Crossroad Tour: What Real Climate Leadership Looks Like

On Sunday, January 18, the run-up to the historic March for Real Climate Leadership begins with an Oakland forum on “Organizing at the Crossroads: What Real Climate Leadership Looks Like,” one of seven forums to be held throughout the state on the community impacts of the gas and oil industry.

California is standing at the crossroads between deadly fossil fuel-dependency and the promise of an emerging social and economic renewal. And only an equitable, green energy transition rooted in environmental justice can take us there.

Come hear an inspiring panel of real climate leaders who are not afraid to face this challenge head on: newly elected Assemblyperson Tony Thurmond of AD 15 and Richmond City Councilperson Eduardo Martinez; Mary Lim Lampe of Genesis and Gamaliel; a representative of the California Nurses Association; community organizers Andrés Soto of Communities for a Better Environment and Margaret Gordon of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, and Juan Flores of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment. Pennie Opal Plant offers the opening invocation. Forum MC is New Yorkers Against Fracking co-founder and Californians Against Fracking organizer, David Braun. Other speakers TBA.

The evening panel discussion will showcase how everyday Californians are in the fight of our lives against all aspects of the fossil fuel economy including extraction, infrastructure and transport, and our resistance to the industry’s assault on sustainable businesses and innovation. We’ll be exploring the intersections between our movements and aligning our energies behind one common goal: a truly clean energy future where our children are not poisoned for toxic profits.