Fall 2017 – The Just Transition Issue
Fall 2017

Table of Contents

The Just Transition Issue

From the Editors

Social Justice in This Transition

In some places in this country, it's easier to talk about climate change if you avoid the words “climate change.” Melting ice caps and mass migrations are distant and abstract. And for some people, they’re too politicized.

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As mayor of the Inupiaq village of Buckland

Alaska’s Small Villages Turn Toward Renewables—And Don’t Look Back

Oil companies like to push the narrative that Alaskans want more oil development, but that’s not true.
Stephen Miller
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Climate Justice Is Racial Justice Is Gender Justice

What is a “just transition,” anyway? Bill McKibben asks Jacqueline Patterson, the director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program.
Bill McKibben
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The Hopeful Work of Turning Appalachia’s Mountaintop Coal Mines Into Farms

In the post-coal economy, life-skills training helps employ people and restore the savaged land.
Catherine V. Moore
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How to Feed Ourselves in a Time of Climate Crisis

Here are 13 of the best ideas for a just and sustainable food system, from saving seeds to curbing food waste.
Raj Patel & Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz
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A Surprisingly Simple Solution to a Transportation Mess in India

Electric rickshaws have become an economic and environmental lifeline for both drivers and passengers.
Anuradha Sengupta
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Who Owns the Future of California’s Energy? Its Residents

Despite all the money in politics, the future of cleaner energy is in the hands of local communities.
Peter Kalmus
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Tribes Were the First Climate Refugees—and the First to Build Resilience Plans

The Swinomish of Washington produced a climate adaptation plan two years before the state. Now it’s a template for all of Indian Country.
Terri Hansen
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What Legal Personhood for U.S. Rivers Would Do

Indian Country could finally see an end to nonconsented infrastructure projects if they follow New Zealand’s Maori in achieving legal protection for natural entities.
Kayla DeVault

Solutions We Love

Explore Section
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Fed Up With How Women Are Portrayed in Media, These Girls Started Their Own Radio Station

A Boston radio station trains teens, helps them find their voice, and gives them a chance to be heard.
Melissa Hellmann
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Love Little Free Libraries? These People Didn’t Stop at Books

From seed banks to free food pantries, the little library movement is taking off in neighborhoods across the country.
J. Gabriel Ware
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Meet the Playwrights Bringing Social Justice to the Stage

These women are helping audiences empathize with issues in a way that a book or an article can’t.
J. Gabriel Ware
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“Carpe Diem Politics”: How to Do More Than Just Resist

Today’s social justice movements must seize opportunities, mobilize quickly, and, finally, embrace a carnival spirit.
Roman Krznaric

Culture Shift

Explore Section
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How I Can Offer Reparations in Direct Proportion to My White Privilege

What it looks like to pay for the unearned advantages my whiteness has afforded me.
Chris Moore-Backman
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No More White Saviors: Let People Lead Their Own Movements

Activists who come to command without listening to those they’re ostensibly helping produce a devastation that makes the project of systemic oppression that much easier.
Aura Bogado
Real Things Matter

It’s Not Just Nostalgia: “Real Things” and Why They Matter

In his new book, David Sax explains how giving into the lure of things like vinyl records and paperback books might actually make you happier.
Cecile Andrews
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The Pipeline Protest Before Standing Rock

Last year’s water protectors garnered worldwide attention, but several pipeline fights—such as the Enbridge Sandpiper pipeline victory—got little public notice.
Jacqueline Keeler
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What Cuba Can Teach Us About Health Care

The country’s universal, low-cost health care system works well.
Sarah van Gelder