Truth and Reckoning

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Truth and Reckoning is a broadcast of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) focused on environmental justice, frontline action, community rights, and the rights of nature. celdf.substack.com

  1. 26 MAR

    The Civil War is Already Here

    Through the 4th of July CELDF will be challenging dishonest narratives about America’s past and how those lies distort our lives in the present. This essay is the last installment in a four-part series of reflections on the Declaration of Independence from CELDF’s staff. By Max Wilbert The destruction of our planet isn’t a mistake or an accident. It’s driven by deliberate policies designed to maximize extraction of resources from the natural world and labor from workers for the benefit of the wealthy. The same is true for resurgent fascism and white supremacism, mass extinction of wildlife, ecological collapse, the climate crisis, and social polarization. In each case, these are either policy instruments of the ruling class (aka the Epstein class) or what they see as acceptable costs. George Kennan, former State Department Director of Policy Planning and at the time one of the most influential men in government, wrote in a 1948 memo that “[The United States has] about 50 percent of the world’s wealth but only 6.3 percent of its population... Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships, which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity...” Kennan is telling the truth that is often obscured: the primary goal of US government policy is not to raise the global standard of living, spread democracy, education, or health, but to maintain disproportionate wealth. Whatever scraps are provided to the working class in this country are mostly aimed at keeping us too content, distracted, and addicted to muster an effective rebellion. The United States of today is far, far more unequal than in 1948. This country has more than twice as many billionaires as the second-ranked country (China), despite having less than 25% of China’s population. And the power these wealthy people wield is totalitarian. Research which examined 1,800 policy proposals in the United States and compared the level of public support vs. likelihood of a proposal becoming law found that ordinary people have a “non-significant, near-zero level” of influence over government decisions. Meanwhile, the results showed that “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy”. In other words, our votes, public comments, and activism are exerting “near-zero” influence on government policy; the wealthy control the government entirely. We live in an oligarchy — a society ruled by the rich. Political philosopher Sheldon Wolin called this system, defined by the ongoing presence of supposedly democratic processes concealing a government which is functionally ruled by an unelected elite, inverted totalitarianism. The population has either been propagandized into believing we’re free, bribed into a state of what Wolin calls “civic demobilization,” or beaten into compliance with violence and surveillance. The Declaration of Independence, written 250 years ago, opens with the words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Words are cheap. I’m reminded of the words of James Baldwin who, writing in The Nation in 1966 about police brutality towards black children, said “I can’t believe what you say… because I see what you do.” By 1776, Europeans had already been engaged in a genocidal project of profit-driven settler colonialism on this continent for centuries, and a system of elite domination was firmly entrenched. The Declaration of Independence goes on to state that “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness… when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government.” This, I agree with. We are already living in a time of civil war. The United States government and the elites that run it are waging war against the people and the planet. They are killing people in the streets, abducting families, conducting illegal wars and genocide, strengthening a system of police state surveillance, and enriching the already wealthy to ever-more-obscene levels via systems of patronage and legalized corruption. Meanwhile, the climate descends into chaos, pollution proliferates, cancer and disease multiply, the planet is destroyed further every single day, and more and more people die deaths of hopelessness from addiction and poverty. Those killed by factory discharges, a lifetime of toxic industrial food, climate chaos, lack of basic healthcare and societal decency, and afflictions of despair are just as much casualties of the class war. It’s not just the current administration. The same has been true for my entire life, with different factions of the ruling class engaging in the push-pull cycles of minor reform and counter-revolution that make inverted totalitarianism such a resilient, effective, and convincing system of oppression. The civil war is already here. The question for us is, do we still believe in the mythology of the benevolent US government enough to be pacified, or are we prepared to throw off these rulers who have shown themselves time and time again to be leaders of a death cult? Max Wilbert is Co-Coordinator of Community Resistance & Resilience and Publicist for CELDF. He is the author of two books, writes the newsletter Biocentric on Substack, and has been part of grassroots political movements for 25 years. If you’re new here, this is Truth and Reckoning, a newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

