Last month, THIS! Program Manager, Leigh Evans, helped organize a panel event as part of Stop the Money Pipeline’s JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) Working Group. The workshop focused on sacrifice zones that are being justified by corporations and governments in the name of electrification.
The panel featured two Indigenous resistance leaders, Dorece Sam and Chase Iron Eyes, who are affiliated with Ox Sam camp, as well as Professor Dayna Nadine Scott, Associate Professor & York Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice in the Green Economy at York University in Canada.
Folks with Ox Sam camp are currently fighting the displacement and abuse of their community at Thacker Pass in Northern Nevada, where a lithium mine is being built. Lithium-ion batteries are currently the most common type of battery used to power electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, and many other products required for the transition to renewable energy.
The panelists were asked to speak on the following questions:
- In what ways are you seeing communities (your own, and others) being sacrificed for the sake of electrification?
- How should we communicate about the tension between the urgent need to electrify, AND the urgent need to protect communities?
- What would a just electrification transition look like?
- What actions can people take to support your communities and others in sacrifice zones?
THIS! founder Jim Thompson said this about the webinar: “Great thanks to Leigh and others of the Stop the Money Pipeline JEDI group for developing this important program. We can’t allow a rush to rare earth sacrifice zones to follow the many fossil fuel sacrifice zones that have developed before and continue today.”
You can donate to support the Indigenous community at Ox Sam camp here.
Watch the recording of the workshop by clicking the image below:
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