Search
Close this search box.
Donate
Search
Close this search box.
Donate

Growing the Movement for Climate Survival

If you feel like you don’t have a future, if you’re being squeezed by inflation and unaffordable housing, if you’re scared of rising right wing violence, if your heart is breaking, you’re not alone.

Yes, it does look bleak. But in communities around the world, people are coming together to help each other, meet our communities’ needs, prepare for the struggles ahead and replace the destructive system that brought us here.

The system that brought us here is a sinking ship

But no one is going to jump, until we have the lifeboats ready. 

We face so many crises: climate disasters, COVID, inflation, white supremacy, rising right-wing movements, and the forced displacement of millions across national and state borders. The U.S. government is driving an age of global crises. Climate solutions feel increasingly out of reach. And millions of people just like you are grappling with feelings of helplessness and despair.

But there is hope: movements around the world have responded to crises just like this one. We are following their example by meeting our neighbors in the midst of struggles to fight for survival and justice.

Together, we are building strong communities where everyone’s needs are met, while growing our movement’s ability to take on the fossil fuel industry.

Join us in taking action!

Why We’re Building a Mass Movement

Movements for social change get their power from having large numbers of people participate.

We know that there is broad support for measures to address climate change, but our government’s policies don’t reflect that. Why? The fossil fuel industry is deeply entrenched, it pulls so heavily on the government and almost every institution in the U.S. To outweigh industry pressure, we need a larger movement that can exert even more pressure.

More than half of Americans are either very alarmed, or significantly concerned about the climate crisis. But most people aren’t part of the movement. For every one person who’s already taking action, there are 30 more people who are just as concerned but haven’t done anything. 

If the climate justice movement could grow by 30x or even larger – what might become possible for us? 

We’re unleashing this growth through climate justice organizing that speaks to people’s daily concerns.

What We Do

Survival Programs: Lack of housing, food, transportation, education, water, energy, and care are already nationwide crises. Survival programs are restoring community access to and control of these resources — so that when climate, economic, or political disaster strikes our communities we can not just survive, but thrive and build power. The result: economic democracy, self-determination, and a larger, more powerful climate justice movement.

Healing and community care: Our movement needs a heart and soul to sustain us. We are using climate disasters and systems collapse as an opportunity to emerge in communities of healing, resilience, care, and power. We will build healing programs to bring masses of new people into our climate survival movement – including those most impacted by disasters.

Direct action: We cannot just adapt or disaster-prepare our way out of the crisis we are in – as we build more power, we must abolish fossil fuel extraction, burning, and confront other capitalist institutions and forces that threaten our communities. Stay tuned for more details upcoming action campaigns to phase out fossil fuels and corporate power from below.

How We’re Launching the Movement

We are building movement that is made up of many different movements coming together, where groups across social justice areas – including farming and food sovereignty, mutual aid, abolition, reproductive justice, trans rights, environmental justice, workers rights, immigrant justice, tenant organizing groups, anti-militarism organizing groups, and more – can learn from each other, build relationships, and build shared campaigns to build a people-centered, multi-issue climate justice movement.

If you’re part of an organization that wants to join this movement, fill out the form below.

Developing Model Programs to Inspire People Around the U.S.

During Movement Incubation, social justice groups in a community come together to learn, create a shared vision for Climate Survival across issue areas, pilot survival programs, launch direct actions, and build a powerful, thriving membership base.

The Climate Mobilization will facilitate movement incubation workshops in 10 communities by the end of 2025. We can also support groups to plan and organize movement incubation workshops themselves. 

These 10 communities will inspire people around the U.S. to join the climate survival movement. Climate Mobilization has already begun sharing the work taking place in these communities through, videos, toolkits and curriculum from survival programs and actions will be shared so that communities around the U.S. can learn and follow their lead.

We are currently piloting movement incubation programs alongside founders of Rise & Shine and leading environmental justice groups in Kentucky, Rhizome / Dogbane Movement Hub in Richmond, VA, and Green Side Up Farms in Las Vegas, NV. We are expanding our collaborations and expect to launch 10 movement incubation programs by 2025.


Neighborhood defense and other climate survival programs in Kentucky

 

Daisy – founder of Rise and Shine (one of the 3 mutual aid groups across the state of Kentucky and handful of groups that has been doing critical disaster response work in the state) shares about the work she has been leading through CMP to incubate a grassroots movement for climate survival.


Black-led Vertical Farming Survival Program in Westside Vegas

 

Alaric – head of Green Side Up Farms (one of the 5 Black-led vertical farming business in the whole country), shares about the critical importance of meeting peoples material needs and experimenting with models of economic self-determination in the face of capitalist entities and non-profit charity organizations that are set up to “capitalize on the problems” that we face in communities like Westside Las Vegas.

100-acre land-based movement hub and cooperative farm, "Dogbane"

 

Zakaria – co-founder of Dogbane Movement Hub, a 100-acre land hub and cooperative farm outside of Richmond, VA – shares about the work he has been leading in close collaboration with CMP to position agrarian approaches and models for sovereignty at the forefront of our social movement’s approaches, and develop Dogbane Movement Hub as a case study for a climate survival programs focused on food and agriculture.

