Rebuilding After Disaster | Climate Justice with Taproot Earth’s Anthony Giancatarino

Can rebuilding after disaster help us reimagine democracy and justice? Taproot Earth’s Anthony Giancatarino joins Professor Maxine Burkett to discuss climate equity, movement governance, and the future of resilience in the Gulf South and beyond.

Climate change is not just a crisis of the environment—it’s a crisis of justice, migration, finance, and governance. In this timely and urgent conversation, the University of Hawai‘i Better Tomorrow Speaker Series presents Professor Maxine Burkett, law professor and climate justice scholar, in dialogue with Anthony Giancatarino, long-time community organizer and partner at Taproot Earth, a Louisiana-based nonprofit working at the intersection of disaster recovery, climate equity, and movement building.

Giancatarino shares Taproot Earth’s unique vision—rooted in the histories of Black and Indigenous struggles and shaped by lived experience in the Gulf South—of how communities can respond to climate disasters not with despair but with transformation. From post-Katrina rebuilding to climate migration in Louisiana and the Pacific, and from the frontlines of COP 29 to local fights for resilience, this conversation dives deep into the moral and practical imperatives of climate justice.

Featuring:
Anthony Giancatarino – Partner at Taproot Earth, longtime organizer for energy democracy, climate justice advocate
Maxine Burkett – Professor of Law, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, leading scholar on climate justice and equity

Program Sponsors:
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Kamehameha Schools
Hawai‘i Community Foundation
Unbound Philanthropy
The Learning Coalition

Taproot Earth, climate justice, movement governance, climate migration, global finance reform, Maui recovery, Louisiana resilience, COP 29, authoritarianism, reparative investments, front line communities, climate equity, Better Tomorrow Speaker Series, University of Hawai‘i, Maxine Burkett, Anthony Giancatarino

source