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Hike Clerb: The Earth Belongs to ALL Of Us
From Hike Clerb’s inception as an impromptu hike with friends in 2017, Founder and Executive Director Evelynn Escobar has been led by her intuition, passion for the outdoors, and relationship with nature. In eight years, Hike Clerb has grown from a 10-person Meetup to a 501(C)(3) non-profit with over 45,000 members in Los Angeles and New York City.
On a beautiful sunny Saturday, I met up with Evelynn at Hike Clerb’s Earth Day hike in Malibu, California, to see firsthand how the Clerb has fostered such a close-knit, thriving outdoor community. As Evelynn gathered the hike attendees around a concrete picnic table, she announced that this would be her first and last hike of the season. Far along in her pregnancy with her second child, she joked about how long she’d be able to keep up with the group.
Keeping the group together is part of the Clerb’s “no one left behind policy.” We were to wait for anyone who fell behind the larger group and help round up stragglers at stops along the way, where we gathered to learn about the different plants and wildlife we saw on the trail. Before our Clerb hike got underway, Evelynn asked attendees to take a moment to practice gratitude for the land and set an intention for the day.
Before meeting Evelynn for the first time at the hike, I’d read her most recent newsletter in which she shared that she’d opted to have no contact with her mother. With her daughter growing inside her, Evelynn went through her own reparenting journey as she prepared to enter motherhood herself. She realized that she was never truly without a mother. It just wasn’t the one who’d birthed her. We shared a short but touching moment where I confided that I, too, was on my own reparenting journey. I let her know how her reflections had deeply resonated and inspired me.

Tiffanie Woods: How has developing your relationship with the outdoors, with Mother Nature, helped in your reparenting journey of your younger self? How has it impacted you as a mother?
Evelynn Escobar: I think just essentially awakening to the fact that I have to do the reparenting work. Especially during my first pregnancy, knowing I was going to bring someone into this world, and then not having the traditional support of a mother.
Then I had this big realization that I’ve always been supported by a mother. Not in the traditional way… and that mother has been nature. Mother Earth is always holding me, and she’s helping me move through this moment. I am being held. I am being nurtured, I am being carried, but it’s not by the mother who gave birth to me. It’s our primordial mother who holds all of us.
That really transformed the way I found solace in nature. I then integrated that into not only re-parenting myself but also parenting my daughter.
Tiffanie: Did becoming a mom change the way you thought about your mission or Hike Clerb’s mission?
Evelynn: It just actually made it make more sense if that makes sense. It was like, ‘Oh, this is primed and aligned for this reason, and now those reasons are being shown to me.’ Also, this is like a matriarchal journey. It’s not just a mother’s journey, and that really cemented that.
Tiffanie: Sprouts is your initiative for children and families that you launched in 2024. Can you share the importance of this programming being incorporated into Hike Clerb?
Evelynn: Historically, we have had a mentorship program. Our Building Inclusivity Outdoors (BIO) program, in which we partner with organizations that serve under-resourced youth and bring them out into nature for the day. Take them hiking, give them shoes, get lunch with them, just spend a day out in nature.
Sprouts is a way to create a public-facing program in which kids, ages 2 – 10, in our community and their families could be a part of Hike Clerb. We created programming tailored to them that connects the outdoors with culture and the arts. We want them to experience and connect with nature in a new way.

Tiffanie: How do you see that initiative tying into your mission of decolonizing the outdoors?
Evelynn: It aligns with our mission to welcome people into the outdoors in a way that also decolonizes the way they think about the outdoors. We’re teaching them that they are inherently connected to nature, and we’re allowing them to explore their curiosities through different modules that speak to their interests and allow them to find their entry point. It’s setting them up with the ability to be the drivers of their own narratives, versus being filled with ideas of what it is to be outdoors and what those people who go hiking or exploring in nature look like.

Tiffanie: Hike Clerb’s focus is on Black and Brown women decolonizing the outdoors. I saw that you guys lost a grant for Sprouts due to the current anti-DEI movement being pushed by Trump. How are you thinking about Hike Clerb now and in the future, and how are you going to move forward?
