The Climate Justice Initiative is the only Indigenous peoples climate change organization in the United States. CJI is also the only indigenous women-led and focused organization that addresses the multifaceted issue of climate change and climate justice in Indigenous peoples, groups and communities.
Climate Change will have a significant and unique impact when it comes to Indigenous peoples. The UN Human Rights groups have identified the rights of indigenous peoples as particularly vulnerable to the disruptive effects of climate change. Due to climate change, indigenous people have been threatened with their livelihood and cultural identities across the world North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Approximately 370 million indigenous people are affected.0
In the United States, there are 567 federally recognized Alaska Native and American Indian tribes in addition to the state-recognized tribes, Native Hawaiian peoples, unrecognized tribes, and indigenous peoples of US territories that are living in remote, rural, and urban communities within the Nation.
Climate Change impacts on many tribal and indigenous groups in the U.S. are projected to be especially severe, since these impacts are compounded by a number of persistent social and economic problems. The adaptive responses to multiple social and ecological challenges arising from climate impacts on indigenous communities will occur against a complex backdrop of centuries-old cultures already stressed by historical events and contemporary conditions. 1 Individual tribal responses will be grounded in the particular cultural and environmental heritage of each community, their social and geographical history, spiritual values, traditional ecological knowledge, and worldview. Furthermore, these responses will be informed by each group’s distinct political and legal status, which includes the legacy of more than two centuries of non-Native social and governmental institutional arrangements, relationships, policies, and practices. Response options will be informed by the often limited economic resources available to meet these challenges, as well as these cultures’ deeply ingrained relationships with the natural world. 2.3.4.5.
Climate Justice ensures all human rights are implemented in the most transparent way in order to maintain basic standards in the face of the somewhat unknown impacts that will be created by climate change. Climate Justice is for those who are least responsible for climate change and who are suffering from its gravest consequences.
The ability of populations to mitigate and adapt to the negative consequences of climate change are shaped by factors such as income, race, class, gender, capital and political representation. These groups generally have less say and involvement in decision-making, political, and legal processes that relate to climate change and the natural environment and thus less autonomy and control of the future narrative.
We want to change that.
CLIMATE JUSTICE INITIATIVE
Our Mission:
The Climate Justice Initiative is an indigenous women-led and focused organization addressing the multifaceted issue of climate change in Indigenous communities and peoples by means of economic and community-led empowerment, the development of strategies and methodologies for mitigating and adapting while preserving cultural heritage and directing our own cultural, social, environmental and economic future.
Our Vision:
This initiative addresses the effects of climate change within indigenous communities and peoples, particularly those most often left behind, to be safer and more resilient against the growing threat of climate change by inspiring community-led change, mitigation and adaptation while upholding and celebrating traditional value systems. We focus on the effects of climate change through means of economic shifting, education, research, developing sustainable and impactful programs in environmental justice and front-line communities and through individuals by means of financial, educational, social, environmental and indigenous rights.
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