Here in the Gulf South, we know climate disaster. Hurricane Katrina changed my life. I moved back home, to Slidell, Louisiana, in 2006. I realized my… - Colette Pichon Battle

The British Petroleum oil drilling disaster of 2010, when the BP-leased and Transocean-owned Deepwater Horizon exploded, releasing nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, is remembered for its ecological impact, but less remembered are the eleven oil rig workers who perished.

You know, we in this country, we all have this starting point of our own struggle, our own existence. And so equitable disaster recovery means you have to acknowledge the past in your action, for the moment and for the future. This is about repair, it’s not just about response. And we in this country have a real problem with that part, right, because blame, for us, is shameful. Responsibility is shameful. But we’re all responsible. If we’re maintaining this system, we are all responsible for the inequities, and therefore, we are all responsible for solutions that are equitable. And it means we have to start at those places that we have created vulnerabilities in, and then go from there. We have enough resources to help everybody. This is about where you start.

To survive this next phase of our human existence, we will need to restructure our social and economic systems from root to branch. We must transform from a disposable individual society into a society that grasps our collective long-term humanity-or else we will not make it. The task is not easy. All of this requires us to recognize a power greater than ourselves, and a life longer than the ones we will live. It requires us to believe in things we cannot see. And it requires us to believe in each other. Let's figure out how to reach a shared liberation together.