There Are No Girls on the Internet - The Black Women Fighting Climate Injustice

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.180 Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches,

00:00:08.020 there's a lot of suspense.

00:00:09.440 Will they finally eat the veggies?

00:00:10.940 Will the pesto survive the first bite?

00:00:12.980 Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all?

00:00:17.020 And will you finish Episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers?

00:00:20.920 Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus

00:00:24.120 from $94 a month.

00:00:25.540 Price guaranteed for two years on Internet

00:00:27.440 with a two-year term and auto-pay credit.

00:00:29.380 Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability.

00:00:32.420 Bell. Connection is everything.

00:00:34.700 Run a business and not thinking about podcasting?

00:00:36.960 Think again.

00:00:37.600 More Americans listen to podcasts, then add supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora.

00:00:41.760 And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined.

00:00:45.880 Learn how podcasting can help your business.

00:00:47.720 Call 844-844-iHeart.

00:00:50.080 I survived nine months in captivity,

00:00:53.240 and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

00:00:58.760 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files.

00:01:02.380 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

00:01:09.920 These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:01:13.740 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:01:21.360 If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

00:01:27.080 Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.

00:01:35.740 Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions.

00:01:44.000 Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.

00:01:45.760 Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:01:51.160 There Are No Girls on the Internet is a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative.

00:02:03.600 I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet.

00:02:08.960 My favorite Mr. Rogers saying goes like this.

00:02:13.020 Whenever things are scary, look for the people who are helping.

00:02:16.880 There are always helpers.

00:02:18.180 And what's happening on our planet right now is scary.

00:02:22.320 The climate is warming.

00:02:24.500 Sea levels are rising in coastal cities like New York and Miami.

00:02:28.040 The West Coast has literally been on fire for weeks.

00:02:31.880 Local species everywhere are threatened with extinction.

00:02:34.860 And around the world, millions of people have already been displaced because of climate change.

00:02:39.300 But as scary and hopeless as that all seems, we should look for the helpers.

00:02:43.660 And even though traditionally marginalized people didn't create this problem,

00:02:48.180 they're the ones who are helping to fix it.

00:02:51.040 Black women like Dr. Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson. 1.00

00:02:54.760 Dr. Johnson is on a mission to do something about climate change. 1.00

00:02:58.680 Outside Magazine called her the most influential marine biologist of our time.

00:03:03.400 In 2017, she helped organize the March for Science,

00:03:07.000 in part because she wanted to bust the myth

00:03:09.040 that science is something that happens in a lab

00:03:11.780 that doesn't really impact anyone's life.

00:03:14.520 She takes audiences through accessible conversations

00:03:17.420 about climate solutions on her podcast with Alex Bloomberg called How to Save a Planet.

00:03:23.180 And this fall, she published All We Can Save, Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate

00:03:28.580 Crisis, an anthology of writing from women climate activists at the front line of climate

00:03:33.840 change.

00:03:34.980 Now, instead of doom and gloom, Dr. Johnson wants everyone to feel like they have a stake

00:03:40.080 in conversations around climate.

00:03:42.500 How? 1.00

00:03:42.820 by doing what Black women always do, through creating culture. 0.99

00:03:47.480 When we spoke last fall, a profile of Dr. Johnson had just been published in the New York Times, 0.96

00:03:52.800 not in the science section or the news section, but in the style section.

00:03:58.240 Dr. Johnson uses culture to create conversations around climate that everyone can see themselves reflected in.

00:04:04.500 The daughter of first and second generation immigrants,

00:04:07.980 Dr. Johnson's mission first began when she was a little girl who fell in love with the ocean.

00:04:15.960 Why oceans? I just love the ocean. It's really lovable. It's really important too in terms of

00:04:22.800 the climate system, but that's certainly not what made me decide to become a marine biologist at

00:04:28.060 the age of five. I think for so many people, we have this moment where we fall in love with nature,

00:04:33.680 whether it's um in the park or in your backyard or hiking or at the beach and for me it was at

00:04:43.100 the beach when i was five when i learned to swim when i went on a glass bottom boat and saw a coral

00:04:48.160 reef for the first time when i held a sea urchin in my hand and was like what there is the whole

00:04:54.640 other world happening under the water and i just i want to know everything about it and so that

