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Where are they now?: How Disney Dreamers are achieving their goals since 2023

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Friday, April 12, 2024

Not all heroes wear capes. Oftentimes, they are in our schools thinking about ways to improve our world.Every year, 100 high schoolers are selected from thousands of applicants to attend Disney Dreamers Academy, which is designed to empower and inspire the brightest young minds of our nation. These teens are called “Dreamers” for a reason. They have so much hope and confidence in their voice as they talk about their visions for the future. During the five-day program, a village of actors, illustrators, filmmakers, producers and other experts mentor the Dreamers so they can one-day become experts in their fields. Last year, DREAMbassador Halle Bailey spoke affirmations over the teens and challenged them to pursue their goals despite negativity from others. Singer and songwriter H.E.R. surprised a group of future musicians with autographed guitars.So when the trip is over and teens are flown back home, how do the Dreamers use their experience at the academy throughout their lives? To answer that question, the Black Joy fam reached back out to the Dreamers we interviewed in 2023 to get an update on what they have been up to and how they’ve incorporated what they gained during their once-in-a-lifetime experience:Award-winning public speaker Bradley Ross JacksonBradley Ross JacksonBradley Ross JacksonBloomington-Normal, Ill.Founder of the nonprofit B.E. Kind Campaign and youngest recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Youth Activist of the Year“The Disney Dreamers Academy was priceless, and I was able to utilize many of the educational and practical nuggets while spending several days at the Academy. Additionally, I built meaningful relationships and I am still very good friends with several of my 2023 Dreamers. We continue to maintain an active “chat group” on Instagram, so that we may empower and encourage each other.Since graduating from the Disney Dreamers’ Academy, I am honored to have received over $1 million in scholarship dollars. I was accepted by many dynamic colleges and universities, including: Howard University, Harvard, Morehouse College, Bradley University, Xavier, Southern, Jackson State University, Augustana College, Illinois Wesleyan University, Lindenwood University, and so many other wonderful schools. I proudly included the Disney Dreamers’ Academy on my resume and college application. When I interviewed with Harvard, they inquired about my Disney Dreamers’ experience and they were very impressed when I shared my experiences. Additionally, I was selected for the coveted 2024 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, the 2024 NAACP Mr. Harry Hightower Award and the 2024 High School Senior of the Week Award.”Future sports journalist Elle ChavisElle ChavisElle ChavisDallasTheater-lover and future sports journalistElle Chavis is a freshman at Duke University. She is a Robertson Scholar and as a result she has enhanced her leadership skills and increased her knowledge of community development. She entered Duke majoring in Cinematic Arts, but it did not take her long to find a love for journalism. Elle has always loved sports, and that love for sports sparked her interest in sports journalism. She’s now a beat writer in the sports department for The Duke Chronicle, the school’s student newspaper. She covers two of Duke’s many explosive sports: softball and women’s basketball. This newfound passion inspired Elle to change her major to English with a minor in journalism and media. Elle’s favorite part of covering sports is interviewing coaches and players and sharing the stories of the people behind the uniforms.Her love for the theater has only grown in college. In the Fall, Elle was cast as Erika Johnson in “School Girls,” presented by Duke Players. She is currently working as the stage manager for Duke’s upcoming performance of “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812.”“Disney Dreamers Academy was a phenomenal program that opened up my eyes to realize that your dreams and interests can change and evolve into other things. Writing has always been a passion of mine but I had no idea that I would enjoy journalism as much as I do.”Award-winning athlete and nonprofit owner Jordan AdeyemiJordan AdeyemiJordan AdeyemiAtlantaJordan takes his love of soccer to a whole new level with his nonprofit the Shoeless Ones, which helps alleviate the cost of soccer cleats by donating them to underserved communities.“I’ve had a really busy year since that incredible and inspiring week at Dreamers Academy. In July, I spent a few weeks in Spain where I attended a seminar on youth entrepreneurship at Mondragon University where I learned about the link between traditional culture, economics and commerce, then flew straight to Los Angeles to accept an ESPY Billie Jean Youth Leadership Award. I started senior year as the co-captain of the varsity soccer team, co-head of the Black Student of Excellence and a student listener. At the end of my soccer season, I was invited to the region’s all-star game and received a few college offers to play soccer.Shoeless Ones has now donated over 650 shoes and is working on collaborations with a few programs that I’m excited about. Last week, I was one of 21 youth leaders to be awarded a Georgia Youth Leadership award. The last months have been busy with college and scholarship applications and I’m happy that part is over. For now, I am waiting on college decisions so that I can commit to a school. Overall, I’ve had a great year and I am looking forward to great things in the future.”Teen philanthropist Logan WilliamsDanyelle RashidLogan WilliamsClevelandA teen philanthropist who wants to build the largest homeless shelter in the world and started her own nonprofit, Blanket Blessings.Logan has continued to use her voice, resources, and networks to be a steady vessel to the community. Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday is reserved for a day of service and Logan’s grassroots organization “Blanket Blessings” was able to donate 50 blessing bags to a local women’s shelter. The blessing bags are stuffed with toiletry items such as toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, small face towel, lotion, and much more. They were also able to hand out five birthday gifts for the month of January to the unhoused women. Logan has decided to donate small gift items to the shelter every month, to make sure the women feel special on their birthdays. She was also contacted by Spectrum news for the national Giving Tuesday special segment, about young Ohioans who are making a difference in their community.Logan’s experience at Disney Dreamers Academy was a life changing experience and set her life on a more upward cycle. The tools that were instilled in the Dreamers allowed Logan to dream bigger, think bigger, and to not give up on life. Logan inspires many of her friends to do good things in the world, and to know that no matter your age your voice matters. Logan will be attending the Northeast Ohio Youth Climate Summit coming up later in April. This is an event where young people will tackle big environmental challenges. Workshops, learning sessions, student panels, and a green career fair will be a few of the offerings there. Logan was able to share this with other students in her age range and of course she did just that. She has been nominated for an 2024 award from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority for her dedication to Cleveland and her community.

