Dumpster in Campground
Near Mayville, NY – a few miles from Lake Chautauqua – June 2014
photo: Langelle
June 2014 calendar photograph for McGill University
This photograph I shot in Nicaragua’s Bosawas jungle in 1998 was requested and used by SEDE – Social Equity & Diversity Education office of McGilll University in Montreal, Quebec (Canada) for their 2014 calendar. The text that ran on the right side of the June calendar page is below.
THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT
GROUP: Climate Justice Montreal
Climate Justice Montreal is a group pursuing environmental and climate justice through education, mobilization and collective action in solidarity with directly affected communities. Through direct action, conferences and a climate camp, we played a key role in raising awareness about plans to construct a pumping station in Dunham, Quebec, destined to pump tar sands oil east.
The tar sands industry is violating the right of current and future generations to a livable world—not only by pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but also by removing precious top soil from the Albertan land- scape and submitting millions of people across Canada to the hazard of oil pipeline spills near their communities.
In January 2013, we held a day-long forum at Concordia University where two hundred participants came to discuss and plan mobilization to stop the tar sands from coming to Quebec. Climate Justice Montreal strives to create a better world through consensus, recognizing the need for decolonization and anti-oppression in the transformation of politics and the empowerment of communities to determine their own, just, safe and sustainable futures.
Global Justice Ecology Project explores and exposes the intertwined root causes of social injustice, ecological destruction and economic domination. We work to link struggles and strengthen diverse movements with strategic action, information, media and analysis.
One program of ours, Climate Justice Media, uses media as a strategic tool to amplify the voices of frontline communities that are fighting the impacts of climate change, the fossil fuels industry and dangerous false solutions to climate change such as industrial biofuels.
The STOP Genetically Engineered Trees Campaign is an example of how we identify interconnected issues that need addressing, and work to build effective coalitions to leverage systemic change. We founded the campaign in 2004 with the goal of protecting forests, biodiversity and rural communities from the potentially catastrophic impacts of genetically engineered trees. This issue intersects with many others, including the rights and autonomy of Indigenous Peoples, the protection of forests and their biodiversity, the well-being of rural communities and the decision to use land for fuel versus food.
LANGELLE PHOTOGRAPHY 