Noted author, award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker and progressive activist Naomi Klein gave a free lecture presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures at the Granada Theatre on Wednesday, May 17 at 7:30 p.m. as the keynote address in the Women and the Environment Conference. The topic was "Our Environmental Future: Connection, Collaboration, and Creation," which came about as an outgrowth from Klein's last book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs.The Climate (2014) as well as her soon-to-be-published book, No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics And Winning The World We Need.
During her lecture, Klein mentioned the need for more women scientists' voices to be heard on the topic of climate change, as well as noting that the Dakota Access Pipeline struggle at Standing Rock was initiated by women and kids from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who took a stand as water protectors in an effort to prevent the possible contamination of the Tribe's water supply from the upper Missouri River, which provides drinking water for 12 million people. She mentioned that although President Obama ultimately did the right thing by stepping up to the plate in defense of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and denying the easement for DAPL, as soon as Trump assumed the presidency, that decision was reversed and the environmental degradation continued apace. Citing Flint, Michigan's water contamination disaster, as another example, Klein noted that in the United States, communities of color are often discriminated against by design and that this environmental racism needs to stop.
The question, according to Klein, is, "How do you stay hopeful or engaged" in the present, dire political climate? The answer: by getting out from our homes, our screens and coming together with like-minded folks. Klein also noted that the mainstream media often plays a part, through semantics, in framing actions taken, such as those of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, in an inherently biased manner. According to Klein "the people [of SRST] are animated by a deep love of place. They are for clean water, for a livable environment. They are not against — they are for. They are not protesters, they are protectors. By standing up and protecting them we are protecting ourselves. Protect the water, because the water protects all of us."