Introducing Defender — a newsletter about the global environmental justice movement

A group of women from the town of Las Pozas in Guatemala has been campaigning against the palm oil plantations that have drained and polluted their local water source and exploited their fellow community members through low-paying work. Photo by Alessandra Bergamin (IG: @allybergamin)

As the world faces (or largely ignores) the impacts of climate change, extractive industries, and environmental degradation, communities of color and impoverished people are on the frontline of these crises. In 2019 alone, 164 environmental activists were killed while protecting their homes and the world’s resources from rich corporations and…