CheckTheWeather

Today Catch Checktheweather.net Co-founders, Ellen Choy and Kari Fulton repping for Climate Justice at the USSF

10-12pm Kari Fulton is partnering with the Energy Action Coalition and Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative for a workshop on engaging youth with Climate Policy. This workshop will be held at Woodward Academy room 1437 Woodward is right off of Lafayette and 1-75

Then from 3:30- 5:30- Ellen Choy will be partnering with Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice to present Youth and Climate Justice. This workshop will feature a panel discussion featuring amazing Youth Climate Justice Leaders from the Bay Area! This is going down at the Woodward Academy room 1472!

Then Check out our partners for Justice at the Ecological Justice PMA! From 1-5 in Cobo Hall Room D2-08!

Jump with us for Climate Justice!

For More information visit USSF2010.org

How would you feel if someone walked up to your mom trampled all over her, used her, threw oil on her then left her to dry? Some of ya’ll may want to break some bones just thinking about that vision. Well just like your biological mother has rights so does your Ecological mother. During the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the rights of Mother Earth, one of the people led working groups developed a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth (the document below) Unfortunately, the United Nations is not trying to recognize this declaration along with nine other critical points suggested by people who will be most impacted by climate change. Check out the declaration below.

If you will be in Detroit Saturday June, 26, 2010 you can catch a briefing by Bolivian United Nations Ambassador Pablo Salon as he discusses UN Climate Negotiations and how to ensure Mother Earth gets the respect she deserves.

Saturday 12 noon COBO Hall room TBD for more information e-mail motherearth@bolivia-usa.org

To read the other 9 points from the PWCCC that are being ignored in United Nations Climate Negotiations click the link below.

World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth « Mother Earth.

While the United States is talking about the BP oil spill, across the Atlantic, an oil crisis has been killing off the Niger Delta for five decades. Check this story from Laura Adibe, writer with AOL Black Voices on what’s popping off in the Niger Delta. Trust it’s even deeper than what Talib Kweli was talking about in his new song Black Gold.

Niger Delta Spills: Nigerias 50-Year Oil Crisis Ignored – BV Black Spin.

Once you’re done come back and click on this link to listen to Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek’s new track and find out why traveling to the Niger Delta impacted him so much he had to pull out the pen and start writing.

http://checktheweather.net/2010/05/28/talib-kweli-and-hi-tekblack-gold-is-all-about-that-dirty-oil/

Can Gardening lead to community solidarity and Environmental Justice? Check this post from Diana Lopez, a youth EJ organizer with San Antonio, Texas based Southwest Workers Union. Also click on the link below to find out how you can support real change in the hood! 

The roots of gardening go way back before BP, Monsanto, Nuclear Energy and Pesticides; before our earth became contaminated by greed and pride. Gardening connects you directly with your history, your culture and develops who you are personally.

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Our good folk at Oakland Local passed along this story. Apparently BP just launched a social media PR campaign to take some of the heat off of themselves for the oil spill. The only problem is that BP is getting a little too excited about photo-shop. Check the story by clicking on the link below to see the 1000 words BP tried to edit out of it’s oil spill footage.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: What are the pictures BP America doesn’t want you to see? | Oakland Local.

Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek returned this month to bring back a little taste of that real hip-hop. You know, that music that came with a healthy dose of knowledge, substance and chill beats. On their latest album Revolutions Per Minute, the artists, also collectively known as Reflection Eternal, take a moment to focus in on the oil industry’s impact on environmental justice and human rights. Kweli mentions in a promotional interview posted on Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner that he was inspired to write the song entitled “Black Gold” after visiting Nigeria and realizing how damaging the oil industry was to the impacted communities in the country. Check out Black Gold below and click read more to watch Kweli and Hi-Tek discuss the concept behind the song.

Check out the interview below:

Much like Checktheweather.net, Al Jazeera was in Bolivia for the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. While we edit all of our amazing footage check out this piece from Al Jazeera on how and why Bolivia is becoming a lead voice on climate change issues.

The Mighty Mos Def and Lenny Kravitz teamed up with Gulf Coast Natives, Preservation Hall Band, Trombone Shorty, and Tim Robbins recently to record It Ain’t My Fault. The tribute song to the Gulf Coast was co-written by Mos Def and Ben Jaffe and pulls lyrics from familiar songs by gulf natives,  Nina Simone and Master P.  Unlike the attempts of BP and the oil spill, the song successfully captures the best of the the gulf coast and showcases that bayou sound that we crave like a Popeye’s two piece and a biscuit. Check out the video below and click read more to hear more about the Gulf Aid Benefit concert that brought all this energy in one room. (more…)

This weekend, youth from around New York City and the country will gather together for the first ever New York City Youth Climate Justice Summit. The event will be held at Urban Assembly High School For Green Careers 145 West 84th Street on  April 16-17, 2010.

At the summit attendees will be able to partake in art presentations, free concerts from great NYC based artist such as Rebel Diaz and Climbing Poetree,  skills trainings and workshops on a wide range of  urban climate change issues including transportation, food, green jobs, immigration and gentrification.

This two day summit is hosted by Brooklyn based United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE) with support from a number of leading  social justice and environmental justice organizations. Founded in 1966 UPROSE is Brooklyn’s oldest latino-community organization. They utilize an intergenerational approach to organizing that helps community members think about their own lived in environment (what is the environmental impact of the concrete we walk on really?).  Check out this video profile from Brooklyn Independent Television on UPROSE’s hybrid bus environmental justice tours through the Sunset Park Neighborhood of Brooklyn.

UPROSE’s work has gained the attention of major environmental and political leaders including EPA administer Lisa P. Jackson. Jackson will give a video address during the summit commending the youth and offering a call to action for the future of our planet.

This is definitely the dopest event in NYC this weekend and ITS FREE!. Hurry and register The first 100 folk to register online get a free T-shirt!

For more information and to register for this FREE event visit http://uproseyouthsummit.blogspot.com/

- Matthew J Miller

Note: I am an environmental justice advocate so this is certainly not a break from the environmental movement. It is my realization that I have a responsibility to do some cultural brokering. I intend to offer alternative and relevant perspectives, not to divide. Consider this an acknowledgment of the socioeconomic, racial, political, psychological, and even spiritual challenges that need to be hurdled and taken head on in striving to “green” communities, oppressed and liberated alike. Since this piece is slightly creative, take the personal pronouns as me speaking from a group perspective informed and inspired by personal accounts and my ethnic studies.

I get it: the world is crumbling. Boo-hoo. Did you think my world was in tact before? Oh yes, this is going to be one of those cups of tea. I hope you like it hot. (more…)