Because of unequal gender norms globally, women are impacted first and worst by climate change, and yet, one of the untold stories is how incredibly vital women are to local and global solutions. In this episode, Osprey Orielle Lake joins colleague Ashley Guardado to explore the ways in which empowering women worldwide is essential to climate justice work. Study after study shows that we must involve women at every level if we are to succeed in areas of just climate solutions, social equality, and bold transformative change.

Osprey Orielle Lake is the founder and executive director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International, an organization that unites women worldwide in building the movement for social and ecological justice. Osprey works internationally with grassroots, BIPOC and Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and diverse coalitions to accelerate the climate justice movement, build more resilient communities, and transition to a decentralized, democratized clean-energy future. She sits on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and on the steering committee for the Fossil Free Non-Proliferation Treaty. She is the author of the award-winning book “Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature” and her new book “The Story Is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis.”

Additional resouces:

• Why Women: https://www.wecaninternational.org/why-women
• Women Speak: https://womenspeak.wecaninternational.org/

This talk is part of the series “Collective Climate Action: Inspired Organizing for Our Future” produced by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University. If you’d like to watch a video version of this talk, it’s available on Spring Creek Project’s YouTube channel.