00:05:01.180 wonder and awe became concern as I learned how threatened ocean ecosystems were and then

00:05:08.940 sort of became determination as I realized that I might be able to help be part of ocean

00:05:16.780 conservation solutions and figure out how we could start to turn things around. So I watched a video

00:05:23.200 of you, I think in the Caribbean, talking about your work with the oceans. You were driving around

00:05:27.600 the beach in a jeep. You were scuba diving. You looked very, very happy. You made being a marine

00:05:33.080 biologist look very cool and very fun. I mean, some of that's not true, right? Like this work

00:05:38.500 is hard. When that video was filmed, I was diving like four times a day for an hour or so each. The

00:05:44.240 water's like 80 degrees and you're still shivering because your body temperature drops because you're

00:05:50.940 in water that temperature for so long, even wearing a wetsuit. So you're like shivering

00:05:56.480 in 80 degree water and like you're just salty and wrinkled and your skin and your hair and

00:06:03.920 everything is just like angry at you and it's exhausting it's like physically really was

00:06:10.620 extremely hard work that I was doing trying to do this experiment to see how we could redesign

00:06:16.320 fish traps to make them more sustainable so they were only catching the fish that the fishermen

00:06:21.180 and wanted. And I'm so glad I did that work. And I love being outside and being in the sun and

00:06:28.980 in the water. But yeah, I'm sure some of those smiles were for the camera.

00:06:35.100 It's not as glamorous as it looks.

00:06:37.840 Something I really like about your work is that you focus on people, you know,

00:06:41.620 you talk about overfishing and climate change and habitat destruction,

00:06:45.320 and the ways that it disproportionately impacts poor people and marginalized people in coastal

00:06:49.460 cities. So how can we get people to understand that this is an actual issue that impacts actual

00:06:54.780 people and their lives? You know, it's not a pet issue for wealthy people who just own beach houses

00:07:00.000 by the ocean, you know, nor is it an issue that's really abstract. You know, when I was coming of

00:07:04.820 age, the big slogan around the environment was save the whales. And yes, save the whales, but also

00:07:10.980 save us, save the people whose actual lives are at risk. Allow people to live actual stable lives

00:07:18.320 and not worry that everything they love and know is going to be washed out by some superstorm.

00:07:23.840 Yeah, I think it's just talking about it more.

00:07:25.880 So when we think about hurricanes, for example, which are getting stronger and wetter because of climate change,

00:07:35.060 and we think about the coastal communities that are most affected,

00:07:38.880 it is often poor communities and communities of color along the coast who are impacted the hardest.

00:07:46.060 And those are not their vacation homes, right?

00:07:48.140 Like they don't have another place to go.

00:07:52.180 And so there's a real need to think through more proactively because we know the storms are going to keep coming.

00:07:59.600 We know the sea level is going to continue rising.

00:08:01.840 Even if we stopped all emissions today, we've sort of already baked in a certain amount of change that we're going to continue to see.

00:08:09.680 And so we owe it to each other to start to think through how to adapt to this changing world.

00:08:15.780 and for coastal communities the term that's being used right now is called managed retreat

00:08:21.400 and managed retreat is this idea or planned retreat that we can't just fortify our coastline

00:08:30.160 and hold back the entire ocean it's just not going to work there's not enough money there's

00:08:34.660 not enough resources there's not enough time we can't like build a wall around all of the united

00:08:40.220 States of America and, you know, other countries to protect ourselves from the rising waters.

00:08:46.400 So that becomes a question of like, well, the waters are rising. How do we plan for that? How

00:08:52.080 do we adapt for that? How do we move people out of harm's way? How do we try to keep communities

00:08:58.040 together in that process? Because people are really strongly tied to the places where they're from

00:09:04.240 and to the people who they share that place with.

00:09:09.760 And so there's a deep cultural conversation that needs to be had

00:09:15.260 around our relationship with the coastline.

00:09:18.500 And I think it's just really critical that we start having it sooner than later

00:09:23.020 and not have this, not continue to live in denial of the fact that like,

00:09:28.980 oh, we'll just rebuild after every storm.

