TOM GOLDTOOTH on Climate Change Capitalism /80

Image courtesy of ienearth.org

This week on For The Wild podcast we are joined by Tom Goldtooth, an indigenous rights leader in the climate and environmental justice movement. He has served as executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) since 1996. Tom is one of the founders of the Durban Group for Climate Justice, co-founder of Climate Justice NOW!, a co-founder of the U.S. based Environmental Justice Climate Change initiative, a co-founder of the first Bioneers Conference Indigenous Forum, and a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change that operates as the indigenous caucus within the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change. He advocates for building healthy and sustainable indigenous communities based on traditional knowledge foundations, and works within tribal governments to develop indigenous-based environmental protection infrastructures. He serves on numerous boards, and works with indigenous people worldwide. Tom also co-produced "Drumbeat for Mother Earth," an award-winning documentary which explored the story of toxic and synthetic chemicals contaminating the food web and violating indigenous rights. Tom is of Diné and Dakota ancestry.

“Transition is inevitable, but justice is not.”

— Tom Goldtooth / Episode 80

Tom Goldtooth

Tom calls on indigenous peoples to have a critical analysis of where we are going, where we will be in fifty years, when the youth of today will be elders. How can our emotional, psychological, and our spiritual strategies impact a healing process that can ensure a just transition? “Transition is inevitable, but justice is not."

The Indigenous Environmental Network works to grow alliances, impact policy, educate and empower, organize campaigns, carry out direct action, build economically sustainable communities, and build the capacity of indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred mother earth and the health of all living things.

The Indigenous Environmental Network will be hosting the 17th annual Protecting Mother Earth Conference hosted by the Nisqually Tribe on their ancestral lands near Olympia, Washington. This conference is indigenous-initiated, designed, and led for the purpose of uplifting the critical voices of those on the frontline battles against environmental injustice and climate change. Topics will include water, energy, mining, food sovereignty, and the rights of mother earth. 

♫ Music is "Morel" by Ellayo.

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