Meet Climate Crusaders–Maisie Brown, Chief Devon Parfait & Sierra Lyons, EarthWorks, The Climate Reforestation Campaign

MEET CLIMATE CRUSADERS, MAISIE BROWN, CHIEF DEVON PARFAIT & SIERRA LYONS!

Maisie Brown is a sophomore at Jackson State University (JSU) studying political science in her home state of Mississippi where she advocates for residents in the nation’s Blackest state, many of whom have been victims of environmental racism for decades. Last August, when heavy rainfall and flooding of the Pearl River damaged the already faulty main water plant in the city, Jackson residents were left for several weeks without running water or even boil water notices. The disaster forced JSU to postpone their move-in date and cancel many club events of which Brown was a part. Although the crisis was impacting her college experience, Brown was more focused on community members who were at an even greater disadvantage. The 21-year-old mobilized on Twitter to raise awareness of what was happening in her college town and educate residents on how they could receive help. She furthered her efforts by creating the Mississippi Students Advocacy Team to disperse bottled water to elderly, disabled and low-income residents. The success of Brown’s online coalition is a testament to the power of digital activism.

Chief Devon Parfait’s earliest memories revolve around the Louisiana bayous of Terrebonne Parish, where his people, the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, have lived for nearly 200 years. But in 2005, Devon’s life on the land and water of his ancestors was upended by Hurricane Rita. The back-to-back disasters forced 1.4 million people to leave the state. His family moved north, staying with relatives, first north of Lake Pontchartrain and later in Marrero, a suburb of New Orleans, but the disruption took a toll on both his learning and his friendships. Through his undergraduate research, he determined that his tribe’s territory is losing land at more than double the rate of coastal Louisiana overall. Now, the recent Williams graduate and newly-installed chief has joined the staff of the Environmental Defense Fund, where he’s working on community-supported solutions.

Sierra Lyons is an education reporter who is working with Chief Parfait, Maisie and other student advocates as they tell their own stories and hopefully inspire other young people and adults to take action on climate issues on their campuses. With works published in Teen Vogue and Washington Post, she’s helping these climate activist youth organizers to reach broader audiences about these critical issues.

DEEPER DIVE: Sierra Lyons, Mississippi Student Advocacy Team, Chief Devon Parfait

MEET EARTHWORKS

Since 1988, Earthworks has helped communities secure protections of their health, land, water, and air from extractive industries. Earthworks formed from the merger of the Mineral Policy Center and the Oil & Gas Accountability Project to combine technical knowledge of impacts from the oil, gas, and hardrock mining industries and policy and advocacy skills with an organizational priority to follow the lead and amplify the voices of frontline communities. Earthworks has a long history of bridging grassroots and people’s movements with policy campaigns to change the rules of the game by which the oil, gas, and mining industries are allowed to operate.

Its vision is to help humanity transition more justly and equitably away from fossil fuels and rely less on new mining by:

• Reducing the immediate harms of oil, gas, and mining upon communities

• Stopping the expansion of oil and gas

• Reducing methane emissions from fossil fuel operations to slow climate change

• Holding corporate polluters accountable for cleanup and restoration

• Ensuring that the renewable energy transition does not shift burdens onto mining-impacted communities.

Earthworks protects communities and the environment from the adverse impacts of mineral and energy development while promoting sustainable solutions. We’re driven by our commitment to collaborate with communities on the frontline, using science in innovative ways, and building people power to ensure a more just and livable future. 

Earthworks fights for clean air, water and land, healthy communities, and corporate accountability. We work for solutions that protect the Earth’s resources, our climate, and our communities. Why does Earthworks matter to us? Aside from the fact that it’s the only national organization in the U.S. to focus exclusively on preventing the destructive impacts of the extraction of oil, gas, and minerals? It offers as just one of its resources, a  list of donors supporting grassroots climate justice groups.

DEEPER DIVE: Earthworks, Climate Justice Donors, Fracking  

THE CLIMATE DAILY 50/100 REFORESTATION CAMPAIGN!

Earth Day has come and gone, but Earth Month still lives on! (Yeessss…) Thank you to the more than dozen listeners of The Climate Daily who donated to The Climate Champions 50/100 campaign! There’s still work to do to get us to 10,000 trees. That’s why we’re extending the campaign through the end of the month–to give more of you the chance to become climate champions.

What’s a climate champion, you ask? A climate champion proves that a small group of people can make a massive impact on the planet in a short amount of time. How? Our company, The Climate, is partnering with over 30 international tree-planting organizations–ALONG WITH our climate champions– to re-plant, and regrow forests all over the world, by planting ten thousand trees at a time. 

Why? Because science says the best way to combat climate change is to restore nature. And the fastest way to restore nature is to plant and grow a trillion trees, and the fastest way to plant and grow a trillion trees is to replant and regrow forests. The fastest way to do that is to plant ten thousand trees at a time, 

So, we’re looking for folks to donate $50 or $100 one time, to help us plant 10,000 trees at a time, in one of seven regions around the planet (Which our tree planting partners will do. They’re the tree-planting professionals.) Please visit champions.theclimate.org/climate hyphen champions/50or100. Click on the donate button and join our team of climate champions today. 

 Again, visit champions.theclimate.org/climate hyphen champions/50or100. Click on the donate button and join our team of climate champions today. And if you want to start your own team of climate champions, reach out to us at info@34.203.12.8. Well help you put together your own small group of climate champions to make a massive impact on the planet in a short amount of time. (Planting 10 thousand trees–a 20-acre forest!) 

Wouldn’t it be great to be the change you want to see in the world? Go to champions.theclimate.org/climate hyphen champions/50or100and become part of something special. Become a climate champion.  Thank you!!

DEEPER DIVE: 50/100 Campaign, Trillion Tree Project