There is a new kind of gentrification that is directly linked to the worsening global climate crisis. Folks in Miami, Florida are calling it klimate gentrifikation. The term is used to describe the trend when climate change and/or sea level rise causes the increase of the market value of property and the displacement of lower-income and marginalized families and businesses in urban neighborhoods. It was first coined by Paulette Richards, a resident of Liberty City, FL, who used the term to describe what was happening to her community.

Gentrifikation has been happening for quite some time and has contributed to the affordable housing crisis in Miami. According to a recent report, Miami’s Affordable Housing Crisis, 60% of Miami-Dade adult residents already spend over 30% of their income on rent. African-American homeowners have an average of $4,000 in income left over annually after paying for housing, this amount is $5,500 for Hispanics, and $20,000 for white households.

As Richards and others have noticed, gentrifikation seems to be accelerating, particularly in communities like hers that are located on higher ground. These areas previously seen as unattractive to real estate developers are now being targeted for redevelopment to relocate and attract large companies and more affluent residents that also tend to be more white. The most targeted communities include Liberty City, Overtown, Allapattah, Little Havana, and Ti Ayiti.

While some developers deny this is true, there is no denying the reality of a changing climate. Residents don’t need to know the science to see its impact. They are seeing and experiencing it for themselves. Their streets and homes are getting flooded even on sunny days. Miami has seen an increase in tidal flooding in the last decade, up 400% between the years of 2006 and 2016, leading to a phenomenon called sunny day flooding. This flooding has impacted low lying areas, in particular the Miami business district and more affluent neighborhoods along the coastline. And it is only going to get worse. According to moderate estimates of sea level rise, the low lying areas within the city could flood 85 days per year by 2050 and 365 days per year by 2070 - that is to say low lying areas are expected to flood every day, a fact that homeowners and developers are increasingly becoming aware of.

Klimate Gentrifikation’s Racist and Genocidal Roots

Limiting the conversation of klimate gentrifikation to current trends in housing and business development doesn’t quite capture the full extent of its impact and injustices. To better understand what is happening, we need to start with the racist and violent history of Miami. Like all of the United States, the story of the land and people we now call Miami begins with the genocide and land theft of Indigenous Peoples. The Tequesta People lived on the land for thousands of years until the 1500s, when the Spanish, bringing stolen and enslaved Africans with them, came to conquer, kill, and displace Indigenous Peoples in order to claim the land for themselves. By the time Florida became a slave state of the United States, all that remained of Tequesta People were stories and cultural artifacts. Also by that time in 1845, slaves accounted for nearly half of the population of the land we now call Florida.

Maimi officially became a city in 1896 after the construction of the Florida East Coast Railroad by Henry Flagler a year earlier. Black and white laborers brought into the area worked on the railroad, many of whom lived along the worksite in tents. With their voting power, Flagler was able to push for Miami to become incorporated. Soon after incorporation, the city upheld state segregation statutes and imposed their own Black codes. The Black folks that helped incorporate Miami were now being segregated and excluded from the political decisions and processes impacting their lives. By 1920, the number of white voters exceeded Black voters by a margin of 14 to 1 giving white people the political power they needed to further entrench Jim Crow segregation.

As more and more Black and different shades of Black moved and immigrated to Miami, the areas in which they reside expanded but to this day still remain largely segregated from the white communities. In the earlier part of the 20th century, racial segregation was legal and backed by the federal government in part through racial redlining policies. Even when it was no longer legal to discriminate against Black people and people of color, the new federal policies and programs and real estate and banking industries practices that emerged were still rooted in the logic of Jim Crow segregation and thus, reproduced patterns of racial segregation and injustice. As the city of Miami grew and developed over the course of 100 years, the coastline remained the epicenter of economic investment attracting large businesses and wealthier white households; while lower-income Black and communities of color were forced into areas away from the coast.

Kommunity Response to Klimate Gentrifikation

For Michael Clarkson and Francois Alexandre, co-owners of Koncious Kontraktors and co-founders of Ti Ayiti Preparedness and Relief Institute (TAPARI), what is happening to their Kommunity, Ti Ayiti, is more than just klimate gentrifikation, “it is systemik and legalized kultural genocide.” The people of Ti Ayiti and surrounding areas are facing multiple intersecting, and compounding crises in addition to klimate gentrifikation, issues relating to poverty, anti-Black and anti-immigrant racism, police brutality, government neglect of critical services and infrastructure, climate disasters, and more.

Ti Ayiti, english translation “Little Haiti,” is home to a large population of Ayisyen immigrants, approximately 18,600 live in and around the area making up about 30% of the population. There is also a significant population of African-Americans and diaspora Kommunity from across the Caribbean and Latin America. Throughout the history of Miami, people from nearby countries have fled to the area for varying reasons, including political conflict and violence, lack of economic opportunity often as a result of US foreign policy, environmental degradation, and climate disasters.

The reasons for the forced migration of Haitians, in particular, is a result of a combination of factors that include the US occupation of 1915-1934 and on-going foreign policy that transformed their economy to serve US interests, the environmental degradation that precipitated as a result, and made worse by environmental and climate disasters, such as the 2004 mudslides and 2010 earthquake. As the climate crisis worsens, Ayiti is particularly vulnerable to rising seas, extreme weather and hurricanes, and drought, threatening the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Ayisyens forcing migration to surrounding countries. Haiti is one of many places throughout the globe where the climate crisis is exacerbating political conflict and violence, extreme poverty, and forced migration. The United Nation predicts that there could be anywhere from 250 million up to 1 billion refugees because of the climate crisis by 2050.

Ti Ayiti is located on one of the highest parts of the city, and thus, is among the most protected and secure in the face of rising sea levels, making the area a prime target for predatory developers. In fact, between 2000 and 2014, Ti Ayiti has seen a 1,121 percent increase in homes priced well above what current residents can afford, according to Florida International University’s Neighborhood Changes project. Clarkson and Alexandre explain that predatory developers and political leaders, politrickers, as they refer to them, claim they are “helping” to improve the kommunity, but it is the developers and politrickers who are getting way more out of this arrangement than the residents themselves.

