This Mother's Day, the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) invites you to join us in honoring, celebrating and standing in solidarity with matriarchs around the world rising as mothers, as caretakers and as protectors and defenders of our precious collective mother, Mother Earth.

While governments across the world reel from the impacts of the coronavirus, it has become clear that women leaders are responding better to the COVID-19 pandemic, with more successful outcomes in their countries.

From the frontlines, we are bearing witness to the resilience and innovation of matriarchs rising for our communities and Mother Earth. In Kazakhstan, Dina Smailova, leader of the NeMolchi movement is pushing for justice and policies to better protect women from domestic violence during this time of quarantine measures; In Taiwan, women environmental activists persevere, continuing the fight against pollution, excessive consumption and climate change; and in the U.S., women elders of the Fort Peck Assiniboine Sioux Nation took action to protest Keystone XL pipeline and raise awareness of the link between pipeline man camps and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).

The vital work of women activists worldwide comes at a time of immense change, and for many of them, in a landscape of increased risk, criminalization and persecution for their work. All of our lives, the integrity of the Mother Earth, and the future of generations to come depends upon the work of these outstanding women land and community defenders.

We also send our heartfelt appreciation to all the mothers who are caring for their children or elders during the pandemic—often juggling work from home, home-schooling, and caring for family members. As is the case for every global crisis, viral pandemics like COVID-19 foster strikingly disproportionate gender impacts. Women make up the majority of both the healthcare workforce and the household caregiving sector. In these trying times, women are on the frontlines in many ways, bearing the burden of our care and survival.

Every day it becomes more and more apparent that the global systems of patriarchy, capitalism, white supremacy, and colonization do nothing but pillage the Earth and destroy communities. To build a better future, we must amplify and support women, especially women of color and Indigenous women, around the world who are holding knowledge and solutions needed to shape a healthy and just world — one where we live in reciprocity with Mother Earth and each other.

Please read our newsletter for updates, report backs, and details on our next webinar!

- Registration is required -

Please check your own time zone to coordinate!

Please join us for WECAN’s upcoming webinar, “Structuring an Economy for People and Planet in the Time of Climate Crisis and COVID-19” on Thursday May 28 at 11:00am PST/ 2:00pm EST USA Time. During the webinar, women and feminists from different regions of the world will unite to discuss alternative economies that counteract extractive economies, racism, and patriarchy— and instead visibilize women’s labor, center Indigenous knowledge, and prioritize people and planet.

As unemployment severely rises, oil prices plummet, and some governments insist on bailing out a dying fossil fuel industry— the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the severe cracks in our global economic system. Rooted in neo-liberal capitalism, the current economic system is set to continue to rapaciously extract resources from the Earth and drive the dual crises of climate chaos and pandemics, while exploiting the labor of people worldwide to line the pockets of wealthy CEOs, fossil fuel companies and other large corporations. As we see disaster capitalism play out in real time, we must disrupt the system and call for a regenerative, rights-based economy that prioritizes communities and nature.

An integral part of the fight for climate justice is rejecting false market-driven "solutions." This includes the effort to expose and dismantle the roots of the extractivist economy that is inextricably intertwined with the patriarchal system that has been exploiting women and the environment for centuries. Women are on the frontlines of the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, making up 70% of healthcare workers worldwide and the majority of unpaid care workers who bear the brunt of a broken economic system.

We are calling for a transition from a colonial paradigm of “exploit and extract” to a regenerative, globally-conscious one of “respect and restore.” What is needed now is an investment in alternative economic models predicated on community-led solutions, Indigenous knowledge, and ancient concepts of reciprocity with the Earth and all living beings. Already there are Indigenous economies to learn from and an emergence of socially just, place-based economic models that are structuring a path forward.

This webinar is part of WECAN’s Advocacy and Solutions Series: A Just and Healthy World is Possible, an ongoing webinar program lifting up women's leadership as we continue to collectively build a powerful movement founded on principles of justice, love, and a fierce dedication to our planet and each other. Speakers to be announced soon!

WECAN is honored to collaborate with our partners on two emergency response funds to support Indigenous communities in North and South American who are in urgent need due to COVID-19.

Indigenous communities across the Americas continue to work diligently to protect their communities from the novel coronavirus, while also addressing ongoing issues of extraction, colonization, Indigenous rights, pipelines in their territories and violence against women. As COVID-19 cases disproportionately rise in their communities, governments are providing little to no support to Indigenous peoples.

Indigenous communities are vital defenders of the living Earth, and they are standing up to protect human rights, Indigenous sovereignty, healthy communities, cultural knowledge, biodiverse ecosystems, water, forests, and our climate. This is a critical time to stand with courageous Indigenous leaders and support their calls to action.

From April 22 - 24 over 4.8 million people tuned in for Earth Day Live!

This three-day livestream, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, brought together activists from across the U.S. to take powerful collective action online for the health of our communities, climate justice, and Mother Earth.

WECAN participated in the online mobilization by hosting advocacy events during the programming as well as participating in other online events that week. As part of the Stop the Money Pipeline (STMP) Coalition, we also engaged with 1.5 million participants on April 23rd, the Divestment Day of Action, to demand financial institutions end their financing of climate destruction! Stay tuned and learn more about the STMP coalition here.

