Facing Climate Change Head-On: How Survivors Are Leading the Charge for Justice

In our continuing coverage of the ongoing climate catastrophe, we often ask what we can learn from the experiences of people living on its frontlines. From New Orleans to New York and Seattle to Maine — and from suffocating wildfires to deadly heat waves, drenching rain, hurricanes, floods and saltwater intruding into drinking water —many Americans have experienced the devastating impacts of the climate crisis. Now they have begun asking: How much more can we take? Colette Pichon Battle, an award-winning lawyer and climate justice organizer whose work focuses on creating spaces for frontline communities to gather and advance climate strategies that help to steward the water, energy, and land, has some answers.

Pichon Battle is a Louisiana native who began her work in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, when she and so many others lost their homes there. Known as a leading voice in climate justice and Black liberation movements, she founded the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (GCCLP), focused on equitable climate resilience in the Gulf South. Recently she has expanded her vision as the Co-founder and Vision & Initiatives Partner for Taproot Earth that includes work in Appalachia, the global Black diaspora and geographies across the world, with an emphasis on climate migration and global climate reparations. Pichon Battle chaired the 2021-22 Equity Advisory Group of the Louisiana Governor’s Climate Initiative Task Force and was a 2019 Obama Fellow. She has also been the recipient of numerous awards for climate justice and  the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment.

“If we choose to be our best selves in this moment, if we choose to work through fear in this moment, if we choose courage and each other, we can actually stop not just the oppression of my people, but the oppression of yours.” - Colette Pichon Battle

“What I need is white allies learning about whatever ethnicity, whatever cultural tradition they come from, and how did they live with the land and how do we put those things together? . . . Why aren't we fighting together for the sake of this planet?” - Colette Pichon Battle
 

Guest:  Colette Pichon Battle, Esq.: Co-founder, Vision & Initiatives Partner for Taproot Earth

Full Episode Notes are located HERE.  They include related episodes, articles, and more.

Music In the Middle:  “Do You Actually Care by LifeIsOne. from the Climate Soundtrack Project, produced by DJ’s for Climate Action, a global initiative harnessing the power of dance music and DJ culture to power climate solutions and generate action.  And additional music included- "Steppin" & "Electric Car"  by Podington Bear.

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