IICAT Climate Justice Project
Corrie Ellis (IICAT:2/27/2014) / Richard Widick (IICAT:11/10/2018)
Greetings! We are the IICAT Climate Justice Project, consisting of eight researchers and activists at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the International Institute of Climate Action and Theory:
UCSB Sociology professor John Foran, Dr. Richard Widick of UCSB’s Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies, UCSB Sociology graduate students Corrie Ellis and Summer Gray, Sociology major Ben Liddie, and 2013 UCSB graduates Natasha Weidner (Environmental Studies) and Emily Williams (Environmental Studies).
We traveled to COP 19 in Warsaw to participate in the UN climate talks, where we interviewed climate youth activists for eventual production of e-book and a film that we hope will help build the climate justice movement as it tries to shape the global climate treaty that is being negotiated for 2015.
On Saturday, May 10, 2014, we hosted a conference, “Re-imagining Climate Justice,” at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Visit our conference website www.climatejusticeproject.org for more information.
Read about the conference in The UCSB Current.
What follows are a few of our resulting publications, reflections and research products.
Ethnographic Film Excerpt.1 Scene at UNFCCC COP 19, Warsaw, 2013, by Richard Widick, IICAT Films, 2013.
At the COP – Global Climate Justice Youth Speak Out, edited by John Foran, Corrie Ellis, and Summer Gray, 2014. This is an electronic book of ethnographic interviews conducted and photographs taken at UNFCCC COP 19, Warsaw, Poland, 2013.
FROM THE INTRODUCTION
WE STARTED TO DRAFT THESE WORDS the same day as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the fnal document of its Fifth Assessment Report.
Those of you who are reading this probably need little reminder of the state of crisis in which the world finds itself, a crisis marked by a precarious global economy, governments characterized by corporate influence and inaction, and cultures where violence is embedded in everyday life, from sexual assault to global warfare.
This gloomy reality is now exponentially worsened by climate change.
To avoid some of the most catastrophic effects of climate change, we need to leave four-fifths of the planet’s known fossil fuel reserves in the ground. Forever.
We have changed the planet so much from the benign climate that marked the rise of the species as to constitute a new geological epoch, named the Anthropocene.
We have created a world where the majority of the population and life itself lacks the fundamental conditions for dignity. But we can recreate it too.
Into this dramatic moment has come a glimmer of hope, and that is what our “book” is about.
This work is not ours, in fact.
It is the work of the young activists whose words and images grace its pages.
It is an on- going work that belongs to all of us, and it is in that spirit that we offer it and invite all to continue to write the story of climate justice that is now the most important one in the world.
John Foran, Corrie Ellis, Summer Gray
Stop being disappointed: re-imagine climate governance: A reflection on the UN approach to climate governance, by Natasha Joyce Weidner, September 1, 2014
There is a perpetual cloud of disappointment hovering over the UN climate change negotiations. Rich countries won’t give money to poor countries for adaptation and mitigation. Heavy emitters won’t commit to meaningful emissions cuts. Nations are unwilling to compromise with one another, unwilling to take the actions that the science recommends, unwilling to come to an agreement that might save humanity from the greatest ecological crisis in our history. My question is, how can we expect them to? We live in a globalized world dictated by the merciless greed of the capitalist economy, which benefits a very small proportion of the people on earth and exploits the rest. >>>read more
A singular reflection … and a plan of conflict-seeking ethnographic participatory action, by the CJP team, 2013
Climate justice can mean many things: for us it is meaningful action toward the most progressive possible global climate treaty, the strongest possible social movement participation in creating that treaty, and through both of these channels the creation of a low-carbon, sustainable, equitable, and deeply democratic future. We believe that if we are to inhabit a livable world in coming years, this movement must become the biggest the world has ever seen.
Our goals for this year are to produce a book and a film documenting the global fight for climate justice, both of which we will make available to the public for free.
Our plan
The project consists of several intertwined activities:
Attending the climate talks in Warsaw where our team of activists, investigators, writers, and photographers will be documenting the climate negotiators, carbon capitalists, and global climate justice movement activists, by interviewing whomever we can, with special focus on youth delegates and climate activists from the global south. We will be writing blogs and news analysis from Warsaw, posting photos and videos, and doing film and interviews while we are there.