Evelynn: I think there’s always a silver lining… it’s given me a chance to take a step back and really assess how we’re currently operating and what is feasible moving forward. And the truth of the matter is that we haven’t been operating sustainably, in the sense that we are making sure that we’re providing care for everyone, but at our own expense. We’re providing so much and making the impossible possible with the bare minimum when it comes to resources. When you think about the way Black mothers give so much… that is sadly normalized and becomes the standard, and it’s given me the chance to say enough of that! Moving forward, we are operating in a way that works for us. We’re taking our time and giving ourselves space to assess what we can accomplish with what we have, that is not coming at our own sacrifice or expense.
Tiffanie: Has your vision for Sprouts changed? Is it a different iteration given that it lost funding?
Evelynn: No, the vision is still the same. We are going to continue to engage families from this intergenerational approach. The first year, we did six programs. It culminated with a beach campout, and I feel like it was just a beautiful example of the power of what we’re doing. Especially seeing how empowered all the families were out there. The vision is to take this from LA, bring it to New York, bring it to the Bay Area, and continue to engage more families in this way. This is something we can bring to schools. We are rolling with the punches, but the mission remains. We will continue to serve families and connect with families, and open the minds of families in new ways.

Tiffanie: Hike Clerb has been around since 2017. How do you feel the outdoor community has changed since?
Evelynn: Well, the beautiful thing is that Hike Clerb was a cultural shift in the outdoors because it connected so much more than just the outdoors.
When I think about my work, I know that I am an expander. I live in the visionary space, and it’s to expand people’s perspectives. And once you connect the dots, then people’s imaginations can run wild. Hike Clerb connects so many different worlds.
Tiffanie: Where do you still see change needed in the outdoor community?
Evelynn: Everything is political. It’s not enough to go out in your cute outfit and have a beautiful campout.
If the land is something you love, then you also need to go deeper and take care of that land, and protect that land, and learn about that land, and have reverence and respect not only for it, but for every other living and non-living thing.
That disconnection is still something that we see. It’s why we’re in the state that we’re currently in. It’s really hard for people to connect because we’ve been disconnected by design.
There is still a lot of work to be done. I am grateful for people like Brittany Leavitt of Brown Girls Climb, Feminist Bird Club, and Molly Adams, who leads that. They are also doing the work to connect and be like, ‘We may be birders, we may be climbers, but also… free Palestine!’ And you know, we can help with initiatives or just even talk about things like immigration and things like that. There’s hope. There are people who do get it, but it’s definitely still a work in progress.

Tiffanie: Do you feel like, because you decided to take these stances of decolonizing the outdoors and making Black and Brown women your focal point, that you’ve felt resistance to you and your work?
Evelynn: Absolutely. All the time. Even when it comes to working with brands and other organizations. Because we have a very specific point of view and we are not afraid to use our voice, because we have this platform and it’s meant to be used, I go into these conversations, and if we’re doing a brand activation or whatever, I’m very clear about our mission and that it centers Black and Brown people. So the people that we’re going to be working for or creating this for are going to be Black and Brown people. We’re going to have to invite Black and Brown people. And I see the discomfort. I see that I’m also stretching people’s comfort zones.
Tiffanie: As a Black Indigenous Latinx woman, the creator and Executive Director, you’re doing it all. It’s almost as if you never get a break from pushing the work forward. How are you taking care of yourself, especially as a mom?
Evelynn: I am not willing to continue to sacrifice myself. Because at the end of the day, we talk about self-care, we talk about community care, but you have to take care of yourself to take care of the community. And I have been juggling that fine line of focusing on community care, but again, at the expense of my own self-care. And like I said, that’s just not something I’m willing to sacrifice anymore. The work I’m doing is expansive work. Visionary work. And if we don’t have the resources to support said vision, I’m not going to kill myself over executing it.
This is a new phase of truly caring for ourselves first, and again, creating the worlds we want to live in. I want to live in a world where I can rest and have time for myself. Be present as a mother, while also being the mother of this community.

