L’eau Est La Vie: “The fight against the Black Snake moves south”

by Matthew Kennedy Only months ago, highly explosive crude oil began to flow through the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), or the Black Snake, as it was named by the Indigenous and allied activists at Standing Rock who organized massive opposition to its construction. The pipeline has since then leaked five times along its route. Proposals for dangerous new fossil fuel projects will continue to...

Actions Make a Thousand Pictures

By Kimberly Lopez Castellanos For the whole two weeks while in Paris, I was on the outside. Since the beginning of the course, I felt the need to network, communicate, and spread the stories of activists; whether these activists were from the frontline communities or some of the many youth trying to create a platform for the undermined voices that needed to be heard. The final days of COP21 were...

[Earth] Debrief COP21 at Uppsala University

By Sara Velander After two and a half weeks of navigating our way across Paris whether it’s attending the circus of negotiations at the Le Bourget, taking frequent naps at our hostel at Gare du Nord, making banners at the art space in Jardin d’Alice or leading workshops at the Climate Action Zone, it is time for debrief. Once the negotiations ended and civil society demonstrations took place...

Civil Society Rise On D12

By Kimberly Lopez Castellanos “Do not pour water over your eyes while your head is leaned back.” “Clench your fist to make room between your wrist and the handcuff.” Somehow, I found myself in the basement of an alternative space training for civil disobedience. Even the date, D12, sounds like Dooms Day. Why would I even think about being a part of it? For months, the French 'Coalition...

Is the South still possible?

By Angela Valenzuela and Augustin Martz (Agua Libre)   While France expands its military strategy in Syria, it is also hosting more than 190 nations in Paris at the climate conference COP21, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Under this climate talks a new international agreement on climate change will be signed, and it will define the political efforts...