KarunaNews Story

Grandmothers are at the vanguard of today’s climate movement. “When I look my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren, my children, in the eye, I have to be able to say, ‘I did everything I could to protect you,’” says Hazel Chandler, 78. The climate grannies have decades of activism experience and aim to pressure the government and corporations to curb fossil fuel emissions. In Arizona, older climate voters make up 231,000 registered voters. About 70,000 people over 60 have joined Third Act to mobilize for climate action. 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations, which formed in California in 2016, centers on protecting the younger generation — from the threats of the climate crisis, but also in activist spaces. For Pennie Opal Plant, 66, who helped train members to protect youth, it is about a simple Indigenous principle: ensuring the future for the next seven generations.