Activism
Seven people using legalisation, community grassroots organisation, & direct action to fight climate change
With the UK set to host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow this November, it’s a good time to remember the environmental activists, collectives, and organisers who are continuing to fight for a better world. While the last year has been dominated by news of the global pandemic, the climate crisis is still ongoing and still affecting not only the natural world but communities too. In other words, it cannot be forgotten. Physical protests and conferences may have had to be postponed or cancelled this year, but there are still activists both on the ground and in online spaces doing work that you should be aware of.
In 2020, we witnessed wildfires in the U.S.; CO2 levels in the atmosphere reaching record highs; Siberian heatwaves melting permafrost; and air and water pollution continue to kill millions of people.
When discussing climate change, it’s crucial that were are aware of environmental racism and how it destroys communities across the world. As Guardian reports, 57% of people of colour globally live in counties “with at least one failing grade for ozone and/or particle pollution”. In 2020, a landmark legal case in the UK saw a coroner rule that air pollution was the cause of death for a nine-year-old Black girl living in South London.
With this is mind, I have highlighted seven activists from marginalised ethnicities and genders who are using legalisation, community grassroots organisation, and direct action to fight climate change.
Dominique Palmer
Dominique Palmer is a climate justice activist and an organiser for both Fridays for Future and Climate Live. Palmer organises strikes and international campaigns and has spoken about environmental justice at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2019 (COP25).
Angela Camacho
Angela Camacho is a community organiser and founder of Wretched Of The Earth, a grassroots collective of indigenous, Black, and brown people demanding climate justice and standing in solidarity with communities of colour both in the UK and in the Global South.
Follow Camacho on Instagram.
Samia Dumbuya
Samia Dumbuya is a London-based climate justice activist advocating for sustainable futures. Dumbuya is the co-founder of both Seize the Vote and Diaspora Dialogues and works at Change.org UK as a junior campaigner.
Anjali Raman-Middleton
Anjali Raman-Middleton is a striker with UK Student Climate Network and the founder Choked Up, a campaign that advocates for Black and brown teens living in areas affected by air pollution and pushes for change to clean-air laws.
Follow Raman-Middleton on Twitter.
Dr Mya-Rose Craig
Mya-Rose Craig is a racial equality, climate, and environmental campaigner and activist. She has spoken alongside Greta Thunberg and Chris Packham. She is also the founder of Black 2 Nature, helping minority groups gain access to the outdoors. She received an honorary Doctorate of Science for fighting for equal access to nature at Bristol University.
Tessa Khan
Tessa Khan is an international human rights lawyer using litigation to achieve policy change for the climate. Khan is the co-founder of the Climate Litigation Network, a global collection of lawyers and campaigners helping people take their governments to court. She also helped established Uplift, a group fighting for a fossil-fuel-free future by connecting and elevating leading voices in this debate.
Follow Khan on Twitter.
Tori Tsui
Tori Tsui is a Bristol-based intersectional climate justice activist and helped set up Pass The Mic, a platform to spotlight frontline activists and climate communicators. They also launched a platform called Bad Activist Collective, a collective of change-makers, artists, story-tellers and activists dismantling perfectionism and fighting for liberation for people and the planet.
