The Intersectional History of Environmentalism
This project illuminates the diverse histories within the environmental movement that are often overlooked, watered-down, or entirely erased. Throughout the video’s progression, friends of IE unpack the vital contributions that Black, Indigenous + people of color have made to the environmental movement. Our goal is to support these often-overlooked narratives + the original stewards of our lands; encourage folks to reclaim their relationships with nature; and amplify initiatives that are creating a more just + equitable future for all people + the planet.
We are so grateful for IE's community members, council members, and friends for helping us bring this project to life + we're so excited to share it in full, and engage in discussions + critiques of it with you all.
Our intentions with the project:
+ illuminate historically-overlooked narratives of community members, organizers + original stewards of Turtle Island.
+ shed light on the contributions Black, Indigenous + people of color have made to the environmental movement.
+ encourage folks to reclaim their relationships with the nature they're already a part of
+ amplify initiatives that are creating a more just + equitable future for all people + the planet
💻Edited by Simrah Farrukh / simrahfarrukh
Produced by Phil Aiken / philthefixer
Research by Lexi Hernandez / lexiiimh
Script by Amira Chandni / amirachandni
Narration by Leah Thomas / greengirlleah
Graphics by Annabelle Golden / graphicsandgrain
Animations by Amanda Zhu / amndazhu
Photo Animations by Riley Lockett / riley.lockett
Additional Photo Animations by Simrah Farrukh
Features by
D'nae Henderson / dnaetheehistorian
Sage Lenier / sagelenier
Jordan Marie Daniel / nativein_la
Summer Dean / climatediva
Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd / queerquechua
Jade Begay / jadethemighty
Music by Sarah the Illstrumentalist, Iso Indies, Henyao, Matt Large, DAJANA
Special thanks to the IE Council, IE Community + IE Team
We are deeply grateful for the IE experts + community members that expressed their truths with us, shared their pieces with us, + helped us express the histories explored in this video. Due to time constraints + shrinking attention spans, we haven’t been able to dedicate nearly enough time to each event that we touched on. We're looking forward to expanding this series and including more narratives, firsthand accounts + truths rooted in community insight as we explore the real history of environmental justice.
Our Website: www.intersectionalenvironment...
Support Our Work: www.intersectionalenvironment...
Our Instagram: / intersectionalenvironm...
Our Twitter: / isxenviro
Research Direction + Assistance:
Professor, and founder + Executive Director of the Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples- Dr. Angela Mooney D’arcy
Professor of History- Michael Fraga
Indigenous Environmental Justice Advocate- Andrea Perez
Images:
Divest-NY, NewYorker
Justice-on-climate-race-immigration, Medium
March-Against-Monsanto-LA, LATimes
NYT-Youth-Protest, NYT
Protect-Mauna-Kea, TeenVogue
Youth-Climate-March, TheNation
Videos:
Climate & BLM Activists Protest Outside Chuck Shumer’s House / Speech by Alex O’Keefe, Sunrise Movement, KZhead
Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters: ‘The World Needed To See What Was Going On’ | NBC News, NBC News, KZhead
Robert Bullard - The Genesis of Environmental Justice, KZhead
This is why Native Americans are marching on Washington, CGTV America, KZhead
Young Climate Activists Storm Capitol Hill Demanding A Green New Deal, The Real News Network, KZhead
The future is intersectional! And it starts with education like this :)
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Need so much more of this. In France where I live politicians and the government have started to say that words like "decolonization" or "intersectionality" are silly to use in this country because apparently "we're not like the US which is where they come from", and "France doesn't have a problem with racism or environmental justice"... which is just ... crazy. Whereas people that live in former enslaved french islands, and indigenous communities (when recognized, bc there's also a problem with that) are still considered second-class citizens, and Fr still has a hold on its former colonies. Anyway, keep up the excellent work!! It's truly amazing
This is wonderful and essential for all climate activists. Thank you for putting it together 💚
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such a comprehensive story! + beautiful editing and narration
🌞✨ all thanks to our talented IE team
This is an incredible dive into brightening the timeline on environmentalism. Thank you for providing us this education!
The environmental history we SHOULD have been taught in school 💗✨
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Good work team!! so amazing
Ever since I read Leah Thomas's intersectional environmentalism my eyes have become motivated to change my life. The story of black and brown people in this country who believed in environmental justice should no longer be ignored. Intersectional Environmentalist is a topic I'm so grateful to have learned about. Let's keep this content going.
sooo much gold in this video! thank you for providing a more inclusive overview of the environmental movement. ✳️
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So excited to have these stories shared ✨💗
let's uplift BIPOC voices in the environmental movement ✨✨
This is the history lesson we need ✨
I love the historical counts of intersectionality and referencing the roots and how far back it really goes. It's truly not anything new it's so important that people become educated on this. Can't wait to see how this channel grows ✨
What an EXCELLENT video! I want to share this with Middle and Senior Years schools in our division to facilitate meaningful discussions with students in Indigenous Education studies. Thank you!