The city’s approach to economic and community development follows the logic of settler colonialism of private ownership of land and resources for the concentration of wealth through oppression, control and exploitation of people, often dressed up as “what is best for everyone.” This colonizing process of development is legal and normalized. All across the country, cities, like Ti Ayiti, are made and remade by outsiders with profit driven interests instead of by and for the people already living there.

Cyclical patterns of divestment and investment in this country continuously create new frontiers for middle class and higher income white households to “resettle” in places where they can “manifest their destinies.” This process has always and continues to be made possible at the expense of low wealth, Indigenous and those on the color chart created to legitimize and enforce white power structure. Clarkson explains the “color chart” as “if you’re white you're right, but if you’re yellow, red, brown or black, get back. America was built on white privilege to make proclamations, codes, bounties and jurisprudence on their definition of color and white is right. The fact that white rights can establish where the non-whites should live and then turn around and make where you live more valuable than when they place you there, is the epitome of white privilege, the colorism of white power.”

This pattern of development is the history of white power invasion of the Indigenous Peoples and as it continues in Ti Ayiti, many people living there will be forced to relocate. The threat of displacement for this kommunity is about more than just their homes; it is about the risk of losing the konnektion to being human. “In fact we are treated as dust, subjected to the gales and gust of any white wind,” explains Clarkson.

Clarkson and Alexandre believe that the answer to issues facing their kommunity lies within the kommunity itself not outside of it. Their focus is political education - the kind that liberates people from the colonized ways of thinking and being. They are organizing “to win the minds of Afrikans in this city to understand kommunity kontrol.”

Clarkson and Alexandre believe that the answer to all these issues lies within the kommunity itself not outside of it. Their focus is political education - the kind that liberates people from the colonized ways of thinking and being. They are organizing “to win the minds of Afrikans in this city to understand kommunity kontrol.” For Clarkson and Alexandre, political education begins with decolonizing the language we use. They refer to the kommunity as Ti Ayiti and not its translation, Little Haiti. They also have replaced the “c” with a hard “k” as “an artistik expression of kombining Kreyol and English.” The “k” is spoken with “a tone and umph that shakes the Earth.” The use of the hard “k” is an entry point to unlocking the stranglehold colonization has on people’s minds and ways of being. Colonization teaches us to accept things as they are given. As a point of contrast, the introduction of the hard “k” into their language is symbolic of the kreative and innovative power we all have to transform our lives through kollektive aktion.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in 2017, Clarkson and Alexandre started Koncious Kontraktors and Ti Ayiti Preparedness And Relief Institution (TAPARI) to provide free cleanup and repairs to impacted residents largely left out of the county and city response and recovery plans, just like the Katrina. True to their vision of kommunity responding to kommunity, they have continued to organize relief efforts during the COVID pandemic, providing food, masks, charcoal, and other items. Their mission is to operate against all forms of pandemics and environmental disasters related to the global climate crisis by establishing programs and initiatives that strengthen the sustainability and resilience of kommunities and by creating a kulture of self-determination- “a kommunity by us, for us, and with us.”

All of their kommunity activities are centered around three pillars of operation: kulture, arts, and science. Since their founding, they have established several initiatives that build “a greener brighter future with all power to da people,” advance “the kommunity kontrolled revitalization and prosperous redevelopment of Ti Ayiti,” and engage and kultivate leadership among young people.

They see kommunity, kulture, and konversations as critical parts of their organizing. Kommunity is a part of everything they do. “We are a bridge. What we do is not about us as individuals, it is about the kommunity- what they want and how they want to solve the issues facing Ti Ayiti.” Whether remembering, practicing, or creating, kulture is the both part of how they organize and what they are organizing to achieve - “kulture of we, not me.” They also engage directly with residents, having konversations, exchanging ideas and strategies for change. As they see it, the solutions they need will not come from their intellects and experiences alone. It is up to the kommunity to come together and decide.

Clarkson and Alexandre are also very clear about what they are fighting up against. They describe themselves as “two strong Black men fighting to break the back of Jim Crow.” True liberation will not come to their people without atonement for what has been done to and stolen from oppressed peoples. They are doing their part to keep their kommunity awake and engaged to transform a system hell bent on keeping everyone asleep.

Their passion and resistance comes from a place of love for their people, for all of humanity and the planet. They speak peace and blessings to all and work with all people who believe in justice and self-determination and who see themselves as karetakers of the land. Land is a site of struggle, but it can also be a source of transformative power, a chance to heal and make a better living for all of humankind. Inspired very much by Fred Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition, they understand that it is going to take all of us working together to stand against colonial power and win liberation for all oppressed peoples.

Their fight against climate gentrification, against the power structure, is a part of the broader struggle for liberation of all oppressed peoples. In the words of Fred Hampton, “We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity…We’re going to fight their reactions with all of us people getting together and having an international proletarian revolution.” In the spirit of solidarity, we invite you to learn more about, connect with, and support the work of TAPARI and Konscious Konstraktors directly. You can read about some of their initiatives below. Find them on Facebook or email tapari1804@gmail.com or Konsciouskontraktors@gmail.com. If you are able, make a donation to Ti Ayiti Preparedness And Relief Institution a 501(c)(3) by writing your checks to:

Ti Ayiti Preparedness And Relief Institution

P.O. Box 380036

Miami, Florida 33238

Other ways to give:

• CashApp: https://cash.app/$Tapari1804
• PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/tapari1804
• Venmo: https://venmo.com/code?user_id=3210494655594496825
• Zelle: Tapari1804@gmail.com

TAPARI Kommunity Initiatives

Ti Ayiti Kommunity Organic Garden And Water Initiative (TAKOGAWI, pronounced, Ta-Ko-Ga-We)

TAKOGAWI is a for-profit, economic development, and educational leadership training cooperative that provides education and hands-on training on the production of locally grown organic food that enhances adaptability by learning to eat and live in unity with Mother Earth, water conservation, recycling, and composting. This program was established to bring their kommunity together to address the lack of access to affordable healthy food (most of Ti Ayiti and other kommunities live in a food desert) and provide food and water as part of disaster preparedness and relief efforts.

