Latinos, Technology and the Environment: Digital Week Session on Climate Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, DC
June 10, 2010
                                 

Latinos, Technology and the Environment

(Washington, D.C.) -  As intergovernmental negotiators in Bonn are yet again, finding it impossible to reach a mutual agreement on Climate Change, digital savvy Latino-environmentalists are using technological innovation within and across borders to unite new and legacy media through organizing for climate justice.  Join us for our panel during Digital Capital Week in Washington, D.C., on June 13th from 3 to 5pm, at the Energy Action Coalition to find out more.  The panel 'Latinos, Technology and the Environment,' examines the opportunity presented by the digital sphere as it relates to Latinos and the environment.  We will discuss our participation in the recent World's People Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia and explore the role of technology in organizing the grassroots movement for the next annual meeting of intergovernmental climate negotiators in Cancun scheduled for November.  

At 49.7million, Latinos are the fastest growing and largest 'minority' population in the United States. In a recent poll commissioned by the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), 66 percent of Hispanics (Latinos) said tackling climate change should be a “high” or “very high” priority with 41 percent supporting the regulation of carbon emissions.” The National Latino Coalition on Climate Change (NLCCC) and the Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change (CEAACC), conducted a joint study in swing States across the U.S. that backs these findings.  An overwhelming majority of Latino voters in Florida (80%), Nevada (67%) and Colorado (58%) say they are more likely to vote for a U.S. Senate candidate that supports proposals for fighting global warming.  

The concern for climate action amongst Latinos in the United States is directly linked to the fact that they live or work in the most environmentally degraded areas, are amongst the most climate vulnerable in the United States and come from countries across Latin America where climate change has already wreaked havoc and caused hardship for their families and friends.  Mainstream environmental organizations have yet to engage the Latino community online although, their presence as a group within social media networks is more engaged across the board than non-Latinos.   The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) reports that 59.5% of Latinos are online, while a March 2010 report by Forester shows them growing most in the creator, critic and collector spectrum of the “Social Technographics Ladder.”

The few mainstream organizations that have taken the leap, such as the NRDC with Voces Verdes, the Earth Action Network, and the Sierra Club are yet to channel mobilizing online with face to face creative space. Greater opportunities to explore the roots US Latinos have to Latin America for environmental action are only beginning to get cultivated by grassroots organizations. Conferences such as the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia, Digital Capital Week coming up in Washington, D.C., and the US Social Forum in Detroit, do away with the bureaucracy and ego of traditional conferences and create the space to organically grow common visions in a big way.

The integration of Web 2.0 technology into these creative spaces has facilitated diverse environmental and social justice groups to stay connected and develop common strategies that sustain time and cross sectors as well as, borders.    Angela Adrar, an environmental new media communicator and Latino activist says that “Latinos in the US are growing weary of organizations that do not respond to their needs. They are sharing their experiences using bilingual communication and community muscle to change the narrative of power through social media and succeeding.”  The rise of the digital activist has been a long time coming but the effectiveness, tools and ability to create real world impact is exponentially increasing as more communities of color come of age online enabling them to generate their own stories and offer their own solutions.

Kety Esquivel, Interim Executive Director of Latism, the largest organization of Latinos in Social Media and Angela Adrar, Environmental Communicator with La Trenza Leadership Eco-Hermanas will be spearheading the panel.

Kety Esquivel (410) 500-8340 kety.esquivel@gmail.com Twitter: @KetyE Blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kety-esquivel

Angela Adrar (202) 439-7724 dancingsparrow@gmail.com Twitter: @DancingSparrow Blog: http://citizeninspired.blogspot.com/2010/01/protest-poetry-and-power-of-voice.html

Cochabamba PWCCC - Latinos and the Environment

This blog post was written by Angela Adrar, Lane Rios and myself (Kety Esquivel).

"As a Colombiana naturalized in the US, going to Cochabamba for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, makes sense on two main fronts. One is the environmental/climate justice front and the other, is to show solidarity to my fellow Latinos and support initiatives held in the countries of the South."
-- Angela Adrar (Environmental Communicator)

"On behalf of everyone at Being Latino, I am more than ecstatic to join this movement. Our aim at Being Latino is to educate, inspire and connect with other people across the global spectrum and with this opportunity we'll have the opportunity to do all 3!"
--Lance Rios (Founder, Being Latino)

"I am inspired not only by the following line in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's proposal for a Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth, "...the 21st century has to become the century of the Rights of Mother Earth and all natural beings," but also by the opportunity of what I can contribute as a US born Latina of indigenous ancestry."
--Kety Esquivel (Latinos in Social Media)

In the US, there is a general misconception that rights of Mother Earth are to be protected elsewhere; in Africa or Asia, where people are struggling with extreme floods and droughts and where environmental degradation is interfering with the basic human rights to food and shelter. However, the historical equation for environmental injustice in the US is just as significant.

