We talk a lot about hope in the climate justice movement. We need lots of reminders to believe we can turn the tide — the evidence of our lack of progress is both alarming and depressing. We talk about the connection between taking action and feeling hopeful, we ask ourselves in check in circles what is keeping us hopeful. I myself quote Miriam Kaba regularly: “Hope is a discipline.” We must practice hope, I declare to whoever will listen.
And then I heard someone at New York Climate Week challenge us to get grounded in determination instead of clinging to hope. Something deep inside me shifted and this idea has continued to resonate with me. Perhaps because determination is so action oriented, perhaps because it leaves less to chance.
And so I am becoming determined to fight climate change because the stakes are higher than ever. Just consider what has shown up In my news this week:
- Texans living near data centers are being asked to cut back on showers to accommodate the 463 million gallons of water the data centers need to support AI.
- Typhoon Halong has brought widespread horror, damage and loss to mostly indigenous communities in Western Alaska.
- Corals are disappearing, pushing Earth to its first major ‘tipping point’
- The White House is occupied by climate change deniers and their policies are rolling back years of advancements in clean energy, ecosystem preservation, and environmental justice.
Determination is what has led to these recent bright lights:
- Project Dandelion launched a campaign calling on global leaders to increase investment in women smallholder farmers and to reimagine climate finance as a tool for justice, not charity.
- The world produced more electricity from renewables than from coal in the first half of 2025. This is a demonstration that the clean energy transition is more than possible.
- The McKenzie Project, an organization formed in 2020 to serve and uplift Black trans, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people, has become a lifeline for trans Floridians facing climate disasters. They provide supplies to transgender Floridians who can’t safely access official services from FEMA, state emergency management, or the religious organizations that are often contracted to provide support after a disaster.
- Across the country, faith based nonprofits are helping congregations fund energy alternatives, especially solar. For New Mount Hermon Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit installing solar allows the church to do more of what it has always wanted to do — provide aid to its community in times of need.
From seagrass restoration in Nova Scotia to marsh restoration in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana to the planting of microforests to fight extreme heat in urban areas as led by Princeton, New Jersey to the defenders of democracy in Inflatable costumes dancing on the frontlines of fascism determination is resulting in action. Community always has and always will have the solutions.
“Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth,” said Yamamoto Tsunetomo, a 17th century Buddhist priest. Let us be more determined in our efforts. Life depends on us.
Susan Phillips
Executive Director
The post I am determined appeared first on Climate Generation.
Climate Change
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
SYDNEY, Saturday 28 February 2026 — Greenpeace International and Greenpeace organisations in the US announce they will seek a new trial and, if necessary, appeal the decision with the North Dakota Supreme Court following a North Dakota District Court judgment today awarding Energy Transfer (ET) USD $345 million.
ET’s SLAPP suit remains a blatant attempt to silence free speech, erase Indigenous leadership of the Standing Rock movement, and punish solidarity with peaceful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace International will also continue to seek damages for ET’s bullying lawsuits under EU anti-SLAPP legislation in the Netherlands.
Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director said: “Energy Transfer’s attempts to silence us are failing. Greenpeace International will continue to resist intimidation tactics. We will not be silenced. We will only get louder, joining our voices to those of our allies all around the world against the corporate polluters and billionaire oligarchs who prioritise profits over people and the planet.
“With hard-won freedoms under threat and the climate crisis accelerating, the stakes of this legal fight couldn’t be higher. Through appeals in the US and Greenpeace International’s groundbreaking anti-SLAPP case in the Netherlands, we are exploring every option to hold Energy Transfer accountable for multiple abusive lawsuits and show all power-hungry bullies that their attacks will only result in a stronger people-powered movement.”
The Court’s final judgment today rejects some of the jury verdict delivered in March 2025, but still awards hundreds of millions of dollars to ET without a sound basis in law. The Greenpeace defendants will continue to press their arguments that the US Constitution does not allow liability here, that ET did not present evidence to support its claims, that the Court admitted inflammatory and irrelevant evidence at trial and excluded other evidence supporting the defense, and that the jury pool in Mandan could not be impartial.[1][2]
ET’s back-to-back lawsuits against Greenpeace International and the US organisations Greenpeace USA (Greenpeace Inc.) and Greenpeace Fund are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[3] Greenpeace International, which is based in the Netherlands, is pursuing justice in Europe, with a suit against ET under Dutch law and the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP directive, a landmark test of the new legislation which could help set a powerful precedent against corporate bullying.[4]
Kate Smolski, Program Director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “This is part of a worrying trend globally: fossil fuel corporations are increasingly using litigation to attack and silence ordinary people and groups using the law to challenge their polluting operations — and we’re not immune to these tactics here in Australia.
“Rulings like this have a chilling effect on democracy and public interest litigation — we must unite against these silencing tactics as bad for Australians and bad for our democracy. Our movement is stronger than any corporate bully, and grows even stronger when under attack.”
Energy Transfer’s SLAPPs are part of a wave of abusive lawsuits filed by Big Oil companies like Shell, Total, and ENI against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[3] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
-ENDS-
Images available in Greenpeace Media Library
Notes:
[1] The judgment entered by North Dakota District Court Judge Gion follows a jury verdict finding Greenpeace entities liable for more than US$660 million on March 19, 2025. Judge Gion subsequently threw out several items from the jury’s verdict, reducing the total damages to approximately US$345 million.
[2] Public statements from the independent Trial Monitoring Committee
[3] Energy Transfer’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2017 under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed in 2019, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on Energy Transfer’s claims based on state law, so Energy Transfer promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.
[4] Greenpeace International sent a Notice of Liability to Energy Transfer on 23 July 2024, informing the pipeline giant of Greenpeace International’s intention to bring an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the company in a Dutch Court. After Energy Transfer declined to accept liability on multiple occasions (September 2024, December 2024), Greenpeace International initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive on 11 February 2025 by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against Energy Transfer. The case was officially registered in the docket of the Court of Amsterdam on 2 July, 2025. Greenpeace International seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of Energy Transfers’s back-to-back, abusive lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace organisations in the US. The next hearing in the Court of Amsterdam is scheduled for 16 April, 2026.
Media contact:
Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
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Climate Change
Cheniere Energy Received $370 Million IRS Windfall for Using LNG as ‘Alternative’ Fuel
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