Ti Ayiti Kommunity Awareness Preparation Initiative (TAKAPI, pronounced Ta-Ka-Pee)

This initiative establishes a meeting and distribution hub within the kommunity to prepare and respond to climate disasters, giving their kommunity kontrol of coordinating & implementing preparedness, response, and recovery services during times of disaster. The building will also serve as a meeting hub, a place for “minds to grow, develop, and solve problems together.” They also partner with many organizations and churches to distribute kare packages of food and supplies to the residents of Ti Ayitia during the COVID pandemic.

Ti Ayiti Kommunity, Kultural Konversations (TAKKK pronounced Tak-KK)

TAKKK is a platform that evolved from showing movies like, 1804 The Hidden Story of Ayiti, and the Black Panther. This family Konversation is geared towards rebuilding the Afrikan Liberation Movement that speaks & practices the elements needed for true freedom, independence and liberation.

Ti Ayiti Klimate And Kulture Art Science Initiative (TAKAKASI, pronounced ta-ka-ka-see)

TAKAKASI is a multi-faceted 12-week educational, training & leadership course, designed in Kreyol, Spanish and English. The initiative is designed to achieve the goals of kommunity kontrol and self-determination by educating participants of the effects of global warming and how to live a more greener sustainable and resilient eco-friendly lifestyles.

Ti Ayiti Summer Environmental Youth Initiative (TASEYI, pronounced Ta-say-yee)

Established by kommunity members to combat climate gentrification through neighborhood beautification, landscaping, and renovation of residents’ homes and businesses. Their motto is “Klean Streets, Klean Mind.” By improving their neighborhood and connecting with their neighbors, they are moving the kommunity towards better organizing and development of kulture, art & science and creating greater political and economic power for our people to live and work in Ti Ayiti.

Art Kreyol

This initiative was created to educate, promote, and expose Alkebulan Kulture and Art in the diaspora. They organize transformative events and projects that support the needs of local Alkebulan artists in South Florida in the hopes, as stated by kurator Ralph Jean, to ignite thoughts and feelings that allow us to question societal issues while working towards a plan for liberation. Art Kreyol is a vehicle that can help bring economic and political solutions for their kommunity.

Ti Ayiti Youth Art Kontest (TAYAK, pronounced Ta - Yak)

TAYAK was established to engage youth in the celebration of Afrikan culture during Ayisyen Heritage Month and create a continuous Climate Change Art program that produces young people that are climate resilient and ambassadors educated in the fields of environmental protection through the Arts. The theme of the second annual contest held in 2019 was in alignment with the City of Miami themes of “1804 Forever.” Children were encouraged to explore, through art, what the victory of the Ayisyen Revolution means to their kommunity today? What current issues in their kommunity would they tackle through the spirit of 1804?

Ti Ayiti News Awareness (TANA, pronounced Tay - Na)

TANA is a video, audio and filmmaking initiative that is dedicated to educating and promoting the Kreyol Kulture of Ti Ayiti, Ayiti and the Ayisyen kommunity throughout the world.

The Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy stands in solidarity with ​Women Watch Afrika​ and the over 64 million people who have been forcibly displaced, including refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons and climate refugees. We join allies across the globe on World Refugee Day (June 20) to acknowledge the humanity dignity and value of all refugees and to celebrate their courage, resilience, and contributions in the fleeing of their homeland and the assimilation of some place new, where they are too often met with hostility and are penalized through labor exploitation and criminalization.

We must care about how people who are crossing borders today are treated as the reality of the climate crisis forces more and more people to cross domestic and international borders for safety. During Hurricane Katrina (2005), over a million people across the Gulf Coast region were temporarily displaced. Hundreds of thousands of families never returned to their homes, the majority of them Black, Brown, and poor. Displaced people and families were called refugees despite not crossing international borders. This label was meant to identify them as the other, the victim, people who are not supposed to be there in order to justify barriers for economic recovery, inclusive social integration, and the healing required for climate disasters and climate trauma. The United Nation predicts that by 2050, there could be as many as 1 billion people displaced due to the climate crisis.

We stand in solidarity with refugees in the US. We must establish a new social attitude and see migration as a benefit and as a necessity for our global survival, not as a threat to our individual privileges. We must get ready for the realities of migration caused by the worsening climate crisis. Our collective resilience is connected to our ability to protect and advocate for the human right to migrate. Key to our survival will be our ability to care for refugees. We must perfect our process of integrating migrating families as we build a democracy for all people. All people, especially refugees deserve safe housing, healthy food, clean water, healthcare and the freedom from over policing and exploitation of their labor no matter who they are and where they are from. We stand with the refugee community in love and solidarity.

We join the world in another week of mourning, outrage and solidarity in seeking justice for the police murders of ,George Floyd, the many others not caught on video, and the murders in southern states of Kentucky (,Breonna Taylor), Florida (,Tony McDade), Georgia (,Yassin Mohomad and ,Ahmaud Arbery) and Louisiana (,Modesto Reyes and the, 14-year-old unarmed Black boy shot in the head by an off-duty police officer).  The Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy understands that there is no climate justice without racial justice. To win true change, we must all declare that #BlackLivesMatter and embody an understanding of the aboriginal proverb that states: If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time. But if you have come, because you understand that your liberation is tied with mine, then let us work together. These recent killings are not isolated incidents, nor are they the product of a single bad actor.  They are continued and cumulative consequences of supremacy-based leadership, intersecting oppressive systems and a fear-soaked citizenry that has been silent about the targeted killings of Black people for far too long.  The silence is breaking. The seas are rising.  Remember & Reflect. The time for change is now. But first, honor the moment with reflection and remembrance of what has occurred on our watch. Take the time to remember these recent sacrifices in your prayers and meditation. As you remember the names of those murdered, offer a prayer for those whose names we will never know.  Who have we allowed to die and why? How much longer will we allow Black people to be sacrificed? What is the price of atonement? Take the time to reflect on just what type of distortion of democracy our country has become. Reflect on who we, as a nation,  could be to the world and to your children if we implement change now. We must reflect before we act. Connect the Dots. Then, intersect the lines. The resistance in the streets today is in reaction to a centuries old system of intersecting injustices designed to value white lives and profits over everything and everyone else. Moments of crisis - whether political uprising in Minneapolis or climate disasters like Hurricane Katrina - affirm that our systems value property and profit over Black lives. The same system that led to the kidnapping and generational enslavement of Africans and Native Americans fuels our current reality where Black people in the US are more likely than white people to be ,killed by the police, ,die of Covid-19, and are disproportionately impacted by, climate change. These struggles are connected.  Therefore, our solutions responding to unaccountable law enforcement, to the privatized access to health care and to the disproportionate climate impacts on the justice frontlines must also be connected.  We must  purposefully intersect our struggles and our humanity. Follow Black Leadership. Because your liberation is tied with mine,  the final step is to move together on this journey of shared liberation. But, we must move in an equity formation. Restrain any self-righteousness in exchange for understanding the true honor of service. There is no more room for oppression on this side of the line. You must follow Black people. You must follow the Southern Frontlines. You must follow the Global South.  Follow our young, Black, energetic, unapologetic, queer, loud, beautiful, quiet, deaf, differently-abled, artists, rappers, poets, students- those are our leaders. We ask that you love, support and protect them as we move together. Your sacred oath for this journey will be to every day of your life, work to dismantle oppression in all of its forms- foreign and domestic. The seas are rising… And so are we! Here is how you can support strategic movements for transformation:

• ,Support the Movement for Black Lives( (M4BL). M4BL is a national formation of Black-led organizations co-creating movement-wide strategy. 
• ,#InvestGND Juneteenth Action.  On June 19th, show you stand with communities creating a,, Gulf South Green New Deal to center equity and justice for workers and the frontlines as we address the climate crisis.  Take a selfie in a precious place holding a sign that says “The Seas are Rising… And so are We!” Be sure to include ,,#GulfSouth4GND and #InvestGND in your sign and post. Follow and tag us on ,,Twitter, ,,Facebook and ,,Instagram (@GCCLP). 
• ,Join the #GulfSouth4GND Network. #GulfSouth4GND is a regional formation of both policy development and organizing that advances long-existing work in our region towards climate, racial, and economic justice. This network is for any person or group located in the five gulf south states (TX, LA, MS, AL, FL). ,SIGN ON to GS4GND Policy Platform.
• ,Support the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy.  GCCLP is a public interest law firm and justice center working with Gulf South communities of color on the frontlines of climate change.

To advance the Gulf South for Green New Deal vision, we are focusing on two main strategies through three events in May and June. The first strategy is to Heal + Reconcile. We know that healing our relationships with each other and with the earth are fundamental steps toward achieving climate justice, ecological equity and a successful Green New Deal. The second strategy to Shift+ RE-imagine acknowledges that we have what we need and must be intentional in creating space to share information and develop a regional analysis of work and opportunities. The Carrizo Comecrudo Tribunal for Human Rights will advance the work of Indigenous and border tribes in South Texas (May 22-23). The 2020 Regional Leadership Summit (May 29) will advance the understanding of how fair housing connects to health and climate.  And the Sacred Waters Pilgrimage (June 20) will use ancient ritual and ceremony to heal the relationships between Native and Black women. You are invited to take the time to learn more about, register to attend and amplify frontline messages.  Join us, by registering below and ensuring your organization has signed on to the GS4GND Frontline Policy Platform.

Join us to Build. #GulfSouth4GND

Virtual Carrizo Comecrudo Human Rights Tribunal (TX)

Climate justice begins with indigenous sovereignty. Stand with the ,Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas and stand against the three fracked-gas terminals and US border wall set to be built through sacred indigenous burial grounds. Join us for a two-day virtual human rights tribunal this Friday May 22 & Saturday May 23, 2020 starting at 9amCDT. ,CLICK HERE to REGISTER for this virtual event.

#GulfSouth4GND #SaveGarciaPasture

Sacred Water Pilgrimage

The ,Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy is proud to co-anchor the Sacred Waters Pilgrimage with the ,Wind & Warrior Collective. This 7 month virtual/actual pilgrimage down the Mississippi River will create space to heal relationships between one another and with mother earth using ancient ritual and ceremony. The Sacred Water Pilgrimage welcomes Native & Black Female or Two-Spirit identified people to join planning meetings in May and June and the Pilgrimage starting on June 20 in Minnesota. The celebratory end of the pilgrimage on December 21 will be held in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana and is open to the allied public. For more information and to get involved, please contact Bette Billiot -Bette@gcclp.org. 

Virtual Regional Leadership Summit 2020 (AL)

The 9th annual Regional Leadership, hosted by the ,South Alabama Center for Fair Housing, will be held virtually on May 29. Join us as we engage leaders from across the Gulf South in dialogue to advance justice work in the region and connect the dots between fair housing, health, and climate change. ,CLICK HERE TO REGISTER for this virtual event.

#HousingIsStillTheIssue #FairHousing #GulfSouth4GND

Press contact: Emma Collin; ,emma@gcclp.org; (631)708-6840

GULF SOUTH COMMUNITIES COMMEMORATE 10 YEARS SINCE BP OIL DRILLING DISASTER

FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES HONOR LIVES LOST; CONNECT THE DOTS BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND A VISION FOR A NEW ECONOMY

Gulf South - Communities from across the Gulf South join in solidarity to remember and understand the impact of the BP Oil Drilling disaster ten years ago. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, partners of the Gulf South for a Green New Deal initiative and the Southern Movement Assembly have shifted this event from a public gathering to a 3 hour virtual program from 10am-1pmCDT on Monday, April 20, 2020.   Registration is required to attend- CLICK HERE.  This on-line session invites allies and friends from across the region and the nation to join and remember the lives lost, discuss the impact on Mississippi fishing communities and lift up the role of art and culture in disaster.  Speakers include a former Deep Water Horizon rig worker, local advocates and recovery leaders all offering first hand knowledge of impact and community solutions. This event is open to the public and press.

“The fishing and tourism industries have not fully recovered, putting a disproportionate financial impact on local businesses and fishing communities, particularly Vietnamese-American and African American fisherfolks. We must understand the true impact so we develop better ways forward”,  says Jonathan Green, Executive Director of the STEPS Coalition.

