Who CAREs? Earth Day 2021 Event: Meet Rebecca Jim

Founder of LEAD (Local Environmental Action Demanded), Rebecca Jim has been a powerful advocate and spokesperson for Oklahoma’s Tar Creek Superfund site since the river “turned bad” in 1980, and became the official Tar Creekkeeper in 2016. . Tar Creek is considered to be one of the most toxic environments in the world and includes 40 square miles of former lead and zinc mines, with the creek running through the center. “My creek is not a very long creek – it’s 11 miles – but it’s one of the most toxic creeks in the country. A lot of people are sick from the site, a lot of kids were lead-poisoned here,” Rebecca says. “A lot of human potential has been lost.” 

As part of WEA and Sierra Club’s Earth Day 2021 Event, Who CAREs? A Conversation on Feminist Climate Action, Rebecca will discuss Tar Creek’s detrimental effects on her community and the surrounding Quapaw, Miami, Ottawa and Peoria tribal lands, what her 40 years of heroic movement building and advocacy has helped to accomplish, and how much still needs to be done.