A million dollars in scholarship money and national athletic awards are just some of goals these teens have accomplished since joining Disney Dreamers Academy in last year.

Not all heroes wear capes. Oftentimes, they are in our schools thinking about ways to improve our world.

Every year, 100 high schoolers are selected from thousands of applicants to attend Disney Dreamers Academy, which is designed to empower and inspire the brightest young minds of our nation. These teens are called “Dreamers” for a reason. They have so much hope and confidence in their voice as they talk about their visions for the future. During the five-day program, a village of actors, illustrators, filmmakers, producers and other experts mentor the Dreamers so they can one-day become experts in their fields. Last year, DREAMbassador Halle Bailey spoke affirmations over the teens and challenged them to pursue their goals despite negativity from others. Singer and songwriter H.E.R. surprised a group of future musicians with autographed guitars.

So when the trip is over and teens are flown back home, how do the Dreamers use their experience at the academy throughout their lives? To answer that question, the Black Joy fam reached back out to the Dreamers we interviewed in 2023 to get an update on what they have been up to and how they’ve incorporated what they gained during their once-in-a-lifetime experience:

Disney Dreamer Bradley — Award-winning public speaker Bradley Ross JacksonBradley Ross Jackson

Bradley Ross Jackson

Bloomington-Normal, Ill.

Founder of the nonprofit B.E. Kind Campaign and youngest recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Youth Activist of the Year

“The Disney Dreamers Academy was priceless, and I was able to utilize many of the educational and practical nuggets while spending several days at the Academy. Additionally, I built meaningful relationships and I am still very good friends with several of my 2023 Dreamers. We continue to maintain an active “chat group” on Instagram, so that we may empower and encourage each other.

Since graduating from the Disney Dreamers’ Academy, I am honored to have received over $1 million in scholarship dollars. I was accepted by many dynamic colleges and universities, including: Howard University, Harvard, Morehouse College, Bradley University, Xavier, Southern, Jackson State University, Augustana College, Illinois Wesleyan University, Lindenwood University, and so many other wonderful schools. I proudly included the Disney Dreamers’ Academy on my resume and college application. When I interviewed with Harvard, they inquired about my Disney Dreamers’ experience and they were very impressed when I shared my experiences. Additionally, I was selected for the coveted 2024 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, the 2024 NAACP Mr. Harry Hightower Award and the 2024 High School Senior of the Week Award.”