Producing a 45-minute film, At the COP: The Global Youth Climate Justice Movement, that focuses on the actions and visions of the young activists of the movement for use in schools, community settings, and in movement organizations, to be ready in the summer of 2014.
Publishing a high-quality, beautifully illustrated and wonderfully free of cost e-book, At the COP: Global Climate Justice Youth Speak Out, to be ready in May 2014, including interviews, blog posts, and other materials gathered at COP17 in Durban, South Africa in 2011 and COP18 in Doha, Qatar in 2012.
Hosting a conference, Reimagining Climate Justice, at our home institution, the University of California, Santa Barbara, on May 10th 2014. This gathering, open to everyone, is a space for envisioning ways to help make the many struggles for climate justice stronger and more creative as they scale up their efforts to force governments and the corporations who control them to take the measures necessary to ensure a livable planet for future generations. Read more about the conference in the UCSB news.
No political process or treaty construction has ever held more universal importance, so we think it’s crucial to get involved and let people know that the whole world is not only watching, but participating in whatever way they can. We hope to provide them with the support they need; by scrutinizing the small print of the official documents, tracking the polite but deadly serious exchanges between negotiators, exposing the maneuvers of the big corporations and their cheerleaders, and, especially, spreading far and wide the analyses, actions, and dreams of the climate justice movement, composed of organizations and individuals from all over the world.
OUR TEAM
Corrie Ellis
Corrie Ellis is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, an activist with 350 Santa Barbara and a Research Associate with the International Institute of Climate Action and Theory. Corrie studies women, climate change activism, development and labor. Her master’s thesis documents women’s accounts of life and labor conditions on a Fairtrade rose farm in Ecuador. She is excited to be embarking on a new project focused on how women and men activate as climate justice activists and the challenges and supports they encounter as they fight to save our Earth. Raised in Idaho, Corrie loves being outside and working to ensure that all people are able to enjoy a beautiful and healthy environment now, and in the future.
John Foran
John Foran has taught sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 1989. His books include Fragile Resistance: Social Transformation in Iran from 1500 to the Present (1993, get it free here) and Taking Power: On the Origins of Third World Revolutions (2005). Since attending the COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, he has taken constant inspiration from the global climate justice movement, which he teaches, researches, and speaks about whenever he can (he has been accused of talking about nothing else). His blog from the 2012 Doha COP18 can be found here TBA). He is active in a number of local, national, and global organizations dedicated to climate justice, and writes for a number of on-line publications about these struggles (see his work here and here).
Summer Gray
Summer Gray is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Research Associate at the International Institute of Climate Action and Theory. She is studying seawalls and climate change adaptation comparatively around the world, and is especially interested in the Maldives.
Ben Liddie
Ben Liddie is an undergraduate Sociology major at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he pursues a focus on queer theory, radical social change, and the environment. He is a highly involved student activist passionate about cultivating awareness and understanding of climate justice issues in his community and beyond. Ben is especially interested in networking with and mobilizing other youth activists interested in subverting the power structures, ideologies, and discourses that prevent a just climate from being actualized.
Natasha Weidner
Natasha Joyce Weidner is an undergraduate in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been involved in climate activism since 2009, when she attended the United Nations COP15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen as an accredited observer. Born and raised in San Francisco, California, her interests include sustainable agriculture, environmental education, radical social change, and latin dance. She is currently working on a thesis that examines sustainable development projects in Cuba.
Richard Widick
Richard Widick holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he lectured on theory, culture, media, globalization, social movements and environment before moving to UCSB’s Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies. He is the author of Trouble in the Forest: California’s Redwood Timber Wars (University of Minnesota Press, 2009), an ethnography, cultural analysis, and 150 year social history of the US colonization and industrialization of California’s northern redwood region. The book is a history of the Indian wars and labor trouble that set the legal, social and ecological conditions for converging peoples, labor and environmental movements in the present era of globalization.
Emily Williams
Emily Williams is a recent alumnus of UCSB, with a B.S. in Environmental Studies. She is currently a Campaign Director with the California Student Sustainability Coalition. Her primary focus as Campaign Director is in providing students support in their Fossil Free campaigns. The Fossil Free movement aims to get institutions to divest their funds from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies. She was the coordinator for the Fossil Free campaign at UCSB from 2012-2013, and wrote her thesis on quantifying the external costs associated with the coal industry.