#MovementMonday: Climate Justice and COVID-19

Associate Editor Morgan Moone sat down with Maggie Ellinger-Locke, Staff Attorney at Greenpeace, to chat about the compounding impacts of climate change and COVID-19, and how activists can stay engaged during the pandemic.

Below is a transcript of our conversation, which is housed under the #MovementMonday hashtag on Twitter.

1. Can you tell us about any current projects you’re working on, and how the landscape of climate justice looks right now?

• Like for most organizers, work is profoundly shifting under COVID19, campaigns need to pivot or be tinkered with. Greenpeace does a lot of work to oppose anti-protest legislation that seeks to increase criminal penalties for activism, but most state legislatures have closed.
• We are calling for improvements to our existing electoral system, leveraging our online power around the coronavirus relief legislative packages, and have even moved our new project, and Jane Fonda’s idea, Fire Drill Fridays, online by holding virtual rallies
• Many people are sitting at home right now – which as an extrovert I can say is not a fun thing to do – but it offers a real opportunity to engage with people in digital spaces. It’s been said: never let a good crisis go to waste, which I think is strong advice for us all. 

2. Can you talk about these shifts that are happening? How do you see grassroots organizing evolving? Are there any new links/alliances between organizations, or ways to conduct actions that grew as a result of COVID19?

• Protest is shifting because of the pandemic. We’ve seen car protests across the country calling to empty jails, centers of outbreak. Most people in jails have not been convicted of a crime but simply cannot afford bail. The system is handing down death sentences without due process
• We are also seeing a rise of protest from the right objecting to stay at home orders and the like. As we are seeing law enforcement react in a relatively hands off way. Police rarely treat impacted communities or activists so kindly. This is content based speech discrimination (and racism) 
• Mutual aid societies are popping up, composed of people across the political spectrum, some of the first organizers to mobilize around the pandemic. Durham NC organizers successfully petitioned their Mayor to add MA to the list of essential activities
• We need to ensure material changes we win during this time do not disappear post-pandemic. Workers are striking and making demands to affect changes. Oil must stay in the ground. The earth is resilient and responding to less pollution. We need to keep the ground we’re gaining. 
• What we need is a #JustTransition that takes the global economy off of fossil fuels and places it onto renewables. Just transition center workers’ rights and those most impacted by the climate crisis.
• For as long as humans have been alive we’ve survived through community. Community is what keeps us safe, not the state, not law enforcement or the military, but our connections with each other. Many people are seeing this play out in critical life or death situations right now.

3. You’re a people’s lawyer and activist. Can you talk about the compounding impact of climate justice and COVID-19 from this perspective?

• Greenpeace USA believes that a healthy democracy is a precondition for a healthy environment. But even if our government was functioning in a less harmful way, it remains fundamentally flawed. We can do better, another world is possible. 
• The communities hit the hardest by COVID19 are the same ones harmed or underserved by existing power structures such as healthcare, law enforcement, transportation, education. Public health is an environmental justice issue, as much as a pipeline in your backyard.
• The USA is a settler-colonial state, a white supremacist capitalist hetero-patriarchy. We cannot tinker with the system to escape these issues. We need criminal justice reform and prison and police abolition. We need to abolish the electoral college. And a new constitution. 
• We need our policy leaders to listen to science when it comes to both COVID and the climate crisis. Science based policy as the driver for change! Expertise, not greed.

4. What’s going on with our lawmakers? Is there presently or are there talks of potential movement on legislation like Green New Deal? How can we rebuild our infrastructure after COVID 19 in a sustainable way?

• We now have several rounds of inadequate legislation moved through Congress. Predictably, major industry receives billions in bailouts with relatively little for the vast majority of us. People are being left out altogether. THis system is not an accident, but one of design.
• We need legislation to help people in crisis FIRST. Meet material needs for people who are already struggling under capitalism compounded with the biggest public health crisis of our lifetimes. But the administration wants to bail out oil companies, making these struggles worse.
• We need a #GreenNewDeal. Scientists tell us we have just over a decade to cut global emissions in half to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. But the crisis is already here. If we want to save the planet and its peoples, we need to radically restructure society. 
• The Green New Deal calls for a just transition that helps transform our economy so that no one gets left behind. We need to build good pipelines — Flint still doesn’t have clean water — not fossil fuel pipelines on Indigenous land. 

• Over the past several years we’ve witnessed a dangerous rise in anti-protest legislation. Lawmakers seeking to increase criminal penalties for already illegal conduct. Over 100 such bills on the state level. The mere introduction of these measures chills speech.
• ICNL Protest Law Tracker 
• Even during the pandemic we are seeing this legislation enacted. The governors of three states signed such bills into law during the last half of March — KY, DC, WV. States Quietly Pass Laws Criminalizing Fossil Fuel Protests Amid Coronavirus Chaos. 
• Anti-Protest Legislation is Threatening our Climate

5. How can activists come together in a time of social distancing for climate justice?

• Online activism is exploding. This is great, but what of folks with less/no internet, folks who are not tech savvy? When events like weddings or conventions go online we can reach more people, but only if we prioritize accessibility. 
• There are so many events/ways to engage in organizing on and offline. Mutual aid societies are essential. Car protests, socially distance protests, etc. People can join events like Greenpeace USA’s Fire Drill Friday. 

6. Resources

• NLG’s Know Your Rights During COVID-19
• What you Should Know About Online Tools During COVID-19 Crisis
• National Bail Fund Network – Community Justice Exchange

If you or your organization is interested in sharing about your work on our twitter chats, webinars or Facebook live broadcasts please reach out to lawatthemargins@gmail.com!