Elle Chavis

Dallas

Theater-lover and future sports journalist

Elle Chavis is a freshman at Duke University. She is a Robertson Scholar and as a result she has enhanced her leadership skills and increased her knowledge of community development. She entered Duke majoring in Cinematic Arts, but it did not take her long to find a love for journalism. Elle has always loved sports, and that love for sports sparked her interest in sports journalism. She’s now a beat writer in the sports department for The Duke Chronicle, the school’s student newspaper. She covers two of Duke’s many explosive sports: softball and women’s basketball. This newfound passion inspired Elle to change her major to English with a minor in journalism and media. Elle’s favorite part of covering sports is interviewing coaches and players and sharing the stories of the people behind the uniforms.

Her love for the theater has only grown in college. In the Fall, Elle was cast as Erika Johnson in “School Girls,” presented by Duke Players. She is currently working as the stage manager for Duke’s upcoming performance of “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812.”

“Disney Dreamers Academy was a phenomenal program that opened up my eyes to realize that your dreams and interests can change and evolve into other things. Writing has always been a passion of mine but I had no idea that I would enjoy journalism as much as I do.”

Jordan Adeyemi

Atlanta

Jordan takes his love of soccer to a whole new level with his nonprofit the Shoeless Ones, which helps alleviate the cost of soccer cleats by donating them to underserved communities.

“I’ve had a really busy year since that incredible and inspiring week at Dreamers Academy. In July, I spent a few weeks in Spain where I attended a seminar on youth entrepreneurship at Mondragon University where I learned about the link between traditional culture, economics and commerce, then flew straight to Los Angeles to accept an ESPY Billie Jean Youth Leadership Award. I started senior year as the co-captain of the varsity soccer team, co-head of the Black Student of Excellence and a student listener. At the end of my soccer season, I was invited to the region’s all-star game and received a few college offers to play soccer.

Shoeless Ones has now donated over 650 shoes and is working on collaborations with a few programs that I’m excited about. Last week, I was one of 21 youth leaders to be awarded a Georgia Youth Leadership award. The last months have been busy with college and scholarship applications and I’m happy that part is over. For now, I am waiting on college decisions so that I can commit to a school. Overall, I’ve had a great year and I am looking forward to great things in the future.”

Logan Williams

Cleveland

A teen philanthropist who wants to build the largest homeless shelter in the world and started her own nonprofit, Blanket Blessings.

Logan has continued to use her voice, resources, and networks to be a steady vessel to the community. Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday is reserved for a day of service and Logan’s grassroots organization “Blanket Blessings” was able to donate 50 blessing bags to a local women’s shelter. The blessing bags are stuffed with toiletry items such as toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, small face towel, lotion, and much more. They were also able to hand out five birthday gifts for the month of January to the unhoused women. Logan has decided to donate small gift items to the shelter every month, to make sure the women feel special on their birthdays. She was also contacted by Spectrum news for the national Giving Tuesday special segment, about young Ohioans who are making a difference in their community.

Logan’s experience at Disney Dreamers Academy was a life changing experience and set her life on a more upward cycle. The tools that were instilled in the Dreamers allowed Logan to dream bigger, think bigger, and to not give up on life. Logan inspires many of her friends to do good things in the world, and to know that no matter your age your voice matters. Logan will be attending the Northeast Ohio Youth Climate Summit coming up later in April. This is an event where young people will tackle big environmental challenges. Workshops, learning sessions, student panels, and a green career fair will be a few of the offerings there. Logan was able to share this with other students in her age range and of course she did just that. She has been nominated for an 2024 award from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority for her dedication to Cleveland and her community.

Read the full story here.

Photos courtesy of

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Even if the railway promoters win, here's why the train won’t get built.