    6 min

  2. 20 MAR

    When Revolution Stops Sounding Radical

    Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work. Through the 4th of July CELDF will be challenging dishonest narratives about America’s past and how those lies distort our lives in the present. This essay is part of a four-part series of reflections on the Declaration of Independence from CELDF’s staff. By Christine Schoenberger The crumbling of the American Dream is radicalizing the people to whom it was once promised. They are not activists or people who think of themselves in terms of left or right, but mostly people who have avoided politics altogether and assumed the system basically worked, even if imperfectly. But something interesting is happening in online discussions. You don’t have to look long before the patterns emerge: people, especially younger adults, describing unemployment or wages that don’t cover rent, having to work two jobs and still needing roommates well into adulthood, or medical debt that will never realistically be paid off. It’s not unusual to hear of people encountering ads for jobs requiring graduate degrees for entry-level work, or sending hundreds of resumes and receiving only silence. You may be surprised at the number of people in their forties who have quietly accepted they will never retire and doubt Social Security will exist when they need it. Parents describe how their entire paycheck disappears to cover childcare, but they can’t stay home with the kids because the family will lose health insurance if they don’t work. Commenters from other countries respond in disbelief that this is life in the United States. But something is shifting among people who once rolled their eyes at politics. They’re using words like “systemic,” “billionaire class,” and even “revolution” that they would have avoided even five years ago. And it’s not for dramatic effect; they’ve arrived at this conclusion on their own. It reminds me of this line from the Declaration of Independence: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations [comes from the government]…it is [the people’s] right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government…” We tend to treat that sentence as sacred or an artifact from an earlier time, but today it reads more like a directive. The Declaration did not simply announce independence from Britain. It said that when power consistently harms the people it governs, it loses the right to exist. This idea was explosive in 1776 and remains so now. Did the Declaration’s aspirations come to fruition? Politically, the Revolution succeeded in that a new nation was born. But economically and socially, power reorganized itself. The British pointed out the hypocrisy of claiming liberty while maintaining slavery. So-called “liberty” coexisted with property requirements for political participation, exclusion of women, and dispossession of Indigenous nations. Poverty, as always, remained concentrated among those already denied power. For generations, instability could be framed as someone else’s problem. The American Dream functioned as proof that the system worked, if not for everyone, at least for some. Even partial access kept the larger promise intact. But what happens when supposedly secure Americans begin to feel the same precarity long familiar to marginalized communities? What happens when the gap between the fairytale and the lived experience becomes impossible to ignore? What made the Declaration dangerous wasn’t that it asked for too much, but that it normalized resistance. It treated revolt as a rational response to sustained harm and even a duty, an idea that does not fade simply because a new government takes power. For a long time, calling something “radical” was enough to shut people up. Insults like “commie,” “extremist,” “terrorist” carried fear and stigma, warning others to stay quiet. But fear starts to lose its grip when experience becomes collective. There is only so long you can get away with these labels before they lose their impact. If we are willing to look honestly at our history, revolution is not outside of the American story, but one of its central chapters. The Revolution was ordinary people deciding that the system had broken its contract with them. Maybe the Declaration didn’t fall short because it was unrealistic, but because it was always uncomfortable for those with wealth and power. Once you tell people they have the right to resist sustained harm, that idea does not stay contained in one century. Revolution isn’t an interruption in our history; it is one of its foundations. And maybe what unsettles some people now is not the word itself, but how appropriate it is beginning to sound. Christine Shoenberger is a grant writer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). She holds a Master of Health Science degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and resides in Maryland with her family. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

