On Feb. 24, a group of Connecticut-based climate activist organizations sponsored a conference titled, “A Teach-in for a Livable World! Climate Justice Now!” sponsors included the Connecticut chapters of 350.org and the Sierra Club. A number of speakers at the gathering tackled subjects including environmental racism, labor and publicly-owned renewable energy, population and development, women’s rights and more. One of the speakers, Alexis Rodriguez, is a representative of the Connecticut Puerto Rican Agenda and an advocate of decolonization. He spoke about the economic, energy, agricultural and other crises that had existed in Puerto Rico before Hurricane Maria struck on Sept. 20 last year.
While water and electric power has been restored to most of the island, more than 100,000 homes remain in the dark and suffer frequent power outages. According to Puerto Rico’s government, the storm caused an estimated $100 billion in damage, killed dozens of people and damaged or destroyed nearly 400,000 homes. Over the six months since the hurricane, more than 135,000 people have left the island and moved to the U.S. mainland.
The destruction wrought by the storm greatly exacerbated the many pre-existing problems on the island. In his talk, Rodriguez asserts that the key to solving the island’s problems is to take Puerto Rico out from under the control of the United States. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus attended and recorded his talk, and presents the following excerpts.
