#womxnintheenvrmtalmvmt

[womxnintheenvrmtalmvmt]

Dana Alston

Dana Alston

Dana Alston (1951-1999) was an environmental justice advocate best known for planning and hosting the 1991 National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, a gathering made to redefine environmental issues to include African, Latinx, Native, and Asian Americans from across the 50 states. Following the conference, she attended the 1992 Earth Summit and Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Before making waves on the international scale, Alston advocated for people of color in any capacity she held. With countless papers published under her name and connections with organizations reverberating her cause, Alston paved the way for environmental justice to be incorporated into all conversations concerning both institutionalized racism and environmental issues.

 In her early career, Alston received a masters in occupational and environmental health from Columbia University, worked for the Red Cross where she addressed issues rising from toxics and nuclear power problems, and also served as staff on Rural America, an organization made to deal with pesticides and its exposure to farmworkers. She served on the founding board of the Southern Rural Women’s Network which sought to give rural women more power over their economic lives by providing better access to healthcare and education. Alston also directed the Environment, Community Development, and Race Program at the Panos Institute (now known as the Panos Network). The organization was focused on developing countries, but Alston facilitated a program catered to domestic people of color organizations whose niche was environmental justice. It led her to take part in the planning committee for the First National People of Color Environmental Summit in 1991, one of the defining moments in the environmental justice movement. 

Although Alston has made waves in bringing the environmental justice movement to an international scale, many still do not know her name. 

Learn more about her and the Summit here: https://www.reimaginerpe.org/20years/alston

[womxnintheenvrmtalmvmt]

Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg (2003 - ) is a Swedish environmental activist raising global awareness for climate change by sparking a network of students to skip class every Friday. Since August 2018, Thunberg sat outside of the Swedish Parliament holding a sign reading, “Skolstrejk för klimatet”: “School Strike for Climate.” Her sign and her persistence made waves on social media with the #FridaysforFuture because of her sit-ins recurring every Friday. By December of that year, she joined strikes in Europe and supported students in  Australia, the UK, Belgium, the US and Japan. In 2019, she took off school to expand her campaign. Stopping by other student protests around the world, she also attended and spoke at key climate conferences. Her greatest feat was travelling to the Western hemisphere via boat to minimize her environmental impact. Millions of people rallied around her, and admire her for her bravery and bluntness to political leaders across the globe. Even today in this time of uncertainty, Thunberg hosts her strikes online via social media along with other climate activists to raise awareness. 

TedTalk: https://www.ted.com/talks/greta_thunberg_school_strike_for_climate_save_the_world_by_changing_the_rules/transcript?language=en

Speech At The U.N. Climate Action Summit: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit

More Speeches: https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/greta-speeches

More Information about the movement: https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/