    6 min

  3. 13 MAR

    The Danger of the Declaration of Independence

    Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work. Through the 4th of July CELDF will be challenging dishonest narratives about America’s past and how those lies distort our lives in the present. This essay is part of a four-part series of reflections on the Declaration of Independence from CELDF’s staff. By Will Falk The Declaration of Independence is a dangerous document – though probably not in the way you’re thinking. When Americans think of the Declaration, they often think of it as the shot across the British bow that announced the brave underdog patriots’ defiance of those powder-wigged, lordly stiffs who dared tax Americans without representation. Today, the Declaration of Independence is fetishized in the United States as key to what it means to be an American. It is clung to by Americans who need to soothe their guilty consciences for the history of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and colonial violence that has made, and continues to make, the United States possible. The British, at the time the Declaration was made, didn’t think much of it. Much of the British commentary on the Declaration chided the American rebels as petulant children. “Petulant children” might be too nice of a term for men like Thomas Jefferson who, while declaring that “all men are created equal” enslaved hundreds of men (and women and children) during his lifetime; who raped at least one of those slaves; who defined his children, born by the woman he raped, as property; and who engaged in illegal land speculation, buying claims to land that Native peoples had not ceded. “Petulant children” similarly might be too nice of a term for men like George Washington who, like Jefferson, enslaved hundreds of men (and women and children); who similarly engaged in illegal speculation of land that Native peoples had not ceded; and who treated Native Americans with such brutality that the Iroquois nicknamed him “Town Destroyer” for his practice of ordering troops to destroy whole villages. Of course, there’s nothing unique about Jefferson and Washington amongst the United States’ so-called “founding fathers.” One of the primary motivators for the American movement for independence was the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains (land that Jefferson, Washington, and others were hoping to make a fortune selling through speculation markets). I can hear readers demanding: “How dare the King tell Americans where they can settle?” The thing is, the land west of the Appalachian Mountains was already home to Native American First Nations. No, the British didn’t really care about protecting Native folks. But, they were sick of spending money on troops to protect American colonists (and speculators) who were illegally violating treaties made with those First Nations. Another one of the primary motivators for the so-called “Patriots” was an alliance that enslaved folks made with the royal governor in Virginia beginning in 1774. This alliance resulted in Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation, which offered freedom to any enslaved person or indentured servant owned by a rebel who escaped and joined the British Army. Americans feared free African populations so much that Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation pushed many Americans to the rebel cause. And, of course, this fear found its bloodiest expression 90 years later during the Civil War, when hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives to protect the institution of slavery. “Yes, yes,” I hear some readers muttering. “But, some of the Patriots really did aspire to the ideals described in the Declaration.” Did they, though? Because I think people who truly aspired to the ideals described in the Declaration would have joined with Native Americans and enslaved Africans – those whose life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness were most clearly threatened in 1776 – and fought directly to protect them. And, this is why the Declaration of Independence is such a dangerous document. It was propaganda used in 1776 by the most powerful American rebels (enslavers, land speculators, purveyors of genocide) to convince the working class folks that the most powerful American rebels needed to do their dirty work to protect their interests against the British. The Declaration of Independence is similarly used as propaganda in 2026 by the most powerful Americans to convince working class folks to do the dirty work of protecting the most powerful Americans’ interests in Venezuela, Iran, Gaza, and the streets of cities like Minneapolis. There’s nothing wrong with the ideals described in the Declaration. But, the United States has never existed to defend Americans’ life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. If it did, slavery would have been outlawed on July 4, 1776. If it did, Native Americans would still govern their land. If it did, the United States would not be one of the prime drivers of total ecological collapse. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, after all, are not possible on a dead planet. So, no, I do not care about sweet sounding ideals. I care about protecting the most vulnerable amongst us, those whose life and liberty are most directly threatened. We have countless other histories to look to than the history of the reactionary American rebels who fought for independence so they could steal more land and enslave more people. We could look to people like Tecumseh, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, and John Brown – people who knew just how dangerous the Declaration of Independence really is. About the Author Will is a writer, lawyer, and environmental activist. The natural world speaks and Will’s work is how he listens. He believes the ongoing destruction of the natural world is the most pressing issue confronting us today. For Will, writing is a tool to be used in resistance. Will graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School and practiced as a public defender in Kenosha, WI. He left the public defender office to pursue frontline environmental activism. So far, activism has taken him to the Unist’ot’en Camp – an indigenous cultural center and pipeline blockade on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in so-called British Columbia, Canada, to a construction blockade on Mauna Kea in Hawai’i, to endangered pinyon-juniper forests in the Great Basin, and to Thacker Pass in northern Nevada. Will’s first book How Dams Fall describes his relationship with the Colorado River in the context of the first-ever American federal lawsuit seeking rights for a major ecosystem, that he helped to file, was published in August 2019. His second book When I Set the Sweetgrass Down, a full-length collection of poetry was published in 2023. You can follow Will’s work at willfalk.org. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

