Truth and Reckoning

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with Jeff McFaddenJeff is a small farmer engaged in land restoration work in southeastern Missouri. He’s well-known in his area for driving to town in a cart pulled by one or two of his donkeys. Jeff’s political analysis is rooted in the concept of slowing down to reduce ecological impact and improve human life.As Jeff wrote in a recent piece:“I see a massive slowing of everything as inevitable. Speed is kinetic energy. If a mass moves, energy moves it. The faster it moves the more energy it takes.We’ve gotten so used to talking of things in abstract terms that we tend to think that the way things are is the way they have to be. All the cars, all the noise, all the dirt, all the stuff in all the stores, all the goods and services competing for our attention and our money, that’s just the way things are. We ignore the energy. We are oblivious to the universal energy flow underlying our entire global economy and social system, what one might call our civilization. A vast flow of kinetic energy pours without ceasing across Earth, and without it none of things we take for granted would happen or appear.An inconceivable amount of mass is moving around Earth’s land surface, water surface, low atmosphere, and close orbital space. All of that motion, all of that kinetic energy, was released from petroleum molecules by burning. That which we call civilization burns over 100 million barrels of petroleum a day. Over half of that, some fifty-five million barrels a day, goes to industry, including industrial agriculture. Over half of what’s left goes to transportation. The biggest single portion of that is ocean vessels which burn the heaviest diesel oil in the word, and that’s with over 100,000 jets taking flight every day.There’s no place in that system where you can take out one of every five gallons and not notice it. If we lose half of it we’ll be in deep s**t.The current economy is what it is as a result of unimaginable amounts of energy being unbound from molecules and released into the wild, into the ecosystem, into Earth, Water, and Air. Added to that, and exceeding it, excess solar energy gets caught by all the extra carbon we’ve put into the air. It’s massively not working. Everybody’s crazy.”This is a fascinating conversation that touches on eco-collapse, overshoot, Jevon’s Paradox, restoration, social change vs. individual change, and more.Links and Resources* Jeff’s YouTube Channel* Jeff’s Substack newsletterThis episode can also be watched on YouTube.About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Through the 4th of July CELDF will be challenging dishonest narratives about America’s past and how those lies distort our lives in the present. This essay is the last installment in a four-part series of reflections on the Declaration of Independence from CELDF’s staff.By Max WilbertThe destruction of our planet isn’t a mistake or an accident. It’s driven by deliberate policies designed to maximize extraction of resources from the natural world and labor from workers for the benefit of the wealthy.The same is true for resurgent fascism and white supremacism, mass extinction of wildlife, ecological collapse, the climate crisis, and social polarization. In each case, these are either policy instruments of the ruling class (aka the Epstein class) or what they see as acceptable costs.George Kennan, former State Department Director of Policy Planning and at the time one of the most influential men in government, wrote in a 1948 memo that “[The United States has] about 50 percent of the world’s wealth but only 6.3 percent of its population... Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships, which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity...”Kennan is telling the truth that is often obscured: the primary goal of US government policy is not to raise the global standard of living, spread democracy, education, or health, but to maintain disproportionate wealth. Whatever scraps are provided to the working class in this country are mostly aimed at keeping us too content, distracted, and addicted to muster an effective rebellion.The United States of today is far, far more unequal than in 1948. This country has more than twice as many billionaires as the second-ranked country (China), despite having less than 25% of China’s population. And the power these wealthy people wield is totalitarian. Research which examined 1,800 policy proposals in the United States and compared the level of public support vs. likelihood of a proposal becoming law found that ordinary people have a “non-significant, near-zero level” of influence over government decisions. Meanwhile, the results showed that “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy”.In other words, our votes, public comments, and activism are exerting “near-zero” influence on government policy; the wealthy control the government entirely.We live in an oligarchy — a society ruled by the rich. Political philosopher Sheldon Wolin called this system, defined by the ongoing presence of supposedly democratic processes concealing a government which is functionally ruled by an unelected elite, inverted totalitarianism. The population has either been propagandized into believing we’re free, bribed into a state of what Wolin calls “civic demobilization,” or beaten into compliance with violence and surveillance.The Declaration of Independence, written 250 years ago, opens with the words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”Words are cheap.I’m reminded of the words of James Baldwin who, writing in The Nation in 1966 about police brutality towards black children, said “I can’t believe what you say… because I see what you do.” By 1776, Europeans had already been engaged in a genocidal project of profit-driven settler colonialism on this continent for centuries, and a system of elite domination was firmly entrenched.The Declaration of Independence goes on to state that “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness… when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government.”This, I agree with.We are already living in a time of civil war. The United States government and the elites that run it are waging war against the people and the planet. They are killing people in the streets, abducting families, conducting illegal wars and genocide, strengthening a system of police state surveillance, and enriching the already wealthy to ever-more-obscene levels via systems of patronage and legalized corruption.Meanwhile, the climate descends into chaos, pollution proliferates, cancer and disease multiply, the planet is destroyed further every single day, and more and more people die deaths of hopelessness from addiction and poverty. Those killed by factory discharges, a lifetime of toxic industrial food, climate chaos, lack of basic healthcare and societal decency, and afflictions of despair are just as much casualties of the class war.It’s not just the current administration. The same has been true for my entire life, with different factions of the ruling class engaging in the push-pull cycles of minor reform and counter-revolution that make inverted totalitarianism such a resilient, effective, and convincing system of oppression.The civil war is already here. The question for us is, do we still believe in the mythology of the benevolent US government enough to be pacified, or are we prepared to throw off these rulers who have shown themselves time and time again to be leaders of a death cult? Max Wilbert is Co-Coordinator of Community Resistance & Resilience and Publicist for CELDF. He is the author of two books, writes the newsletter Biocentric on Substack, and has been part of grassroots political movements for 25 years. If you’re new here, this is Truth and Reckoning, a newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.Through the 4th of July CELDF will be challenging dishonest narratives about America’s past and how those lies distort our lives in the present. This essay is part of a four-part series of reflections on the Declaration of Independence from CELDF’s staff.By Christine SchoenbergerThe crumbling of the American Dream is radicalizing the people to whom it was once promised. They are not activists or people who think of themselves in terms of left or right, but mostly people who have avoided politics altogether and assumed the system basically worked, even if imperfectly.But something interesting is happening in online discussions. You don’t have to look long before the patterns emerge: people, especially younger adults, describing unemployment or wages that don’t cover rent, having to work two jobs and still needing roommates well into adulthood, or medical debt that will never realistically be paid off. It’s not unusual to hear of people encountering ads for jobs requiring graduate degrees for entry-level work, or sending hundreds of resumes and receiving only silence. You may be surprised at the number of people in their forties who have quietly accepted they will never retire and doubt Social Security will exist when they need it. Parents describe how their entire paycheck disappears to cover childcare, but they can’t stay home with the kids because the family will lose health insurance if they don’t work.Commenters from other countries respond in disbelief that this is life in the United States. But something is shifting among people who once rolled their eyes at politics. They’re using words like “systemic,” “billionaire class,” and even “revolution” that they would have avoided even five years ago. And it’s not for dramatic effect; they’ve arrived at this conclusion on their own.It reminds me of this line from the Declaration of Independence:“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations [comes from the government]…it is [the people’s] right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government…”We tend to treat that sentence as sacred or an artifact from an earlier time, but today it reads more like a directive. The Declaration did not simply announce independence from Britain. It said that when power consistently harms the people it governs, it loses the right to exist. This idea was explosive in 1776 and remains so now.Did the Declaration’s aspirations come to fruition? Politically, the Revolution succeeded in that a new nation was born. But economically and socially, power reorganized itself. The British pointed out the hypocrisy of claiming liberty while maintaining slavery. So-called “liberty” coexisted with property requirements for political participation, exclusion of women, and dispossession of Indigenous nations. Poverty, as always, remained concentrated among those already denied power.For generations, instability could be framed as someone else’s problem. The American Dream functioned as proof that the system worked, if not for everyone, at least for some. Even partial access kept the larger promise intact.But what happens when supposedly secure Americans begin to feel the same precarity long familiar to marginalized communities? What happens when the gap between the fairytale and the lived experience becomes impossible to ignore?What made the Declaration dangerous wasn’t that it asked for too much, but that it normalized resistance. It treated revolt as a rational response to sustained harm and even a duty, an idea that does not fade simply because a new government takes power.For a long time, calling something “radical” was enough to shut people up. Insults like “commie,” “extremist,” “terrorist” carried fear and stigma, warning others to stay quiet.But fear starts to lose its grip when experience becomes collective. There is only so long you can get away with these labels before they lose their impact.If we are willing to look honestly at our history, revolution is not outside of the American story, but one of its central chapters. The Revolution was ordinary people deciding that the system had broken its contract with them.Maybe the Declaration didn’t fall short because it was unrealistic, but because it was always uncomfortable for those with wealth and power. Once you tell people they have the right to resist sustained harm, that idea does not stay contained in one century. Revolution isn’t an interruption in our history; it is one of its foundations. And maybe what unsettles some people now is not the word itself, but how appropriate it is beginning to sound.Christine Shoenberger is a grant writer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). She holds a Master of Health Science degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and resides in Maryland with her family. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.Through the 4th of July CELDF will be challenging dishonest narratives about America’s past and how those lies distort our lives in the present. This essay is part of a four-part series of reflections on the Declaration of Independence from CELDF’s staff.By Will FalkThe Declaration of Independence is a dangerous document – though probably not in the way you’re thinking. When Americans think of the Declaration, they often think of it as the shot across the British bow that announced the brave underdog patriots’ defiance of those powder-wigged, lordly stiffs who dared tax Americans without representation. Today, the Declaration of Independence is fetishized in the United States as key to what it means to be an American. It is clung to by Americans who need to soothe their guilty consciences for the history of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and colonial violence that has made, and continues to make, the United States possible.The British, at the time the Declaration was made, didn’t think much of it. Much of the British commentary on the Declaration chided the American rebels as petulant children. “Petulant children” might be too nice of a term for men like Thomas Jefferson who, while declaring that “all men are created equal” enslaved hundreds of men (and women and children) during his lifetime; who raped at least one of those slaves; who defined his children, born by the woman he raped, as property; and who engaged in illegal land speculation, buying claims to land that Native peoples had not ceded. “Petulant children” similarly might be too nice of a term for men like George Washington who, like Jefferson, enslaved hundreds of men (and women and children); who similarly engaged in illegal speculation of land that Native peoples had not ceded; and who treated Native Americans with such brutality that the Iroquois nicknamed him “Town Destroyer” for his practice of ordering troops to destroy whole villages.Of course, there’s nothing unique about Jefferson and Washington amongst the United States’ so-called “founding fathers.” One of the primary motivators for the American movement for independence was the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains (land that Jefferson, Washington, and others were hoping to make a fortune selling through speculation markets). I can hear readers demanding: “How dare the King tell Americans where they can settle?” The thing is, the land west of the Appalachian Mountains was already home to Native American First Nations. No, the British didn’t really care about protecting Native folks. But, they were sick of spending money on troops to protect American colonists (and speculators) who were illegally violating treaties made with those First Nations.Another one of the primary motivators for the so-called “Patriots” was an alliance that enslaved folks made with the royal governor in Virginia beginning in 1774. This alliance resulted in Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation, which offered freedom to any enslaved person or indentured servant owned by a rebel who escaped and joined the British Army. Americans feared free African populations so much that Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation pushed many Americans to the rebel cause. And, of course, this fear found its bloodiest expression 90 years later during the Civil War, when hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives to protect the institution of slavery.“Yes, yes,” I hear some readers muttering. “But, some of the Patriots really did aspire to the ideals described in the Declaration.” Did they, though? Because I think people who truly aspired to the ideals described in the Declaration would have joined with Native Americans and enslaved Africans – those whose life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness were most clearly threatened in 1776 – and fought directly to protect them.And, this is why the Declaration of Independence is such a dangerous document. It was propaganda used in 1776 by the most powerful American rebels (enslavers, land speculators, purveyors of genocide) to convince the working class folks that the most powerful American rebels needed to do their dirty work to protect their interests against the British. The Declaration of Independence is similarly used as propaganda in 2026 by the most powerful Americans to convince working class folks to do the dirty work of protecting the most powerful Americans’ interests in Venezuela, Iran, Gaza, and the streets of cities like Minneapolis.There’s nothing wrong with the ideals described in the Declaration. But, the United States has never existed to defend Americans’ life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. If it did, slavery would have been outlawed on July 4, 1776. If it did, Native Americans would still govern their land. If it did, the United States would not be one of the prime drivers of total ecological collapse. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, after all, are not possible on a dead planet.So, no, I do not care about sweet sounding ideals. I care about protecting the most vulnerable amongst us, those whose life and liberty are most directly threatened. We have countless other histories to look to than the history of the reactionary American rebels who fought for independence so they could steal more land and enslave more people. We could look to people like Tecumseh, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, and John Brown – people who knew just how dangerous the Declaration of Independence really is.About the AuthorWill is a writer, lawyer, and environmental activist. The natural world speaks and Will’s work is how he listens. He believes the ongoing destruction of the natural world is the most pressing issue confronting us today. For Will, writing is a tool to be used in resistance. Will graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School and practiced as a public defender in Kenosha, WI. He left the public defender office to pursue frontline environmental activism. So far, activism has taken him to the Unist’ot’en Camp – an indigenous cultural center and pipeline blockade on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in so-called British Columbia, Canada, to a construction blockade on Mauna Kea in Hawai’i, to endangered pinyon-juniper forests in the Great Basin, and to Thacker Pass in northern Nevada. Will’s first book How Dams Fall describes his relationship with the Colorado River in the context of the first-ever American federal lawsuit seeking rights for a major ecosystem, that he helped to file, was published in August 2019. His second book When I Set the Sweetgrass Down, a full-length collection of poetry was published in 2023. You can follow Will’s work at willfalk.org. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.Through the 4th of July CELDF will be challenging dishonest narratives about America’s past and how those lies distort our lives in the present. This essay is part of a four-part series of reflections on the Declaration of Independence from CELDF’s staff. They’re part of CELDF’s America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective series.Two-hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was signed by an exclusive gathering of wealthy white men, O’Dell speaks to what the Declaration failed to address when it asserted that:“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”You can find more on America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective at CELDF’s Truth + Reckoning Substack. Be sure to follow us there and at CELDF.org, where you can learn about our Education, Consulting, and Community Resistance & Resilience programs. Consider supporting CELDF by making a donation that fits your plans.By Tish O’DellLooking back at what I was taught in my 6 decades on this Earth as an American and what I have had to “unlearn” thanks to my colleagues at CELDF, community members I have fought alongside and even the lawyers, judges, electeds and media who have exposed reality to me, my perspective of the Declaration of Independence (DOI) is far different today than what I learned in school.As a young girl in school, I believed what I was taught hook line and sinker — the DOI was an amazing document recognizing that we were all free and equal in this country no matter where we were born, our socioeconomic status or who our parents were. Although an obvious red flag clue should have been the first line “all men are created equal”! When I questioned that, the reply was always the same, “women fought for the 19th amendment (over 100 years after the DOI) and won”, as if voting somehow guaranteed we were equal under the law.I also came of age during the era of “women’s liberation” which included the fights for equal pay and equal rights. I remember seeing Gloria Steinem speak at Kent State University which I was attending in the mid-1980’s and she inspired me to look closer at what I had been taught and what reality was when it came to women’s rights. She gave statistics on the pay discrepancy between men and women doing the same job. The fact that a woman couldn’t get a credit card without her husband’s signature and that in many states marital rape was legal (many states still treat marital rape differently under the law). And of course, the big issue about whether a woman has the right to decide whether to go through with an unwanted pregnancy is still being debated in 2026.Over the years I did what so many of us have been taught to do… I marched in my community; I traveled to Washington D.C. to march for the Equal Rights Amendment for women; and I wrote letters to electeds and anywhere else that would print them. These experiences made me realize that the freedom I had been taught that the DOI and constitutional amendments promised, were more illusion than reality.In 2011 I began organizing and working with CELDF. I took Democracy School and learned the real history behind the DOI and this sparked my interest in learning even more about the movement for women’s rights. Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John, in 1776 as the idea of what we know as the United States was being formed, “Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”Over the next two centuries women fought and fought hard to become recognized rights holders. Some engaged in direct action and were arrested, like Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul. When they appeared before the court, the judge ruled against them. What many today would call a “loss” and yet, I am so grateful that they didn’t give up. I learned that in many local communities and later territories in the US, women had the right to vote and when the territories became states, the legislatures actually took away women’s right to vote. I learned that the struggle wasn’t just some women in white dresses with sashes parading down the streets and that these protests were somehow responsible for the 19th amendment. It took over 100 years of meetings, organizing, protests, arrests, court cases and acts of extreme courage and sacrifice that resulted in torture and even losing their own children, just to be able to vote, but still not changing that famous line, “all men are created equal”.I also learned in my work with CELDF and by being directly involved with the court cases filed on behalf of local laws protecting nature and the rights of community members, that when we attempted to cite the DOI as the basis of our arguments in our briefs regarding those “unalienable rights of the people to protect their lives, liberty and happiness”, the courts, if they even addressed the argument at all, stated that the DOI is not actually law but just poetic words of aspiration.So while this country and our government celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, let’s see it through the eyes of truth and reality. There may have been good intentions by the people at the time who took all the risks, including the women, but we have never lived up to those intentions of freedom, justice and rights for all persons and the non-humans that we depend on. Isn’t it about time we take the words seriously and breathe life into the righteous word of the Declaration of Independence or perhaps just start over with a new guiding document that actually reflects and codifies the values we were taught were there all along?About the AuthorTish O’Dell has been involved in community rights and Rights of Nature work since 2012. She started in her own community of Broadview Heights, Ohio, leading to the adoption of Ohio’s first Home Rule charter amendment creating a Community Bill of Rights banning fracking and recognizing Rights of Nature. She then went on to work with dozens of Ohio communities on anti-fracking, anti-pipeline, right to a livable climate, fair and free elections, and water privatization issues. Today, Tish works with communities all over the country and internationally, most recently working with residents and a state legislator in NY to introduce the Great Lakes Bill of Rights. In 2019, she worked with the people of Toledo to pass the historic Lake Erie Bill of Rights. She has taught workshops, CELDF’s Democracy Schools, and is a founding member and current board member of the Ohio Community Rights Network. Tish, along with other CELDF staff and community members, has been featured in the documentaries We the People 2.0, Invisible Hand, What We do to Nature, We do to Ourselves, and edited the book Death by Democracy. In her free time, Tish likes to spend time on or near Lake Erie, in her yard, or with family and friends having lively discussions or playing a competitive game…for fun of course. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with Billy Randel, John Taylor, and Ray “Hollywood” Randall of Truckers Movement for Justice.CELDF has been involved in the fight against fracking (hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of oil and gas) for many years. We often hear about environmental impacts of fracking, and the harms to local communities. But in this conversation, we connect with another impacted group: truckers who haul materials and toxic waste for the fracking industry, who are exposed to serious pollutants as a result, and who suffer the same abuses as all workers face: theft of wages, declining working conditions, and pressure to maximize profits at the cost of well-being.Truckers Movement for Justice emerged in part because of these health impacts on workers, and because in addition to exploiting nature, empire also exploits labor. There is a connection between the destruction of the planet and harm to workers.What we do to nature, we do to ourselves.These truckers find themselves in a difficult situation, because unlike unions organizing in a physical workplace, they are always on the move. Their strategies for finding unity and solidarity and organizing across thousands of miles of road are well worth learning from.We at CELDF also found this conversation interesting because of TMJ’s focus on succession: how they make sure that there’s leadership in the next generation beyond those that are currently in those leadership positions that are now older. We explore the grassroots efforts of Truckers Movement for Justice (TMJ) as they organize independent truck drivers to challenge industry exploitation, environmental hazards, and systemic corruption.* The origins and evolution of Truckers Movement for Justice* Challenges faced by independent truck drivers in organizing and advocacy* The impact of industry practices on worker rights, wages, and health* Environmental and health hazards in the oil, fracking, and trucking industries* Strategies for building solidarity among isolated workers* Historical parallels with union decline and corporate control* Practical steps for community and worker organizing efforts* The importance of collective action to challenge systemic oppressionLinks and Resources* Truckers Movement for Justice Facebook* Instagram @truckers_movement_for_justice* North American Truckers’ Movements Announce International Alliance* Book: Petroleum 238* Truckers Petition Feds to Enforce HAZMAT Rules on Oil and Gas Waste This episode can also be watched on YouTube.About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with Kashudoha Wanda Loescher Culp (Tlingit) and Joshua WrightThe Tongass Rainforest in Southeast Alaska is the last great expanse of temperate old growth forest left in the United States, and it has been partially protected since the “Roadless Rule” halted most logging there in 2001.Now, the "biggest threat to the west coast rainforest this century" is here: Bill S.2554, which would permanently privatize 115,200 acres, including 80,000 acres of old-growth rainforest, into the hands of privately owned logging corporations — all behind a veil of “justice” for indigenous people. All this is happening at the same time that the roadless rule itself is under threat.This conversation with Tlingit elder and forest defender Wanda Culp and filmmaker and activist Joshua Wright — who helped launch the Fairy Creek blockade — dives into "indigi-washing," one of the divide and conquer strategies being used defeat public opposition to the destruction of the land.Wanda and Joshua have requested your help:TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION:Please contact the Natural Resources Committee TODAY to oppose S.2554 and urge them to protect our public lands instead of handing them over for private exploitation! If you are reading this after February 12, please email the Senate regardless, please also reach out to your local congressional representative to tell them that you oppose the bill.Sample letter: https://tinyurl.com/[email protected] and Resources* Background on ANCSA, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (1971)The YouTube version of this podcast will be available here shortly.About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with Tom Grotewohl of Protect The PorkiesOur conversation focuses on the ongoing efforts to oppose the Copperwood Mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula through the organization Protect the Porkies. Tom calls the proposed Copperwood Mine a “toxic waste mine,” because that’s most of what it will produce. We explore the motivations behind the campaign, intervention points around securing funding for mining projects, and the environmental impacts of mining. We also dive into the importance of art and culture. Tom and the rest of the team at Protect the Porkies have used community engagement and art to involve and inspire people throughout their campaign.This conversation is also a dialogue. Tom and I first met through Protect Thacker Pass, and in this interview, he turns the questions around on me to discuss lessons learned from that campaign to resist a lithium mine in Nevada.Topics discussed in this show include:* Government and corporate partnerships in resource extraction* The potential of the Rights of Nature movement to reshape environmental law* The importance of community engagement, cultural change, and grassroots activism to build decentralized movements for protection of land and waterChapters03:00 Introduction to Protect the Porkies05:50 Tom’s Background and motivation09:29 Max’s experience with Thacker Pass13:02 Funding for mining projects19:35 Environmental impacts and permitting issues25:45 Government and corporate partnerships31:28 Lessons from Thacker Pass36:56 Rights of Nature, including challenges and successes52:03 Cultural change and community engagement01:03:41 Strategies for Implementing Rights of NatureLinks and Resources* Protect the Porkies website* How to take action on Copperwood* Protect Thacker Pass websiteThe YouTube version of this podcast can be viewed here:KeywordsProtect the Porkies, copper mine, environmental activism, rights of nature, community resistance, Thacker Pass, mining funding, ecological crisis, grassroots movements, cultural changeAbout the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.Your gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future.Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today! Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with four people resisting the destruction of a rare maritime forest in Virginia Beach, VAThis is a followup to episode 2 of this podcast, in which Dr. John Aguiar introduced us to “Pleasure House Point,” a natural area in Virginia Beach which is currently being bulldozed by the city government as a so-called “restoration” project. Thousands of trees have been cut down, including mature oaks and pines, heavily impacting bird and Diamondback terrapin habitat.At Pleasure House Point, the city of Virginia Beach is currently clearcutting a mature native forest and destroying critical nesting habitat for the Diamondback Terrapin. It’s part of what they call a “restoration” project, and is happening as part of a wetlands-credit scheme whereby wetlands habitat elsewhere which is being destroyed for a flood-mitigation project is supposedly being “offset” by the creation of new wetlands at Pleasure House Point.In both cases, nature is losing.This story is one of a growing number of examples — from forest thinning to spraying invasive species with herbicides — where “restoration” has been co-opted and used as a greenwashing technique. This isn’t an indictment of restoration as a whole, but it is a warning that there are active attempts to use the language emerging from this field to justify more destruction of our planet.In this followup episode, we speak with Dr. Aguiar and three other residents of the area who are opposing the destruction: Kim Mayo, Windy Crutchfield, and Walt Stone. These three have, with some assistance from CELDF, filed a pro se lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers for destroying Pleasure House Point.Listen to the first interview on this topic, released in May 2025, here:Topics discussed in this show include:* The link between local politicians and housing developers who benefit from the clearcutting and made major campaign contributions* The city’s stonewalling and lack of transparency* The lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers* Community protests and activism* Feelings of betrayal by local environmental organizations* Impacts of wildlife, including the diamondback terrapin* The need for more journalists to write this story and more community members to join the resistance* Why is it that nature always has to be destroyed? Why not bulldoze the golf course or the luxury homes instead and turn that land into salt marsh?Photos from the sitePartial timeline since May 2025* Feb. 2025 - Multiple gatherings/ protests* March 8, 2025 - Documentary filmmaker records residents urging the city not to destroy our public land* March 18-19, 2025 - More than 5,000 trees are cut down, including sizeable live oaks the city was legally required to conserve.