00:09:31.140 we'll just rebuild stronger because then we're just putting ourselves and each other continually

00:09:38.240 continually in harm's way instead of actually thinking through what would it look like to

00:09:43.800 adapt to this new normal which is a really sad conversation to have to have but ignoring it

00:09:49.440 doesn't make it go away and ignoring it means that the people with the fewest resources to move

00:09:54.500 or to rebuild will continue to bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change because what we've

00:10:00.640 seen all over the world is that the people who did the least to cause it, who use the least

00:10:06.980 fossil fuels, who have the least money are the ones who are disproportionately impacted. And so

00:10:14.500 this idea of climate justice and a just transition and really needing to think through how we take

00:10:21.720 care of each other as we figure out how to adapt to climate change is just so critical. Otherwise,

00:10:29.940 we can imagine this world in which we're just implementing these techno-utopian Silicon Valley

00:10:37.280 solutions that don't actually take into consideration people and culture and race and

00:10:44.700 class and access to resources as we think about what we want to do. What is the link between

00:10:52.480 racism and climate change? One way to think about the link between racism and climate change is

00:10:58.420 sort of who lives where. And often when we think about New Orleans or we think about New York,

00:11:05.000 poor people and people of color live in the most low-lying, most vulnerable areas.

00:11:11.600 In New York City, when Hurricane Sandy hit, that became really apparent. A lot of the

00:11:16.360 housing projects were right on the coast in these really dangerous spots.

00:11:22.440 And a lot of those people were renters and didn't have insurance that would help them.

00:11:28.420 um, put their lives back together. And, um, certainly the same was true in New Orleans as

00:11:34.860 that absolute travesty played out. I'm told that the New Orleans police put out a call to all its

00:11:41.140 officers saying, if you have a boat, bring it here, help us. These are people who did not have

00:11:45.880 the wherewithal to get out of town. They didn't have cars. There's no way they could pay for a

00:11:50.360 hotel room. They stayed in their houses because they had to. And then the water came up. And I

00:11:56.440 think what people don't realize when we think about these storms is that a lot of the damage

00:12:03.820 is done afterwards. It's not the wind, it's the water. And it's how long we wait to clean things

00:12:10.260 up. It's how long it takes to start the recovery effort. It's whether or not we foolishly rebuild

00:12:18.420 in the same place. So, and those are all decisions that are made by people in power who

00:12:26.080 prioritize certain demographics or others often. And so we've seen that play out time and time

00:12:34.500 again. Certainly New Orleans is a prime example of that, just the utter neglect of the communities

00:12:43.440 down there and what they would have needed to get back on their feet.

00:12:48.240 So it's hard to think through these things in general terms sometimes,

00:12:53.220 these connections between climate change and racism,

00:12:56.900 but it's the same system.

00:13:02.280 It's the same sort of neglect.

00:13:05.680 It's the same overlooking that you see in education or healthcare.

00:13:10.760 when we think about who we're prioritizing as we sort of move forward as a society and who

00:13:20.880 we're sort of okay leaving behind. And so I've just been really pleased in the last

00:13:28.380 year to see this term climate justice really become a major rallying call for the broader

00:13:35.180 climate movement. And environmental justice advocates have been working on these issues

00:13:39.960 for a really long time, but they haven't been brought into the mainstream environmental

00:13:44.700 movement until the last few years.

00:13:46.760 And now when you go to a climate march, one of the major chants that you hear is, what

00:13:54.060 do we want?

00:13:54.760 Climate justice.

00:13:55.880 When do we want it now?

00:13:57.360 And to hear that being like the most popular chant to me signals that we may actually be

00:14:03.640 at a really important inflection point in the climate movement where people realize

00:14:08.040 that we can't separate the injustices of who's bearing the brunt of these climate impacts

00:14:14.100 with the need to address the climate problem more generally.

00:14:20.380 When I first heard the term climate injustice or climate justice, that blew my mind.

00:14:24.700 It really helped me understand the sort of depth of the issue in a way that I feel like

00:14:29.360 climate change doesn't really encompass.

00:14:31.620 I mean, when you think about who created the problem, right, it's fossil fuel companies,

00:14:36.480 it's politicians who were in their pockets and not actually representing the best interest of

00:14:42.340 their constituents. It's actually like a pretty small group of people with a lot of money and a

00:14:48.580 lot of power who created this mess. So it's insanely unjust when we think about poor communities and

00:14:55.440 communities of color who are just slammed with all of the impacts of that. The heat waves. I mean,

00:15:00.780 just thinking about people who can't afford to run their air conditioners all the time.

