"The climate bill, unfortunately, has been co-opted by the oil and coal industry."
—Tom Goldtooth
"My number one inspiration right now is not an organization or a person or an event, it’s the city of Detroit."
—Adrienne Maree Brown
"Climate change has provided the perfect “disaster capitalism” storm: an excuse for expanding corporate ownership and control over the commons."
— Rachel Smolker
"Too often, environmental grant makers shirk their responsibility to
address the issues affecting these communities, which are
disproportionately impacted by issues of pollution and waste, food
access and quality of life, and employment and sustainability."
—Carmen Rojas
"It’s the responsibility of local community organizations to provide models for the federal government to follow. I don’t think the solutions are going to come from the top down."
—Emily Kirsch
"if we go back to where we were, the situation will only get worse. There will be very few rich people, plenty of poor people, and a lot more dead people."
Donal Mahon
"Do we build sustainability or do we focus on profits?"
—Margaret Gordon
"What the nonprofit system has done is influence groups to take on single issues. But our communities and our lives are not single issues."
—Mari Rose Taruc
"The impending crisis of global climate change represents a moral failure on our part to be stewards of the Earth and harbingers of justice."
—Cassandra Carmichael
"The surprising thing is, we already know a lot about how to reorganize our economies for moving from “surviving” to “thriving.” Indigenous and poor people have long known that sharing resources with each other, practicing interdependence, and building real community are the best route to independence."
—Lisa Gray-Garcia
"Suburban communities have reaped the benefits born from the economic and environmental exploitation of poor communities. They still don’t see how conserving the environment and driving less will benefit them economically."
—Kisasi Brooks
Climate Change: Catalyst or Catastrophe? | Vol. 16, No. 2 | Fall 2009 | Credits