* April 27, 2025 - Virginia Beach City Government sets up security cameras on-scene which play recorded messages when they detect people nearby instructing people that they are trespassing and police would be called.* May 2025 - Documentary filmmaker returns, recall petition launched against Councilman who pushed the destruction in his district* August 2025 - Illegal pollution discharge documented by opponents* October 12, 2025 - Media captures oil barrel, toxic waste ,and a portable toilet floating around next to the restored “wetlands” (deforested area).* December 2, 2025 - Councilman Joash Schulman refuses to talk about Pleasure House Point when questioned at a public meeting about his developer donor having water views following the deforestation.Links and Resources* Link to a short documentary about Pleasure House Point by Angelique Herring Studios* Barrels, construction material litter Pleasure House Point Project; residents call for accountability | 13newsnow.com* Virginia Beach citizens sue Army Corps over wetlands project that cleared forest at Pleasure House PointThe YouTube version of this podcast can be viewed here:KeywordsVirginia Beach, environmental activism, diamondback terrapin, forest destruction, community response, local government, transparency, environmental journalism, terrestrial ecosystemsAbout the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.Your gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future.Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today! Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with Kate Scott and Tony Heath about resisting border wall construction.Last month, CELDF’s executive director Kai Huschke traveled to southern Arizona to participate in a rally against the construction of a 30-foot wall impervious to not just humans, but animals as well — including critically endangered jaguars, as well as ocelots, pronghorn antelope, and black bear who live in the area.In this interview recorded on-site, Kai speaks with Kate Scott and Tony Heath. Kate and Tony are the co-founders of the Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center (MAWC) and part of a broad community-based and bi-national coalition opposed to the construction of the border wall. The interview focuses on the ecological impacts of the wall, drivers of mass migration, the jaguar and other wildlife, and the urgency of resistance to this project.Links and Resources* Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center* Border Wall Resistance Coalition* Madrean Archipelago FilmsThe YouTube version of this podcast can be found here:Keywordsborder, activism, ecology, environmental impact, community, wall, San Pedro River, jaguar, indigenous rights, climate crisisAbout the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.Support this workYour gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future.Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today! Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

If you’re new here, this is Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.In this episode, we speak with Elder Bill Jones of the Pacheedaht First Nation and Will O’Connell on the frontlines of old-growth forest defenseFirst we’ll hear from Will O’Connell, a 34-year-old science and math teacher who has been on the front lines of these protests and joins us from his car at the protest camp, then from Elder Bill Jones from the Pacheedaht First Nation, two leaders in the forest defense movement currently taking place in Vancouver Island in western Canada.Elder Bill is 85 years old. For decades, he has welcomed people into the forests to stand with him in defense of the last old-growth trees on his territory. At Fairy Creek, his invitation sparked one of the largest acts of civil resistance in Canadian history. Now, Western Forest Products has filed a civil suit against him, seeking an injunction that would make it illegal for Bill to be on his own land. If this injunction is granted, police will be authorized to arrest and detain those protecting the old growth.Bill’s grandfather once told him: “Sonny, go out into the forest. That is where you will find the Great Mother. In the forest. It is a place of worship.” Today, that sacred place is under threat as logging companies push to cut what remains.On the day before we recorded this interview, Monday December 8th, Will had been wrongfully arrested by the RCMP, the Canadian federal police, while on-site in the Walbran, and loggers had been able to pass the blockades and begin logging ancient forests again - towering 2,000 year old western red cedars, ancient firs and hemlocks.A dozen people or more have been arrested over the past week or so, with more every day. They need support on the front lines, so if you’re near Vancouver Island, please go. And if you’re not, we need you elsewhere.This conversation explores the ongoing efforts to protect the Walbran Valley’s ancient forests, highlighting the role of community activists, including Elder Bill Jones, and the challenges posed by law enforcement. The discussion delves into the tactics used by forest defenders, the historical context of forest defense movements, and the personal experiences of activists on the front lines. It emphasizes the importance of solidarity and the need for continued action against ecological devastation.Message from Walbran forest defendersCOME TO CAMP We are currently in Kaxi;ks (the Upper Walbran) Valley, fighting for an end to old growth logging. NEW CAMP: 48.75088, -124.50931Links and Resources* Donation link to support the resistance* Fairy Creek Blockade on Instagram* ‘Indian Against Indian’: The Walbran Forest Protection Blockade and Truth & Reconciliation as Colonialism Continues ... * How the Walbran Blockade Echoes Another Famous Stand in the ForestThe YouTube version of this podcast can be found here:Topics CoveredWalbran Valley, old growth forests, forest defense, RCMP, direct action, community mobilization, environmental activism, Elder Bill Jones, logging, climate change, anthropology, empire, civilization, food supply, population pressure, extraction, and the preservation of wild places and forests as a source of life for future people.Takeaways* The Walbran Valley is home to ancient forests that are under threat from logging.* Elder Bill Jones plays a crucial role in the movement to protect these forests.* The RCMP has been using heavy-handed tactics against forest defenders.* Direct action tactics, such as cantilevers, are being employed to block logging roads.* Historical forest defense movements have shaped current activism strategies.* Solidarity among activists is vital for sustaining the movement.* The legal landscape is complex, with injunctions leading to police action.* Community mobilization is essential for effective forest defense.* The fight for the Walbran Valley reflects broader ecological issues.* Activists are determined to continue their efforts despite challenges.About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.Support this workYour gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future.Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today! Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature and movement strategy, and to stay updated on our work.In this episode, we speak with Kai HuschkeKai is the Executive and Development Director at CELDF, and has been part of the movement since 2009. After spending 13 years organizing for CELDF in the Northwest and Hawaii, Kai took over as Executive Director. His experience as a seasoned community organizer and movement specialist is helping to guide CELDF into its next 30 years. Kai has served as a national lecturer for CELDF’s Democracy School and as a board member of the Oregon Community Rights Network and Washington Community Rights Network. He teaches, presents, and writes extensively on movement building, community rights, rights of nature, and the intersection of culture and law.In this podcast, we discuss the work that CELDF has done over the past year, what’s next for our movement, and the support we need in order to make progress on our ambitious goals. CELDF is aiming to raise $5 million over the next five years to expand our Educational Programs, bring Rights of Nature to new communities, and implement our Community Resistance and Resilience vision with our national network of frontline, on-the-ground partners.The YouTube version of this podcast can be found here:Links and Resources* CELDF’s website* Our most recent newsletter, “Living as Nature”* How to donate to CELDFAbout the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.Support this workYour gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future.Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today! Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature and movement strategy, and to stay updated on our work.In this episode, we speak with Dina Gilio-WhitakerDina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is a lecturer of American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos, and an independent consultant and educator in environmental justice policy planning. She teaches courses on environmentalism and American Indians, traditional ecological knowledge, religion and philosophy, Native women’s activism, American Indians and sports, and decolonization. As a public intellectual, Dina brings her scholarship into focus as an award-winning journalist as well, contributing to numerous online outlets including Indian Country Today, the Los Angeles Times, High Country News and many more. Dina is co-author with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz of “All the Real Indians Died Off” And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans, author of As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock and author of her newest book, Who Gets to Be Indian?: Ethnic Fraud, Disenrollment, and Other Difficult Conversations About Native American Identity. She’s also part of CELDF’s partner-advisor committee.In this conversation, we discuss Dina’s two most recent books and their implications for community organizing, solidarity work, and indigenous resistance today. This is a great conversation and I hope you’ll enjoy hearing from Dina on these topics.The video version of this podcast can be viewed here:Links and Resources* Dina’s website* Dina’s previous book, “As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock”* Dina’s latest book, “Who Gets to Be Indian? Ethnic Fraud, Disenrollment, and Other Difficult Conversations About Native American Identity”* “You’re No Indian” documentary film* White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men (YouTube video)About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.Support this workYour gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future.Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today! Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.In this episode, we speak with Aashis JoshiAashis lives in Kathmandu, Nepal, and is a fierce critic of imperialism and greenwashing. He was pursuing a PhD in climate adaptation at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands until recently, when he dropped out after increasingly recognizing that the technological solutionism and Eurocentric siloed thinking that characterized academia was leading to more problems than it was solving. He is now pursuing public education on these topics.Our conversation explores these topics, weaving through the challenges and misconceptions in climate adaptation and ecological research, the scale of the ecological crisis, the imperialism and colonial violence inherent in technological approaches to solving these problems, and the political agency that’s available when we abandon these false solutions. That violence is key to the functioning of the global industrial economy, and it’s not an accident. As Aashis recently wrote:“The ruling class of the West & Global North knows that food & resource scarcities & unlivable conditions leading to mass migrations & geopolitical turmoil are inevitable & imminent. They know full well that there is no way to address climate & ecological breakdown & live with their consequences in a fair way that doesn’t involve redressing global power imbalances, i.e. without ending their economic & geopolitical hegemony.As they have no intention to carry out real climate & ecological action, they hold climate conferences & peddle techno-consumerist greenwashing “solutions” to buy time to divert resources towards systems that help strengthen their imperial hegemony. It’s all distraction.In a world woefully unprepared for the biosphere breakdown that’s just getting started, they are investing in their military & armed forces to control lands & resources abroad & their public at home.They are fortifying their borders & developing advanced technologies & methods of surveillance, terror & deadly violence including AI & drones, which they are currently testing on the people of Palestine.Their media, academic & cultural institutions are actively complicit in their imperialist agenda, helping run their propaganda to normalize colonialist & fascist atrocities & enforce a performative democracy where people protesting genocide & ecocide are brutalized & criminalized but universities have research & financial ties with weapons manufacturers & fossil fuel & other ecocidal corporations.They will go to great lengths & cross many red lines to quash the global public’s potential to strive for a better, kinder system than the extractivist capitalist empire they helm, which lies at the root of our accelerating social-ecological polycrisis.They have abandoned global cooperation on the climate, biodiversity & human rights & committed themselves to the vicious & insane vision of maintaining their imperialist, white supremacist domination at all cost instead.”Aashis is a brilliant thinker and we are glad bring you his voice.The video version of this podcast can be viewed here:Links and Resources* The Global South’s Climate Aid Strategy is Flawed by Aashis Joshi (a relevant piece as COP30 is scheduled to begin on November 10th, 2025 in Brazil)* Facing Climate And Ecological Breakdown Requires A New Vision For Education And Politics by Aashis Joshi* A discussion on degrowth and decoloniality featuring Aashis Joshi and Erin Remblance* Decolonizing the Degrowth Movement’s Imaginary of Technology by Max Wilbert (a response to Jason Hickel’s piece in Monthly Review titled “On Technology and Degrowth”)Chapters* 00:00 Introduction to Ashish Joshi and His Work* 8:08 The Flaws in Climate Action Research* 15:28 The Dutch Approach to Climate Adaptation* 24:15 The Limits of Technological Solutions* 32:21 The Disconnect Between Science and Social Change* 41:00 The Role of Academia in Climate Solutions* 44:00 Educating Broadly vs. Hyperspecialization* 46:49 Conquest and Assimilation (Forced Proletarianization) of Land-Based Peoples as Imperial Expansion* 49:00 Fascists Always Target Intellectuals and the Need for Courage* 53:00 Interconnectedness of Climate and Geopolitical Injustices* 55:45 Scale of the Ecological Crisis, Climate Denialism, and Psychopaths* 1:04:15 Fear, Courage, and Collective Action* 1:10:40 The Rise of AI and Other New Technologies* 1:24:50 Reimagining Progress and Other Paths ForwardAbout the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.Support this workA generous CELDF supporter has challenged us to raise $20,000 by November 10th. Until then, every dollar you give will be matched 1:1, meaning it will go twice as far. Your gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future.Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today! Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to this newsletter to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.Support CELDF TodayA generous CELDF supporter has challenged us to raise $20,000 by November 10th. Until then, every dollar you give will be matched 1:1, meaning it will go twice as far. Your gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future. Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today!In this episode, we speak with Carine Gibert, founder of Grounded in Motion, about the intersection of art, education, and ecological activism.Carine is the founder and lead facilitator of Grounded in Motion. Deepening our awareness of our beautiful, yet fragile, interdependence with the natural world drives her vision. The learning journeys she designs offer a different kind of educational roadmap, one that investigates how the union of art, contemplative wisdom and climate science can lead to greater awareness of the interconnectedness of the earth’s living systems. Her courses, installations and curated exhibits feature ecological learning design frameworks, contemplative practices, writing exercises and composed soundscapes that focus on deep ecology while giving space for eco grief and joy.Grounded in Motion is part of a growing movement of artists, academics, activists and change-makers that understand that our cerebral ways of knowing about climate change and biodiversity loss are not enough. In order to transform, we must not only know - but feel, honoring our roles and responsibilities toward the ecosystems that sustain us.This conversation between Carine and CELDF Consulting Director Tish O’Dell focuses on the intersection of art, education, and ecological activism. They discuss the importance of relationships in ecological movements, the role of art in resistance movements, and the need for a holistic approach to education that integrates emotional and physical awareness. They emphasize the significance of community and collective action in addressing climate change and fostering hope among youth.The video version of this podcast can be viewed here:Links and Resources* Grounded in Motion Website* Weaving Rivers (a collaboration between Carine and CELDF partner-advisors Blake Lavia and Tzintzun-Aguilar-Izzo (Talking Wings). By celebrating the voices of the guardians of the water from around the world, Confluence weaves a transnational, transregional community of resistance, creating a tapestry of grassroots journalism and the many voices of water.advisors * Carine’s Instagram* Carine’s audio soundscapes on Spotify:About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.You can find the show on:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. CELDF partners with people and communities to establish local self-governance, build alternative systems, and resist destruction of our planet in order to live harmoniously within the boundaries of ecology.If you would like to follow, you can subscribe for free. Or, if you’d like to support to these efforts, you can either donate to CELDF or sign up for a paid subscription. Thank you!In this episode, we speak with two organizers from Ohio, Bill Lyons and Sherry FlemingThey discuss their community activism efforts in two very different communities: the large city of Columbus, and the rural Williams County. They share their personal journeys into activism, the challenges they face in protecting their communities from environmental harms such as fracking, factory farms, and corporate mega-projects, their experiences of state collusion in these destructive projects, and the importance of rights of nature and community rights in standing up for justice.As Will Falk wrote in a piece here last week, referencing efforts in Columbus that Bill is involved in:on May 15, Columbus, Ohio residents submitted a proposed city charter amendment initiative petition to their city government.The initiative is titled “To Protect the Local Self-Governing Rights of the People of Columbus from Preemption.” If residents gather enough signatures, the petition will be placed on the November 2027 ballot and Columbus voters will be asked to reject state and federal preemption and reaffirm the right to make decisions locally. Specifically, the proposed bill would make it so “local laws…shall not be subject to preemption or nullification by international law, federal law, or state law…” In other words, it would give the City of Columbus the power to ban destructive corporate projectsThe video version of this podcast can be viewed here:Links and Resources* Columbus Bill of Rights* Williams County Alliance* Citizens for Rights of the Ohio River Watershed (CROW Ohio)* Death by Democracy, a book published by CELDF which tells the story of community rights activism in Ohio and how the state has criminalized these efforts* What We Do To Nature, We Do To Ourselves is a film created by our friend Andrea Bowers that highlights community activism against destruction industrial mega-farms in NW Ohio, and features both Sherry Fleming and our own Tish O’Dell. Here’s the trailer:* In other Ohio news, Citizens for Rights of the Ohio River Watershed (CROW Ohio) created this video recently about Rights for the Ohio River:About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. CELDF partners with people and communities to establish local self-governance necessary for living harmoniously within the boundaries of ecology.If you would like to follow, you can subscribe for free. Or, if you’d like to pledge monetary support to these efforts, please either donate to CELDF or sign up for a paid subscription. Thank you.In this episode, we speak with Robert Shetterly.Today’s show is an interview between CELDF’s executive director, Kai Huschke, and Robert Shetterly.Robert Shetterly was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, graduated from Harvard College with a degree in English Literature. But while he was there he also took some courses in drawing which changed the direction of his creative life. He was active in Civil Rights and in the Anti-Vietnam War movement, and as you’ll hear in this interview, he became an artist.Robert is now best known for his portrait series called “Americans Who Tell the Truth.” The project begun in response to U.S. government actions following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York City, specifically the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Shetterly undertook the project as a way to deal with his own grief and anger by painting Americans who inspired him. He initially intended to paint only 50 portraits, but by 2025 there are now some 280 portraits in the series. Portions of the series tour widely across the United States, being shown in schools, museums, libraries, galleries and other public spaces.These portraits have been traveling around the country since 2003. Venues have included everything from university museums and grade school libraries to sandwich shops, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City, and the Superior Court in San Francisco. To date, the exhibits have visited 38 states. In 2005, Dutton published a book of the portraits by the same name. In 2006, the book won the top award of the International Reading Association for Intermediate non-fiction. New Village Press in New York City is published a series of themed books on the portraits. Each volume contains 50 portraits. The series includes Portraits of Racial Justice (2021), Portraits of Earth Justice (2022), and Portraits of Peace Makers (2024). The portraits have given Shetterly an opportunity to speak with children and adults all over this country about the necessity of dissent in a democracy, the obligations of citizenship, sustainability, US history, and how democracy cannot function if politicians don’t tell the truth, if the media don’t report it, and if the people don’t demand it.Robert also wrote the introduction to the latest book that we published here at CELDF, a collection of essays called “Can You Handle the Truth.” You can purchase that book on our website.The video version of this podcast can be viewed here:Links and Resources* American Who Tell the Truth* Truth Tellers, a documentary film about Robert’s workAbout the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. CELDF partners with people and communities to establish local self-governance necessary for living harmoniously within the boundaries of ecology.If you would like to follow, you can subscribe for free. Or, if you’d like to pledge monetary support to these efforts, please either donate to CELDF or sign up for a paid subscription. Thank you.In this episode, we speak with Shannon Rowan, who critiques the role of modern technology in society and how it impacts us and the world in terms of health, social well-being, and extractivism.In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with journalist, author, and activist Shannon Rowan. Shannon, who describes herself as a "Wi-Fi refugee," delves into the profound impacts of technology on our lives and the environment. We explore her latest book, "The Red Shoes: Our Devil's Dance with Technology and How We Can Stop It," which uses the metaphor of Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale to discuss the addictive nature of modern technology. Join us as we discuss the intersection of technology, nature, and human connection, and how we can reclaim our sovereignty in a tech-dominated world.The video version of this podcast can be found here:Brief aside: the folks at Community Rights Lane County, who we spotlighted in our last episode of this podcast, have reached a milestone in their campaign to get rights of nature recognized in regional law by gathering more than 14,000 signatures and qualifying for the May, 2026 ballot. Links and Resources* Shannon Rowan’s Website* The Red Shoes: Our Devil's Dance with Technology and How We Can Stop It* Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About ItAbout the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert. This interview was conducted by Tish O’Dell, CELDF’s consulting director.* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. If you would like to follow, you can subscribe for free. Or, if you’d like to pledge monetary support to these efforts, please either donate to CELDF or sign up for a paid subscription. Thank you.In this episode, we learn about an effort to bring rights of nature to the watersheds of Lane County in Western Oregon.Community organizers in Lane County have been working towards rights of nature and community self-determination for over a decade. In this interview, CELDF’s Kai Huschke, who has worked with the group since it’s founding, speaks with Rob Dickinson and Michelle Holman of Community Rights Lane County. They discuss their latest organizing effort, Protect Lane County Watersheds, a proposed ballot initiative to secure the Right of Waters and Watersheds in Lane County. The initiative would protect the right to sustainable recharge, flows sufficient to protect native fish habitat, and clean water unpolluted by any activities of corporations, governments, and other business entities.As CELDF often notes, this type of law is illegal under the U.S. Constitution and existing case law. But movements for change must be bold, pushing forward despite barriers that exist. This effort is an act of collective civil disobedience — a rebellion against unjust systems of law in favor of sustainability and sanity. And it’s just one step in a broader program of comprehensive, transformative, revolutionary social change.The video version of this podcast can be viewed here:Links and Resources* Protect Lane County Watersheds* Community Rights Lane County* Oregon Community Rights NetworkAbout the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.This show can be found on the following platforms:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. If you would like to follow, you can subscribe for free. Or, if you’d like to pledge monetary support to these efforts, please either donate to CELDF or sign up for a paid subscription. Thank you.Religious communities are becoming champions for the Great Lakes and other waters of New York State, bringing a crucial moral and spiritual lens to environmental activismBack in March, we shared the news that New York State Assembly Member Patrick Burke had reintroduced a rights of nature law written by CELDF, "The Great Lakes and New York Waters Bill of Rights,” into the state legislature. The language in the law was drafted in cooperation with Mr. Burke’s office and with input from members of the community, including tribal members.As we announced the news, CELDF also launched a sign-on letter for supporters to make their voice heard. One part of the response surprised us: how many Catholic and religious organizations and especially religious sisters had signed onto this letter.To figure out what was going on, we reached out to our friend Carol De Angelo, Director of Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation at the Sisters of Charity of NY. That led to the conversation we bring you today, in which we discuss rights of nature, religion, morality, and The Great Lakes and New York Waters Bill of Rights with Carol and four other women:* Leeanna Varga, Executive Director for Mission for the Dominican Sisters of Hope* Alice Marie Giordano, Justice, Peace, Integrity of Creation Coordinator, Ursulines of the Roman Union Eastern Province* Holly Rockwell, Justice Promoter for the Sisters of St Joseph of Rochester* Pat Russell, member of ROAR (Religious Organizations Along the River)Join us for a profound conversation that bridges faith and environmental justice, exploring the powerful intersection of religious orders and the burgeoning Rights of Nature movement. We'll explore:* The Missing Moral Lens: Why viewing nature as mere "resource" for profit is a moral failing, and how faith traditions are re-framing our relationship with the Earth.* From Dominion to Kinship: The evolving understanding of humanity's role, from "dominion" to "stewardship" and now to recognizing nature as "kin."* The Great Lakes Bill of Rights: The legislative efforts to grant personhood rights to natural entities and the surprising coalition behind them.* Lament, Repair, and Resilience: The importance of acknowledging environmental pain, seeking reparation, and finding personal and collective strength in the face of ecological crises.* Integral Ecology: How environmental degradation is inextricably linked to issues of racism, migration, and poverty, demanding a holistic response.This conversation is a powerful invitation to reconnect with the spirituality of the Earth and consider how a deeper moral understanding can ignite a movement for true justice – for both people and the planet. Tune in to explore a new frontier in environmental advocacy, where ancient wisdom meets urgent modern challenges.Links and Resources* The Great Lakes and NY Waters Bill of Rights: https://www.wnyea.org/great-lakes-bill-of-rights.html* Sign the Support Letter for the NY Bill: https://forms.gle/krUp9X5crTaAAePP8* Sister Carol De Angelo’s testimony on the impact of religion at CELDF’s Truth, Reckoning and Right Relationship with the Great Lakes: “A Person of Faith's Testimony and Perspective: Listening and Learning to See Anew.” * ROAR (Religious Organizations Along the River): http://www.roarhvb.com/* Thomas Berry, The Great Work: https://thomasberry.org/quote/the-great-work-our-way-into-the-future/* CELDF CRR: https://celdf.org/community-resistance-and-resilience/* Truth Reckoning and Right Relationship with the Great Lakes Part 1: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLes1m5r1R-ZFZKeshvIl9941zxzbE6TxV&si=Oy21Y8gwsfIiD01B* Part 2: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLes1m5r1R-ZHzGk7YzC_M4Tp7TqPMExXm&si=qeJ7wbeu6uKLfAZUAbout the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.This show can be found on the following platforms:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)Here’s the video version of this podcast:About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.On this episode, we share the recording from our recent eventThis special event, “Solidarity Against Tyranny: Frontline Resistance Insights from the Philippines and the Appalachian South,” took place on July 21st. It featured activists from the Philippines and the Appalachian South speaking about how to survive, persist, and resist in the face of rising government repression and vigilante violence. How can our movements survive the rise of authoritarian regimes? How shall we respond when our people are jailed, our organizations banned, our speech penalized, and our activist spaces burned to the ground?These are not idle questions for organizers from the Philippines and the Appalachian South. The former is one of the world’s most dangerous places for environmentalists and human rights defenders, while the latter is one of the most challenging places for anti-racist activists to organize.This event was organized by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund in partnership with the Highlander Research and Education Center and Blue Earth Defense, and in cooperation with Alyansa Tigil Mina, Ethniko Bandido Infoshop, and the Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS).To learn more about these organizations: * Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund* Highlander Research and Education Center* Blue Earth Defense* Alyansa Tigil Mina* Ethniko Bandido Infoshop* Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal ServicesIn an increasingly repressive environment, front-line activists need support and solidarity to be able to continue this difficult and sometimes dangerous work. We are asking for your financial support.Please donate what you can. All donations made here will be evenly split between five of the organizations participating in this event (IDEALS graciously declined to be part of this donation split).About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.This show can be found on the following platforms:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)Here’s the video version of this podcast:About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.On this episode we speak with Denzel Caldwell and Jassim GuilaThe interview with Denzel Caldwell was conducted by Kai Huschke, CELDF’s Executive Director. Caldwell is part of the Black Nashville Assembly and is Program Manager for Economics and Governance at the Highlander Research & Education Center in Tennessee.The second interview is conducted by Max Wilbert, and is with Jassim Guila. Guila lives in the Philippines and is part of various grassroots networks of resistance, environmental protection, and mutual aid. He is also the Organizing Director of Blue Earth Defense, an international radical environmental organization.Our conversations focus on the topic of state repression, vigilante violence, and other forms of authoritarianism facing our movements and our communities.We’re bringing their voices to you now as a preview for our upcoming special event, scheduled for Monday, July 21st at 6pm Pacific Time - that’s 7pm Mountain, 8pm Central, and 9pm eastern. We’re holding the event at that time because for this event, Denzel, Jassim, Kai, and myself will be joined by several other speakers from the Philippine archipelago. The title of the event is “Solidarity Against Tyranny: Frontline Resistance Insights from the Philippines and Appalachian South”, and it’s free and open to the public.There are three ways to watch. * You can tune in on the CELDF YouTube channel* You can find the event on our Facebook page * And you can watch directly through Zoom. The advantage of joining via Zoom is that you’ll be able to submit questions for the Q&APlease register and help us spread the word. Thank you!About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from frontline organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.This show can be found on the following platforms:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcastsHere’s the video version of this podcast:About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”—Martin NiemöllerNiemöller was a Lutheran Pastor who at first supported the Nazi regime, but then came to oppose the party after Hitler’s rise to power. He was held in Nazi concentration camps and prisons from 1937 - 1945, and came to believe that Germans had been complicit through their silence in the rise of Nazi ideology, the establishment of authoritarian rule, crackdowns on political and ethnic targets, and eventually, genocide.Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.On this episode we speak with CELDF legal director Terry LodgeLodge has been a movement attorney for more than 40 years, litigating cases ranging from environmental (rights of nature, NEPA, Tribal sacred sites, mining, pipelines, criminal and civil defense, etc.) to anti-war (nuclear power, nuclear weapons, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.). Lately, he’s been active in the movement to stop the genocide in Palestine.Our conversation in this episode focuses on repression, authoritarianism, and the rapid erosion of civil liberties and basic freedoms in the United States under the Trump Administration, especially in relation to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and on the relationship between this and the destruction of the planet.This topic is close to our hearts here at CELDF, not least because we and our community have been targeted with lawsuits, gag orders, SLAPPs, harassment, and other forms of intimidation for our political speech for many years. Recently, CELDF offered support and solidarity to students at Columbia University who we have been connected to via rights of nature work, and who are now facing repression due to their stances on Palestine (see below for more on this).“What’s happening is phenomenal,” Lodge says. “It hasn’t always been this way. But the tendency [towards severe repression] is very deep rooted, and the arc of our history has been in the direction of what we’re seeing today.”In our discussion, we touch on:* The suppression of dissent, especially regarding criticism of the Israeli occupying entity and the U.S. foreign policy supporting it with weapons, intelligence, and even by waging undeclared war in Yemen to defend the genocide.* What Lodge calls “the jingoistic invocation of antisemitism” being “hypocritically mobilized as a means of shutting down dissent” in a method “akin to red-baiting during the McCarthy-era and the anti-Vietnam war era, where terrorism is the new communism.”* The bi-partisan nature of repression and expansion of authoritarian and executive power in the United States in what Terry calls “the early stage of a dramatic shifting in the nature of the corporate state” — away from inverted totalitarianism and towards open authoritarianism.* How all of this is not actually an anomaly in U.S. history. While this is an extreme moment, there have been other times similar to this in the past in this country, where we've seen this combination of foreign adventurism, imperialism, genocide, and internal repression all happening concurrently. See, for example, Stephen Carr Hampton’s recent piece on parallels between U.S. responses to the Trails of Tears in the late 1830’s, and public responses to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.* And finally, we conclude by discussing the necessity and urgency of action — radical, effective, and committed action — against all of this.Read the letter sent by the Veterans for Peace to the Department of State, drafted by Lodge, outlining how the U.S. supplying weapons to Israel violates multiple existing laws including the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, Foreign Assistance Act, Arms Export Control Act, War Crimes Act, and Genocide Convention Implementation Act.On May 9th of this year, CELDF’s director of education wrote to NYU’s More than Human Rights (MOTH) principles to share concern for the Law School’s disciplinary actions against student protestors. From the letter:“The recent disciplinary actions against student protestors. . . raise the specter of authoritarian intolerance flooding into higher education. . .When we try to answer the Lorax’s question, ‘who speaks for the trees?’ an institution that tolerates or enforces political suppression of free speech rights cannot credibly advocate for the expression of other-than-human rights. Nature depends on the ability of human members of local natural communities to speak freely on its behalf. CELDF urges you to use the platform of the MOTH program to stand for the defense of students and their right to protest without draconian and irrational harassment from the school of law and the NYU administration. . .CELDF stands ready to meet and consult with you anytime over legal and administrative strategy and to help organize the [rights of nature] movement to come to your aid. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like our help. We also intend to contact MOTH law students to explore the prospect of building resistance to the disciplinary campaign.About the Truth and Reckoning PodcastIn this show, we learn from frontline organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.This show can be found on the following platforms:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcastsAbout CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a new podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.In this show, we learn from frontline organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.On this episode, we speak with “Fable,” a brave forest defender currently occupying a platform suspended from a tree in a forest threatened with logging.Today, we bring you an exclusive interview with a tree sitter who has climbed into the canopy of a Douglas fir tree located in Washington State, west of Seattle in the Elwha River watershed near the small city of Port Angeles. This tree sit was launched on May 6th, at a time when logging imminently threatens an area forest called the “Parched“ timber sale.We’ve previously introduced readers of this newsletter to the launch of this community action in defense of the forest and to background information on the legacy forest defense movement. This post focuses on the interview, but we’ll replicate some of the information we’ve previously shared here for new listeners and readers.For more information:* Fundraiser for the treesit* Washington Legacy Forest Defense Coalition and Elwha Legacy Forests are two of the groups litigating to stop these timber sales.What is a “legacy forest”?For more than four years, activists across the Pacific Northwest have been campaigning to protect so-called legacy forests, successfully protecting thousands of acres. But what exactly is a legacy forest?According to the Center for Responsible Forestry:Legacy Forests are structurally complex, mature forests. They were often logged prior to 1945, after which began the widespread use of clearcutting with chainsaws, herbicides, and replanting as monocrops. They are critical for biodiversity, water quality, and salmon habitat. They store and sequester vast amounts of carbon at rates unequaled in the world. They are natural forests, not tree plantations, and as such they are more resistant to wildfire.To classify as a Legacy Forest, these forests generally have the following characteristics:* Pre-1945 origin* Un-planted, naturally regenerated* Structurally complex (different stages of life cycle)* Genetically & biologically diverse* If protected, legacy forests will become Old GrowthThe Parched timber sale is located east of the Elwha River and Highway 101, in the Dry Hill mountain bike area and above the Little River, a tributary of the Elwha River. The sale includes large, mature Douglas fir, western red cedar, grand fir, western hemlock, and big leaf maple. It targets a high-elevation primary forest, on a mountaintop above the Elwha River dam site. Most of the forest originated after a fire in 1880. With units 3 and 6 of the sale have never been logged before, and the rest of the sale area having never been logged by machinery, this 100-year-old forest is developing old-growth characteristics essential to endangered species like the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet. An imperiled flower, whipplea modesta, also makes its home here.What’s at stake?A licensed independent engineering geologist, Glen G. Wade, reviewed the landscape during the SEPA review noting that logging would increase runoff in an area already threatened by deep-seated landslides "posing direct risks to nearby residences, Little River Road, and the Little River itself." Additional concerns have been raised about impact of logging on fragile salmon runs. "Parched" and other DNR sales are very near the site of the recently removed dam, where state and federal governments invested more than $338 million in river and salmon restoration.Since 2022, Port Angeles City Council has raised serious concerns about logging the Elwha River watershed, as it is the sole source of drinking water for Port Angeles. The city claims their efforts for collaboration and dialogue with the DNR have been resisted or outright denied.As The Seattle Times’ Lynda Mapes wrote, reporting on the action:“…as more trees fall and climate change challenges the health of forests — and the rivers those forests protect — logging in the Elwha has been particularly controversial. It was there that Congress spent more than $350 million to take down two hydropower dams to revive legendary fish runs in the Elwha — a recovery that is just beginning to take hold more than a decade after the last dam came down.Logging can increase sediment in streams. Cutting the canopy can raise stream temperatures. Cutting mature forests and replanting with young trees depletes stream flows and the effect lasts for decades. All of these things have happened on the Olympic Peninsula for many years, stressing salmon and steelhead populations.This show can be found on the following platforms:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcastsAbout CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense FundCELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a new podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. In this show, we learn from frontline organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.On this episode, we explore the greenwashed destruction of the last remaining Diamondback Terrapin nesting habitat in Virginia Beach, VAWe speak with Dr. John Aguiar, a lifelong resident of the Virginia Beach area, who reached out to CELDF for help in February 2025. We’re used to getting requests from community members facing threats to the human community where they live, but this request was about protecting the Diamondback Terrapin from a supposed “restoration” project.This story is one of a growing number of examples — from forest thinning to spraying invasive species with herbicides — where “restoration” has been co-opted and used as a greenwashing technique. This isn’t an indictment of restoration as a whole, but it is a warning that there are active attempts to use the language emerging from this field to justify more destruction of our planet.In this podcast, Dr. Aguiar speaks for the terrapins because no one else is doing so, and explains the situation at a place called Pleasure House Point Natural Area. At Pleasure House Point, the city of Virginia Beach is currently clearcutting a mature native forest and destroying critical nesting habitat for the Diamondback Terrapin. It’s part of what they call a “restoration” project, and is happening as part of a wetlands-credit scheme whereby wetlands habitat elsewhere which is being destroyed for a flood-mitigation project is supposedly being “offset” by the creation of new wetlands at Pleasure House Point.In both cases, nature is losing.Many of the issues Dr. Aguiar raises are the same as we hear from other communities. * Why is the community just learning of the project even though the city and the NGO’s in favor of it have supposedly known for years? * Why were the only public meetings on the project held one week before Christmas and then the vote was the meeting right after New Year’s? * What is the rush and why can’t more information from unbiased sources be collected and presented to the residents of the community to assess and then have a voice in making the decision? * Who are the experts advising destroying this habitat? * Why is it that nature always has to be destroyed? Why not bulldoze the golf course or the luxury homes instead and turn that land into salt marsh?