An marvelous masterpiece! Thanks a lot for making this great video! It's so inspiring!
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This video needs way more attention
This is very informative and beautifully made.
This is beautifully made (and very informative) first explainer everyone! Well done!
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wow this is so good :')) made the info so accessible + easy to watch and learn
I found you on IG and really love your work. That video is so well down and it's such an important message! Keep fighting! 💚✊
Word
well done 👏🏽
Do you have any overlooked BIPOC environmentalist authors that you recommend starting with?
Such a necessary, educational video 👏🏼💛
Thank you for this. Beautiful work.
So insightful and loved the graphics! Tysm for this incredible work ❤️
Very great video essay here! Loved the timeline.
Yes! Thank you for sharing this!! 👏👏👏
BIPOC to the front of environmental history 🌞🌏🌱🐛🤎🙏🏽🌿
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Where should I start learning more as most of these points brought up being my first time hearing about?
Thank you so much for this video and the work you do.
Thank you!!!!
This is such a great video, but the title should really read An Intersectional History of Envronmentalism *in the US*
Hey, let's agree to all call it, Enviromentalityism
Revisionist history at its best.
What I have never understood is the obviously incorrect modern notion that "Native Americans" (I used quotes because they were MANY people, they were not all the same) called the area of what is now the United States "Turtle Island" when there is no way that ALL the great multitudes of tribes that existed on North America shared any of the same words over all of them. It had to of been an Indigenous term that came from a single tribe, or grouping of tribes, that later became popularized as what "Native Americans" called it. Update: I looked it up. It was tribes from the northeast of what is now the United States, namely the Iroquois that called Earth that, and since the 60s and 70s the term has grown alot.
Beautiful and important but I fear that the high level language makes this very difficult for the average person to understand and engage.
Thats a 10
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Holy shit I had to watch this for a class and I've never been so bored.
Like don't get me wrong it's a well-done video, I just have 0 interest in this. At all. I'm falling asleep. F school.
Isn't Turtle Island the entire "North America" continent, and not just the US?
It was originally a term used by the North Eastern indigenous of the US (and possibly east Canada), namely the Iroquois confederacy. And it refered to Earth, makes sense because indigenous so far back before colonization wouldn't of known about the continental layout, so the land or Earth would of been the land or Earth, not, this continent or that continent.
This is painful to listen to. Can't get over how racist this kind of intersectional language becomes when people who don't understand what they're talking about try to be "activists." Just like the made-up term "two spirit", which did not appear in literature from any known tribe or culture until a the early 1990s, the idea of native cultures having any kind of consensus on North America is absurd. The term "turtle island" came from, as far as we can tell, perhaps one or two tribes--until the late 20th century when it became popularized by activists once again. Today's intersectional environmental movement is so removed from the landscape and from WILDERNESS, that ideas like changing the definition of "nature" to include inner city parks is held up as a kind of solution. This is at best a distraction while technocratic corporatism hijacks climate policy to push their own technocratic agendas. This is not about nature. It is about critical race theory and intersectionalism--which, on their own, might be great. But they simply confuse and obfuscate the real issues we are facing today--deforestation, overfishing, and truly apocalyptic agricultural practices. This is just... enraging. Teaching kids that all Native cultures thought like 21st century upper middle class hipsters--basically pimping out their histories to push the Green New Deal. Google it. The Green New Deal is an environmental disaster designed by billionaire technocrats. It will require insane amounts of new mining operations digging for precious metals, and most of those metals are found beneath the pristine waters of Minnesota's Boundary Water Canoe Area and throughout Superior National Forest. If theres teens out there reading this, do your own research. This movement is fostered mostly by white, suburban, wealthy children of elites whose only experience of wilderness and nature is taking selfies in front of some mountain or lake. The Green New Deal is absolutely catastrophic for our most pristine wetlands, and is a thinly veiled attempt for smart tech corporations to seize the power from the fossil fuel cabal in the name of nature. It is simply more of the same, but appropriating the language of environmentalism and intersectionality.
Ok, but tracking data and events is modern not "western", it's used in all countries, and by climate scientists and environmental scientists who are dead serious about understanding our effects on the planet used analytics and data sets. Those data sets are the only way we know the specific extent of environmental degradation. I think that type of logic is a bit too far. It's an absolute logical fallacy to say that because a tool was used in a biased and inaccurate way that the tool or method itself is to be thrown out.