Tosin Faseemo, Mira LaNasa and Peyton Sitz

Climate Justice Committee (CJC), a local environmental activist group, uses its artistic platform to spread a clear message: To save our planet. They use visual arts to inspire and mobilize people, even taking their art to the streets for marches and demonstrations.

CJC attempts to spread awareness about climate change and its intersection with U.S. militarism – the world’s largest polluter – and how environmental disaster impacts marginalized groups.

Their art ranges from screen printing and banners to social media and graphic design.

“Art communicates things to people in ways that text doesn’t always,” CJC’s graphic designer Kat Lewis said.

Instagram is CJC’s main mode of communication with its supporters. Kat mainly uses social media to spread CJC’s upcoming events and member meetings, though they repost other groups’ local events and movements on their stories.

Social media activism has largely been criticized for not mobilizing people, however, CJC makes sure to transform its social media efforts into real-world demonstrations. They have hosted multiple events, though their most recent was a march in St. Paul.

“Our goal is really just to build power within our community, get people to come together and show that we can just take action,” CJC member Daniela said.

The march started in downtown St. Paul at the Jackson Street bridge and ended at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office, about seven blocks from the start. CJC brought a large banner that read “PULL THE PERMITS” and “STOP LINE 3.”

The protest’s aim was to demand the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers perform a federal Environmental Impact Survey, which they didn’t do for Line 3. They also asked that the Army Corps of Engineers “reevaluate & revoke Line 3’s Clean Water Act Section 404 permit as well as its Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 section 408 permit on the grounds that Line 3 is injurious to the public interest in the face of climate change,” their Instagram reads.

One of CJC’s more recent artistic events was a screen printing pop-up in Minneapolis on March 19. This pop-up allowed CJC followers to donate anywhere between $10 and $20 to get their own item screen printed and a range of between $20 and $30 to be provided with a screen printed shirt that CJC would supply.

The sliding scale allowed people to give what they could. All proceeds went to the Line 3 Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit that donates money to those facing arrest or jail time due to their participation in Stop Line 3.

CJC bought the clothes they supplied from secondhand stores. Daniela, one of the two people who thought of screen printing, said that keeping sustainability in mind was essential in this event.

“It can get really hard sometimes to remember sustainability when you’re trying to fight such a large systemic issue of climate change. We actually need to address capitalism and white supremacy and colonization and those are the only ways that you can actually address climate change,” Daniela said. “But things like sustainability, it does help us all play our part. So like using old fabric to make all of our little banners and doing stuff like that, it is really important to us still.”

The pop-up had, by Daniela’s estimation, about 40 people show up, totaling around 50-60 screen printed items. CJC plans to host another screen printing event soon.

An interview with Kent Mori, a CJC member, further explains the rationale behind using art as a means of enacting social change.

For more information on the Climate Justice Committee, visit cjc-mn.wixsite.com.