Issue 14 — A Late Summer Update
Issue 14 — A Late Summer Update
If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, the last time I wrote it was probably cold, maybe wet, maybe snowing. (And if you live in the Southern Hemisphere, where my homeland is located, I hope you are staying warm!) Much has happened since I shared my last piece, "A Pipeline Brings Gas and Revolt to Southern Italy" and at the same time, it feels as though the best things – the people and things I love — have remained unchanged.
For the past four months, and with the support of The Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting, I've been reporting an investigation at the intersection of military, extractive industries, environmental activism, and U.S. security policy. This has involved a lot of research for public records requests, filing said public records requests, and then waiting to hear back from the black void that is the U.S. State Department.
At the same time, it has been more mentally challenging than I expected.
I spent a week collating a spreadsheet that documents violence against environmental defenders around the world at the hands of state security forces. It is a harrowing dataset and for my purposes documents just a sliver of a much larger problem. The weight of violence is heavy and the need for accountability — and whether I can accomplish that, even in the smallest way — is never far from my thoughts.
The story will take me to the Philippines later this year with the final piece slated for publication early 2024. (If you have been to the Philippines — or live there! — and would like to share any advice on where to go, where to stay, and what to eat, I'll mostly be in Luzon and would love to hear from you.) Between now and then, I hope to write a few newsletters based on previous reporting, and in this issue, I wanted to share a few things I've recently published.
Just last month, I started writing for Waging Non-Violence where I conduct Q&A's with activists and social movement leaders about how they do what they do. Not all of these conversations will be related to environmental issues which is a little different but also exciting. Intersectionality, in all its forms, is at the center of my work, and hearing from people who advocate across the spectrum of social justice is a good reminder of how much work there is to do and the people who are doing it every day.
Last week, as the world commemorated the 78th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, I spoke with Tina Cordova of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (TBDC) about documenting history as a form of activism, lobbying for policy changes, and the impact of Christopher Nolan’s new film, “Oppenheimer,” on TBDC’s organizing. You can read it here.
Prior to that, I spoke with Nathan Baring, one of the plaintiffs in the youth-led climate lawsuit Juliana v. United States. You can read that one here.
I'm always looking for interviewees, especially those whose work is tied to current news, so please pass along my email if you know of anyone who might be a good fit.
While I'd like to say I'll send out this newsletter more frequently, I don't actually know if that's true. I have good intentions but it's important for me to enjoy my life away from a computer — as should you.
In light of this likely erraticism, you can follow me on Instagram where I post more frequently about my work and the fun things I do on this wild journey of life.
And to end — a song for the climate crisis.
Rage On. ❤️🔥
Thank you for reading this issue of Defender!
If you’d like to support my work you can buy me a coffee, or check out my Bookshop page. I'm also selling photo prints here, use DEFENDER for 10 percent off any order.