Climate Activism

Death of Atlanta protester sparks climate activism debate

Photo of Atlanta Police car, courtesy of jobsforfelonshub at Flickr.com.

By Sarah Grinnell ’26

Staff Writer

Content Warning: This article discusses police brutality and racialized violence.

On Jan. 21, 2023, peaceful protests on the streets of downtown Atlanta saw widespread demonstrations following the police killing of 26-year-old environmental activist Tortuguita earlier in the week, NPR reported. According to CBS News, in the wake of anti-police protests, vandalism, assaults on officers and a myriad of arrests, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has officially issued a state of emergency.

The activist, whose pronouns were they/it, was a “forest defender” associated with the grassroots organization Defend the Atlanta Forest, CBS described. According to Fox5Atlanta, in September 2021 the forested land was leased out to the Atlanta Police Foundation to build a facility. Since then, this network has been fighting against the construction of a new $90 million public safety training facility for the Atlanta Police Department, which the activists dub “Cop City,” ABC News said.

On the Defend the Atlanta Forest website, members of the movement describe their motivation as being driven by the fact that “climate change and police violence are two of the most pressing issues affecting our society today, and they will only worsen if this facility is built.” According to CBS, the project requires the clearing of sizable portions of the surrounding Weelaunee Forest — which the activists emphasize is an ecosystem of “wetlands that filter rainwater and prevent flooding” and a rare “breeding ground for many amphibians in the region.” Additionally, the project would result in the expansion of law enforcement, another major concern of the activists. According to ABC, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms asserted that the facility will “help boost morale, retention and recruitment of our public safety personnel,” ensuring that officers “are receiving 21st-century training, rooted in respect and regard for the communities they serve.” However, the activists argue the training facility “would not help the city’s crime problem and further hurt relations between police and communities of color,” Fox5Atlanta reported. 

Atlanta local and Mount Holyoke student Molly Malloy ’26 is no stranger to the notoriety of the Atlanta Police Department, they explained in an interview with Mount Holyoke News. According to Malloy, the deadly altercation between Tortuguita and the state trooper “sadly isn’t surprising.” They went on to explain that “policing in Atlanta has historically been racist, frightening and threatening, and this has been evidenced even further by recent tragedies like the murder of Rayshard Brooks at the hands of the Atlanta Police Department.” Brooks was a 27-year-old man who was shot and killed by the Atlanta police in a Wendy’s parking lot in June of 2020, as reported by 11Alive Atlanta. “This training environment would be a slap in the face to [people from Atlanta]who have made their stance clear that defunding the police and reducing the police force is what the people want,” Malloy said.

According to NPR, resistance to the training center by the forest defenders has been going on for over a year now, taking shape in camping out on platforms built in the surrounding tree cover, as well as staking out the construction site of the facility. In December 2022, five activists were arrested with charges of “domestic terrorism,” and convicted of crimes including carjacking, destruction of property, arson and physical altercations with police officers, ABC detailed. 

These demonstrations culminated in a deadly apex on Wednesday’s raid when Tortuguita allegedly injured a police officer and was subsequently killed by other police officers nearby, Fox5Atlanta reported. Currently, there is no available first-hand account or body cam footage of the event, leaving the exact sequence of events largely unverified. According to NPR, the public response to this tragic turn has sparked anti-police demonstrations, with masked activists on Saturday initially gathering peacefully to remember Tortuguita, but soon throwing rocks and fireworks at buildings linked to the Atlanta Police Foundation, shattering windows and lighting a police cruiser on fire. Three businesses sustained damage in the protests, ABC News said.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp was quoted in an ABC article saying “those who break the law with no regard for those harmed by their actions will face justice, and I am grateful for these arrests.” However, according to ABC News, the protesters say “what is taking place is a classic example of tyrannical government overreach” and they believe “the public [had] a right to defend its interests.” As Malloy said, “as long as Georgia has a governor like Brian Kemp, the government will always be hostile against progressive agendas.” In Malloy’s view, this leaves activists with few options to demand change in a way that is seen as responsible.

Mount Holyoke Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Olivia Aguilar has provided some of her thoughts on the role of climate activism and whether or not there can be a ‘wrong’ way to go about it. “I think arguing about a binary of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ forms of activism about very complicated issues can be tricky and potentially misleading,” Aguilar said. While Aguilar emphasized that “climate activism takes many forms,” she also brought up the fact that “there is a lot of activism that doesn’t receive as much attention” and went on to say that “protests, strikes, corporate disruption, sit-ins, lawsuits and civil disobedience” — the tactics used in Atlanta — are some of the more dramatic tactics that activists use. 

