On one hand, the history of coal is a history of exploitation of both land and labor. On the other, it is the history of the struggle of workers to organize for dignified work, fair pay, and safe working conditions. How should the environmental movement relate to workers whose livelihoods are tied to fossil fuel extraction?

Join Native leaders from across the country, former miners and steelworkers, youth activists and frontline community members for a day of action outside the Shale Insight gas and petrochemical conference.

Building on centuries of Indigenous knowledge about the sun’s power to give life, Indigenous communities across the continent are modeling a solar energy future that breaks from the profit motive. This panel considers green energy as a site for decolonization.

On the week of October 22nd, Pittsburgh museums and cultural institutions will host Power Beyond Extraction, an event series curated by The Natural History Museum that looks at power in terms of both energy and the people power needed to bring about the just transition to a clean energy economy. Timed to coincide with the Shale Insight Conference, an annual convening and conversation about the future of energy hosted by industry, Power Beyond Extraction invites community leaders, activists, artists, and scholars to contribute to this city-wide conversation of regional, international, and inter-generational importance.