00:15:06.480 and whose electricity bills are going through the roof because the temperatures are changing.

00:15:14.160 When we think about farmers who the seasonal changes are impacting their ability to grow food

00:15:20.960 and the floods that are coming and damaging all the farms in the Midwest,

00:15:25.820 all of these things, those people didn't cause them. We didn't cause this individually. There's

00:15:31.880 a whole system set up to subsidize the fossil fuel industry. And until just recently, it's

00:15:41.580 worked way too well. I mean, the development of solar and wind and all these renewable energies

00:15:49.260 has been slowed down by people who are worried about impacting their profits to see these other

00:15:56.680 cleaner, renewable approaches become more common. And so when we think about it in those very stark

00:16:03.300 terms of who caused the problem and who's getting screwed, it becomes so clear that

00:16:08.040 this is just a massive injustice. More after a quick break.

00:16:18.220 Behind every night spent making the kids lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat

00:16:23.360 the veggies will the pesto survive the first bite will the lunchbox come home empty half full or

00:16:29.020 come home at all and will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers

00:16:33.380 get bell pure fiber internet with crave netflix and disney plus from 94 a month price guaranteed

00:16:39.180 for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit visit bell.ca for details

00:16:44.100 and to check availability bell connection is everything run a business and not thinking

00:16:49.280 about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming

00:16:54.160 music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next

00:16:59.360 two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only iHeart

00:17:04.160 can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your

00:17:08.640 business? Think iHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-844-iHeart to get started.

00:17:15.340 That's 844-844-IHEART.

00:17:18.580 When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months.

00:17:24.040 I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

00:17:30.420 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files.

00:17:34.120 I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, 0.99

00:17:39.540 Shut up. Don't say anything. 0.99

00:17:42.200 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable.

00:17:46.740 I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me.

00:17:51.300 I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming.

00:17:58.740 They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

00:18:02.700 But these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

00:18:06.140 They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:18:09.280 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:18:18.220 If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

00:18:24.160 This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.

00:18:36.640 I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and

00:18:41.080 the conversations everyone can't stop having.

00:18:43.740 I'm going to have to look up this story.

00:18:45.640 I'm obsessed.

00:18:46.420 I'm obsessed.

00:18:47.180 From best-selling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture

00:18:51.260 moments, nothing is off the table.

00:18:53.300 It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is

00:18:59.680 the Trojan horse.

00:19:01.160 Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a

00:19:05.640 community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to

00:19:10.780 Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:19:16.400 See you between the pages. Let's get right back to it. Does the massive scale of the climate

00:19:25.220 injustice happening on our planet make you feel a certain kind of dread about our collective future?

00:19:30.880 If so, you're not alone.

00:19:34.100 Do you ever feel kind of a massive sense of existential dread?

00:19:38.800 Yes.

00:19:39.240 When you think about this?

00:19:40.660 I mean, how do you stave that up?

00:19:43.380 How do you not feel complete ennui, I guess, all the time?

00:19:50.120 It's really scary.

00:19:51.280 I mean, I read the scientific projections,

00:19:54.420 and I'm deeply concerned about the future.

00:19:57.160 And not just because of how much the climate is changing,

00:20:00.100 But also because like humans can be really terrible to each other in times of crisis.

00:20:07.600 There are these beautiful moments where people come together and help each other in a moment of crisis.

00:20:13.500 And then, you know, if the crisis is prolonged, people start to fight for limited resources and scarcity drives all sorts of conflict.

00:20:23.600 and so I'm not just worried about like the changes to the physical climate and what the

00:20:30.560 impact of that has but like I'm worried about how we're going to treat each other like are we going

00:20:35.240 to have the generosity that we need and the collective spirit that we need to get through

00:20:39.800 this together um and so yeah I'm really worried and I'm really scared and the thing that keeps

00:20:48.620 me going is trying to just figure out how I can contribute because we really do have a lot

00:20:54.520 in our hands of how bad it gets. Like climate, the climate has already changed. We can't like

00:21:00.140 stop climate change, but we certainly can think about and act on how do we minimize the impacts?

