Climate Crisis

Climate change is real and the impacts are intersectional. We support refugees, impoverished communities, and others whose lives are jeopardized by its adverse effects. Here’s some of our campaigns:

Protect Ariel’s Home (2023)

In 2023, we launched a new campaign on Earth Day called Protect Ariel’s Home. Communities all over the world lack clean and safe drinking water and because of systemic racism, BIPOC communities are most impacted by the climate crisis. Inspired by the importance of water in tons of Disney stories and the release of the live action The Little Mermaid movie, we mobilized Disney fans to take direct action to protect clean water access. 

In addition to our campaign kick-off livestream with guests like Alistair Bitsoi, an award-winning Diné journalist from the Navajo Nation, and clean water educator Western Water Girl, we hosted three live training events for fans to learn directly from our on-the-ground partners working to protect water access. Fans also took 271 actions to protect access to clean water, including sending 138 emails to decision makers about valuing the interconnectedness of water. Fan activists also learned from GreenLatinos and other climate activists and Disney fan creators about Tribal Water Rights, how we use water, and found their own unique place in the climate movement. 

To celebrate Pride Month, we launched a fundraiser to support real-life Mermaids by partnering with Mermaids UK, an organization that supports transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse youth. With fun perks like baby kraken’s available for adoption, a sparkly enamel pin, and sea-themed art, we raised over $3,500 to be split between Fandom Forward & Mermaids! The amount we raised for Mermaids will pay for a full time helpline services officer for almost a month, ensuring there is always someone at the end of the phone when young gender diverse people need to speak to someone safe or when a parent needs help to support their gender diverse child. 

Lastly, for the second year, we hosted Our Flag Means Queer Rights! On Flag Day, we were joined by Our Flag Means Death fans to take piratical action and speak out against the anti-LGBTQ+ bills sweeping the US and UK. We were joined by writers, podcasters, AND two members of the Revenge itself! Actors Nathan Foad and Kristian Nairn stopped by to share why the LGBTQ+ community needs our enthusiastic support.

STOP LINE 3 (2021)

For the past five years, the Anishinaabeg have been fighting to stop Line 3, a tar sands pipeline being constructed right through Ojibwe treaty lands (the U.S./Canada border in Minnesota). The pipeline would pass through over 200 water ecosystems and tunnel under 20 different rivers, including the Mississippi River, whose watershed reaches 32 states and 2 Canadian provinces and serves as a major water source for millions of people. This will drive environmental destruction, like the depletion and contamination of fresh water sources, contamination of biodiverse areas, and the destruction of old forests and sensitive habitats. If built, Line 3 will impact 389 acres of manoomin, or wild rice, which is considered the ‘lifeblood’ of the Anishinaabeg. 

An existing pipeline–also called Line 3–built by the same Canadian company, Enbridge, has already leaked multiple times, responsible for the largest inland oil spill in US history. Additionally, the price of leaving the current pipeline and building another will eventually be paid by somebody in environmental damage, healthcare costs, economic losses, and more. Most likely, it won’t be Enbridge footing that bill - it will be local Indigenous people, low-income people, and communities of color.

Inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender’s episode “The Painted Lady,” Fandom Forward is standing in solidarity with Stop Line 3 organizers to fight for our planet’s future and Indigenous sovereignty. Much like Katara upon discovering the village Jang Hui was being destroyed by pollution, Fandom Forward is taking a stand for Indigenous sovereignty, the protection of our water, the value of the environment, the health of human beings, and our planet’s future. 

Avatar fans have already taken over 350 actions together to stop Line 3 during our livestream, including emails and calls to President Biden, hosting virtual action parties, and raising over $1,000 for Fandom Forward and Honor the Earth. Fans can continue contributing to Stop Line 3 at fandomforward.org/stopline3. 

Picketing Picketts (2018)

Inspired by a fan-favorite character of the first Fantastic Beasts movie, we encouraged wizard activists to make their own versions of Pickett the Bowtruckle out of pipe cleaners and adorn Pickett with picket signs sharing climate change facts. We put these all over the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago to bring our curriculum to teachers and librarians who used the craft action with kids across the country. One of our elementary school chapters in New Hampshire, Hedwig’s Heroes, used the curriculum to learn about climate change and how a school can lower their carbon footprint. They made the pipe cleaner Picketts in their meetings, took them to the school board, and successfully lobbied them to institute some of the carbon-cutting changes they learned about across the entire district!

Climate Crisis Horcrux, Deathly Hallows Campaign (2011)

During 2011’s Deathly Hallows Campaign, Fandom Forward ran two concurrent competitions, one for art and one for ideas, demonstrating how young people can fight a horcrux that impacts the whole world: climate change.  During the competition, called the Imagine Better Contest, we partnered with Splashlife to award two $1,000 prizes. One prize went to an art project demonstrating the climate crisis and the second went to the best idea for a project on how to fight the climate crisis. The winners were voted on by members, and the top five in each category were reviewed by an advisory panel of environmental figures and celebrities.  The Advisory Panel included many fandom favorites like John and Hank Green, Shawn Ahmed, Dan Brown, Harry and the Potters, Andrew Slack, Christina Lurie (co-owner of the Philadelphia Eagles), Melissa Anelli, Evanna Lynch from the Harry Potter films, Tim Kring of Heroes, Jason Alexander from Seinfeld, Anthony Stewart Head of Buffy, and many more. Ideas, issues, and general climate crisis topics were discussed on our blog several times a week, as well as in regular livestreams.