* Is there a profit motive involved here for various contractors and others?Rarely do we find people who are so concerned about a non-human species’ welfare and potential for survival into the future. That’s why we felt it was important to give Dr. Aguiar the chance to speak for the terrapins and see if there are others out there who are also concerned.May 22, 2025 UpdateThis drone photograph was taken just a couple days ago. The heavy machinery is already at work gouging and flattening the denuded earth, across a larger area than many had expected. The city has set out three automated camera stations, presumably to catch anyone who might damage anything in the clear-cut and scoured-down zone. There is also word that the developer who owns the adjacent property is a recent donor to the very same city councilman whose district this is in — the same city councilman who has been vigorously promoting the deforestation and aggressively pushing misinformation online. This is the property that now, magically, has waterfront views thanks to the deforestation, and which will almost certainly be developed in the near future—removing more forest cover and adding more high-priced, high-density housing. They don’t even care if we connect the dots now; they’ll get what they want and there’s nothing we can do. At this point they’re just flaunting their cronyism.This show can be found on the following platforms:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcastsStatus of and Threats to Diamondback TerrapinsThe main threat to the Diamondback Terrapin is habitat loss, and this project is part of that. As we researched the background for this show, we found lots of people and organizations using the Terrapin’s image for promotion and fundraising purposes, yet mostly these groups don’t seem to mention them much other than that.According to the IUCN:Malaclemys terrapin [Diamondback Terrapin] is assessed as Vulnerable due to observed threats documented in the past and projected into the future with ≥35% population declines of monitored populations resulting from overexploitation, accidental mortality as bycatch in commercial Blue Crab fisheries, coastal habitat loss due to development, principally the loss of limited nesting habitat, in addition to extensive estuarine saltmarsh loss, and ongoing subsidized nest predation by mesopredators (threats reviewed in Roosenburg 2004; Butler et al. 2018; Chambers and Maerz 2018; Roosenburg and Kennedy 2018). Overall, it is our assessment that M. terrapin has sustained range-wide population declines over the last 30 years (two generations) of 25-30% and that the rate of decline is predicted to continue at the same rate for another 15 years (one generation), or about a 10-15% further decline, for a total decline over three generations (45 years) of 35-45%.How to supportDiamondback Terrapins need every bit of their remaining habitat to be protected. That means that anyone living along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts is likely near to some terrapin habitat which is under immanent threat from development, aka destruction. If you live in the Virginia Beach area, want to get in touch with Dr. Aguiar, or discuss this issue with us, please reach out to CELDF’s Consulting Director Tish O’Dell (contact information here).If you want to support this podcast, Truth and Reckoning, here’s a few ways you can do so. First, subscribe via your favorite podcast app, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Then, share this broadcast with your friends and family. Leave a positive review via your podcast app. Visit the Truth and Reckoning YouTube channel and leave a thumbs up and comment. The full scope of the work of CELDF, including this show, comes with a financial cost, so if you can donate, go to CELDF.org.But most importantly, our goal for this show is to empower you to act, so the best way you can show support is to get involved with your community and protect where you live. Thank you very much. See you on the front lines.Bird observations at Pleasure House PointAnother concern is for the migratory birds. One aspect of the bulldozing involves resident and migratory birds—Pleasure House Point (PHP) is a very popular birding site, and over 250 bird species have been documented on and adjacent to the property, including both shore- and waterbirds as well as many Neotropical migrants and winter migrants.Virginia Beach is on the Atlantic Flyway, which is a major migratory corridor for many species. We receive northern birds who spend the winter in our relatively mild climate, and many Neotropical birds which winter in Central and South America and fly into our region to breed in the summer. PHP provides habitat for all these species, both stopover and breeding habitat. At the end of this post, you’ll find a list Dr. Aguiar complied from the records on eBird.org, which is a repository of birders’ checklists, observations and photos.Pine forest species* pine warbler* brown creeper* brown-headed nuthatch* pine siskin* white-breasted nuthatchWinter migrants:* ruby-crowned & golden-crown kinglets* yellow-rumped warbler* dark-eyed junco* winter wrenNeotropical migrants:* northern parula* American redstart* magnolia warbler* prairie warbler* Cape May warbler* great crested flycatcher* northern waterthrush* blue-gray gnatcatcher* prothonotary warbler* blackpoll warbler* bay-breasted warbler* black-throated green warbler* ovenbird* Nashville warbler* chestnut-sided warbler* yellow-throated warbler* black-throated blue warbler* hooded warbler* Blackburnian warbler* Connecticut warblerAt least 16 species of warbler have been observed at PHP in recent years, using it either as breeding habitat or as stopover habitat on their way further north. There are massive and ongoing declines in bird populations throughout North America, and habitat loss is one of the major drivers. Just as with the terrapins, the bulldozing at PHP is one more broken tile in the disintegrating mosaic of habitats which these species rely on for nesting habitat--and in the case of migratory species, for valuable stopover sites on their long-distance journeys..Websites mentioned in the podcast:* City of Virginia Beach* City website and brochure about the “restoration” project* Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Brock Center* Local NGO* IUCN redlist entry for Diamondback Terrapins* https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/diamondback-terrapin-among-10-species-threatened-wildlife-trade-2020-12-18/ Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a new podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. In this show, we’ll learn from frontline organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We’ll explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And we’ll share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF organizer Max Wilbert.On this show: Rights of Nature for the waters of New York StateWe speak to CELDF Education Director Ben Price, one of the organizers behind the 2006 Tamaqua, Pennsylvania passage of the first rights of nature law anywhere on Earth (at least in the western legal system. Of course, indigenous communities have recognized various forms of rights of nature for a long time). And, we speak with Tish O’Dell, Consulting Director from CELDF, and longtime community activist for the rights of nature.Both Tish and Ben have played a key role in the introduction into the New York State legislature of the Great Lakes and State Waters Bill of Rights (New York Assembly Bill AO5156A), which Assemblyman Patrick Burke introduced on March 19th. If passed, it would be the first-ever state rights of nature law in the United States.In our conversation, we discuss:* The history of how, despite significant pushback, the rights of nature movement as a means for communities to assert their rights against corporate interests has gained traction across the U.S.* How local laws aimed at protecting the environment often face anti-democratic legal challenges from corporations and the state.* The truly revolutionary and transformative potential of rights of nature, especially in the current political climate — if people are prepared to face down power to enforce these new laws.* The path towards a legal and philosophical re-evaluation of human interaction with “the environment” to foster sustainability and collective rights.Rolling Stone recently covered this story: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/climate-crisis-environment-rights-of-nature-movement-1235321655/This show can be found on the following platforms:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* Pocketcasts* YouTube (video and audio)* And anywhere else you get your podcastsHow to supportA wide range of community members has already begun to speak out in favor of the bill. Individuals, organizations, businesses, and experts are being asked to sign on to a list of supporters.To learn more about how you can support the rights of The Great Lakes, or to create a similar bill in your own community, please reach out to CELDF’s Consulting Director Tish O’Dell or Education Director Ben Price (contact information here). You can also donate to CELDF to support this effort. For those considering a contribution, Executive Director Kai Huschke can be reached here.If you want to support this podcast, Truth and Reckoning, here’s a few ways you can do so. First, subscribe via your favorite podcast app, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Then, share this broadcast with your friends and family. Leave a positive review via your podcast app. Visit the Truth and Reckoning YouTube channel and leave a thumbs up and comment. The full scope of the work of CELDF, including this show, comes with a financial cost, so if you can donate, go to CELDF.org.But most importantly, our goal for this show is to empower you to act, so the best way you can show support is to get involved with your community and protect where you live. Thank you very much. See you on the front lines. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe