Back in November, Amanda Harvey-Sánchez and Julia DaSilva released a podcast episode for Climate Justice Toronto about the first generation of fossil fuel divestment organizers at U of T. That episode covered from the inception of the campaign in 2012 until the People’s Climate March (PCM) in New York City in September 2014.
They have now released the second episode, which features Katie Krelove, Ben Donato-Woodger, Keara Lightning, and Ariel Martz-Oberlander, and which discussed the period from the PCM until president Meric Gertler’s rejection of divestment in March 2016.
A very honest and open discussion about the organization of the climate Justice movement and the mentorship that was provided by the earlier group of climate change activists. It is also a good description of how the movement has evolved and is evolving.
It’s interesting that these panellists all saw climate justice as something which was absent at the beginning of the campaign and introduced at their initiative.
I think the “campaign in a box” from 2012 was already Climate Justice-motivated in the eyes of its originators, and Jennifer Hadden’s book traces the movement back to the Copenhagen COP in 2009.
This is Episode 2 of the “Divestment Generation” mini series, a five episode series exploring the 9 year campaign to win fossil fuel divestment at the University of Toronto! In Episode 2, creators and co-hosts Amanda Harvey-Sánchez and Julia DaSilva speak with “Second Gen” divestment organizers – those who were active during the campaign from 2014 until President Gertler’s rejection of divestment in 2016. Our “Second Gen” guests are Katie Krelove, Ben Donato-Woodger, Keara Lightning, and Ariel Martz-Oberlander.
In our song segment, CJTO member Rebecca and participants from CJTO’s September 2022 Orientation lead you in the third and fourth verses of a special adaptation of the movement song “Which Side Are You On?”, originally by Pete Seeger. Stay tuned for further episodes in the “Divestment Generation” mini series to learn the rest of the song!
This mini series emerges from Amanda’s doctoral research with CJTO, a two-year ethnographic community-based participatory research project tentatively entitled “Actualizing Everything: Affective Activism, Effective Politics, and the Future of Climate Justice Organizing in Canada”.
Cite as: Harvey-Sánchez, A. & DaSilva, J. (2023). “Divestment Generation Mini Series, Second Generation (Ep.2)”. Climate Justice Toronto.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/divestment-generation-mini-series-episode-2/id1561209739?i=1000597272021