    6 min

  4. 6 MAR

    Freedom for Who? Reflections of an American Woman on the Declaration of Independence

    Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work. Through the 4th of July CELDF will be challenging dishonest narratives about America’s past and how those lies distort our lives in the present. This essay is part of a four-part series of reflections on the Declaration of Independence from CELDF’s staff. They’re part of CELDF’s America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective series. Two-hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was signed by an exclusive gathering of wealthy white men, O’Dell speaks to what the Declaration failed to address when it asserted that: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” You can find more on America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective at CELDF’s Truth + Reckoning Substack. Be sure to follow us there and at CELDF.org, where you can learn about our Education, Consulting, and Community Resistance & Resilience programs. Consider supporting CELDF by making a donation that fits your plans. By Tish O’Dell Looking back at what I was taught in my 6 decades on this Earth as an American and what I have had to “unlearn” thanks to my colleagues at CELDF, community members I have fought alongside and even the lawyers, judges, electeds and media who have exposed reality to me, my perspective of the Declaration of Independence (DOI) is far different today than what I learned in school. As a young girl in school, I believed what I was taught hook line and sinker — the DOI was an amazing document recognizing that we were all free and equal in this country no matter where we were born, our socioeconomic status or who our parents were. Although an obvious red flag clue should have been the first line “all men are created equal”! When I questioned that, the reply was always the same, “women fought for the 19th amendment (over 100 years after the DOI) and won”, as if voting somehow guaranteed we were equal under the law. I also came of age during the era of “women’s liberation” which included the fights for equal pay and equal rights. I remember seeing Gloria Steinem speak at Kent State University which I was attending in the mid-1980’s and she inspired me to look closer at what I had been taught and what reality was when it came to women’s rights. She gave statistics on the pay discrepancy between men and women doing the same job. The fact that a woman couldn’t get a credit card without her husband’s signature and that in many states marital rape was legal (many states still treat marital rape differently under the law). And of course, the big issue about whether a woman has the right to decide whether to go through with an unwanted pregnancy is still being debated in 2026. Over the years I did what so many of us have been taught to do… I marched in my community; I traveled to Washington D.C. to march for the Equal Rights Amendment for women; and I wrote letters to electeds and anywhere else that would print them. These experiences made me realize that the freedom I had been taught that the DOI and constitutional amendments promised, were more illusion than reality. In 2011 I began organizing and working with CELDF. I took Democracy School and learned the real history behind the DOI and this sparked my interest in learning even more about the movement for women’s rights. Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John, in 1776 as the idea of what we know as the United States was being formed, “Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” Over the next two centuries women fought and fought hard to become recognized rights holders. Some engaged in direct action and were arrested, like Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul. When they appeared before the court, the judge ruled against them. What many today would call a “loss” and yet, I am so grateful that they didn’t give up. I learned that in many local communities and later territories in the US, women had the right to vote and when the territories became states, the legislatures actually took away women’s right to vote. I learned that the struggle wasn’t just some women in white dresses with sashes parading down the streets and that these protests were somehow responsible for the 19th amendment. It took over 100 years of meetings, organizing, protests, arrests, court cases and acts of extreme courage and sacrifice that resulted in torture and even losing their own children, just to be able to vote, but still not changing that famous line, “all men are created equal”. I also learned in my work with CELDF and by being directly involved with the court cases filed on behalf of local laws protecting nature and the rights of community members, that when we attempted to cite the DOI as the basis of our arguments in our briefs regarding those “unalienable rights of the people to protect their lives, liberty and happiness”, the courts, if they even addressed the argument at all, stated that the DOI is not actually law but just poetic words of aspiration. So while this country and our government celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, let’s see it through the eyes of truth and reality. There may have been good intentions by the people at the time who took all the risks, including the women, but we have never lived up to those intentions of freedom, justice and rights for all persons and the non-humans that we depend on. Isn’t it about time we take the words seriously and breathe life into the righteous word of the Declaration of Independence or perhaps just start over with a new guiding document that actually reflects and codifies the values we were taught were there all along? About the Author Tish O’Dell has been involved in community rights and Rights of Nature work since 2012. She started in her own community of Broadview Heights, Ohio, leading to the adoption of Ohio’s first Home Rule charter amendment creating a Community Bill of Rights banning fracking and recognizing Rights of Nature. She then went on to work with dozens of Ohio communities on anti-fracking, anti-pipeline, right to a livable climate, fair and free elections, and water privatization issues. Today, Tish works with communities all over the country and internationally, most recently working with residents and a state legislator in NY to introduce the Great Lakes Bill of Rights. In 2019, she worked with the people of Toledo to pass the historic Lake Erie Bill of Rights. She has taught workshops, CELDF’s Democracy Schools, and is a founding member and current board member of the Ohio Community Rights Network. Tish, along with other CELDF staff and community members, has been featured in the documentaries We the People 2.0, Invisible Hand, What We do to Nature, We do to Ourselves, and edited the book Death by Democracy. In her free time, Tish likes to spend time on or near Lake Erie, in her yard, or with family and friends having lively discussions or playing a competitive game…for fun of course. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