This story was originally published by Mother Jones and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The state of Utah has come up with its share of boondoggles over the years, but one of the more enduring is the Uinta Basin Railway. The proposed 88-mile rail line would link the oil fields of the remote Uinta Basin region of eastern Utah to national rail lines so that up to 350,000 barrels of waxy crude oil could be transported to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The railway would allow oil companies to quadruple production in the basin and would be the biggest rail infrastructure project the U.S. has seen since the 1970s. But in all likelihood, the Uinta Basin Railway will never get built. The Uinta Basin is hemmed in by the soaring peaks of the Wasatch Mountains to the west and the Uinta Mountains to the north. 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Last week, when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, former Solicitor General Paul Clement channeled those corporate complaints when he told the justices that NEPA “is designed to inform government decision-making, not paralyze it.” The statute, he argued, had become a “roadblock,” obstructing the railway and other worthy infrastructure projects through excessive environmental analysis. “NEPA is adding a juicy litigation target for project opponents,” Clement told the court. But NEPA has almost nothing to do with why the Uinta Basin Railway won’t get built. “The court is doing the dirty work for all of these industries that are interested in changing our environmental laws,” Sam Sankar, a senior vice president at Earthjustice, said in a press briefing on the case, noting that Congress already had streamlined the NEPA process last year. Earthjustice is representing environmental groups that are parties in the case. “The fact that the court took this case means that it’s just issuing policy decisions from the bench, not deciding cases.” The idea of building a railway from the Uinta Basin to refineries in Salt Lake City or elsewhere has been kicking around for more than 25 years. As I explained in 2022, the basin is home to Utah’s largest, though still modest, oil and gas fields: Locked inside the basin’s sandstone layers are anywhere between 50 and 321 billion barrels of conventional oil, plus an estimated 14 to 15 billion barrels of tar sands, the largest such reserves in the U.S. The basin also lies atop a massive geological marvel known as the Green River Formation that stretches into Colorado and Wyoming and contains an estimated 3 trillion barrels of oil shale. In 2012, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported to Congress that if even half of the formation’s unconventional oil was recoverable, it would “be equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.” Wildcat speculators, big oil companies, and state officials alike have been salivating over the Uinta Basin’s rich oil deposits for years, yet they’ve never been able to fully exploit them. The oil in the basin is a waxy crude that must be heated to 115 degrees to remain liquid, a problem that ruled out an earlier attempt to build a pipeline. The Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, a quasi-governmental organization consisting of the major oil-, gas-, and coal-producing counties in Utah, has received $28 million in public funding to plan and promote the railway as a way around this obstacle. The coalition is one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court case. “We don’t have a freeway into the Uinta Basin,” Mike McKee, the coalition’s former executive director, told me back in 2022. “It’s just that we have high mountains around us, so it’s been challenging.” Of course, there is no major highway from the basin for the same reason that the railway has never been built: The current two-lane road from Salt Lake City crests a peak that’s almost 10,000 feet above sea level, which is too high for a train to go over. So the current railway plan calls for tunneling through the mountain. But going through it may be just as treacherous as going over it. Inside the unstable mountain rock are pockets of explosive methane and other gases, not all of which have been mapped. None of this deterred the Seven County coalition from notifying the federal Surface Transportation Board, or STB, in 2019 that it intended to apply for a permit for the railway. The following year, the board started the environmental review process, including taking comments from the public. In December 2021, the STB found that the railway’s transportation merits outweighed its significant environmental effects. It approved the railway, despite noting that the hazards from tunneling “could potentially cause injury or death,” both in the railway’s construction and operation. It recommended that the coalition conduct some geoengineering studies, which it had not done. Among the many issues the board failed to consider when it approved the project was the impact of the additional 18 miles of oil train cars that the railway would add to the Union Pacific line going through Colorado, including Eagle County, home to the ski town of Vail. Along with creating significant risks of wildfires, the additional trains would run within feet of the Colorado River, where the possibility of regular oil spills could threaten the drinking water for 40 million people. The deficiencies in the STB’s environmental impact statement prompted environmentalists to ask the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the STB decision, as did Eagle County. Read Next Can you tell if a ‘bomb train’ is coming to your town? It’s complicated. John McCracken In August 2023, the appeals court invalidated the STB’s approval of the railway. Among