According to a Sierra Club National Survey, 66% of Latino(a)s in the United States, work and live close to toxic sites, add to that, the African Americans and Asians that live in highly polluted urban neighborhoods, the farmer migrants that are exposed to pesticides when picking US food and the Indigenous peoples that are having their lands mined and degraded and we have a big hot mess that makes the US majority generally and environmentally disadvantaged.

Eco-Hermanas (Eco-Sisters), a program of La Trenza Leadership has designated 12 Inter-generational, Indigenous, migrant, Afro-descendant and Latino leaders to represent these "dignified yet vulnerable voices" across the US at Cochabamba.

This group includes outstanding women and men that include Penny Williams, the radio host for the Talking Feather, a radio and blog show that honors indigenous knowledge, issues and culture. Ophelia Rivas from the O'Odham Nation and 2010 "Woman on the Border", award Winner. Roberto Borrero, from the United Confederation of Taino People and a Senior Program Director for the American Museum of Natural History. The youngest member of the group is 21 year old Latino, Ian Viteri, from the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, an extraordinary environmentalist and role model for urban youth in Chicago. Diana Lopez from the SouthWest Workers Union in Texas is representing worker environmental rights.

Lance Rios from Being Latino, Kety Esquivel from Latism, Angelica Salazar an innovative online community organizer, and Angela Adrar from La Trenza Leadership will be sending along with the other inspirational leaders from the group regular social media updates from Cochabamba. We will be distributing a press release with our blog URLs, and media outlet information, so that you may see that we, the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural of the United States do have a voice, that we support any initiative that will invite the People to speak, and that we can speak for ourselves. The link to the Press Release will be added once it is available.

Our hope is to work in solidarity with all of the folks who are going to Cochabamba for this conference and produce something that will move us forward in the conversation on Climate Change in an inclusive way that has never before been seen in the Climate Movement. In an effort to begin to organize ourselves, we have created two Google Groups - one for the attendees of the conference and the other for people who want to support our work there and beyond.

If you are interested in joining either of these groups please contact Kety at @KetyE on twitter or by email at Kety.Esquivel@gmail.com.

Thank you and we look forward to continuing the conversation with you from Cochabamba, Bolivia!

Why I am Going to Cochabamba

In a few days, I will leave for Cochabamba, Bolivia.  Although I have always cared about the planet and its well being, this is the first time that I will be involved in climate change advocacy in a significant way since my days in student government at Cornell University where I was involved in passing resolutions on behalf of the environment (for Earth Day), and my days in China (back in the late nineties) where I walked around with Tupperware and metal chopsticks in order to prevent waste and set an example for the students I interacted with each day.  

So after all these years, after more than a decade has passed, why am I now going to Cochabamba Bolivia and the World People's Conference for Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth?

I am inspired not only by the following line in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's proposal for a Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth, "...the 21st century has to become the century of the Rights of Mother Earth and all natural beings," but also by the opportunity of what I can contribute as a US born Latina of indigenous ancestry.  You see the presence of women with my particular combination of identities is often missing in the mainstream conversations of Climate Change and at Angela Adrar's (@DancingSparrow on twitter) deliberate request a group of us are bringing that missing element to the conversations in Bolivia.  

This is a follow up to the conversation that many of my tech friends began in Copenhagen and like them, I am hopeful that technology will be able to support the important work of the good folks involved in the Climate Change talks.  We do not have time to waste and all of us must do what we can to help.  A few great resources for the conference that I have seen out there to date include @boliviaun on Twitter, as well as the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth FB fan page and event page.  We have been told by the Bolivian embassy that we will have access to WiFi and press badges.  So my plan is to live tweet several of the sessions and post regular updates to Twitter, FB and my blog.  

If throughout the course of the conference you have any questions, recommendations, etc. just let me know.  The best way to reach me will be through twitter.  You can find me @KetyE.