00:21:10.240 How do we actually transform our society into one where we can continue to thrive

00:21:17.580 that will look very different but could be more egalitarian and safer and healthier because the

00:21:24.600 fossil fuel industry has also just absolutely been damaging to public health and air quality

00:21:31.260 and we think about all of the you know inner city communities or communities near power plants

00:21:36.600 that are breathing in all these emissions that's environmental racism too right and so

00:21:43.320 So not only do we have to think about the long-term impacts of our current system, but also there are some really short-term benefits of getting it together.

00:21:55.040 So I guess what the science says is that there's a huge range of possible futures still.

00:22:02.760 We can't go back to the past climate, but we still have massive influence over what the future climate looks like.

00:22:11.840 are we going to warm, you know, one and a half degrees or two degrees or three degrees global

00:22:17.040 average? Are we going to have, you know, three feet of sea level rise or three meters of sea

00:22:22.440 level rise? Like those are, that's within our control. And I just, I know that we have all

00:22:31.560 the solutions we need. Like we literally have them from transforming our agriculture to regenerative

00:22:38.480 practices, to absorb more carbon, to renewable clean energy, to electrifying transportation.

00:22:45.660 We already have the solutions we need. We could certainly use more technological advancement,

00:22:49.920 but we could do it now with what we already know. It's just a matter of getting corporations and

00:22:56.680 politicians and finance all headed in the right direction. So although I'm really, really scared,

00:23:03.440 and sometimes I read the latest scientific reports

00:23:06.720 and just cry on the subway.

00:23:09.580 I also know that it's way too soon to give up

00:23:13.760 and there's so much that we can shift

00:23:15.880 and influence and shape. 0.91

00:23:18.060 Like if black people are not part of the conversation

00:23:20.600 of policymaking and the direction of financing 0.69

00:23:25.800 and how we're gonna adapt locally to all these impacts,

00:23:29.480 then we won't come up with the solutions we need

00:23:32.620 and we won't be protecting the people that we love.

00:23:36.560 And so I feel like it's, I started out as a marine biologist,

00:23:42.420 and now I work on climate basically full-time.

00:23:45.140 I'm not scuba diving and counting fish anymore.

00:23:47.640 I'm thinking about how do we leverage all this amazing science

00:23:51.300 and information we have to make really good decisions about the future

00:23:55.640 and about how we can protect each other

00:23:59.140 and minimize the risks that we're facing.

00:24:02.620 Um, so I, I, I think if I weren't participating in the solutions, I would be totally overwhelmed, but there's a way that everyone can be part of the solution.

00:24:16.660 There's a way that we can do it, um, by voting and holding our elected officials accountable, making sure they are pushing through the strongest possible climate policy.

00:24:27.360 And that's not just at a presidential level, that's at a state and local level where a lot of these decisions get made about what are the sources of energy, how are we adapting to these changes in weather, how are we making buildings more energy efficient, how are we transforming our public transit systems.

00:24:46.440 A lot of these are local decisions and making sure that our politicians know that we are holding them accountable and that they have our permission to charge ahead with all these important things.

00:24:59.820 That's one way that people can be involved.

00:25:03.040 Another one is certainly thinking about how you can vote with your dollars.

00:25:11.280 Every dollar we spend is an investment in the future that we want to see.

00:25:16.440 And that makes me feel really powerful sometimes, even though I don't have as many dollars as other people, for sure.

00:25:22.220 But I think when I think about what bank I use or where I have my retirement fund or which funds that's invested in, am I investing in the continuation of the fossil fuel economy?

00:25:36.740 Or am I putting my money where my mouth is and actually making sure that that money is going towards renewables and other shifts towards the future that we need?

00:25:48.720 And then I also love to think about how we use our networks and our time.

00:25:54.680 Everyone is super influential in their sphere, whether that's their family or their school or their church or their sports team or their office.

00:26:03.220 And I think the transformations that we can make in those areas can be really influential.

00:26:10.440 If we can shift a place that we work towards reducing waste and renewable energy, that's massive.

00:26:20.760 If we can change our school, our church, to investing in renewable energy and different transportation systems, that makes a really big deal.

00:26:31.320 So I think there's this middle ground between individual actions.

00:26:37.860 People like to think of it as like, I'll reduce my carbon footprint as an individual, or you

00:26:44.180 think about it as like massive social change.