Thank you to all the wonderful speakers who joined us during Earth Week - find recordings of our Earth Week online events down below!

Whether it be COVID-19 or climate chaos, many studies demonstrate that women are at the frontlines of global crises, working to protect their communities and implement just solutions. Women have always been on the frontlines, now it is time for them to be recognized at the forefront of climate decision-making, just solutions, and movement building!

Watch the recording of this webinar on YouTube by clicking the image above or follow this link to the recording on our Facebook page.

Speakers included: Rupa Marya, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF; Jacqui Patterson, Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program; Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca Nation), community leader, long-time Native rights activist, WECAN board member; Monique Verdin (Houma Nation), Director of The Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange and collaborative member of Another Gulf is Possible; and Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN).

Born from the resistance at Standing Rock in 2016, the Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegations (IWDD) is a program created by Divest Invest Protect and co-directed with the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) to put pressure on financial institutions to divest funds from fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure, as well as to systematically change their policies regarding Indigenous and human rights and the climate crisis.

Watch the recording of this

online discussion here!

Speakers included Michelle Cook (Diné), human rights lawyer, Founder of Divest Invest Protect (DIP) and Co-Director of the Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegations; and Osprey Orielle Lake, Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) Founder and Co-Director of the Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegations.

The IWDD program provides a platform for Indigenous women leaders to meet directly with representatives of European and U.S. financial institutions, insurance companies, and credit-rating agencies, to expose injustices, and directly share with these entities— and the public, press, and government representatives— exactly how their fossil fuel investments violate human rights and Indigenous rights, while also driving climate disruption. The Delegations have bore critical results in 100’s of millions of dollars of fossil fuel divestments, education, policy changes, and investigations. Website: https://www.wecaninternational.org/divestment-delegations

The Feminist Green New Deal Coalition hosted two online dialogues with coalition leaders to discuss the need for a feminist lens to a Just Recovery in light of the interlinking crises of COVID-19 and climate change. Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Executive Director, and Katherine Quaid, WECAN Communications Coordinator were invited to speak during the online dialogues. Click the videos down below to watch the recordings via YouTube.

In early 2019, WECAN International along with allied organizations, initiated a coalition of women’s rights and climate justice organizations in recognition that feminist analysis must be part of our discourse on a Green New Deal, collaborating with organizations and thought-leaders across the country to create the Feminist Principles for a Green New Deal, read the 10 key principles here.

Lee Raymond has a long history of publicly attacking scientific consensus and using his considerable influence and resources to undermine action on climate change. While he is on the board of JPMorgan Chase he will block progress on climate —it is time for Lee Raymond to go.

We are joining STMP coalition partners to demand board members and executives at the world’s 3 biggest asset managers use their voting power to get Lee Raymond off the board of JP Morgan Chase at it’s Annual General Meeting in May.

You can support by calling BlackRock’s Global Head of Investment Stewardship Michelle Edkins and telling her that BlackRock needs to vote against Lee Raymond at Chase’s upcoming Annual General Meeting. Being the largest asset manager in the world means BlackRock (as well as asset managers State Street and Vanguard) owns substantial shares in pretty much every major company in the world -- including JP Morgan Chase, the largest fossil fuel financier in the world. Make the call now, find more details here!

Since March, we have been participating in a coalition-wide call to stand in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en and amplify a petition demanding Chase & KKR defund the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline. On May 7, our partners delivered the petition to KKR with over 100,000 signatures!

Despite the current global health pandemic, TC Energy is still sending workers to build the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet'suwet'en land without consent, putting Indigenous elders and land defenders that already do not have easy access to healthcare at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19. Workers in these “man camps” are living in tight quarters by the hundreds and are also breeding grounds for violence against Indigenous women.

To learn more watch the recording of the virtual rally held this week, where frontline leaders demand KKR and Chase respect Wet'suwet'en Hereditary chiefs and Indigenous Sovereignty and stop financing the Coastal GasLink Pipeline which endangers the lives and lands of the Wet'suwet'en peoples.

On April 27, in coalition with many allied groups, WECAN signed a letter sent to the Board Chairs and Secretary Generals of insurance federations around the world calling for insurers to champion a a green and fair recovery from the COVID-19 crisis!

The insurance industry was fully aware of the risks of a global pandemic years ago but failed to do enough to ensure governments prepared effectively. Additionally, we call on insurers to recognize the climate emergency as the world's greatest threat and immediately end financing for fossil fuel pipelines, coal, and other extractive industries. Please read the full letter here!

On May 6, as Dominion Energy met virtually for its annual shareholder meeting, WECAN joined an unprecedented coalition of advocacy organizations and Virginia residents to send a message to shareholders and board members, calling on the utility monopoly to abandon its plans to build the highly controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP).

The $8 billion pipeline is missing multiple permits and would threaten water ways and communities in several states. As demand for natural gas plateaus, now is the time to divest from extractive industry and invest in a renewable and regenerative energy future. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/2L8sQw1

Thank you for all your support of WECAN during this time. Our team is feeling the impacts of COVID-19 and are working to stay safe while also maintaining our deep commitment to the vision and mission of WECAN to accelerate a global women's movement for the protection and defense of the Earth’s diverse ecosystems and communities.

For the Earth and All Generations,

The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network

(WECAN) International Team

S T A Y C O N N E C T E D