Malloy took a similar viewpoint, positing that climate activism is often “a cry for help towards an issue that feels utterly hopeless on an individual level.” In facing such desperate global situations as the climate crisis, Malloy points out that “people are forced to watch and grow fearful and angry as their futures are decided by … governments and corporations that never put the best interests of humanity first.” Therefore, they say that “extreme methods of climate activism are seen to some as the only option because the media will only take notice of fiascos that will garner attention and views.” Thus, Malloy suggests “if the ‘wrong’ way to some is the only option left and might lead to change, it’ll have to be the new ‘right’ way.”

When describing a future where the measures the forest defenders had to take to be heard are no longer necessary, Aguilar stressed that “environmental activism has been going on for centuries, but it is often politicians and influential corporations that impede progress on environmental action.” Aguilar believes that “environmental action has to affect policies and the pocketbooks of big Oil and Gas to be effective.” In her opinion, the best that citizens can do “is to work hard at having a government that is not hostile or unresponsive to our agendas” by taking their grievances to the ballot box. If this can be achieved, then Aguilar believes “questions about violence,” which enshroud the tragic cases of activists like Tortuguita, “won’t be necessary.”

Tomato soup protestors instigate discussions about climate activism

Tomato soup protestors instigate discussions about climate activism

On Oct. 14, 2022, two climate protestors from the U.K. activist group Just Stop Oil were arrested for throwing tomato soup on Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at London’s National Gallery, a Vox article reported. This method of climate activism has instigated much debate, raising particular discussion around the use of art in environmental activism.

Climate activists file lawsuit against the Russian government

Photo courtesy of Alexxx1979 via Flickr.
This historic lawsuit against the Russian state demands reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions.

By Lily Benn ’24

Staff Writer

Earlier this month, Russian activists filed the first climate-related lawsuit against the Russian government. According to The Guardian, these activists are “demanding that the government take stronger action over the climate crisis.” 

The New Climate Institute’s Climate Change Performance Index rates Russia’s climate change performance in the “very low” category. This index compares how countries are working to mitigate climate change in categories including renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions, climate policy and energy use. Excerpts of the lawsuit published in a U.S. News article states that Russia’s average temperature has risen by 2.5 degrees celsius over the past 50 years while the world average is one degree Celsius. The article goes on to explain that this fails to meet the goal set by the Paris Agreement to keep the average temperature increase below two degrees celsius “in hopes of averting the worst consequences of climate change.” 

Individuals behind the lawsuit include Arshak Makichyan and Pavel Sulyandziga, according to U.S. News. Makichyan is an anti-war climate activist known to be Russia’s “lone climate activist,” according to The Guardian. Sulyandziga is the chairperson of the Board of the International Development Fund of Indigenous Peoples in Russia. According to U.S. News, they are among the 18 individuals listed as plaintiffs, as well as Ekozashita, an eco-defense organization, and Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia’s oldest human-rights organization.

The current pledges made by the Russian government are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 70 percent of 1990 levels by 2030 and 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2050, according to U.S. News. Activist groups filing the lawsuit believe this will not be enough to reduce Russia’s impact on climate change.

 In an interview with The Guardian, the plaintiffs’ spokesperson Grigory Vaypan expressed that there is a need for “the court to recognise that these [climate] targets are manifestly insufficient to fulfill Russia’s obligation to mitigate climate change, and order the government to set new, Paris-compliant targets.” U.S. News reported that the activists declared that emissions should instead be reduced to 31 percent of 1990 levels by 2030 and five percent of 1990 levels by 2050. 

It is historically significant for the Russian government to be involved with this high-level court case, a U.S. News article said. The article states that this lawsuit was the first of its kind to be accepted by a Russian court. This is especially notable with their past reviews from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which state they have “one of the worst climate change mitigation efforts in the world.” 

The CSIS remarked in the March 2021 article that Russia is resistant to “internal policy changes related to climate change.” It is also dangerous for many of these activists to be speaking out against the Russian government, The Guardian said. Arshak Makichyan told The Guardian that this is more than a case for climate policy — it is also a lawsuit directly contradicting the Russian government. Makichyan and many other activists filing this case are also anti-war activists, and the Russian government has recently been monitoring and eliminating opposition movements in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the article said. Makichyan himself has since moved to Germany, as he believes the country has become dangerous and called it a dictatorship.

According to The Guardian, Russia faces deadly and widespread consequences of climate change, “ranging from severe health impacts due to recent heatwaves and outbreaks of vector-borne diseases, to increased exposure to anthrax disease and infrastructure damage due to melting permafrost.” According to an NPR interview with Joshua Yaffa, two-thirds of Russia sits atop a layer of permafrost, which is melting at an extreme rate. Yaffa explains that permafrost melting can destabilize land which cities and communities build on. It is also a global issue, he said, as the melting releases more carbon dioxide and methane. For The Guardian, Makichyan remarked, “I don’t understand how Russia will negotiate any climate deals … they have been lying to people about the climate crisis.” He also stated that by pushing this lawsuit through the government, more people will be able to see the truth about the Russian government and how they have been neglecting the suffering caused by climate change.