The Water Equity & Climate Resilience Caucus sent a delegation to the PolicyLink Equity Summit 2024. A Revolution of the Soul, this year’s summit is creating a space for deep, intersectional conversations, rooted in love, and an opportunity for us to come together to build a better future.
A Revolution of the Soul: What Does It Mean for Water?
The theme of the 2024 PolicyLink Equity Summit is A Revolution of the Soul. This bold call to action summons each of us to do the internal work necessary to heal the brokenness within us and between us, as a foundational prerequisite for reclaiming our individual power and building a stronger collective movement for progress.
“We must take ownership of the nation—with all its faults and all its promise—and take up our power as founders with a revolutionary love for all.”
What does this mean for how we engage on water issues?
We are challenged to think differently about water. As a necessary, life-sustaining need, a complex policy issue, and as an organizing principle for intersectional justice:
- Water Binds Us Together: Water is life. We all need safe, affordable, reliable drinking water, sanitation and stormwater services to be healthy and thrive. Yet, far too many in America still lack access to quality water infrastructure – and in some cases, any water infrastructure at all. This is not a red state or blue state issue, or an urban versus rural issue. The necessity of water, and the ubiquity and growing severity of water challenges in the 21st century, binds us all.
- Water Is A Governing Issue: A society that cannot provide the most essential ingredient for life – water – to its people is a failing society. Our ability to make progress on water issues is a harbinger, a broader test, of the proposition that We the People can, in fact, tackle and solve the many other issues important to our shared future.
- Water Is An Opportunity To Refound America: Water is more than simply a necessity for life; it is a sacred resource that, when used wisely, offers a medium to unlock an abundance of opportunities for all. Water can be the center of a community’s social fabric. Water can be a place of healing, individually and collectively. Water can be a career of meaningful work and service to one’s community. Water can be an engine for shared economic prosperity. And the list goes on. It is up to us to decide whether and how we respectfully step into the opportunity that water offers, as individual founders and as a nation.
With that in mind, get to know the over 40 core members and allies at the summit and learn more about the sessions headed up by Caucus leaders:
Water Affordability for All
Why are we talking about water affordability? Far too many in the United States struggle to afford the cost of a basic necessity — water. Far too many people are unable to pay their water bill each month. Far too many families make difficult choices between water and food, or water and prescriptions. Some have even experienced water shutoffs. This crisis of water affordability is not new – it’s been with us for decades. Yet there is still no comprehensive national program to address the water affordability needs of families and communities. We can do better. There is no water justice without water affordability.
The Water Equity and Climate Resilience Caucus’s Water Affordability for All campaign is grounded in the shared understanding that affordability means “the cost of essential water and sanitation is inexpensive enough that cost does not prevent access…” The Caucus water affordability policy platform advances a holistic approach to water affordability from sustained national investment in U.S. water and sanitation infrastructure to an equity and community-centered approach to water decision-making, and advocating for a national low-income water bill assistance program.
This Caucus water affordability panel will speak to the growing water affordability crisis as it is experienced by farmworker communities in California to residents of Detroit, MI, and the barriers and opportunities for prioritizing water affordability through federal advocacy.
Moderator: Yasmin Zaerpoor, Director of Water Equity & Climate Resilience, PolicyLink
Panelists:
- Monica Lewis Patrick, Co-founder and CEO, We the People of Detroit
- Susana De Anda, Co-founder and Executive Director, Community Water Center
- Julian Gonzalez, Senior Legislative Counsel, EarthJustice
Learn more about the Caucus’ Water Affordability for All campaign here.
Take the Water Equals Life pledge.
Climate Justice Through Love, Joy, and Gratitude
The climate crisis exacerbates inequities across all levels of our democracy, economy, and society. And in the urgency to scale up action before it is too late, climate solutions are often remiss of our relationship with one another and the Earth. Yet centering joy, love, and gratitude might just be the transformation we need to build a just and climate secure future. Panelists across the U.S. climate movement join together for a robust reckoning with this culture change. They explore how different strategies — movement building, narrative change, and policy — dismantle the root causes of climate change, by repairing our relationship with ourselves, nature, and the rest of the world.
Moderator: Benny Starr, Artist & Strategist, Watercolor Creative
Panelists:
- Colette Pichon Battle, Vision & Initiatives Partner, Taproot Earth
- Denise Fairchild, President Emeritus, Emerald Cities Collaborative
- Reverend Houston Cypress, Founder, Love the Everglades Movement
- Anthony Ramón Pérez Soto, Campaigns Director, Earth Guardians
Learn about the WECR Caucus and the intersection of water, climate, and justice in this short video.
Actions to take:
- Urge Congress to protect Sovereign rights and continue to allow Access to Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve for the Miccosukee Tribe.
- Learn more about how to be an Earth Guardian and, if you are an organized school or community group, get involved.
- Vote for Earth Guardians in the CREDO Campaign. Votes = money for programming to train youth to be influential leaders at the forefront of the global climate movement.
- To learn more about Black Liberation as a critical element to Climate Justice and Taproot Earth watch this video.
- Join the Ubuntu Climate Movement: Return to your roots. Return to the Land. Return to the Commons. Learn more and sign up here.
Supporting Indigenous Leadership and Resistance for a Better Future
Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have stewarded our natural ecologies and maintained balanced ecological well-being. The erasure and discount of Indigenous peoples' role and knowledge in the management of our natural resources, as well as their cultural identity, has had a detrimental impact on our ability to mitigate the climate crisis. The pathway to climate justice must include the leadership, knowledge, and rights of Indigenous peoples across the globe. Panelists will share how we can shift this paradigm by reframing and reshaping our legal, policy and cultural structures to better support the contributions and leadership of Indigenous peoples.
Moderator: Angela Mooney D’Arcy, Founder and Executive Director, Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples
Panelists:
- Tara Houska, Founder, Giniw Collective
- Janene Yazzie, Director of Policy and Advocacy, NDN Collective
- Maritza Alvarez, Indigenous Media Team and Water Organizer, Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples
Water is the foundation for us all. Learn more about the Water Equity & Climate Resilience Caucus here.