    8 min

  5. 3 MAR

    Fracking, Workers Health, and Labor Power w/ Truckers Movement for Justice

    Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work. In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with Billy Randel, John Taylor, and Ray “Hollywood” Randall of Truckers Movement for Justice. CELDF has been involved in the fight against fracking (hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of oil and gas) for many years. We often hear about environmental impacts of fracking, and the harms to local communities. But in this conversation, we connect with another impacted group: truckers who haul materials and toxic waste for the fracking industry, who are exposed to serious pollutants as a result, and who suffer the same abuses as all workers face: theft of wages, declining working conditions, and pressure to maximize profits at the cost of well-being. Truckers Movement for Justice emerged in part because of these health impacts on workers, and because in addition to exploiting nature, empire also exploits labor. There is a connection between the destruction of the planet and harm to workers. What we do to nature, we do to ourselves. These truckers find themselves in a difficult situation, because unlike unions organizing in a physical workplace, they are always on the move. Their strategies for finding unity and solidarity and organizing across thousands of miles of road are well worth learning from. We at CELDF also found this conversation interesting because of TMJ’s focus on succession: how they make sure that there’s leadership in the next generation beyond those that are currently in those leadership positions that are now older. We explore the grassroots efforts of Truckers Movement for Justice (TMJ) as they organize independent truck drivers to challenge industry exploitation, environmental hazards, and systemic corruption. * The origins and evolution of Truckers Movement for Justice * Challenges faced by independent truck drivers in organizing and advocacy * The impact of industry practices on worker rights, wages, and health * Environmental and health hazards in the oil, fracking, and trucking industries * Strategies for building solidarity among isolated workers * Historical parallels with union decline and corporate control * Practical steps for community and worker organizing efforts * The importance of collective action to challenge systemic oppression Links and Resources * Truckers Movement for Justice Facebook * Instagram @truckers_movement_for_justice * North American Truckers’ Movements Announce International Alliance * Book: Petroleum 238 * Truckers Petition Feds to Enforce HAZMAT Rules on Oil and Gas Waste This episode can also be watched on YouTube. About the Truth and Reckoning Podcast In this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert. You can find the show on: * Apple Podcasts * Spotify * Pocketcasts * YouTube (video and audio) * And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app) About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund CELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 12min

