The South bears the brunt of the climate crisis in the United States, with sea level rise, tornadoes, drought, hurricanes, and other severe storms that affect millions of people and their homes, land, waters, farms, and livelihoods. Racism and economic injustice cause these impacts to fall disproportionately on Southern U.S. Black, brown, low-wealth, young, and Native peoples.

This workshop will explore how Sustaining All Life and United to End Racism (SAL/UER) tools for emotional healing help build and strengthen movements in the South (and beyond) to address climate change, racial and environmental justice, and to heal divisions resulting from racism and environmental harm. In this workshop, we will:

★ Share the key challenges facing frontline communities in the South as they address the climate crisis and racism.
★ Share about how the current political situation threatens lives and hinders our capacity to resist in the South, including the rollback of EPA regulations and the censorship of activists.
★ Share how the path for ending the climate crisis and racial injustice in the U.S. runs through this region, and Southern successes so far.
★Share about the disproportionate impacts of climate change and environmental racism on the Gulf South and the central role that region plays in the transition away from fossil fuels.
★ Examine how racism affects our efforts to build and sustain efforts to respond to the climate emergency.
★ Share the approaches used by Sustaining All Life and United to End Racism to heal from the damage of racism and other oppressions, strengthen our effectiveness in the climate justice movement, and prevent division and burnout.

Black, brown, and Native people of the Southern U.S. founded the environmental justice movement that continues to this day, though their struggles and successes are not often reported. The many lessons learned can help global efforts to solve the intersecting problems of racism and the climate crisis.