00:26:46.780 That's like, how can you even think about how to participate in that?

00:26:50.280 But there's this whole middle ground of things that we can do to shift whatever our sphere

00:26:58.480 of influence is.

00:26:59.640 um and everyone's got these special skills right so like if you're a podcast host obviously we

00:27:05.760 should be talking about this everywhere all the time if you're a lawyer there's so much work to

00:27:10.600 be done if you're an artist there's so much cultural work that needs to be done to shift

00:27:15.660 the status quo and just change the public discourse if um if you throw great parties like

00:27:22.560 we need to be bringing people together around these issues if you're good at getting people

00:27:27.360 to open their wallets. We need to fund this transformation. So whatever it is that people

00:27:33.240 are good at, they can bring that to this work. And we don't have to create something new. We can

00:27:38.880 collaborate under existing structures. We can join existing organizations. And there's just

00:27:46.460 lots of different ways to plug in. So I really want people to understand that everyone can be

00:27:51.300 a part of the solution. There's a role for everyone to play, no matter how much money you

00:27:56.060 have or how much time you have or, you know, what your area of expertise is. Like this is this

00:28:02.780 incredible all hands on deck moment and we have to completely transform society and we need everyone

00:28:10.860 to be a part of that. So, um, and thankfully this movement is finally diversifying. So

00:28:17.820 it's a more welcoming home for everybody too. As big and scary as climate change feels,

00:28:24.380 there are still reasons to be hopeful.

00:28:27.940 Our climate movement is becoming bigger and more inclusive,

00:28:31.040 with more and more people feeling like they can meaningfully take part in it.

00:28:35.240 And whereas climate was once treated like a niche issue a few years ago,

00:28:39.020 now politicians are actually incorporating it into their plans.

00:28:43.620 During the Democratic presidential primary,

00:28:46.480 Dr. Johnson helped then-presidential primary candidate Elizabeth Warren

00:28:50.300 draft the first-ever Blue New Deal,

00:28:53.280 a plan for our oceans. In the same way that this election cycle has seen

00:28:59.780 every Democratic presidential candidate release climate policy proposals, I'd love to see more

00:29:09.100 people step up and think about their ocean policy proposals as a part of that and more broadly.

00:29:15.560 We've seen this really beautiful race to the top in terms of like who has the best climate policy

00:29:20.740 being a thing that people are now competing for, which is totally unprecedented. It used to be like

00:29:26.340 a side issue. And now, even though the moderators at the debates aren't really asking enough

00:29:32.640 questions about it, and even though it's not really getting enough coverage on major news

00:29:39.340 outlets, the Green New Deal in particular, the candidates are talking about it anyway,

00:29:43.720 because they know that the voters are super concerned. Climate is the number one issue for

00:29:48.500 a huge number of voters. And communities of color are more concerned often than their white

00:29:56.040 counterparts about how this will impact them because communities of color know they're on

00:30:02.380 the front lines of these changes. So we have now, for the first time, reached this tipping point

00:30:11.260 where the majority of Americans are concerned or alarmed about the impacts of climate change.

00:30:15.920 And so politicians are following our lead to try to address these concerns.

00:30:21.460 And so culture leads politics.

00:30:24.580 And so there's this great opportunity to combine art and culture to think about how do we want to envision and design the world we want to live in?

00:30:34.320 And how can we push policy to help facilitate that transition that we need?

00:30:41.860 Absolutely.

00:30:42.420 Like, that's exactly what we want to do, sort of be part of that cultural shift, because

00:30:48.420 not everybody is, you know, a scientist, not everybody can get involved in that level.

00:30:52.280 But just like what you were saying, everybody has their role to play, whether you're a podcast

00:30:55.740 host, or you're just like the mouthy person in your family who's gonna, you know, make

00:31:00.860 your mom stop using single-use plastics or whatever, you know?

00:31:04.740 And I think that's really important that we talk about it, because a lot of people think

00:31:08.460 that other people aren't concerned.

00:31:10.240 They don't want to bring it up.