  6. 11 FEB

    Urgent Threat to Alaska Rainforests

    Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work. In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with Kashudoha Wanda Loescher Culp (Tlingit) and Joshua Wright The Tongass Rainforest in Southeast Alaska is the last great expanse of temperate old growth forest left in the United States, and it has been partially protected since the “Roadless Rule” halted most logging there in 2001. Now, the "biggest threat to the west coast rainforest this century" is here: Bill S.2554, which would permanently privatize 115,200 acres, including 80,000 acres of old-growth rainforest, into the hands of privately owned logging corporations — all behind a veil of “justice” for indigenous people. All this is happening at the same time that the roadless rule itself is under threat. This conversation with Tlingit elder and forest defender Wanda Culp and filmmaker and activist Joshua Wright — who helped launch the Fairy Creek blockade — dives into "indigi-washing," one of the divide and conquer strategies being used defeat public opposition to the destruction of the land. Wanda and Joshua have requested your help: TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION: Please contact the Natural Resources Committee TODAY to oppose S.2554 and urge them to protect our public lands instead of handing them over for private exploitation! If you are reading this after February 12, please email the Senate regardless, please also reach out to your local congressional representative to tell them that you oppose the bill. Sample letter: https://tinyurl.com/protectTNF fortherecord@energy.senate.gov 202-224-3121 Links and Resources * Background on ANCSA, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (1971) The YouTube version of this podcast will be available here shortly. About the Truth and Reckoning Podcast In this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert. You can find the show on: * Apple Podcasts * Spotify * Pocketcasts * YouTube (video and audio) * And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app) About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund CELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

    17 min

  7. 9 FEB

    Community Resistance to Toxic Waste Mining w/ Tom Grotewohl

    Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work. In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with Tom Grotewohl of Protect The Porkies Our conversation focuses on the ongoing efforts to oppose the Copperwood Mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula through the organization Protect the Porkies. Tom calls the proposed Copperwood Mine a “toxic waste mine,” because that’s most of what it will produce. We explore the motivations behind the campaign, intervention points around securing funding for mining projects, and the environmental impacts of mining. We also dive into the importance of art and culture. Tom and the rest of the team at Protect the Porkies have used community engagement and art to involve and inspire people throughout their campaign. This conversation is also a dialogue. Tom and I first met through Protect Thacker Pass, and in this interview, he turns the questions around on me to discuss lessons learned from that campaign to resist a lithium mine in Nevada. Topics discussed in this show include: * Government and corporate partnerships in resource extraction * The potential of the Rights of Nature movement to reshape environmental law * The importance of community engagement, cultural change, and grassroots activism to build decentralized movements for protection of land and water Chapters 03:00 Introduction to Protect the Porkies 05:50 Tom’s Background and motivation 09:29 Max’s experience with Thacker Pass 13:02 Funding for mining projects 19:35 Environmental impacts and permitting issues 25:45 Government and corporate partnerships 31:28 Lessons from Thacker Pass 36:56 Rights of Nature, including challenges and successes 52:03 Cultural change and community engagement 01:03:41 Strategies for Implementing Rights of Nature Links and Resources * Protect the Porkies website * How to take action on Copperwood * Protect Thacker Pass website The YouTube version of this podcast can be viewed here: Keywords Protect the Porkies, copper mine, environmental activism, rights of nature, community resistance, Thacker Pass, mining funding, ecological crisis, grassroots movements, cultural change About the Truth and Reckoning Podcast In this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert. You can find the show on: * Apple Podcasts * Spotify * Pocketcasts * YouTube (video and audio) * And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app) About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund CELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Your gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future. Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today! Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 15min