Training Organizers and Scaling the Movement

Our team has been working hard to train hundreds of people in the Climate Survival movement’s vision and principles, particularly in spaces where climate organizers from across the world converge. Through these workshops just this year at the Power Shift Network Convergence, at NYC Climate Week, and online, more than 1000 people have helped shape our vision and programs and become collaborators with us.

Building an Organization and Movement Led by BIPOC Youth

We are resourcing Survival Bloc – an emerging BIPOC youth-led network that is building the vision, messaging, outreach, healing, and political education strategies for a national Climate Survival movement.

Survival Bloc offers “lifeboats” and opportunities for people struggling to access food, water, energy, and other critical needs. These programs serve working-class and BIPOC communities, reaching everyday people who are on the front lines of accelerating ecological and economic crises. Survival Bloc’s programs working-class and excluded people meaning, community care, material help, and pathways to economic self-determination – creating the necessary support network needed to fight the climate crisis and the corporations responsible for it. 

The Climate Mobilization is building power for a national transformation that rapidly restores a safe climate and creates a just and democratic society.

Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram
Donate
Site designed by Dante Garcia | © The Climate Mobilization 2024

Zakaria Kronemer

Climate Survival Farming and Food Sovereignty Coordinator

Zakaria Kronemer is a farmer from Richmond, Virginia with roots in community organizing and climate activism. In 2017, he began working with farmers and other communities in rural Virginia to develop a robust campaign against the construction of two fracked-gas pipelines. It was through this struggle —and the relationships built along the way—that connections between food, land, and climate justice were revealed to him. He teamed up with other BIPOC farmers and set out to build an alternative, regional food-system founded on sovereignty, security, ecological stewardship, and human dignity. Zakaria most recently worked as a field manager and program lead with Real Roots Food Systems—an emerging organization striving to increase participation in our food system. He envisions a food system that people can meaningfully participate in without needing to become a farmer, chef, or professional, in which nutrient-dense, healing food is not a luxury or a lifestyle, but a right.

Daisy Carter

Kentucky Movement Incubation Coordinator

Daisy Carter (she/they) is a New Orleans native, queer multi-disciplinary artist and climate justice organizer working at the intersections of mutual aid, disaster resiliency, African-American herbalism, and grassroots organizing. Daisy is inspired by the black radical movements of the so-called U.S and African diaspora, reimagining what healing + self-determination look like for frontline, BIPOC (black, brown, and people of color) communities who are most vulnerable to climate disaster. For the past few years, they have been organizing around mutual aid, environmental + climate justice, and building BIPOC and marginalized leadership throughout Kentucky. In 2021, they founded Rise and Shine, a community-led mutual aid organization building power and solidarity with low-income, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized communities in Bowling Green, Kentucky and beyond. She has also led numerous political campaigns, direct actions, and led outreach + communications strategy for organizations such as The Sierra Club, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. At the Climate Mobilization, she is supporting programming, the development of the Movement Incubation Program, and the creation of climate survival outreach projects.

Alexia Leclerq

Network Coach

Alexia (she/they) is an environmental justice organizer based in Austin, TX. They graduated summa cum laude from NYU (’20), where they self-designed a major titled “The Politics and Economics of Inequality.” Their research focuses on political ecology, environmental justice, AAPI communities, inequality, postcolonialism. As an organizer and researcher they have spent the past 5 years working on various issues from preserving the Colorado River, water rights, fighting land use policy and zoning that enforces race-based discrimination, conducting ethnographic research on climate health, to organizing mutual aid, youth programming, and shaping national legislation alongside members of the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance; today Alexia continues to work as an organizer with PODER, a grassroots EJ org. Alexia is also the co-founder of Start: Empowerment, a BIPOC led social and environmental justice education non-profit working with youth, educators, activists, and community members to implement justice-focused education and programming in schools and community spaces. S:E curriculum and programming has reached over 2,000 students, been recognized by the NYC Department of Education, and taught in universities. In 2021, their work was recognized by the prestigious Brower Youth Award.

Emmett Hopkins

Co-Leader and Director of Operations & Programs

Emmett manages operations and leads Climate Mobilization’s intersectional organizing around transportation justice, where he works with local community groups to build commitment, alignment and action among frontline constituents who rely on public transit and active transportation modes. He brings over a decade of experience collaborating with diverse stakeholders to activate power towards equitable, climate-friendly transportation systems, build mutual-aid-based community food systems, ensure equitable access to public lands, and mobilize resources towards a just transition. In 2021, Emmett developed an online platform for collaborative, community-scale visioning of a just, zero-carbon future. In 2022 he helped launch a transit riders union in Sonoma County, CA, which has engaged in mutual aid, storytelling, and a successful campaign to win fare-free buses and expanded frequency.

Suha Dabbouseh

National Organizer

National Organizer Suha Dabbouseh leads national strategy for The Climate Mobilization. They are originally from Chicago but have lived, organized and rebel-roused in seven states and 11 cities. Suha received their law degree from CUNY-School of Law where they focused on social justice lawyering representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay. While practicing law, Suha had worked to advocate on behalf of domestic violence survivors, transgender clients and fighting employment discrimination. Their passion is building people power and organizing to dismantle structural inequities.

Matt Renner

Executive Director of The Climate Mobilization

Matt has worked as a nonprofit executive in clean energy, climate policy, and journalism for over a decade, focusing on the near-term social and economic impacts of climate change. He leads organizational expansion and works closely with the communications and organizing teams. Matt earned a BA in political science from UC Berkeley, where he was deeply inspired by the work of Professor George Lakoff.

Extended Bio

Mariyah Jahangiri

Co-Leader and Network & Movement Building Director

Mariyah is a first-generation Pakistani community organizer who is on a life-long journey of working to create alternative, anti-capitalist models of collective healing, popular education, community organizing, and mass movement. She has been inspired by studying social movements and organizing in many movement ecosystems and geographies – most recently in Cape Town, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Atlanta, and currently in Los Angeles. At Climate Mobilization, she started as a Network Organizer where she leads programming, coaching, and other resource development for a learning hub of 43+ local decarbonization and climate justice campaigns. She also recently developed strategy for youth, BIPOC-led, climate movements alongside the Network Support Team at Power Shift Network, and organized with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network to base-build in Wilmington and San Pedro alongside low-income API communities most impacted by extractive industries in Los Angeles. Mariyah has spent the past 7 years leading campaigns for Just Transition, abolition, food sovereignty, housing justice, undocumented workers’ organizing, reproductive justice, and Palestine solidarity as well as being involved in mutual aid projects, across more than 15 geographies.

 

Rebecca Harris

Co-Leader and Director of Resource Mobilization

Rebecca has been with Climate Mobilization since 2019 leading our organizing efforts. In this role, she has coached dozens of local climate groups, coordinated organizing trainings, and launched the campaign for a national Climate Emergency Declaration. In July 2021, she collaborated with Acton, MA residents to launch Housing and Climate Justice for Acton, a renters rights and climate justice group led by public housing and Section 8 renters and other low-income residents, and has already won several campaigns. Along with a history of social movement organizing, Rebecca previously worked as a journalist covering equity in Chicago public schools and as the Development and Communications Manager at Latino Union of Chicago, an immigrants’ and workers’ rights organization. She is a 2017 graduate of the Reframe Mentorship in strategic communications and a 2019 participant in the Anne Braden Organizer Training Program.

Marina Mails

Co-Leader and Director of Operations
Marina manages operations and volunteers for both The Climate Mobilization and Climate Mobilization Project. She brings broad experience working in non-profit organizations, health care settings, and running her own private counseling practice. Before joining Climate Mobilization, Marina maintained a practice focusing exclusively on climate-related emotional coping, helping people make bold choices for lifestyle and professional change in response to the Climate Emergency. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish from Wake Forest University and a Masters in Counseling from UNC Greensboro.

Meghann Beer

Co-Leader and Director of Resource Mobilization and Strategy

Meghann brings more than 20 years of nonprofit management and fundraising experience to The Climate Mobilization and Climate Mobilization Project. For over a decade Meghann has worked as a nonprofit consultant helping organizations expand their capacity, secure revenue, develop successful strategies, and effectively evaluate their programs, enabling them to create greater positive change in the world. She has also worked as an executive director, designed and facilitated international service learning experiences, and taught university courses in fundraising and nonprofit management. Meghann earned a MPA in Nonprofit Management and Comparative and International Affairs from The School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, in Bloomington, IN and a BA in Art History and American Studies from Tufts University in Boston, MA.

Cris Lagunas

Strategy Director

Cris is helping to grow the Climate Emergency Movement by supporting creative campaigns and extending the reach of the movement’s message. Cris is a co-founder of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, an organization dedicated to using direct action tactics to expose, challenge and dismantle the immigration detention system.Cris got his start in organizing when he was 15 years old, getting involved in a local group of fellow undocumented youth.

Extended Bio

Zack Burley

Policy Associate

Zack provides policy support for the Climate Mobilization team, and brings a versatile set of policy skills and experiences in labor organizing, journalism, legislative politics, and legal practice to the climate emergency movement. Zack earned a JD from Denver University Sturm College of Law, is a founding organizer of the Political Workers Guild of Colorado, and formerly served as a legislative aide in the Colorado General Assembly.

AriDy Nox

Co-Leader and Director of Narrative Strategy

 AriDy Nox is a multi-disciplinary black femme storyteller and social activist with a variety of forward-thinking creative works under her/their belt. They create out of the vehement belief that creating a future in which marginalized peoples are free requires a radical imagination. Their tales are offerings intended to function as small parts of an ancient, expansive, awe-inspiring tradition of world-shaping, created by and for black femmes. They have over a decade of experience as a young social activist and organizer, within reproductive justice and racial justice frameworks with organizations like the Young Women of Color Leadership Council with Advocates for Youth, the Toni Cade Bamabara Collective at Spelman College and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. They bring creativity, enthusiasm and a tremendous capacity for organization to her/their role and deep belief that times of apocalypse are opportunities for rebirth. We need first imagine the world we want in order to create it.