“With the Gulf South for Green New Deal initiative, Gulf South communities identify and develop the solutions needed for recovery and for the transition to a healthier, more just economy and a collective vision for a sustainable future,” says Colette Pichon Battle, Director Executive of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy.

“Gulf South communities still face a false choice between low wage work or a job in industries that kill workers and destroy the environment. We need a transformed economic system that does not continuously jeopardize the health of its workers. We can no longer afford a polluting economy,” says Gordon Jackson, chair of the Biloxi NAACP’s climate program.

This drilling disaster continues to have a devastating impact on the natural environment and the communities that rely on healthy waters and biodiversity to put food on the table. Ten years later, scientists are confirming that the oil released reached further than communities were told and that the damage is far worse than expected.  By many metrics, Gulf Coast communities are no safer now than they were 10 years ago.  Regulatory rollbacks and the lack of restoration funding leaves impacted communities questioning false promises, while toxic industries continue forward expansion in the midst of a worsening climate crisis. 

A recording of the event is available upon request and speakers who joined the call are available for interviews. Please contact speakers directly or Emma Collin; emma@gcclp.org; for a recording. 

EVENT COSPONSORS include: 34th Street Wholistic Gardens, Biloxi Islamic Center, Boat People SOS (Biloxi), Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary, EEECHO, Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, Healthy Gulf,  Immaculate Heart Community Outreach Inc., Mississippi Rising Coalition, MSG Marina Aquaculture LLC, NAACP Biloxi Branch, One Voice, STEPS Coalition, People’s Advocacy Institute, Sipp Culture, Southern Movement Assembly.

Gulf South for a Green New Deal is a five-state formation anchored by the ,Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy and connects community organizing,  frontline advocacy and policy development towards the creation of a Green New Deal that prioritizes the Gulf South and advances long-existing work towards climate, racial, and economic justice. 

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What we know so far:

Covid-19 is ,,revealing existing inequities in our society. As ,,Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones put it, “We’re equally susceptible biologically, but we’re not equally susceptible socially.” Covid-19 isn’t happening in a vacuum, but rather is playing out across lines of race, geography, class, and gender in the Gulf South. And the virus is further emphasizing the need for systemic shifts to our nation’s approach to healthcare, jobs, housing, and democracy.

Healthcare: All 5 Gulf South States are directly impacted by Covid-19. The Gulf South is particularly vulnerable to pandemic due to ,lack of access to health insurance, existing inequities and inefficiencies in the healthcare system, healthcare discrimination, low doctor per capita rates, existing health problems connected to poverty, environmental racism, and ,pollution from extractive industries. Black communities are experiencing ,disproportionately severe impacts of Covid-19.

In addition to direct impacts of Gulf South residents dealing with Corona Virus, we are also seeing a termination of “non-essential healthcare,” which some Gulf South states are claiming includes,, access to reproductive healthcare and abortion.

Workers and Laborers: Unemployment has skyrocketed in all 5 Gulf South states due to business closures associated with Covid-19. Compared to the rest of the nation, the Gulf South already has weak worker protection laws and unemployment benefits which leaves our communities especially vulnerable.

At the same time, this moment is revealing the power of workers. In addition to healthcare professionals -- retail workers, farmers and farmworkers, transportation workers, sanitation workers, and more are being recognized as essential. In a culture that often treats workers as replaceable and disposable, this crisis is emphasizing that everyday workers are what keep our society running. Some workers are taking note and ,,demanding safer working conditions or even to ,,shift their work to address the pandemic.

Housing & Communities: The Gulf South has some of the highest rates of poverty and housing insecurity in the nation. Texas and Louisiana have currently freezed evictions, with Governor DeSantis of Florida saying ,he will consider it. Mississippi and Alabama have not enacted any moratorium on evictions.

We know there is much work to be done beyond freezing evictions to ensure that all of our neighbors can live safely and with dignity. But even while measures like eviction freezes on their own are not adequate, this crisis is revealing that measures that were previously considered impossible, are suddenly possible.

Democracy: Fourteen states, including Louisiana, have rescheduled their primaries (the LA Primary is now June 20, 2020). Borders around the world are closing. Migration even within Gulf South is changing as states establish checkpoints. For example, there is a ,checkpoint at I-10 at the Alabama/Florida... staffed by 16 Florida State troopers in 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day.” We know policing of borders will disproportionately impact Black and undocumented communities.

The Gulf South, specifically Black and Indigenous Southern communities, already disproportionately excluded from democratic institutions. Disasters are often leveraged to further erode democratic processes. They are also moments where communities practice self-governance.

Where do we go from here?

The good news is that we already have a plan. The Green New Deal is not a policy but rather a vision: to create millions of good new jobs, address environmental & climate crises, and advance justice & equity. Gulf South for a Green New Deal is Gulf South communities asserting for ourselves what this vision must look like to succeed in our region and nationally -- and making it happen.

Just as Covid-19 is disproportionately impacting Southern communities of color, so will climate change. We must approach both crises with a frame of reparations, as is called for in the Gulf South for a Green New Deal. The trillions of federal government stimulus dollars being released in response to Covid-19 offer a unique opportunity to invest in both short term pandemic response and long term community resiliency and power.

And we must remember that we,, “already have the blueprints we need to move forward. As Fabiola Cineas writes for ,,Essence about the Gulf South for a Green New Deal Policy Platform, “We should recognize that we already have the people power and the Green-Red New Deal blueprint needed to stop climate change and protect Black communities and Black life post-coronavirus. All we have to do is get organized and apply political pressure in states and across the nation to make it real.”

,,Sign up to receive updates from GCCLP here.

,,Register to commemorate #BP10 and stand with Gulf South communities here.

Press contact:

Shravya Jain-Conti; sjain@climatenexus.org; 917-328-6973

Emma Collin; emma@gcclp.org; (631)708-6840

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR NOV 13, 12 pm EDT***

GRASSROOTS NETWORK TO LAUNCH POLICY PLATFORM OUTLINING A GREEN NEW DEAL FOR THE GULF SOUTH

WHAT: Join us for a national launch of the Gulf South for a Green New Deal (GS4GND) Policy Platform.

The Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy has anchored the six month collective grassroots development of a regional vision for a Green New Deal. Community leaders, indigenous tribal members, farmers, fisherfolks, small business owners, and residents from the 5 Gulf South states (TX, LA, MS, AL, FL) cultivated the Gulf South for a Green New Deal Policy Platform in order to assert the role of the Gulf South in national conversations and secure a more resilient and sustainable future for residents of the region. In May 2019 more than 50 groups co-sponsored the launch of GS4GND. Today, more than 100 organizations have endorsed the Gulf South for a Green New Deal Policy Platform.

WHO: The Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy along with various community members, leaders, and organizers working on issues including climate, housing, criminal justice and more across the 5 Gulf South states (TX, LA, MS, AL, FL). Their ongoing work comprises elements of the Gulf South for a Green New Deal Policy Platform.

Brief presentation on Gulf South for a Green New Deal policy platform to be followed by Q&A.

WHEN: November 13, 2019 at 11am CDT/ 12pm EDT

WHY: The South is often excluded from national policy processes and conversations on how to address the global climate crisis. Gulf South for a Green New Deal is a collective policy platform developed by community members to uplift the strategic value of the Gulf South in a national Green New Deal conversation. This platform will amplify frontline Gulf South voices who have invaluable insight into what a Green New Deal must include in order to be successful in this unique region and nationally.

HOW: Please RSVP with Shravya Jain-Conti, sjain@climatenexus.org

The press briefing will run via Zoom: https://climatenexus.zoom.us/j/894969626

(joining online is the easiest way to ask questions)

Participants can also dial in via phone by calling the following number below with the corresponding meeting ID: +1 646 876 9923 or +1 669 900 6833

Webinar ID: 894 969 626

Wednesday, August 28, 2019 @ 5:30pm CDT

The Seas are Rising: Climate Displacement, Relocation and Gentrification in the Gulf South

First, join us for the monthly Southern Movement Assembly General Membership Call as our own Executive Director Colette Pichon Battle frames a discussion rooted in the impacts of climate change and its connection to Climate Displacement, Climate Relocation and Climate Gentrification. This call will also feature two Gulf South climate justice leaders- Valencia Gunder and Bette Billiot. This call is open to anyone in the South.

Register at: www.southtosouth.org/call

Thursday, August 29, 2019 @ 1-4pm CDT

Katrina 14: Honoring Legacies of Courage- Connecting the Dots of Climate & Environmental Justice

Then, join us in Plaquemines Parish on Thursday to commemorate 14 years since Hurricane Katrina. The communities of South Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish are on the frontline of the climate crisis dealing with the first hits of a storm and some of the most severe land loss due to sea level rise on the planet. #Katrina14: Honoring Legacies of Courage will uplift and honor frontline local leadership advancing good work on the ground for the last fourteen years and beyond. Join us on Thursday, August 29, 2019 from 12-3pm at the Percy Griffin Center (15577 Hwy 15, Braithwaite, LA 70040). Food and childcare will be provided. ,Click here to RSVP and join us! Note: Media Permitted.

Saturday, August 31, 2019 @ 1-5pm CDT

Community Skills Training

Finally, on Saturday join us for a community skills training. Increased intensity of storms, hotter temperatures, flooding, drought and sea level rise are indeed connected to industrial pollution and extractive industries. We must confront these intersecting issues and build a vision for something better together. #Katrina14 Connecting the Dots on Environmental & Climate Justice will offer information and skills sessions on the impact of extractive infrastructure in the Gulf. Join us on Saturday, August 31st from 1-5pm at the Buras Community Center (36342 Hwy 11, Buras, LA 70041). Food and childcare will be provided. ,Click here to RSVP and join us! Note: Media Prohibited.

Reach out to emma@gcclp.org with any questions or thoughts on Katrina14.

Congratulations Colette!

Below find photos from the day and an event welcome letter from our own Executive Director, Colette Pichon Battle. Thank you again to all of our panelists, guests, and the fierce women leaders who have been working on the ground since well before the storm and also in its aftermath. Let us continue to uplift and honor each other’s leadership together.

A welcome from the Executive Director:

Greetings friends, allies, warriors and Katrina survivors.

On behalf of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (GCCLP) and Lift Louisiana I would like to welcome you today as we remember Hurricane Katrina, her impact on our life and our work and the thirteen years of recovery that have shaped our understanding of family, community, justice and climate change.

For many of us, today is one of mourning. But as with much in the Gulf Coast, we have our own unique way of doing even that. As southerners we know to gather, to pause and to remember. As folks on the frontline of disaster, social injustice and systemic discrimination, we know that in order for us to win, even our rational rage must be accompanied by learning, laughter and love. As allies, today is another day to stand with the Gulf South and follow the resilient leadership of the South’s greatest asset- its women.

GCCLP was born out of Katrina and the recovery that followed. We are a public interest law firm and justice center working to promote structural shifts toward ecological equity for Gulf Coast communities of color on the frontline of climate change. We understand that while everyone in impacted by climate change, not everyone is impacted equally. For more than 13 years, women have been on the frontline of recovery. We honor all of those who have come before us, blazed paths and laid the groundwork for many of us to be in leadership today.

There is power in that sacred feminine that we all possess. And if we listen to that sacred feminine voice, we will hear clearly the earth’s signal of distress and disapproval. Climate change is real and its effect has been felt here for the last thirteen years.

#Katrina13 seeks to create a space for all to gather and explore the unique impacts of climate change on women and the sacred feminine. As part of that learning, today’s space will help to better understand how honoring the divine feminine in our work and daily lives might start to heal our relationship with the planet and with each other. This is a safe space for all races, ability levels, genders, spiritual practices and learning levels.

It is my honor to welcome you to a day of honest conversation, genuine connection, and collective healing. Today we honor all women and the sacred feminine. Let us root ourselves in that love and that power, together.

In solidarity,

Colette Pichon Battle, Executive Director

Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy

Watch her address begin at 36:48 on c-span here.

