How to set up your own project
So We Stand exists to support communities living in high emissions areas (for example near to power stations or airports), and other areas of environmental injustice. Anything that prevents people from living in a clean and healthy environment is an environmental injustice. Those who are exposed to environmental injustices may have little power within existing systems of governance, consultation and economic and political inequality to make changes to improve or protect their environment. We see climate change as perhaps the starkest and biggest example of environmental injustice. Those who have created the problem through pursuit of power and profit have better resources available to them to escape from the consequences. Meanwhile, the poorest people, who have made less contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, are unable to change their environment or move away when there’s a drought, a hurricane, a tsunami, a famine. On a smaller and more local scale within the UK, those living under flight paths, next to motorways, or on the sites of planned open cast mines, are not those who stand to profit from these things. So We Stand aims to support people whose voices are not being heard in organising together, on a local and national scale, to make the changes that are important to them and to take back control of their locality. It also aims to help feed into the development of an international environmental justice movement which makes links between local issues of environmental injustice all around the world and global issues of environmental injustice such as climate change.
If you live in a community which is struggling against environmental injustice and would like to get involved, or if you would like to get involved in organising this project, showing solidarity and fighting climate change from a point of view of environmental justice, get in touch!