Keep reading:
Global Echoes of Resistance:
Artists Harnessing Art, Culture, and Ancestry
Brea Andy
Global Echoes of Resistance:
Artists Harnessing Art, Culture, and Ancestry
Nybé Ponzio
{
"article":
{
"title" : "Hike Clerb: The Earth Belongs to ALL Of Us",
"author" : "Tiffanie Woods, Evelynn Escobar",
"category" : "interviews",
"tags" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/hike-clerb-the-earth-belongs-to-all-of-us",
"date" : "2025-05-08 17:06:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/DSC05768-group-vista.jpg",
"excerpt" : "From Hike Clerb’s inception as an impromptu hike with friends in 2017, Founder and Executive Director Evelynn Escobar has been led by her intuition, passion for the outdoors, and relationship with nature. In eight years, Hike Clerb has grown from a 10-person Meetup to a 501(C)(3) non-profit with over 45,000 members in Los Angeles and New York City.",
"content" : "From Hike Clerb’s inception as an impromptu hike with friends in 2017, Founder and Executive Director Evelynn Escobar has been led by her intuition, passion for the outdoors, and relationship with nature. In eight years, Hike Clerb has grown from a 10-person Meetup to a 501(C)(3) non-profit with over 45,000 members in Los Angeles and New York City.On a beautiful sunny Saturday, I met up with Evelynn at Hike Clerb’s Earth Day hike in Malibu, California, to see firsthand how the Clerb has fostered such a close-knit, thriving outdoor community. As Evelynn gathered the hike attendees around a concrete picnic table, she announced that this would be her first and last hike of the season. Far along in her pregnancy with her second child, she joked about how long she’d be able to keep up with the group.Keeping the group together is part of the Clerb’s “no one left behind policy.” We were to wait for anyone who fell behind the larger group and help round up stragglers at stops along the way, where we gathered to learn about the different plants and wildlife we saw on the trail. Before our Clerb hike got underway, Evelynn asked attendees to take a moment to practice gratitude for the land and set an intention for the day.Before meeting Evelynn for the first time at the hike, I’d read her most recent newsletter in which she shared that she’d opted to have no contact with her mother. With her daughter growing inside her, Evelynn went through her own reparenting journey as she prepared to enter motherhood herself. She realized that she was never truly without a mother. It just wasn’t the one who’d birthed her. We shared a short but touching moment where I confided that I, too, was on my own reparenting journey. I let her know how her reflections had deeply resonated and inspired me.Tiffanie Woods: How has developing your relationship with the outdoors, with Mother Nature, helped in your reparenting journey of your younger self? How has it impacted you as a mother?Evelynn Escobar: I think just essentially awakening to the fact that I have to do the reparenting work. Especially during my first pregnancy, knowing I was going to bring someone into this world, and then not having the traditional support of a mother. Then I had this big realization that I’ve always been supported by a mother. Not in the traditional way… and that mother has been nature. Mother Earth is always holding me, and she’s helping me move through this moment. I am being held. I am being nurtured, I am being carried, but it’s not by the mother who gave birth to me. It’s our primordial mother who holds all of us.That really transformed the way I found solace in nature. I then integrated that into not only re-parenting myself but also parenting my daughter.Tiffanie: Did becoming a mom change the way you thought about your mission or Hike Clerb’s mission?Evelynn: It just actually made it make more sense if that makes sense. It was like, ‘Oh, this is primed and aligned for this reason, and now those reasons are being shown to me.’ Also, this is like a matriarchal journey. It’s not just a mother’s journey, and that really cemented that.Tiffanie: Sprouts is your initiative for children and families that you launched in 2024. Can you share the importance of this programming being incorporated into Hike Clerb?Evelynn: Historically, we have had a mentorship program. Our Building Inclusivity Outdoors (BIO) program, in which we partner with organizations that serve under-resourced youth and bring them out into nature for the day. Take them hiking, give them shoes, get lunch with them, just spend a day out in nature.Sprouts is a way to create a public-facing program in which kids, ages 2 – 10, in our community and their families could be a part of Hike Clerb. We created programming tailored to them that connects the outdoors with culture and the arts. We want them to experience and connect with nature in a new way.Tiffanie: How do you see that initiative tying into your mission of decolonizing the outdoors?Evelynn: It aligns with our mission to welcome people into the outdoors in a way that also decolonizes the way they think about the outdoors. We’re teaching them that they are inherently connected to nature, and we’re allowing them to explore their curiosities through different modules that speak to their interests and allow them to find their entry point. It’s setting them up with the ability to be the drivers of their own narratives, versus being filled with ideas of what it is to be outdoors and what those