ‘This Is BS’: Green Critics Slam Google’s Bid for Nuclear-Powered AI Future | Common Dreams
- As Use of A.I. Soars, So Does the Energy and Water It Requires – Yale E360
What we’re watching/listening to
- We Can’t Afford False Solutions: Dirty Hydrogen & Carbon Capture Sequestration
- We Grow The World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition
- Breaking Green: When “Protecting Nature” Harms its True Guardians with Anuradha Mittal – Global Justice Ecology Project
- Corporate Oil Capture of UN Climate Talks Continues at COP29 w/ Climate Organizer Allie Rosenbluth
Our Story
Did you know Hoodwinked’s origin story starts in the early 2000s in Durban, South Africa? Check out Our Story to learn more and see a photo of some of our beloved climate movement leaders in their earlier years!
