Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People

A demand for a moratorium on all new fossil fuel exploration & exploitation, nuclearpower plant construction, and large hydroelectric dam construction;Opposition to the role of corporations both in shaping unsustainable practices, and inunfairly influencing policy;The subordination of “market-based or technological solutions to climate change” toprinciples of democracy, sustainability, and social justice;The principles of “common but differentiated responsibilities” and democraticaccountability that governments must hold to in responding to the climate crisis;The principle of the “ecological debt” owed by the Global North to the rest of the worldfor its disproportionate share of historical CO 2 emissions;The right of workers in fossil-fuel industries to a safe, healthy work environment, andthe need for a “just transition” to a clean energy economy;The rights of women, youth, the poor, and rural peoples to have an equal voice indecision-making processes, without facing discrimination; andThe right of Indigenous peoples and affected communities “to represent and speak forthemselves,” to control all their traditional lands, to protect themselves from any threatto their territories or their “cultural way of life,” and to exercise “free, prior, andinformed consent” over project decision-making.While the climate justice movement hasbeen at its most visible while protesting andagitating at international climate summitsand negotiations (such as the protests atthe COP-15 UN climate negotiations inCopenhagen in December 2009, at which1,800 climate justice activists werearrested), those who comprise the“movement” are actually a coalition of localgroups campaigning for real solutions toclimate change in their communities. In theU.S., this movement includes groups likethe Environmental Justice and ClimateChange Initiative, the Deep South Center forEnvironmental Justice, We Act forEnvironmental Justice, Southwest WorkersUnion, the Asian Pacific EnvironmentalNetwork, Black Mesa Water Coalition, andmany others. Through this transnationalclimate justice movement, local groups aregiven an important platform todemonstrate the integral connectionbetween their local campaigns on a widevariety of issues, and the climate justicegoals outlined above. As Indigenous activistClayton Thomas-Muller has stated, theagenda of the climate justice movement isabout:Page | 7