people who go hiking or exploring in nature look like.Tiffanie: Hike Clerb’s focus is on Black and Brown women decolonizing the outdoors. I saw that you guys lost a grant for Sprouts due to the current anti-DEI movement being pushed by Trump. How are you thinking about Hike Clerb now and in the future, and how are you going to move forward?Evelynn: I think there’s always a silver lining… it’s given me a chance to take a step back and really assess how we’re currently operating and what is feasible moving forward. And the truth of the matter is that we haven’t been operating sustainably, in the sense that we are making sure that we’re providing care for everyone, but at our own expense. We’re providing so much and making the impossible possible with the bare minimum when it comes to resources. When you think about the way Black mothers give so much… that is sadly normalized and becomes the standard, and it’s given me the chance to say enough of that! Moving forward, we are operating in a way that works for us. We’re taking our time and giving ourselves space to assess what we can accomplish with what we have, that is not coming at our own sacrifice or expense.Tiffanie: Has your vision for Sprouts changed? Is it a different iteration given that it lost funding?Evelynn: No, the vision is still the same. We are going to continue to engage families from this intergenerational approach. The first year, we did six programs. It culminated with a beach campout, and I feel like it was just a beautiful example of the power of what we’re doing. Especially seeing how empowered all the families were out there. The vision is to take this from LA, bring it to New York, bring it to the Bay Area, and continue to engage more families in this way. This is something we can bring to schools. We are rolling with the punches, but the mission remains. We will continue to serve families and connect with families, and open the minds of families in new ways.Tiffanie: Hike Clerb has been around since 2017. How do you feel the outdoor community has changed since?Evelynn: Well, the beautiful thing is that Hike Clerb was a cultural shift in the outdoors because it connected so much more than just the outdoors. When I think about my work, I know that I am an expander. I live in the visionary space, and it’s to expand people’s perspectives. And once you connect the dots, then people’s imaginations can run wild. Hike Clerb connects so many different worlds.Tiffanie: Where do you still see change needed in the outdoor community?Evelynn: Everything is political. It’s not enough to go out in your cute outfit and have a beautiful campout. If the land is something you love, then you also need to go deeper and take care of that land, and protect that land, and learn about that land, and have reverence and respect not only for it, but for every other living and non-living thing.That disconnection is still something that we see. It’s why we’re in the state that we’re currently in. It’s really hard for people to connect because we’ve been disconnected by design.There is still a lot of work to be done. I am grateful for people like Brittany Leavitt of Brown Girls Climb, Feminist Bird Club, and Molly Adams, who leads that. They are also doing the work to connect and be like, ‘We may be birders, we may be climbers, but also… free Palestine!’ And you know, we can help with initiatives or just even talk about things like immigration and things like that. There’s hope. There are people who do get it, but it’s definitely still a work in progress.Tiffanie: Do you feel like, because you decided to take these stances of decolonizing the outdoors and making Black and Brown women your focal point, that you’ve felt resistance to you and your work?Evelynn: Absolutely. All the time. Even when it comes to working with brands and other organizations. Because we have a very specific point of view and we are not afraid to use our voice, because we have this platform and it’s meant to be used, I go into these conversations, and if we’re doing a brand activation or whatever, I’m very clear about our mission and that it centers Black and Brown people. So the people that we’re going to be working for or creating this for are going to be Black and Brown people. We’re going to have to invite Black and Brown people. And I see the discomfort. I see that I’m also stretching people’s comfort zones.Tiffanie: As a Black Indigenous Latinx woman, the creator and Executive Director, you’re doing it all. It’s almost as if you never get a break from pushing the work forward. How are you taking care of yourself, especially as a mom?Evelynn: I am not willing to continue to sacrifice myself. Because at the end of the day, we talk about self-care, we talk about community care, but you have to take care of yourself to take care of the community. And I have been juggling that fine line of focusing on community care, but again, at the expense of my own self-care. And like I said, that’s just not something I’m willing to sacrifice anymore. The work I’m doing is expansive work. Visionary work. And if we don’t have the resources to support said vision, I’m not going to kill myself over executing it.This is a new phase of truly caring for ourselves first, and again, creating the worlds we want to live in. I want to live in a world where I can rest and have time for myself. Be present as a mother, while also being the mother of this community."