the many problems it found was the STB’s failure to assess “serious concerns about financial viability in determining the transportation merits of a project.” A 2018 feasibility study commissioned by the coalition itself had estimated that the railway would cost at least $5 billion to construct, need 3,000 workers, take at least 10 years to complete, and require government bond funding because the private sector had little incentive to invest in the railway. As Justin Mikulka, a research fellow who studies the finances of energy transition at the New Consensus think tank, told me in 2022, “If there were money to be made, someone would have built this railroad 20 years ago.” The appeals court was also skeptical that the railroad had a future: “Given the record evidence identified by petitioners — including the 2018 feasibility study — there is similar reason to doubt the financial viability of the railway.” Indeed, the plan approved by the STB claims the railway construction would cost a mere $2 billion, to be paid for by a private investor. So far, however, only public money has gone into the project. The private investor, which is also one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court case, is a firm called DHIP Group. When I wrote about the railway in 2022, DHIP’s website showed involvement in only two projects: the Uinta Basin Railway and the Louisiana Plaquemines oil export terminal, which had been canceled in 2021. Today, the long-dead Louisiana project is still listed on its website, but the firm has added a New York state self-storage facility to its portfolio — a concrete box that’s a far cry from a complex, multibillion-dollar infrastructure project. DHIP’s website also touts its sponsorship of the Integrated Rail and Resources Acquisition Corporation, a new company it took public in 2021 with a $230 million IPO. But in a March 2024 SEC filing, the company disclosed that the New York Stock Exchange had threatened to delist it, because in the three years since the IPO, it has done … nothing. (The company has managed to hang on.) Environmental concerns notwithstanding, DHIP seems unlikely to come up with $2 billion to build the railway. A spokesperson for DHIP did not respond to a request for comment. Even if environmentalists had never filed suit to block it, the railway probably would have died under the weight of its own unfeasibility. Instead, the Seven County coalition appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, arguing that the appeals court had erred when it required the STB to study the local effects of oil wells and refineries that it didn’t have the authority to regulate. In July, the Supreme Court agreed to take the case. Now the court stands poised to issue a decision with much broader threats to environmental regulation by considering only one question raised by the lower court: Does Supreme Court precedent limit a NEPA analysis strictly to environmental issues that an agency regulates, or does the law allow agencies to weigh the wider impacts of a project, such as air pollution or water contamination, that may be regulated by other agencies? During oral arguments in the case, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed frustration with Clement’s suggestion that the court prevent NEPA reviews from considering impacts that were “remote in time and geography.” She suggested that such an interpretation went against the heart of the law, noting, for instance, that if a federal agency allowed a car to go to market, “it could go a thousand miles and 40 states away and blow up. That’s a reasonably foreseeable consequence that is remote in geography and time.” A federal agency, she implied, should absolutely consider such dangers. “You want absolute rules that make no sense,” Sotomayor told Clement. Sotomayor seemed to be alone, however, in her defense of NEPA, and the majority of the other seven justices seemed inclined to require at least some limits to the statute. (Justice Neil Gorsuch recused himself from the case because his former patron, Denver-based billionaire Philip Anschutz, had a potential financial interest in the outcome of the case. His oil and gas company, Anschutz Exploration Corporation, has federal drilling leases in Utah and elsewhere and also filed an amicus brief in the case.) While the justices seemed inclined to hamstring NEPA, such a ruling would be a hollow victory for the Utah railway promoters that brought the case. When the appeals court voided the STB decision approving the railway, it cited at least six other reasons it was unlawful beyond the NEPA issue. None of those will be affected by a Supreme Court decision in the Seven County coalition case. The STB permit will still be void, and the oil train will not get out of the station. There will be winners in the case, however, most likely the big fossil fuel and other companies whose operations would benefit from less environmental scrutiny, should the court issue a decision reining in NEPA. For instance, the case could lead the court to strictly limit the extent of environmental harms that must be considered in future infrastructure projects, meaning that the public would have a much harder time forcing the government to consider the health and environmental effects of oil and gas wells and pipelines before approving them. “This case is bigger than the Uinta Basin Railway,” Earthjustice’s Sankar said. “The fossil fuel industry and its allies are making radical arguments that would blind the public to obvious health consequences of government decisions.” The court will issue a decision by June next year. This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How a fantasy oil train may help the Supreme Court gut a major environmental law on Dec 22, 2024.

