Women of Color: Send Your Climate Justice Story to Copenhagen!
Jacqui Patterson
Please Distribute Widely
Send your Story to Copenhagen Climate Summit & Beyond
Women of Color for Climate Justice Road Tour
Women of Color United (WOCU) is taking its 15+ state journey—the Women of Color for Climate Justice Road Tour—to the Climate Summit in Copenhagen and we want your voices added to the discussion!
Climate change disproportionately impacts women, particularly women of color, in the global north and women in the global south. It’s imperative that climate policies and planning include the needs of women of color and their communities at this critical time in history. Our Road Tour intends to lift up, as well as mobilize, women of color voices and influence policy makers to push for just climate policy.
“Women make up approximately 70% of those living in poverty, and low-income women, women of color, and immigrants will be most impacted by the severe weather events, heat waves, and increase in disease rates that will characterize Earth’s changing climate” (Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, 2009). Research shows that when disasters happen, there is usually a spike in violence against women; women’s frequent role as caretakers inhibits their ability to relocate quickly to avoid disasters; and socio-economic and political practices often push low-income women, women color and immigrants into toxic communities and/or workplaces.
Would you be willing and able to create a short video about climate change and justice issues and how it’s impacting your life? The video would be posted on the From Katrina to Copenhagen site on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/Katrina2Copenhagen) and would also be shown at multiple events in Copenhagen. The video can be any length (if more than 10 minutes, it will need to be divided into 10 min. increments for YouTube). There will also be a blog entry about the video posted on Women of Color United's website (www.womenofcolorunited.org/wocu-blog ) as well as the NAACP's Climate Justice Initiative Copenhagen Blogspot (https://climatejusticeinitiative.wordpress.com/)
We will put the videos online daily during the Copenhagen Climate Summit from Dec. 7th-18th. With those dates looming, we obviously need your submissions as soon as possible. We know this is ambitious, but we hope you will help get WOC voices heard around the globe!
During your online profile we ask that you speak from the "I"--your experiences your observations and the "we"--the issues and needs of your community. These online profiles are intended to lift up the voices of women of color, who are too often disregarded in policy-making and planning. Please note that there is potential that the press will contact you once the online profiles are made public. A priority for this initiative is to establish mechanisms for women of color in the US to link with women in the global south to find common ground for solidarity and joint activism. We would like to add your voices to this effort!
Please contact Deborah McKinney, dbmck...@gmail.com or 202-487-3953 immediately if you are willing to participate and able to create a short video.
We would love to speak with you if you are already involved in climate/environmental justice work, women’s rights, social justice and are willing to share your unique perspectives on how climate change/global-warming affect issues your neighborhoods and what you are doing about it. Please join us in building awareness around these issues and hopefully…a movement of women of color to assert our right to environment justice!
Women of Color United (http://www.womenofcolorunited.org) is a nationwide coalition of women spanning racial, ethnic, and indigenous groups focused on building the capacity of groups to advocate around the intersection of Violence Against Women and HIV&AIDS globally. WOCU advances policies, systems, and practices, which address the co-factors, drivers, and contexts that result in Violence Against Women, and HIV&AIDS in women of color globally. The Women of Color for Climate Justice Road Tour is being conducted in partnership with the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (www.ejcc.org) the Women’s Environment & Development Organization (www.wedo.org), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (www.naacp.org).
In Sisterhood,
Deborah McKinney
Women of Color United, Co-Founder and Member
Jacqui Patterson
Women of Color United, Co-Founder and Coordinator
NAACP, Climate Justice Initiative Director