GCCLP is proud to have hosted #BayouRising 2018 with our partners the United Houma Nation. For three days in July 2018, we ate together, danced together, went out on shrimping boats together, and had real conversations about the world and our place in it. Bayou Rising was part of GCCLP's watershed organizing practice and was a local approach to community building and learning as we honor the cultures and traditions that have helped Indigenous People (Native and Black) survive.

We are still inspired by everything we learned from the 100+ amazing attendees, from 5 indigenous nations, participants ranging from age 3 to age 80, and leaders from 7 southern states and Puerto Rico who answered the call to action in south Louisiana!

On behalf of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy and the United Houma Nation, we want to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who participated in #Bayou Rising 2018 and donated to the success of this annual event. We want to offer a special gratitude to the Southern Movement Assembly for connecting this event to the 2018 Southern People’s Power Tour. And shout out to Kingdom Living Temple, for making #Bayou Rising 2018 a stop on the Justice First Tour.

In south Louisiana, climate change is not some distant threat. We know it already happening, and we understand it is connected to all of our justice fights. The seas are rising... and so are WE!

Last month, the U.S. Department of Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released its final draft ,plan for the OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program, outlining the locations where oil and gas companies will and will not be permitted to drill over the next 5 years. This final version of the plan continues to protect the Atlantic Seaboard from oil and gas drilling and - in a new change to the plan - protects the Arctic region as well. The plan permits deepwater oil and gas exploration and extraction in more than 92 million acres throughout the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (GCCLP) applauds the leadership of local people in the Arctic and Atlantic that made these wins possible, and that of the federal government in protecting these regions. Local leaders - like our partner Esau Sinnok, a young Inupiaq Eskimo from Shishmaref, Alaska - have worked tirelessly to protect their homes, and their victory is one we should all celebrate.

GCCLP also firmly asserts that the Gulf South cannot continue to be a sacrifice zone to support the energy needs of the nation. Opening the Gulf of Mexico to more oil and gas drilling further accelerates us towards climate disaster and further endangers the health, livelihoods, and safety of Gulf South communities. It is time to fight for a new renewable energy economy that treats our workers, our planet, and our communities with dignity. As such, Louisiana and our national allies must work to elect leaders who see the Gulf region as a valuable national asset and not a sacrifice zone.

As we transition to a new presidential administration in 2017, we must fiercely demand the protection of the Gulf and also protect our wins in the Atlantic and Arctic. GCCLP will continue to work for ecological equity and climate justice in the Gulf South.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Friday, July 15, the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy’s Executive Director Colette Pichon Battle will be among ten individuals from across the country who the White House will recognize as “White House Champions of Change for Climate Equity.”

On receiving the award, Colette said “I am honored to accept this award on behalf of so many southern leaders working for equity as we continue to recover from the impacts of climate change. I offer my sincere thanks to the White House for acknowledging the importance of the Gulf South in achieving climate justice.”

The White House is recognizing Colette’s work for the past ten years with local communities, national funders and elected officials around equity issues in her home state of Louisiana in the post-Katrina and post-BP disaster in the Gulf Coast. Colette currently serves as Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (GCCLP), developing programs focused on Global Migration, Community Economic Development, Climate Justice, and Equitable Disaster Recovery.

Colette has been honored with a variety of awards for her work with Gulf Coast communities, including the 2015 US Human Rights Network Movement Builder Award and the 2015 Echoing Green Climate Fellowship. Most recently, Colette was named a Water Champion by the Greater New Orleans Foundation in recognition of her efforts supporting underrepresented communities and improving the lives of Gulf Coast residents.

Friday’s program will feature remarks by Council on Environmental Quality Managing Director Christy Goldfuss and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Dr. John Holdren.

The Obama Administration is committed to addressing climate change in a way that makes equity a priority and celebrating local leaders who are making a difference in their communities. The Champions of Change program was created as an opportunity for the White House to feature individuals doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of their communities. The event will be live streamed on the White House website atwww.whitehouse.gov/live/ on Friday, July 15, at 2:30 PM ET. Follow the conversation at #ActonClimate and #WHChamps.

The Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy is excited that our friend Esau Sinnok (age 18) of Shishmaref, Alaska will also be recognized as a White House Champion for Change for Climate Equity. He studies Tribal Management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and hopes to run for Governor of Alaska by the year 2030.

We send our love and congratulations to all who will be honored, including Vien Truong of Oakland, Calif.; Gilbert Campbell of Washington, D.C.; Cecilia Martinez of Minneapolis; Michael Durglo of Pablo, Mont.; Susana De Anda of Visalia, Calif.; Kristin Baja of Baltimore; Desiree Williams-Rajee of Portland; Oregon, and Michael Green of Boston.

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May 1st is International Worker’s Day, a celebration of laborers and the working class. Even though in the U.S. Labor Day is celebrated in September, the significance of the May 1st date is rooted in events that took place in Chicago in 1886: the Haymarket Affair. In short, in Chicago on May 4th, 1886, laborers were peacefully rallying for an eight-hour workday and protesting the killing of various workers by the police the previous day. An unknown individual threw a dynamite bomb at the police while they were trying to disperse the protesters. The bomb itself, and the police’s gunfire response resulted in the death and injury of police officers and civilians. The following legal proceedings, in which eight individuals were convicted of conspiracy, resulted in seven death sentences and one 15-year prison term. In the long term, the incident resulted in increased police violence and intimidation and a suppression of workers’ rights. The Haymarket Affair is considered the single event that has most influenced the history of labor in the U.S. and the world.

In my native Ecuador, May 1st is known as “Dia del trabajador” or “Workers’ Day” and traditionally labor groups have taken to the streets to protest unfair working conditions and to demand better pay and better treatment. Throughout the years the protests and demonstrations have varied in size and tone, but through it all the demand for equitable workers’ rights and for the recognition of workers’ social and economic value has remained.

While it may seem odd at first, climate change and labor rights are intimately related. Many of the drivers of climate change, such as extractive economies and means of production, also drive social and economic inequality. The unregulated consumption-oriented and socially unjust economic model under which the (now globalized) world operates is at the root of the world’s food, energy, climate, finance and economic crises. It is imperative that we recognize that we need a systematic change to the economic system that generated these social and environmental crises.

