Audience: Frontline Communities

Deep canvassing increases support for climate change action in rural British Columbia. The Neighbours United Project, an initiative of the West Kootenay EcoSociety, has shown that deep canvassing and storytelling can persuade on climate in a frontline, rural, industrial community in British Columbia. Successful deep canvassing requires the right script, trained canvassers (staff or volunteers), and a supportive organizational culture. When knocking on doors to have conversations with people, canvassers followed six steps: surface conflicted feelings, connect and acknowledge identity, share a personal story, make the case and help the voter process, understand the impact of the conversation, and make the campaign ask. One overall conclusion is that increasing a sense of government efficacy and support for government action on climate change could be key to moving citizens on climate change.

There are major gaps in the Environmental Impact Statement issued by the Army Corps of Engineers about the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) impacts. The NDN collective has produced a special report on the impacts of the DAPL in light of the D.C. District Court decision on June 22, 2021 dismissing tribe’s case against the Army Corps of Engineers. The purpose of this report is to provide a comprehensive summary of the DAPL project in the context of critical environmental, engineering, social, economic, and climate justice issues that continue to plague the construction and operation of the pipeline.             

Environmental justice activists that work across a diverse set of issues rank climate justice among their highest priority issues. They overwhelmingly rely on base building, coalitions, and organizing strategies to do their work. In reflecting on the movement’s contemporary approaches, activists articulate the importance of shared frameworks such as climate justice to shift popular narratives and action on climate change. The climate justice frame reflects a critical, intersectional, and reconstructive conceptualization of the climate crisis that requires disrupting the status quo approaches to climate change. This study points to some of the challenges and opportunities ahead for realizing such a contentious and transformative climate justice vision led by EJ activists in a moment of expanding political opportunity and risk.