Dear Community,

Please join us this week for International Women’s Day and learn more about WECAN's online convergence, upcoming events in Ecuador, actions to Stop Line 5, and more.

Please join WECAN for our virtual International Women’s Day 2024 Convergence: "Calls for Action to End the Era of Fossil Fuels and Accelerate a Just Transition"

Register today!

Friday March 8, 2024

10:00am PT // 1:00pm ET // 6:00pm GMT

Speakers include:

• Puyr Tembé, Secretary of Indigenous Peoples in Para State, Brazil 

• President Whitney Gravelle (Bay Mills Indian Community), President and Executive Council Bay Mills Indian Community, Chair of the Department of Interior’s Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee and Commissioner on the Michigan Advisory Council on Environmental Justice, Turtle Island/USA

• Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Convenor and International Spokesperson for Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP), Philippines

• Neema Namadamu, Founder and Executive Director of Hero Women Rising, and WECAN Coordinator in the DR Congo

• Tzeporah Berman, Chair, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Canada

• Ruth Nyambura, African Ecofeminist Collective, Kenya

• Dr. Crystal A Cavalier, Ed.D, MPA (Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation), Co-Founder, 7 Directions of Service, Turtle Island, USA

• Dipti Bhatnagar, World Commission on Fossil Fuel Phase Out, Mozambique

• Dr. Tammy Greer (Houma Nation), Associate Professor and Director, Center for American Indian Research and Studies (CAIRS) at Southern Mississippi, and WECAN OHIH Program Leader, Mississippi, Turtle Island/USA

• Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), USA

Despite commitments stated at COP28 for “transitioning away from fossil fuels,” governments continue forward with plans to expand fossil fuels globally. With the escalating climate crisis, we are calling on governments, financial institutions, and corporations to immediately phase out fossil fuels. For the first time ever recorded, global temperatures between February 2023 to January 2024 have exceeded temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius over a 12-month period—this is truly alarming, but it can be decreased, yet we must act more boldly than ever now!

As part of an equitable fossil fuel phaseout and Just Transition, there must be significant and transformative policies and investments grounded in a climate justice framework that uplift care economies, community-led solutions, Indigenous rights, human rights, biodiversity protection, and a different vision than business as usual. We are advocating for a vision that ensures climate justice, and compliments thriving and healthy democracies that prioritize the well-being of people and planet above profit.

During this Convergence on International Women's Day, we are bringing together global women leaders in all their diversity to share the many ways they are working and strategizing to build the solutions needed for an equitable and Just Transition— including food sovereignty, gender responsive climate policies, regenerative economics, forest protection, Indigenous rights, rights of nature, demilitarism, phasing out fossil fuels, and much more. The temperature is rising, and so are we!

Annually, the Amazonian Women Defenders of the Jungle (Mujeres Amazónicas Defensoras de la Selva) host an event in celebration of International Women’s Day. This year they are proud to present a 10-day event dedicated to raising awareness about the rights and struggles of Indigenous women.

Women and youth from across different regions of the Ecuadorian Amazon will engage in a range of activities, including press conferences, forums, marches, leadership trainings, and artistic productions. Additionally, there will be opportunities for intergenerational knowledge exchange, featuring traditional songs, stories, and medicine making. Through these activities, Mujeres Amazónicas aims to underscore the vital connection between the protection of Indigenous women and the Rights of Nature.

WECAN is honored to partner with Mujeres Amazónicas for this vital gathering. Please follow along on social media @MujeresAmazonicas or at WECAN to stay updated and for coverage of the various events and activities.

The Great Lakes are under attack, and Indigenous women and allies are rising to shutdown Line 5! Operating 20 years past its engineered life span, Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline is threatening 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater at a time of climate crisis, putting at risk sacred ecosystems, clean drinking water, treaty territories, and our global climate. 

Please watch WECAN’s newest video highlighting Indigenous women leaders fighting to stop Line 5 and protect the water, climate, and Indigenous rights:

Tribal leadership, Indigenous leaders, environmental groups and allies are calling for the immediate shutdown and decommissioning of Line 5. Instead of shutting down Line 5, Enbridge is proposing to expand the pipeline, despite strong opposition. Enbridge's proposed new route will cut through hundreds of waterways that flow into the Bad River Reservation, their extensive fisheries, the navigable waters of Lake Superior, and the Straits of Mackinac. 