Activism

Climate

Energy

Texas regulators shelve an electricity market reform proposal they say does too little to shore up grid

The Public Utility Commission found that the performance credit mechanism, a financial tool the Legislature capped at $1 billion, would only marginally improve reliability of the state power grid.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. The Public Utility Commission on Thursday shelved the performance credit mechanism, a controversial idea that was designed to bring more power onto the state grid and increase its reliability. “I don’t believe that the PCM, as currently designed, will provide the reliability benefits needed in the ERCOT market,” PUC Chair Thomas Gleeson wrote in a Dec. 18 memo that the rest of the commission endorsed on Thursday. The performance credit mechanism represented a complex change to the way Texas’ electricity market works. The idea would have required electricity providers — the companies, co-ops and municipal utilities that sell power to people — to pay more to generators that committed to having electricity available when grid conditions get tight. Electricity providers then could have passed those extra costs onto consumers. The goal was to incentivize companies to build more of what are known as dispatchable power facilities. Dispatchable power sources, such as natural gas, nuclear and coal-fired plants, can turn on any time and fill in the gaps in supply when demand for power is high — unlike renewable sources that depend on sun and wind. Amid concerns that the tool would lead to skyrocketing electricity bills without guaranteeing greater reliability, the Legislature last year imposed a $1 billion cap on how much it could cost consumers. That cap, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state grid, was the parameter that “most significantly limits the effectiveness of the PCM.” ERCOT and an independent market monitor found this year that with the $1 billion limit, the proposal would have only minimally improved the grid’s reliability, estimating that it would lead to an extra 780 megawatts of generation — far short of the 10,000 megawatts needed to meet the state’s reliability standard. The most important Texas news,sent weekday mornings. A coalition of consumer advocates, oil and gas lobbyists and environmental activists had demanded the cost limit to protect consumers from higher electricity bills. Companies that operate gas-fueled power plants had opposed a cap, saying it would reduce or kill the effectiveness of the credits. The PUC on Thursday pointed to other mechanisms that commissioners said would do more to increase reliability. “While reconsideration of the PCM may be appropriate in the future,” Gleeson wrote in his memo, “at this point I believe our collective resources are best directed toward implementing other market design initiatives.” Those measures include tools to streamline how ERCOT procures power and a new ancillary services program that can offer power to smooth out uncertainty on the grid. In August, the PUC adopted a grid reliability standard that said a major power outage due to inadequate power supply could take place no more than once every decade on average; any outage must last less than 12 hours; and the amount of power lost during any hour of an outage could not exceed the level that could be safely rotated through rolling blackouts. Beginning in 2026, ERCOT must conduct an assessment every three years of whether the system is meeting the reliability standard — an opportunity, the PUC said, to evaluate the effects of changes implemented by the agency and the Legislature since Winter Storm Uri in 2021 and to consider any other measures that may be needed.

Activism

Montana Supreme Court upholds youth climate activists' victory

Montana’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a 2023 ruling siding with young climate activists who asserted the state government violated their right to a healthy environment. In August 2023, Montana’s First Judicial District sided with the 16 plaintiffs, who cited a state constitutional provision guaranteeing “a clean and healthful environment” to argue the state violated that right with a law that barred weighing climate impacts during the approval process for energy projects. The state supreme court upheld the finding in a 6-1 ruling Wednesday, writing, “Montana’s right to a clean and healthful environment and environmental life support system includes a stable climate system, which is clearly within the object and true principles of the Framers inclusion of the right to a clean and healthful environment.” Justice Jim Rice, who was appointed by former Gov. Judy Martz (R), was the only dissent. The court rejected an argument from Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) that state-level efforts will have no effect without action from the rest of the world, comparing that argument to “the old ad populum fallacy: ‘If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?’” The plaintiffs’ attorney, Melissa Hornbein of the Western Environmental Law Center, hailed the decision as “a monumental moment” for young people and the state. “This ruling clarifies that the Constitution sets a clear directive for Montana to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, which are among the highest in the nation on a per capita basis, and to transition to a clean, renewable energy future,” she said. Knudsen’s office criticized the decision in a statement, with Montana Justice Department Press Secretary Chase Scheuer calling the ruling “disappointing, but not surprising.” “The majority of the state Supreme Court justices yet again ruled in favor of their ideologically aligned allies and ignored the fact that Montana has no power to impact the climate,” Scheuer said. Montana Supreme Court justices are directly elected to eight-year terms but midterm replacements are appointed by the governor. Two of Montana’s governor-appointed judges were named by Gov. Steve Bullock (D), while Rice is the only justice appointed by a Republican.