Climate change exacerbates the unequal distribution of the costs and benefits of our current economic system and modes of production and consumption. We are already seeing that the effects of climate change are hitting and will hit vulnerable populations, that have contributed the least to climate change, first and hardest. We need not go too far to find an example: along the Gulf of Mexico it is poor fishing communities that are losing their land to rising sea levels and losing their livelihoods to a warmer and more acidic ocean.

Climate change is a complex issue and it needs to be addressed as such. Mitigating and adapting to climate change will require massive changes at a systemic level as we transition to a renewable energy economy. The impacts and costs of this transition will be unevenly distributed across time and space unless a holistic approach that is rooted in social justice and equity is prioritized. The “Just Transition” framework offers such an approach. Just Transition “can be understood as the conceptual framework in which the labour movement captures the complexities of the transition towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy, highlighting public policy needs and aiming to maximize benefits and minimize hardships for workers and their communities in this transformation”[1] .

Thinking about a Just Transition away from fossil fuels and toward a renewable energy economy necessitates that we consider the short-, medium-, and long-term needs of workers’ at local, regional, national and international levels. It requires that we socially stabilize individuals as some communities lose jobs in fossil fuel and related industries and others gain jobs in renewable energy and related industries; as industries move to more climate-resilient places (sometimes crossing international borders); and as climate change impacts community’s social and physical infrastructures (e.g., by forcing communities to disperse, and by negatively affecting transportation and industrial infrastructures). A Just Transition requires respect for workers’ livelihoods and their communities, and accountable corporate behavior.

A Just Transition complements action on climate change rather than promote inaction. A Just Transition framework furthers social justice and equity and minimizes social barriers to the implementation of climate policies by ensuring that the costs and benefits of these policies are evenly distributed, and that these policies address communities’ current and future needs.

On this International Workers’ Day, let us celebrate workers’ value and their rights. Let us remember that the fight for climate justice and equity is intimately related to labor rights and that it exists at all levels (local to international). Let us remember that a Just Transition away from this extractive fossil fuel-based economy towards a sustainable renewable energy economy is possible. And let us remember that whether we are marching in the streets in Ecuador’s highest mountains or in the Gulf of Mexico’s coastal communities we are stronger when we fight together.

[1] Rosemberg, A. (2010). “Building a Just Transition: The linkages between climate change and employment.” International Journal of Labour Research, 2:2, pg. 141.

I live about 250 miles from the closest access to the Gulf of Mexico. You might think that because I don’t live on the Gulf Coast that the BP oil “spill” didn’t have an effect on me. Well, you’d be wrong. I may not live on the Gulf, by my home state is part of the Gulf South. We are connected to the Gulf and that means we are connected to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. There are many things about this event that concern me, even five years later.

First of all, it is- present tense. The oil has not disappeared. It is not over. It was not cleaned up. It did not go away. The oil is still there.

Let’s call it what it is – a disaster. It is not a spill. The word spill connotes something minor, something easily contained are remedied. What happened with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the subsequent massive oil gusher is far from a little spill. This was epic. Eleven human lives were lost along with countless animal lives and plant species. MILLIONS of gallons of oil spewed into the waters, land, wildlife, and communities were contaminated by the oil. Toxic dispersants banned in Europe, were used to “clean up” the mess. Let’s stop trying to minimize what happened. It was big. It was horrendous. And it is not over.

It is a crime against humanity. The smoke that burned while the rig was on fire was breathed in for miles. Thousands of people who worked the cleanup without proper protection have became ill. Lungs began to burn. Skin began to blister. The stress of working and living among the toxins associated with this oil drilling disaster has possibly contributed to many mental health problems, feelings of hopelessness, depression, anxiety, anger, and even suicidal thoughts as a result of health issues, economic hardships, and cultural damage.

The BP oil drilling disaster continues to be a crime against cultures. For many who make a living working on the Gulf, that work is part of a cultural tradition. One third of the fishers affected by the BP disaster are Vietnamese American fishing communities. For many, their way of life on the Gulf is the only life they know and a skill that they brought with them from fishing villages in their native land.

It is a straight up crime. Earlier this month, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said BP “misinterprets and misapplies” data to obscure the truth.

This disaster has caused unsurmountable economic hardships and environmental damage. Some fisherman and rig workers, who found themselves out of work after the disaster, felt compelled to take temporary work with BP, as part of the cleanup effort. The key word here is temporary. What were they supposed to do once that temporary work ended? Or worse, when they got sick?

Photo courtesy of Harlan Kirgan/Press-Register

A third of the fishers affected by BP’s catastrophic oil disaster are Vietnamese and they don’t have equal access to restitution payments and other aid. The language barrier to get information and file claims, inconsistent filing processes, and document requirements caused problematic delays says Thao Vu of Mississippi Coalition for Vietnamese American Fisherfolk and Families. “There has always been a problem, this only compounds it.”

The tourism industry is a crucial part of the Gulf Coast’s economy and the BP incident put an ugly stain on it. People stopped eating Gulf seafood after the disaster and many people turned away the Gulf Coast beaches and resorts out of fear or negative perception. Many small businesses that closed as a direct result of the disaster were not financially able to open again.

What the Gulf South is facing now is our reputation of resiliency. The oil and gas industry can respond and contain well blowouts offshore faster than ever before, said Don Armijo, CEO of the Marine Well Containment Co. But, he also said work remains to make sure containment equipment keeps pace with industry's push to drill in deeper waters.

Here’s the thing. We need to take the focus off of being resilient and instead focus on being resistant. We don’t want to keep getting dumped on. We don’t want to get taken advantage of. We don’t want to bounce back. We don’t want to recover. We don’t want to be the subject of studies. We want these events NOT to occur. We want to say no to polluting industries and their messy, hazardous ways. Instead, we want to push for a just transition to cleaner, safer industries that prioritize our wokers.

We need to hold bad actors accountable. They won’t be able to sing the “It ain’t my fault” tune. Like the Gulf Aid rendition of the song says, “Oil and water don’t mix/petroleo is not a grease to blacken my fish.” If we stand together, as the united Gulf South, we are a force to be reckoned with. “The seas are rising and so are we!”