Join the fight for environmental/reproductive justice, and sign this petition!
By: Jas Margarita Tobon
As the Caldor fire continues to incinerate the Pacific Northwest, making the Reno-Tahoe area’s air quality the worst in the country and reminding us of the climate-change catastrophe, I urge Planned Parenthood staff and supporters to tell our elected officials that this is a wake-up call. We and the people who represent us in government must hold environmental abusers accountable and, quite literally, save our world.
We should start with the regions that have been most profoundly impacted for more than a century by environmentally destructive policies and practices because these communities have the least money and power to fight back.
It is our responsibility as movement builders and leaders, people on the frontlines, to recognize that environmental justice is reproductive justice. Current environmental efforts just aren’t enough: No amount of recycled water bottles can stop structural and institutional inaction and a history of bloody colonization that have led us to the inequities we’re facing today -- including the vulnerability of places where many BIPOC communities live.
The centuries of exploitation of Native lands and our communities’ resources, including mining, in service of corporate and individual greed and neglect have led us to this moment. We must begin demanding more of our leaders and of these corporations whose predatory, exploitative practices have led us here. We must also demand more of ourselves as we stand with Indigenous communities who have been fighting for the preservation of their land and their people for hundreds of years.
Nevada is part of that history.
Many of the catastrophic effects of climate change -- affecting water, food supplies, migration, and more -- are caused by corporations that routinely put profit over the health of the planet and, ultimately, humanity at large.
Just look at Nevada’s mining industry. The proposed mine by Lithium Nevada/Lithium Americas near Fort McDermitt, Thacker Pass, originally known as Peehee Mu'huh (Rotten Moon), has long been opposed by the People of the Red Mountain (Atsa koodakuh wyh Nuwu) who say the resulting sky-high increase of carbon dioxide and massive destruction of land would also amount to cultural genocide.
Also, large labor camps and mining camps called “man camps'' are directly correlated to missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirits (MMIWG2S). We cannot allow these corporations, whose infamous histories of abusing the land and Nevada’s Indigenous communities, continue this abuse.
We urge you to sign the petition here to protect Peehee Mu’huh lands from proposed mining and environmental destruction.
If you’re like me, a non-native, you are most likely sheltered from the worst effects of climate change. But it will soon become impossible to ignore. While the current picture is bleak, the upshot is that there is still time to make a change for the better. But it requires our immediate action.
Please sign the petition today and look into getting involved with organizations like the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) that have been leading this work for decades. These quick actions are just the first of many crucial steps in addressing the defining issue of our time – and our planet.
Tags: environment, reproductive_justice