Climate Justice Through Collaboration

I was lying on the couch of my apartment at 2:00 a.m., playing the same one-minute-and-forty-second trailer for what felt like the thousandth time that day. The stylistic choices worked well, from the music to the transitions, and there was nothing obviously wrong with it. Still, something didn’t fit quite right. 

The trailer was for a documentary on Brazil’s Eucalyptus Invasion about the impacts of industrial tree plantations and the growing threat of genetically engineered trees on the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless Workers’ Movement), Ofayé peoples, and the Quilombola community. Each time, I explained my decisions to make sure every revision represented both the organization and the communities whose stories I was entrusted with. I slowly began to see the trailer come together as I became more intentional about whose voices carried the story. Instead of trying to narrate their experiences by just adding text on the screen, I focused on weaving their voices together while giving them the space to tell their stories.

My name is Garrett Ordonez, and I’m a rising senior pursuing a B.A. in environmental studies and international relations. This summer, I worked as an environmental communications intern in the Gibson Climate Justice (GCJ) Lab in partnership with the Global Justice Ecology Project (GJEP). I am deeply thankful to my mentors from the GCJ Lab and GJEP as well as to the Wrigley Institute for giving me the creative freedom to pursue this work. 

Before the internship began, I asked my mentor, Dr. Shannon Gibson, for a copy of the book Portraits of Struggle, a collection connected to GJEP cofounder Orin Langelle’s work in concerned photography, the idea that photos should present the truth and stay the truth. I came in with this idea that communications was simply about making research and policy accessible, but after an interview with Sara Eyassu, a former student of the GCJ Lab, she highlighted how the lab’s work is about knowing peoples’ stories and “who’s producing it, where it’s being produced, [and] who it’s for.” That philosophy was so important and meaningful in shaping my experience; it is not as simple as just producing and putting out content because, frankly, each decision had the potential to shape how people understood the issue. 

My understanding of that responsibility grew while producing my capstone video about the evolving nature of the GCJ Lab, where I brought together over eleven interviews with students, researchers, alumni, and NGO partners to show how the lab connects students with collaborative, community-engaged climate justice work. I recall students reminiscing about their time on the Catalina trip and them talking about their latest publications on climate finance and geoengineering; however, some of the stories that stayed with me most came from GJEP cofounders, Orin Langelle and Anne Petermann, who brought me back to each of their pivotal moments. These stories included the Volcan Casita in Nicaragua and its landslide that buried communities as well as a woman from the Santa Quiteria Indigenous community in Brazil who stood in solidarity against industrial tree plantations encroaching on their community.

I found myself reflecting once more in post-production because it was incredibly difficult to shorten their stories into a three-minute video knowing how much I would have to leave out. Hearing these stories made me appreciate the dialogue between activism and academia in a way I hadn’t before. Behind the issues we research are people who have spent years documenting and organizing alongside the communities at the center of them. I leave knowing all of those interviews can continue to inform the lab’s work well beyond my internship.

While working on trailers and the capstone video, I developed a communications strategy for GJEP, reviewed website organization and analytics, created social media content, and even supported Dr. Gibson at her moderator panel discussion on the documentary Gaslit. When I envisioned footage I didn’t have for another video, I simply asked for it, even reaching out to media outlets like We Don’t Have Time for permission to incorporate their work into a video on the Santa Marta Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels. I worked closely with Dr. Gibson on this particular script, prompting ideas for her to talk about personal takeaways from the outcome report in addition to summarizing outcomes. 

GJEP cofounder, Anne Petermann, frequently reminds me that what we need is “systems change, not climate change.” I can only relay her sentiment because climate change can’t be addressed in isolation from the systems that shape land ownership and corporate power. As I return to USC for my senior year, I am excited to continue to work with the GCJ Lab. What I’ll carry forward is how often an idea became possible simply because I was willing to ask.

Watch Garrett’s capstone video below.