Climate Action Session at Lower Hudson Valley Social Forum! Sunday, April 27th
Nada Khader
Combatting Hopelessness with Climate Action!
The best cure for hopelessness is to act! We will be discussing actions and tactics we are using to continue to make progress under the current administration. Struggling with how to advocate on an issue? Let’s brainstorm together.
Panelists:
Courtney M. Williams, PhD (facilitator), Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions (WASS)
Courtney is a scientist, activist, community organizer, and mom fighting for environmental justice for Peekskill. She founded WASS in 2021 to push for Westchester County to close its largest industrial air polluter: The Wheelabrator trash incinerator that burns the county’s garbage and contributes to the public health emergency facing Peekskill residents. For over a decade she has been fighting the repeated expansion of the “Algonquin” Fracked Gas Pipeline and the colocation of the pipeline with Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant.
Peggy Kurtz, Rockland Sierra Club
Climate change is an existential and absolutely urgent threat to life on this planet. With the Trump administration recklessly dismantling climate programs and critical protections in favor of oil, gas, and chemical companies, our activism is more urgent than ever before. Sierra Club, the largest grassroots network of environmentalist activists in the country, focuses on the climate crisis and other environmental threats such as toxic chemicals. A lifelong environmental advocate, Peggy Kurtz is on the Executive Committee of Lower Hudson Group of Sierra Club.
Shokoofeh Rajabzadeh, Climate Families Westchester
Shokoofeh Rajabzadeh is the lead organizer of Climate Families Westchester, a branch of Climate Families NY. A writer, scholar, mother, and dedicated activist, her work explores how stories from the past shape our modern conceptualizations of Islamophobia and white supremacy. She has organized with Climate Families, the Summer of Heat Campaign, Westchester for Palestine, and Jewish Voices for Peace, bridging movements for climate justice and Palestinian liberation. Grounded in the belief that all systems of oppression are interconnected, she is committed to collective action, knowing that every step toward liberation—for people or the planet—weakens the structures that bind us all.
Suzanne Barclay, Beyond Plastics
Launched in January 2019, Beyond Plastics is a nationwide project based at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, that pairs the wisdom and experience of environmental policy experts with the energy and creativity of grassroots advocates to build a vibrant and effective movement to end plastic pollution. We use our deep policy and advocacy expertise to build a well-informed, effective movement seeking to achieve the institutional, economic, and societal changes needed to save our planet, and ourselves, from the negative health, climate, and environmental impacts of the production, usage, and disposal of plastics.
