Posted on November 13, 2015
We’re pleased to introduce you to the CREDO Climate Heroes
President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline last week is a historic victory for the climate movement — one that would have been impossible without a massive, years-long campaign of grassroots activism and direct action.
Even as a decision on Keystone XL was delayed and delayed, a newly invigorated movement of everyday people were taking on other fossil fuel projects all over the country, and winning.
The lesson is clear: When hundreds of thousands of ordinary people take extraordinary action — including putting our bodies on the line and getting hauled off to jail — we can take on the fossil fuel industry and win, even when Beltway insiders tell us it’s impossible.
CREDO is proud to have strengthened this movement through our donations program — which funds organizations on the leading edge of the climate movement — and through the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance, which trained hundreds of activists around the country to organize and lead civil disobedience and direct action.
It was in this same spirit that we launched CREDO Climate Heroes, a program of small grants designed to empower and fund local organizing to protest and confront the fossil fuel industry, and the decision-makers who are standing on the wrong side of history.
We’re excited to announce the CREDO Climate Heroes, 63 exceptional activists and small groups who are taking bold and confrontational action on climate.
The program offers $500 grants to local activists working on the ground to slow climate change with direct action, including by nonviolent civil disobedience.
Many front-line activists lack the funds for even basic campaign materials. We hope these grants empower local organizing including actions that literally might not have been possible otherwise.
We received hundreds of applications from activists across the country — many times more than than we had available grants. Selecting a final group of climate heroes was an incredibly difficult task. At the same time, it deepened our resolve in this fight to read local accounts of so many projects that continue to threaten communities across the country. And it was incredibly inspiring to see the scale of activism and organizing taken on by so many.
We chose 63 outstanding activists and small groups working in 32 states on a wide range of campaigns, including campaigns to block coal mining, stop oil and gas pipelines, ban fracking, shut down the tar sands, defend clean energy and change policy to speed the transition to a fossil-fuel free economy.
Here’s a few incredible CREDO Climate Heroes:
Dallas Goldtooth (Brookfield, IL): “I currently work on supporting Indigenous frontline communities in the fight against tar sands & bakken oil pipeline infrastructure development across their traditional territories in North America. Specifically, I am working with tribal communities of the Oceti Sakowin, Anishinaabe, and Three Affiliated Tribes of South Dakota, Minnesota and North Dakota, respectively, to help acquire resources, develop strategy, and deploy direct actions all as a means to disrupt the development of extreme energy extraction on Indigenous lands.”
Janet Johnson (Richmond, CA): “Members of Sunflower Alliance have joined with the Sierra Club and other environmental groups in the fight against a proposed coal terminal planned for the former Oakland Army Base in West Oakland. Oakland has long been a center for highly polluting transportation activities, resulting in disproportionately high health impacts for the residents of West Oakland. At least a dozen mile-long toxic coal trains could roll through Oakland day and night every week, adding to the already serious noise and danger for commuters and residents. And burning coal contributes to global climate disruption more than any other fossil fuel, no matter where it’s burned.”
Jonathan Henderson (New Orleans, LA): “By air, sea, and land, for years I have been, and continue documenting the rapidly disappearing coastal wetlands, barrier islands, and coastal communities across the northern Gulf of Mexico. This documentation process is far more than just a way of preserving the memory of communities that are simply washing away and vanishing: I have developed and honed my special talents for finding, documenting, and reporting pollution incidents in remote areas of the Gulf coast, like leaks from oil production platforms, wellheads, and pipeline ruptures, as well as illegal coal and petroleum coke discharges from coal export terminals.”