It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm

Vermont Workers’ Center leaders are joining a grassroots delegation at Paris climate talks calling for system change, not just climate change.

Shela Linton and Senowa Mize-Fox, of Brattleboro and Burlington, head to Paris this week to attend the United Nations’ COP21 global climate negotiations from December 3rd to December 11th. The two VWC representatives will travel as part of the historic “It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm” delegation, joining over 100 grassroots leaders from dozens of climate impacted communities in the US and Canada.

The “It Takes Roots” delegation joins a broad alliance of organizations from across the world who have traveled to Paris to speak out against the proposed global climate agreement, saying that it falls far short of what is needed to avoid global catastrophe. The delegation is calling on world leaders to come out of Paris with an agreement based on real solutions, which require a just transition from the extractive economy towards local, living economies that ensure our human rights and ecological stewardship.

“From Paris to Montpelier, we’re seeing politicians push false solutions to climate change like fracking and carbon trading,” said Mize-Fox, one of the Vermont It Takes Roots delegates. “We need to recognize the leadership and strategies coming from social movements at the grassroots, who understand the interconnections between racial, gender, economic and climate justice and are calling for system change.” It is not just climate change.

Here in Vermont, from April 30th to May 1st, 2016, the Vermont Human Rights Council and labor partners are hosting a People’s Convention & Just Transition Assembly, in which participants will outline a just transition strategy for Vermont towards a human rights economy for people and the planet.