Activism

Climate

Health

Suggested Viewing

The Story of a Forest

In 2004, a generation of activists arose in South Florida, carrying the passion of direct action groups like Earth First. and the deep analysis of the global justice movement that had swept the country in the preceding years. These activists sought local issues that exemplified the threats of corporate globalization. They stumbled upon a plan from biotech industry giants acting in collusion with the administration of then-Governor Jeb Bush to clear a vast swath of land in the Northeast Everglades of Florida to accommodate The Scripps Biotech Research Institute - And it was on. Over the next ten years, endless county zoning meetings were counter-balanced by dozens of civil disobedience arrests and a near-constant flow of news headlines about the battle: lawsuits, scandal, corruption, tree sits, endangered species, pranks, blockades, and a roller coaster of incremental victories followed by devastating losses for years on end. THE STORY OF A FOREST captures it all in a 1/2 hour documentary about the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition (PBCEC) and Everglades Earth First!'s (EEF!) ten-plus year campaign to stop the Scripps Biotech development, with a focus on protecting biodiversity in the Briger forest and the Florida wetlands.

Activism

Forests

Business

In His Own Home

Heavily armed officers of the University of Florida police department in Gainesville, FL, responding to a 911 call from a neighbor who heard screams, break into the campus apartment of Ghanaian graduate student, Kofi Adu-Brempong. Clad in SWAT gear and ready to attack, they see the disabled doctoral student, sitting with a metal table leg in his hand and within a minute of entry, shoot the unarmed man in the face. Adu-Brempong, who because of childhood polio, needed a cane to walk, and had been suffering from mental illness, now has severe facial injuries, and is charged with resisting arrest. He is guarded outside his hospital door, his legs shackled together when going to the bathroom. The officer who shoots Kofi, and who had previously been caught cruising through town throwing eggs at residents of a Black neighborhood, is not suspended or fired. Student protests lead the administration to drop charges but calls for revoking SWAT-like teams on campus go unheard. Kofi’s shooting is not an isolated incident but part of an ongoing pattern of police brutality against Blacks and a stark reminder of the dangers of increasingly militarized campuses nationwide. In His Own Home came out of outrage by a small group of concerned community members committed to seeing social justice happen on a local level. This documentary is an educational and organizing tool, especially calling for our communities to be safe from violence by racist and over-armed police.

Social Justice

Health

Activism

The Youth Climate Corps BC

In collaboration with communities across British Columbia, the Youth Climate Corps challenges what resilience looks like through youth led, locally designed, climate action initiatives.

Youth

Activism

The Whale Guitar: Instrument of Change

Inspired by Herman Melville's epic tale, "Moby-Dick or The Whale", a late-blooming singer/songwriter and former toy designer, Jen Long, acts on a startling vision and commissions the design and build of a remarkable custom electric guitar. It's body is "The Whale" itself as it snags the mad Captain Ahab in the tangled ropes of his own obsession, and prepares to launch a boat of his whalers to their doom. The entire guitar reinterprets Melville's tale as an Anthropocene climate change warning, with the whale representing the seas and storms of climate change arising on this "third day" of late stage capitalism. Hundreds of guitarists, including J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., and Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females, have played and signed this "Instrument of Change" to amplify the alarm to turn our ship of over-production and over-consumption around while there is still time. As the embroidered strap featuring Starbuck's last words implores: "oh! Ahab, not too late is it, even now, the third day, to desist."

Music

Activism

Climate

Among Giants

Among Giants begins three years into the McKay tree-sit- a response to Green Diamond Resource Company’s clearcutting of redwood forests. Atop his tiny platform a hundred feet up in the ancient redwood canopy, Farmer must battle the elements and avoid isolation as he fights for a sustainable future. The film uses a restrained verite style that reflects the pace of life in the tree village. As Farmer outlasts a vicious storm, counts the rings on a felled tree, and trumps through a recent clear cut, the film asks questions about what it means to follow one’s beliefs and make a difference in the world.

Forests

Activism

Nature

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Where are they now?: How Disney Dreamers are achieving their goals since 2023

Related News

Sloths, Salmon, and Autocrats: Our Most-Read Articles of the Year

We used Google’s AI to analyze 188 predictions of what’s in store for tech in 2025

How a fantasy oil train may help the Supreme Court gut a major environmental law

Texas regulators shelve an electricity market reform proposal they say does too little to shore up grid

Montana Supreme Court upholds youth climate activists' victory

Suggested Viewing

The Story of a Forest

In His Own Home

The Youth Climate Corps BC

The Whale Guitar: Instrument of Change

Among Giants

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sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

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