  8. 27 JAN

    "Greedy Hands in the Wetland" — Update on Virginia Beach Forest Destruction

    Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work. In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with four people resisting the destruction of a rare maritime forest in Virginia Beach, VA This is a followup to episode 2 of this podcast, in which Dr. John Aguiar introduced us to “Pleasure House Point,” a natural area in Virginia Beach which is currently being bulldozed by the city government as a so-called “restoration” project. Thousands of trees have been cut down, including mature oaks and pines, heavily impacting bird and Diamondback terrapin habitat. At Pleasure House Point, the city of Virginia Beach is currently clearcutting a mature native forest and destroying critical nesting habitat for the Diamondback Terrapin. It’s part of what they call a “restoration” project, and is happening as part of a wetlands-credit scheme whereby wetlands habitat elsewhere which is being destroyed for a flood-mitigation project is supposedly being “offset” by the creation of new wetlands at Pleasure House Point. In both cases, nature is losing. This story is one of a growing number of examples — from forest thinning to spraying invasive species with herbicides — where “restoration” has been co-opted and used as a greenwashing technique. This isn’t an indictment of restoration as a whole, but it is a warning that there are active attempts to use the language emerging from this field to justify more destruction of our planet. In this followup episode, we speak with Dr. Aguiar and three other residents of the area who are opposing the destruction: Kim Mayo, Windy Crutchfield, and Walt Stone. These three have, with some assistance from CELDF, filed a pro se lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers for destroying Pleasure House Point. Listen to the first interview on this topic, released in May 2025, here: Topics discussed in this show include: * The link between local politicians and housing developers who benefit from the clearcutting and made major campaign contributions * The city’s stonewalling and lack of transparency * The lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers * Community protests and activism * Feelings of betrayal by local environmental organizations * Impacts of wildlife, including the diamondback terrapin * The need for more journalists to write this story and more community members to join the resistance * Why is it that nature always has to be destroyed? Why not bulldoze the golf course or the luxury homes instead and turn that land into salt marsh? Photos from the site Partial timeline since May 2025 * Feb. 2025 - Multiple gatherings/ protests * March 8, 2025 - Documentary filmmaker records residents urging the city not to destroy our public land * March 18-19, 2025 - More than 5,000 trees are cut down, including sizeable live oaks the city was legally required to conserve. * April 27, 2025 - Virginia Beach City Government sets up security cameras on-scene which play recorded messages when they detect people nearby instructing people that they are trespassing and police would be called. * May 2025 - Documentary filmmaker returns, recall petition launched against Councilman who pushed the destruction in his district * August 2025 - Illegal pollution discharge documented by opponents * October 12, 2025 - Media captures oil barrel, toxic waste ,and a portable toilet floating around next to the restored “wetlands” (deforested area). * December 2, 2025 - Councilman Joash Schulman refuses to talk about Pleasure House Point when questioned at a public meeting about his developer donor having water views following the deforestation. Links and Resources * Link to a short documentary about Pleasure House Point by Angelique Herring Studios * Barrels, construction material litter Pleasure House Point Project; residents call for accountability | 13newsnow.com * Virginia Beach citizens sue Army Corps over wetlands project that cleared forest at Pleasure House Point The YouTube version of this podcast can be viewed here: Keywords Virginia Beach, environmental activism, diamondback terrapin, forest destruction, community response, local government, transparency, environmental journalism, terrestrial ecosystems About the Truth and Reckoning Podcast In this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert. You can find the show on: * Apple Podcasts * Spotify * Pocketcasts * YouTube (video and audio) * And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app) About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund CELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power. Your gift helps us to support communities on the frontlines of corporate and ecological destruction — people standing up to defend their water, forests, and future. Together, we’re advancing Rights of Nature and Community Rights in the name of Community Resistance + Resilience, challenging a system that treats nature as property and people as obstacles. Please donate today! Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 38min
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About

Truth and Reckoning is a broadcast of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) focused on environmental justice, frontline action, community rights, and the rights of nature. celdf.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    CELDF
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © CELDF
  • Show Website
    Truth and Reckoning

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