Step up for the earth. Learn. Act. Pledge.
Three easy steps to honor the soil and declare solidarity with Land Defenders in 2022!
Around the world, we are not only experiencing a global climate emergency but a land crisis as well. Land wars and colonial practices of monopolization rage while the Earth’s life-giving soil is being polluted and deteriorated at an unprecedented rate. At the same time, people are boldly standing up to defend the precious Earth from the extractive violence of corporations and governments worldwide.
Will you join the struggle in 2022? Will you Step Up to honor the planet’s life-giving soil and declare your solidarity with those fighting for land justice?
In 2022, CPT wants to bring increased attention to earth stewardship and the critical work of Land Defenders. The United Nations Human Rights Council declared that “defenders working in environmental matters, referred to as environmental human rights defenders, are among the human rights defenders most exposed and at risk”.
In every place that CPT works—Colombia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Palestine, Turtle Island, Lesvos, the US/Mexico borderlands and elsewhere—land is a prime issue. Everything comes from the earth, and returns to the earth. Soil is life, and those who wish to control life will seek to monopolize and abuse the land.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, rural villagers withstand continuous Turkish bombardments that cause death and injury, meanwhile munitions also release toxins that seep into the soil. Multinational oil corporations leave the land ravaged by their extractive enterprises to feed the world’s addiction to fossil fuels. Still farmers and migrant shepherding families remain steadfast on their ancestral homelands, tending the soil and organizing for justice.
On Turtle Island, the Apache people and other Native and non-Native allies are fighting Resolution Copper. The mining operations threaten to destroy Sacred lands in Chi’chil Biłdagoteel (also known as Oak Flat, Arizona). In addition, Resolution Copper seeks to build a pipeline and storage facility that would hold 1.5 billion tons of toxic mining waste. Apache Stronghold continues firm resistance to this destructive colonial project.
Pipelines threaten waters and soil as they cut through ecosystems and destroy huge swaths of land. Indigenous communities across Turtle Island have led the anti-pipeline movement. The Hereditary Chiefs and Land Defenders in Wet’suwet’en continue to hold back the illegal Coastal Gaslink pipeline project. From the Mississippi River headwaters to the shore of Lake Superior, the Line 3 pipeline resistance continues. In the Great Plains region, a coalition has formed to stop the thousands of miles of carbon pipelines slated to be built. The movement demands respect for Indigenous Land Sovereignty, challenges settlers to return the land back to its original stewards, and calls for solidarity with the sacred earth.
Palestine’s connection to the Earth as it relates to its spirit is something that cannot be given up or handed over. But the goal of the Israeli occupation is to acquire that same land and kill the Palestinian spirit.
Olive trees are not only a source of sustainable income for Palestinian families, but also a deep spiritual connection to the land and Palestine’s existence. Illegal Israeli settlers have made a practice of burning and destroying ancestral olive tree groves or stealing the olive harvest and beating Palestinian land owners and farmers. This Zionist settler-colonialism seeks to expand the so-called state of Israel by forcefully displacing Palestinians and erasing the history of Palestine rooted in the land.
Colombia continues to be one of the deadliest places in the world for Land Defenders. Community leaders, farmers and villagers experience assassinations and violence at an alarming rate in their exercise and defense of Human Rights and their demand to remain in their territories. According to Indepaz, since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016, over 1,300 social leaders have been murdered and 48 have already been killed in 2022 alone.
Learn. Act. Pledge.
Step 1: Learn
Find out more. Learn about one of these Land Defense or Earth stewardship topics. You can use one of these topics to inform your earth action for the year.
Do you know who the traditional stewards of the land are?
Native Land interactive
Whose Land
Landback Movement
Learn more about land conflicts and threats to land defenders.
Land Conflict Watch
Global Witness
CPT Colombia
Soil conservation.
What is the difference between soil and dirt? Soil not Dirt.
What is the current status of the soil where you are?
Is it in danger, and if so, why?
Save the Soil campaign
Learn about pipeline and mining threats on Turtle Island (North America)
EarthJustice Pipeline overview and map
The Line 3 and tar sands pipeline: Stop Line 3: Honor the Earth
Coastal Gaslink in Wet’suwet’en: Wet’suwet’en Gidimt’en Camp
CO2 pipelines and Carbon Capture and Storage
Great Plains Action Society
Science and Environmental Health Network
Sierra Club on CO2
Oak Flat: Apache-Stronghold
Research native plants local to your area.
Step 2: Act
Choose an action for the year. Here are a few great examples. Feel free to create your own action!
Support one of these Indigenous-led land defense movements on Turtle Island.
Wet’suwet’en Gidimt’en Camp
Frontline Land Defense: Great Plains Action society
Stop Line 3: Honor the Earth
Oak Flat: Apache-Stronghold
Declutter the land:
Pick up plastic and other trash on your walks
recycle
Nurture the soil:
Learn to compost
Plant native plants in your yard or neighborhood
Better Stewardship for land owners:
Minimize the amount of fertilizer you use
Decrease lawn space
Remove concrete, and replace it with soil.
If your land was stolen from Indigenous communities: Support land reclamation and return land back to its original inhabitants or put Land Back in your will.
Step 3: Pledge
This year I pledge to practice better stewardship of the earth. I will bring attention to the global violence fueled by colonization, extraction and land confiscation. My actions will honor the courageous actions of the earth’s land defenders.