00:31:11.340 you don't want to have an argument with like a climate denier. But the vast majority of Americans

00:31:16.860 know that climate change is happening and are really concerned. And the more that we can talk

00:31:22.220 about it and talk about what we want to do about it, the faster we can get these solutions up and

00:31:28.100 running. And so I just want to encourage everyone listening to talk about this with your friends and

00:31:34.940 your family and your coworkers, because if we ignore it, that's certainly not going to help.

00:31:40.100 And if and if we don't talk about it, other people don't know that it's OK to talk about it.

00:31:45.980 It's OK to be concerned.

00:31:48.900 And if people don't hear others talking about it, you think, well, maybe it's not that big a deal.

00:31:53.200 Maybe I'm just like freaking out for no reason.

00:31:57.340 And so that is one thing that absolutely everyone can do is just start talking about it so we can all work through this crazy mess together. 0.79

00:32:05.740 For a long time, the climate movement felt so overwhelmingly white. How does it feel to know there are so many amazing Black women leaders in the space? You know, I think some folks might be surprised to find that out.

00:32:16.600 I mean, who is surprised that Black women are leaders? Those people clearly haven't been paying attention to American history, right? 1.00

00:32:27.580 I think this intersection of climate change and social justice means that to people who are in this field or related fields, it's so stark and we need to do what we can to address that.

00:32:48.180 And so the NAACP has had a climate and environmental justice program for over a decade led by Jackie Patterson, which is amazing.

00:32:57.580 and doing really important work. There's Kendra Pierre-Lewis, who's on the climate desk at the

00:33:02.760 New York Times, writing some of the most important stories about this work. Rihanna Gunn-Wright,

00:33:08.120 who's one of the policy leads for the Green New Deal. There's a whole crew of incredible,

00:33:14.580 brilliant, and generous, and big-hearted women of color doing this work. And it's just such a joy

00:33:23.300 to get to collaborate with them um and see how they're doing this work and approaching it in a

00:33:29.680 much more nuanced way um and that gives me a lot of um it makes me really happy it's really

00:33:40.280 beautiful and this the sass and the joy and the um creativity that black women are bringing to

00:33:50.240 this space is just overwhelmingly beautiful so um if anyone else wants to get in the game there's 0.98

00:33:58.900 plenty of room um and there's so much work to be done dr ayana johnson saving the planet while

00:34:06.820 also talking style in the pages of the new york times oh my god that was bananas which by the way 0.97

00:34:12.860 the coolest thing i've ever seen um so awesome trying to get this in the center of culture right

00:34:19.080 Like, if climate and ocean issues are just in the science section, then we lose.

00:34:23.540 This has to be in the style section.

00:34:25.320 Like, help me make this cool, Bridget.

00:34:28.060 Well, I think you're doing a great job.

00:34:30.160 I'll do what I can.

00:34:34.860 Got a story about an interesting thing in tech or just want to say hi?

00:34:38.340 You can reach us at hello at tangody.com.

00:34:40.580 You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangody.com.

00:34:44.040 There Are No Girls on the Internet was created by me, Bridget Todd.

00:34:46.520 It's a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative.

00:34:49.500 Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer.

00:34:51.560 Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer.

00:34:54.180 Michael Amato is our contributing producer.

00:34:56.180 I'm your host, Bridget Todd.

00:34:58.000 If you want to help us grow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

00:35:01.580 For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:35:19.080 I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive

00:35:26.480 what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files.

00:35:31.740 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled,

00:35:38.160 and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:35:43.080 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:35:51.460 If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

00:35:57.220 Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.

00:36:05.520 Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture

00:36:09.000 with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions.

00:36:13.780 Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.

00:36:15.560 Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:36:21.800 I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb.

00:36:25.700 You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy.

00:36:31.280 Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out.

00:36:38.460 You're not hired just to fill time and space.

00:36:41.280 You're hired to fill the space with you.

00:36:44.440 Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:36:52.520 Our hometown is not a test tube.

00:36:55.180 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America plays out in one small town.

00:37:01.260 Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land.

00:37:04.920 We need cities on a shining hill.

00:37:06.860 This is Our Town, a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. 0.97

00:37:15.160 Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you?

00:37:17.860 Listen to Our Town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 0.98

00:37:26.460 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:37:29.340 Guaranteed human.

00:37:31.080 Thank you.

There Are No Girls on the Internet - October 06, 2020

The Black Women Fighting Climate Injustice

Episode Stats

Transcript