Pope Francis said Wednesday at the White House that climate change "can no longer be left to a future generation." 

Song and Lyrics by Lyla June at Johnson, protesting #NpDAPL. Motion graphics by Danica D'Souza.

Black and Latino students earn about 18% of computer science bachelors degrees, but make up only about 5% of the tech workforce at the industry's leading companies. Media coverage has been a critical component in the effort to diversify tech, shining a spotlight on low numbers of minorities employed at tech companies and what companies are doing to address it. Join us as New America CA Fellow Laura Weidman Powers, co-founder and CEO of CODE2040, asks leading journalists in the field to talk about how they see their role, what they choose to cover, and the future of diversity in the tech industry.

Participants: 

Ellen Huet
Tech Reporter, Bloomberg

Jessica Guynn
Senior Tech Writer, USA Today

Laura Weidman- Powers
Co-founder & CEO, CODE2040
New America CA Fellow

Megan Rose Dickey
Reporter, TechCrunch

Part 1 of our field reports from the Seven Council Fires Community, at #StandingRock in Cannonball, North Dakota. Representatives from over 200 nations have travelled to #StandingRock to defend their right to clean water, and more, to preserve their sovereignty against a state that has illegally decided to take this land. They are protectors, not protesters. Their historic effort is bringing attention to a long struggle against environmental racism, indiscriminate raids, and genocidal erasure. 

We follow the story and the story of how these communities, Standing Rock Camp and Red Warrior Camp, have come to be entirely sustainable.

Featured in this documentary are a group of indigenous leaders working with the community: Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara – North Dakota); Phyllis Young - former councilwoman for O?héthi Šakówin (Lakotah, Woman Who Stands By The Water), Cody Hall, media spokesperson for Red Warrior Camp (Sioux), Michelle Cook - Legal Counsel for O?héthi Šakówi? camp (Diné - The One Who Walks Around You Clan), and Terrell Iron Shell of the International Indigenous Youth Council (Oglala Lakotah, Eastern Band Cherokee). 

“We’ve been here. We know how to take care of the land. Just listen to us.”

Destroying the Rainforest, devastating the climate, deadly for indigenous peoples. Join the movement athttp://amazonwatch.org/endamazoncrude.

When most people think of where we get our oil, they primarily think of the Middle East. The tar sands of northern Canada or domestic fracking also come to mind. But drilling for oil in the Amazon? Not likely. Surprisingly oil extraction in the Amazon is rampant, and expanding. And it’s the worst possible place to be drilling. But who’s consuming the oil produced there? We are. Amazon crude is coming to California and the rest of the United States in record levels.

Amazonian peoples, many of whom consider oil to be the blood of Mother Earth, have long called on governments and corporations to keep it in the ground. Now scientists are catching up with their calls, stating that we need to keep 80% of fossil fuels in the ground in order to have a good chance of averting catastrophic climate change. As our planet’s most important carbon sink, the home to over 400 distinct indigenous peoples, and the world’s most biodiverse rainforest, it is urgent that we keep the oil in the ground in the Amazon. 

Amazon Watch is committed to supporting and amplifying the calls and proposals of our indigenous allies from the Amazon by ensuring that global governments and corporations respect their rights and territories. Based on the findings in our report FROM WELL TO WHEEL THE SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND CLIMATE COSTS OF AMAZON CRUDE, we call upon companies, universities, and governments to heed their call and change their vehicle fleets to Amazon-free fuel sources. By keeping the oil in the ground in the Amazon, we can contribute to the protection of the Amazon rainforest, indigenous peoples territories, and our global climate.

“I have learned that architecture can be a transformative engine for change,” said Michael Murphy, co-founder and CEO of MASS Design Group, in his talk at the annualTED conference in Vancouver this February.Starting with a moving personal story about his father’s battle with and victory over cancer, the architect discussed ways the built environment can positively impact the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. He touched on many of his firm’s humanitarian projects, including the Butaro Hospital in Rwanda, the GHESKIO Cholera Treatment Center in Haiti, the Ilima Primary School in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Kasungu Maternity Waiting Village in Malawi.“In each of these projects we asked a simple question,” said Murphy. “What more can architecture do? And by asking that question, we were forced to consider how we could create jobs, how we could source regionally, and how we can invest in the dignity of the communities in which we serve.”Murphy concluded with a preview of MASS Design Group’s upcoming collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative on a national memorial to victims of lynching. “Great architecture can give us hope,” he said. “Great architecture can heal.”

Betty Reid Soskin speaks about her experiences as a Black woman in the shipyards during World War II. Now in her 90s, Soskin is the country's oldest active park ranger, serving at the Rosie the Riveter World War II/Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, which she helped bring into existence.

Betty brings a unique perspective to the story of the home front effort, having lived it as a woman of color. She also touches on the immense social changes that she and her family members have witnessed, and provides her thoughts on the responsibility of living in a democracy.