}
,
"relatedposts": [
{
"title" : "Neptune Frost",
"author" : "Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman",
"category" : "screenings",
"tags" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/eip-screening-neptune-frost",
"date" : "2025-07-12 16:00:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/netune-frost-movie-poster.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Join us on Saturday, July 12 for a special screening, followed by an exclusive Q&A with the directors of Neptune Frost. Part of our member screening series, tune in live or anytime in the next 24 hours, from anywhere in the world!",
"content" : "Join us on Saturday, July 12 for a special screening, followed by an exclusive Q&A with the directors of Neptune Frost. Part of our member screening series, tune in live or anytime in the next 24 hours, from anywhere in the world!Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has explored in his work, notably his 2016 album MartyrLoserKing. Co-directed with the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, the film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region’s natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry. Set between states of being – past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience – Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends."
}
,
{
"title" : "Socialist Girl Summer: How Capitalism Spent Billions to Demonize Socialism — And Why That Spell Is Breaking",
"author" : "Céline Semaan",
"category" : "essays",
"tags" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/socialist-girl-summer-demonize-socialism-why-spell-breaking",
"date" : "2025-07-03 22:00:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_SocialistGirlSummer.jpg",
"excerpt" : "As the founder of Slow Factory, I design everything you see—every typeface, every framework, every campaign. I don’t outsource the vision. I shape it. And I started Slow with one goal in mind: to rebrand socialism, justice, and environmentalism—not as niche causes, but as cultural movements essential to our survival. Design isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about power. And I use design as a tool to imagine, demand, and build better worlds.For nearly a century, the United States has spent billions of dollars, media bandwidth, and educational muscle to ensure one thing: that the word socialism would strike fear in the public imagination. That’s not because socialism failed. It’s because socialism threatens power—especially the kind of power that hoards land, labor, and life for profit.But something is shifting. The re-election of Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in New York—an openly socialist organizer who unapologetically defends tenants, workers, and Palestinians—marks a rupture in that narrative. A new generation no longer flinches at the word. They embrace it. They are building it. They are winning.But before we can move forward, we must understand what we are up against.",
"content" : "As the founder of Slow Factory, I design everything you see—every typeface, every framework, every campaign. I don’t outsource the vision. I shape it. And I started Slow with one goal in mind: to rebrand socialism, justice, and environmentalism—not as niche causes, but as cultural movements essential to our survival. Design isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about power. And I use design as a tool to imagine, demand, and build better worlds.For nearly a century, the United States has spent billions of dollars, media bandwidth, and educational muscle to ensure one thing: that the word socialism would strike fear in the public imagination. That’s not because socialism failed. It’s because socialism threatens power—especially the kind of power that hoards land, labor, and life for profit.But something is shifting. The re-election of Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in New York—an openly socialist organizer who unapologetically defends tenants, workers, and Palestinians—marks a rupture in that narrative. A new generation no longer flinches at the word. They embrace it. They are building it. They are winning.But before we can move forward, we must understand what we are up against.A Propaganda Empire Built on FearFrom Cold War cinema to first-grade civics books, socialism was rendered as the enemy. Not because it endangered democracy, but because it questioned private property, militarism, and capitalism’s sacred cow: unlimited profit.The U.S. government, backed by its capitalist elite, responded with a sweeping cultural war. The Red Scare and McCarthyism turned union leaders, civil rights activists, and artists into traitors. The FBI surveilled and imprisoned people for organizing against poverty and racial capitalism. Hollywood blacklists sanitized storytelling and sold capitalist mythology as aspirational truth. CIA coups, from Chile to Iran to the Congo, dismantled democratically elected socialist governments because they dared to nationalize oil, land, and education. This wasn’t a fear of failure. It was a fear of redistribution.Why