As the fashion community gathers in New York for the opening of this year’s fashion week, the 2.5 trillion USD industry is experiencing a significant transformation.
A 5,000 mile cross-country tour beginning in Atlanta and ending at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, the trip comes as movements led by people of color, youth, and women are taking hold across the U.S. Through a series of town halls and community visits, Freedom to Breathe drives toward unity in America’s call for social justice.
Climate Justice is Social Justice
Something is wrong when a five-digit number can accurately predict how long an American will live, how much money they have, and how likely they are to go to college. Zip codes capture this because some communities in America face a disproportionate amount of inequalities. Too often, people of color, the elderly, or indigenous people are saddled with the weight of injustice.
In these communities, one can also see the heart of America’s social movements.
It’s here that issues like climate, housing, mass criminalization, good jobs, and reproductive justice intersect. The threat of sea level rise in Miami is displacing low-income residents as wealthier people retreat from ocean views to higher land. In Louisiana, Black, brown and indigenous communities are more likely to live near fossil fuel power plants, causing a host of health challenges from asthma to cancer. They’re also more likely to live in places without emergency escape plans, like communities at the end of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline who are hung out to dry when storms come.
Freedom to Breathe is driving across nine states over 21 days to highlight the links between climate justice and social justice.
Youth Unstoppable: The Rise of the Global Youth Climate Movement at Green Film Festival
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Slater Jewell-Kemker didn’t set out to spend her teenage years making a film meant to inspire others to act on climate change. Slater was just 15 years old when she started questioning her local politicians about their inability to pass laws to protect the environment. Soon she began to connect with other young activists doing their part to save the planet, and she took it upon herself to document their eco-efforts and growing movement on camera.
Traveling around the globe on the front lines of climate change, Slater captures the inspiring voices and fierce tenacity of those too young to vote, to have a say in the direction of the planet they will inherit, and you can feel the passion in every frame. Youth Unstoppable takes everyone on a journey that lets to connect with the activists of the next generation and instills hope to know that the future is in their capable hands.
The Youth Unstoppable screening will happen on Wednesday, September 12, starting at 8 PM, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
[video:https://vimeo.com/268672668]
Born in LA to filmmaker parents, Slater Jewell-Kemker has grown up with a passion for film and the idea she could change the world by making her own media. At 15, Slater began documenting the rise of the global youth climate movement, which has taken her around the world to UN Climate Conferences and communities on the front lines of climate change. The UN, TIFF, Forbes.com’s “Millennials on a MISSION,” Mountainfilm and SilverDocs have recognized Slater for her activist filmmaking and led workshops at schools and film festivals highlighting the power of film and activism. Slater is currently a Resident of the Canadian Film Centre Director’s Lab.
Abstract: We explore the risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System toward a planetary threshold that, if crossed, could prevent stabilization of the climate at intermediate temperature rises and cause continued warming on a “Hothouse Earth” pathway even as human emissions are reduced. Crossing the threshold would lead to a much higher global average temperature than any interglacial in the past 1.2 million years and to sea levels significantly higher than at any time in the Holocene.
Fashion comes at a huge cost to people and planet. From water pollution to toxic chemical use, the clothes and accessories we wear harms our world. The Connect4Climate program of the World Bank Group is actively supporting the formation of the United Nations Alliance on Sustainable Fashion to advance eco-friendly, human-centered and low-carbon solutions in the industry.