In 2018, Reel News went on a 14 week tour of North America to look at grassroots struggles around climate change, particularly struggles around a “just transition” from fossil fuels to renewable energy, where workers and communities control the process so that they benefit from the transition, and around “just recovery” – recovery from extreme weather events which do not exascerbate current inequalities.
What we found were inspiring and visionary struggles all over the continent, led by working class communities of colour, with people organising just transitions and just recoveries themselves. Now, you can see what we found in an 11 episode series.
Episode 2: Minnesota, where Enbridge have received the go-ahead to build a replacement – actually a brand new – pipeline to shift tar sands oil out of the USA, hoping to make as much money as possible before the industry collapses. With 32,000 trade unionists out of work in the state, the pipeline will provide just 20 permanent jobs – but will go through the Ojibwe First Nation’s ancient burial sites, through their wild rice fields that are so important to their culture, and risk contaminating their water supply. People from Camp Turtle Island explain the struggle to stop the pipeline, the violent history of genocide and oppression of First Nations, and the significance of Standing Rock in building a national movement to combat climate change.