The existing Line 5 pipeline must be shut down and decommissioned, not simply re-routed and expanded. As climate catastrophes impact communities worldwide, it is imperative to stop the expansion of all fossil fuels now! 

Let’s stand with Indigenous women leaders and Tribal leadership to Stop Line 5 — join us today by signing this petition urging the Army Corps of Engineers to take action: 

Please share this video and petition far and wide.

The petition drive joins growing national and regional efforts to stop Line 5 permanently. Petition signatures will be delivered ahead of the premiere of the BAD RIVER documentary film, taking place in Washington D.C. with invited congressional and government leaders and officials. 

Indigenous women leaders, WECAN, Sierra Club-Wisconsin and others will deliver the petition signatures to the Army Corps offices in Washington D.C. at 1:00pm ET on Wednesday, March 13. If you are in the D.C. area please join us!

Right now, Indigenous communities are battling for the protection of their rights and territories in the Amazon! Please see three ways to stand with Indigenous peoples and defend the Amazon for current and future generations:

Protect Yasuní National Park From Crude Oil Drilling

 In August 2023, the people of Ecuador voted to keep over 700 million barrels of crude oil permanently in the ground underneath Yasuní National Park. However, the government has signaled that it will not respect the vote, and instead continue drilling for oil in this biodiverse region which is also home to Ecuador’s last Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation.

This is unacceptable and a violation of Indigenous rights and sovereignty. Please join our friends at Amazon Watch to send a message to the President of Ecuador urging him to prioritize the preservation of Yasuní and the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples.

https://amazonwatch.org/take-action/end-oil-drilling-in-yasuni

Stop the Gas Flares in Ecuador

In 2021, after years of struggle and a lawsuit by nine girls, a provincial court in Ecuador gave oil companies 18 months to eliminate gas flaring in the Amazon because of its role in spiking cancer rates among local residents. However, Ecuador still has yet to comply with the historic ruling, and communities continue to suffer serious impacts on their health and local biodiverse ecosystems.

At the end of February 2024, four of the plaintiffs confronted the Minister of Energy and Mines, about the lack of progress. Despite the Minister’s claims of having extinguished two flares, organizations report that not only has the sentence not been complied with, but that the number of gas flares actually increased between 2022 and 2024 from 447 to 486.

Please join us in raising awareness by watching and re-sharing this video from Helena Gualinga:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3-5hWkutbj/

We are celebrating this new video highlighting the work and advocacy of Environmental Ambassador Casey Camp-Horinek from the Ponca Nation. Casey is a WECAN board member and we are very honored to work with her on various campaigns and projects from Rights of Nature to food sovereignty to international climate policy. 

The video details the impacts of colonization and extraction on the Ponca community and territories, and how Casey is working to restore the land and communities, and protect the Rights of Nature. Please watch the video at the link below!

Please join us this year at Bioneers for it's 35th-anniversary conference. Bioneers connects people with solutions and each other, and this year's program includes topics of fossil fuel phaseout, food sovereignty, rights of nature, Indigenous rights, women's leadership and youth leadership, and much more.

Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Executive Director will be speaking during a panel at Bioneers, please see further event details below!

Closing the Gates to Hell: A Global Plan to Phase Out Fossil Fuels and Accelerate a Just Transition

Goldman Theater, Brower Center, Berkeley, CA

Saturday, March 30, 4:45 - 6:00 pm PT

Oil, gas and coal are driving the climate crisis yet have, incredibly, largely been ignored in climate talks and policies. That’s starting to change. Millions of people are coalescing around the call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to end the expansion of fossil fuels, phase out existing production, and accelerate a just transition to clean energy and low carbon solutions. Join a panel of civil society, government and Indigenous leaders in a conversation about the growing momentum for a Fossil Fuel Treaty and how this global initiative is shaping the climate conversation, removing industry’s social license and compelling decision-makers to finally take action to end the era of fossil fuels—fast, fair and forever. Learn more here.

Hosted by Cara Pike, Senior Communication Advisor to the Fossil Fuel Treaty, Founder and Executive Director, Climate Access. With: Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network; Eriel Deranger, Founder and Executive Director, Indigenous Climate Action; Michael Brune, Climate and Campaign Strategist.

Please consider supporting WECAN as we continue to uplift the leadership and solutions of women worldwide fighting for climate justice and the defense of the planet for current and future generations.