the Spell Is BreakingCapitalism made big promises. But it delivered gig work, burnout, debt, climate collapse, and endless war. A growing number of people—especially Gen Z and Millennials—aren’t buying the myth anymore.According to Pew Research (2023), 70% of younger Americans support some form of socialism.Mutual aid groups, public power campaigns, and tenant unions are taking root in cities across the U.S.And politicians like Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Summer Lee, and others are bringing these values to governance—publicly, unapologetically.This isn’t a rebrand. This is a return. A remembering.Designing LiberationDesign has always been political. It’s a tool used by empires—and also a tool of resistance. Every successful propaganda campaign used design to criminalize solidarity and glorify capitalism.Mid-century posters showed socialism as monstrous: Stalin as an octopus devouring the planet. Red flags engulfing American homes in flames. Inspectors peering through windows. These visuals weren’t neutral. They were weapons.But today, we’re flipping the frame.As a designer, I use visual culture to demystify and disrupt these fear-based narratives. We design not just what we see—but how we see. And when we shift that perspective, we make new futures possible.My work at Slow Factory has always been about this: telling stories rooted in care, equity, and ecological justice. Whether through open education, cultural programming, or climate justice campaigns, I’m reprogramming what power looks like—and who it belongs to.Zohran Mamdani and the Future of StorytellingMamdani’s victory isn’t just electoral. It’s cultural. He won while calling for an end to genocide in Gaza, organizing with workers instead of corporations, and speaking openly about the harms of capitalism and imperialism.He won while the establishment poured millions into defeating him.His win is proof: the old script is wearing thin.Reclaiming the Word, Reclaiming the WorldSocialism has always been about care—public housing, free healthcare, universal education, the right to rest and exist without fear. These are not fringe demands. These are the bare minimum for a livable planet.The villain was never socialism. The villain was the empire that told us we didn’t deserve care unless we could afford it.We are entering the Possible Futures era. And it’s being led by people who no longer fear justice—but are terrified of its absence.Designing that future means unlearning propaganda and replacing it with stories of survival, resistance, and imagination. We must reclaim the visual language of dignity—transforming symbols of domination into frameworks for liberation.We don’t just need to rebrand socialism.We need to remember it.And redesign everything."
}
,
{
"title" : "Who’s Profiting from Genocide? What Francesca Albanese’s Report Reveals—and Why It Matters for the Climate",
"author" : "EIP Editors",
"category" : "essays",
"tags" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/profiting-from-genocide-what-francesca-albanese-report",
"date" : "2025-07-02 18:33:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Francesca_Report.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Let’s be clear: genocide is never just a military operation. It’s an economy.",
"content" : "Let’s be clear: genocide is never just a military operation. It’s an economy.This week, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese released a groundbreaking report—“From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide” naming dozens of global corporations complicit in and benefitting from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The report makes what many of us have long known impossible to ignore: multinational corporations are not just “doing business” with Israel—they are profiting from displacement, resource theft, and mass death.And it’s not just harming people. It’s killing the planet.Albanese’s report lays out how corporations across defense, tech, finance, construction, and agriculture are directly enabling Israel’s assault on Gaza. This is not indirect. This is not abstract. These companies are not passive observers—they are profiteers. Weapon Manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, Boeing, BAE Systems, and General Dynamics are supplying the bombs raining down on hospitals and refugee camps. Tech Giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Palantir provide the cloud computing, AI surveillance, and targeting software that power Israel’s military intelligence. Construction Firms like Caterpillar, HD Hyundai, and Volvo provide bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes—often paid for with public funds or foreign aid. Hospitality Platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb list vacation rentals on stolen Palestinian land, laundering settler colonialism into leisure. Financial Institutions including BlackRock, Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank fund Israeli military bonds and invest in all the above sectors. This is what an economy of genocide looks like: global, profitable, and deeply entrenched in the status quo.Genocide and Ecocide Are Two Sides of the Same CoinThe same companies enabling genocide are actively destroying ecosystems. This isn’t a coincidence—it’s a pattern.Caterpillar, already infamous for displacing Palestinian families, is a major contributor to fossil fuel extraction and mining projects that poison Indigenous lands in the Global South.Palantir, which boasts about using AI to “optimize” military surveillance, is also deployed by ICE in the United States to track, detain, and deport climate refugees and migrants.Netafim, an Israeli irrigation company profiting off stolen Palestinian water, is celebrated as “sustainable innovation” in the ag-tech world—masking eco-apartheid as green tech.In short: genocide and ecocide share a supply chain. And we need to cut the cord.Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, supplies drones and surveillance tech to police at the U.S.-Mexico border—and to ICE.HP and Google provide AI and cloud infrastructure for the Israeli military while also marketing themselves as “green tech” leaders.Chevron and ExxonMobil continue to fund and extract from the Eastern Mediterranean, leveraging Israel’s military occupation to secure infrastructure.This is greenwashing meets genocide—a deadly symbiosis between environmental harm and militarized violence.What This Means for UsThis moment calls for more than statements. It calls for a total redefinition of what sustainability means—because there is nothing sustainable about silence in the face of genocide.If you are a brand, an artist, a designer, a policymaker, a curator, or a student: you are being called in. Your work, your budget, your institution may be entangled—knowingly or not—with the companies Albanese has exposed. Now is the time to do the work.What We Must Do—Now1. Follow the MoneyStudy the companies listed in Albanese’s report. If you work with—or fund—any of them, ask questions. Divest. Cut ties.2. Demand Institutional AccountabilityMuseums, universities, nonprofits, and sustainability conferences are often quietly sponsored by companies profiting from Israeli apartheid. Push for transparency. Refuse complicity. Call it what it is.3. Connect the StrugglesThe fight for Palestinian liberation is not separate from climate justice. This is all one system: extraction, occupation, militarization, profit. As we say often: everything is political—because everything is connected.4. Build and Invest in AlternativesMutual aid, abolitionist design, food sovereignty, fossil-free infrastructure, and Indigenous stewardship—these are not just buzzwords. They are the way forward. Center Global South leadership. Fund frontline communities.5. Say PalestineRefuse the pressure to sanitize. Refuse the pressure to stay neutral. In the face of genocide, neutrality is complicity. If your liberation practice does not include Palestine, it is incomplete.A Propaganda Crisis, TooThese companies aren’t just selling tools of war—they’re shaping narratives. They sponsor art exhibitions, climate conferences, design summits. They greenwash occupation and brand apartheid as “security innovation.”The most dangerous lie today is that “sustainability” can coexist with genocide. It can’t.No climate justice without Palestinian liberation. No sustainable future while apartheid is profitable.So What Can We Do?DivestCampaign for your workplace, university, or city to divest from the companies named in the report. Check your retirement funds. Audit your donors. Pull the receipts.ExposeIf your favorite brand or cultural institution is collaborating with Amazon, Palantir, or Caterpillar—say something. Publicly. Email them. Call it what it is: complicity.Cut the Narrative LoopRefuse to use language that normalizes occupation: “conflict,” “both sides,” “retaliation.” This is genocide.Build AlternativesSupport community-owned energy, Palestinian agricultural cooperatives, and local solidarity economies. Join land back and degrowth movements—they are connected.Organize for PolicyPush for legislation that bans military trade with apartheid regimes and prohibits companies from profiting off human rights abuses.Tell the Truth, ConsistentlyUse your platform to amplify the names, the facts, the systems. Share this report. Write your own version. Make the invisible visible.The Link Between Genocide and Climate HarmWe can’t talk about genocide without talking about resource theft, land colonization, and environmental destruction. The same weapons being used to bomb hospitals and schools in Gaza are being manufactured by companies who also profit from climate collapse—polluting ecosystems, propping up fossil fuel economies, and creating the conditions for displacement that militarized borders are then built to contain.We must hold the line. Genocide is not inevitable—it is designed. And anything that is designed can be dismantled. If we want to build a just, livable future, we must start by divesting from the machinery of death—and investing in life.Let this be the beginning."
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