• Women's Rights, Indigenous Sovereignty and Climate Change
• Indigenous Peoples and International Agencies
• Armed Conflict and Indigenous Rights

New Voices on Climate Change, Climate Justice Tour

The goal of the Climate Justice tour is to broaden the climate debate by amplifying the voices of peoples around the world who are already being impacted by climate change. In doing so, the initiative will:

1) Empower peoples and communities already being impacted by climate change by promoting their stories throughout the world.

2) Empower people to become active in the climate movement by humanizing and personalizing climate change, which is otherwise an often daunting, disempowering and abstract problem.

Building the movement against global warming in the United States plays a pivotal role in the global effort to stop climate change. This is because:

* With 6% of the world's population, the U.S. emits 25% of the world's carbon emissions. (this, however, does not include the emissions from countries like China and India that directly result from the manufacture of goods for export to the U.S.)

* The U.S. military is the largest single emitter of carbon on the planet.

* The U.S. and the World Bank (in which the U.S. has de-facto veto decision-making power) dominate the discussion of what to do about global warming with market-based false solutions.

* The historic role of the U.S. in the international climate negotiations has been to obstruct any forward progress.

The New Voices on Climate Change, Climate Justice Tour is presented by:

• Global Exchange
• Global Justice Ecology Project
• Mobilization for Climate Justice
• Speak Out

• Indigenous Community Organizing for Energy and Climate Justice
• Women's Rights, Indigenous Sovereignty and Climate Change
• Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands
• Biotechnology and GMO impacts on Peasant Agriculture

Moreno, Camila

Area of Expertise/Specialties: Agrofuels, peasant movements, agribusiness expansion in Brazil, biotechnology and GMO impacts on peasant and family farm agriculture, amazon deforestation dynamics, territorial conflicts in the amazon region, political ecology/emerging environmental social movements

Camila is part of the New Voices on Climate Change, Climate Justice Tour presented by:

• Global Exchange
• Global Justice Ecology Project
• Mobilization for Climate Justice
• Speak Out

• Biotechnology and GMO impacts on Peasant Agriculture
• Agribusiness Expansion in Brazil
• Agrofuels

Hitt, Mary Anne

Mary Anne Hitt is the executive director of Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit organization that brings people together to solve the environmental problems having the greatest impact on the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. The organization works with communities across Appalachia to tackle two major causes of climate change: mountaintop removal coal mining and the construction of new coal-fired power plants. She grew up in the mountains of east Tennessee, just outside Gatlinburg and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. If you would like to plan a speaking event with Mary Anne, please email her at maryanne.hitt@sierraclub.org!

• Climate Change
• Mountain Top Removal and Coal-fired Fuel Plants in the Appalachian Mountains

Harris, Zakiya

Zakiya Harris is a California native, who has been working as an artist, educator and activist for the past 10 years. Currently she is the Regional Director of the San Francisco Green Festival. In 2003, she became the lead trainer at the DJ Project. In 2007, she co-founded "Grind for the Green," which engages youth of color in the burgeoning green economy. The program was heralded for its innovation and produced the 1st Solar Powered Hip-Hop Music Concert in San Francisco. Some of her recent achievements include receiving the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights Future Leaders award and becoming a Fellow in the Green For All Academy. If you would like to plan a speaking event with Zakiya, please email her at zakiya@globalexchange.org!

Gemmill, Faith

Faith Gemmill, a Pit River/ Wintu and Neets’aii Gwich’in Athabascan from Arctic Village, Alaska, is the current outreach coordinator for REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands). Faith previously worked on behalf of the Gwich’in Nation for over ten years as a representative, public spokesperson and Gwich’in Steering Committee staff to address the potential human health and cultural impacts of proposed oil development and production of the birthplace and nursery of the Porcupine Caribou Herd which is located within the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Faith continues as a public spokesperson, press and tribal liaison and human rights advocate. Faith is a current field representative of the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC). In this capacity Faith has represented the Gwich’in Nation within appropriate mechanisms of the United Nations to advocate for the recognition of Gwich’in human rights as well as work for the rights and recognition of Indigenous Peoples. Faith also serves on the advisory board of Honor the Earth.

Faith is part of the New Voices on Climate Change, Climate Justice Tour presented by:

• Global Exchange
• Global Justice Ecology Project
• Mobilization for Climate Justice
• Speak Out

• Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands
• Human Rights and Oil
• The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Gearon, Jihan

Biographical Information: Jihan Gearon is Diné (Navajo) and African American. She is Tódích'ií'nii (Bitter Water) clan, and her maternal grandfather is Tl'ashchí'í (Red Bottom People) clan. Jihan's family is from the community of Old Sawmill and she grew up and went to high school close by in Fort Defiance, located on the eastern part of the Navajo reservation in Arizona. She is a graduate of Stanford University with a Bachelors of Science in Earth Systems and a focus in Energy Science and Technology. In her position as Native Energy Organizer at the Indigenous Environmental Network, Jihan works to build the capacity of communities throughout the U.S. and Canada who are impacted by energy development and climate change. Jihan is a member of the Steering Committee of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative and the Coordinating Committee of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance.

Jihan is part of the New Voices on Climate Change, Climate Justice Tour presented by:

• Global Exchange
• Global Justice Ecology Project
• Mobilization for Climate Justice
• Speak Out

• Indigenous Community Organizing for Energy and Climate Justice
• Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Peoples and people of color
• Environmental Justice and Climate Justice

Danaher, Kevin

Described by The New York Times as the "Paul Revere of globalization's woes," Dr. Kevin Danaher's analytical expertise, sense of humor and blunt eloquence make him an exceptionally dynamic speaker. Dr. Kevin Danaher is a co-founder of Global Exchange (1988), founder and Executive Co-Producer of the Green Festivals (2001), and Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center (2004). Dr. Danaher has spoken at universities and for community organizations throughout the U.S. He conducts workshops on issues ranging from the dynamics of the global economy to how we can replace the power of transnational corporations with local green economy networks. A longtime critic of the so-called "free trade" agenda, Dr. Danaher explains how we must work with other countries to reduce poverty and inequality if we want the cooperation of the world's people in ending terrorism. Dr. Danaher is the author and/or editor of numerous books, including his latest, "Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots". If you would like to plan a speaking event with Kevin, please contact speakers[at]globalexchange.org or call Marcia at (415)-255-7296 ext. 244

• Building the Green Economy
• People's Globalization vs. Elite Globalization

Abad, Carmencita Chie

Carmencita "Chie" Abad speaks from personal experience about the hardships endured by millions of workers in sweatshops around the world. Chie spent six years as a garment worker on the Pacific island of Saipan, a U.S. territory. She endured wretched conditions, frequently working 14-hour shifts in order to meet arbitrary production quotas for her employer, the Sako Corporation, which made clothes for the Gap and other retailers. When she tried to organize a union, Chie was met by fierce resistance from management and eventually lost her job. She now lives in the U.S., where she educates Americans about the inhumane factory conditions occurring worldwide, including on U.S. soil. Chie was instrumental in forcing 26 major retailers to settle a lawsuit in September 2002 to improve conditions in Saipan. Her story is an inspiring example of how people can win if they stand up for their rights and the leadership she offers from her years as of organizing within the anti-sweatshop is empowering. If you would like to plan a speaking event with Chie, please contact her by email at: chie [at] globalexchange.org or by phone at: (415)575-5550

• Sweatshops and the Global Economy
• Sweatshop Labor in the Garment Industry
• Tour of Sweatshops in San Francisco's Mission District