Podcasts about earth ethics

In this episode of The Founder Spirit, Mindahi Bastida, a spiritual leader and scholar, and Founder and Convenor of The Earth Elders, explores indigenous wisdom, the purpose of life, the significance of ceremony, and the importance of environmental stewardship. Drawing from his upbringing, ancestral teachings, and the guiding principles of Indigenous philosophy,  Mindahi shares profound insights into our relationship with the universe. He reflects on the legacy of the Earth Summit, the ongoing work of planetary restoration, and the Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor - calling for reunification of the Peoples. Emphasizing the deep interconnectedness of all life, he highlights the vital role of ancestral wisdom and Earth Elders in navigating today's global challenges. Mindahi calls for a return to Earth Ethics—a way of being rooted in love, reciprocity, collective responsibility, etc.What lessons can the modern world draw from Indigenous cultures to restore harmony with nature??  TUNE IN to this conversation & find out. For detailed transcript and show notes, please visit TheFounderSpirit.com.Also follow us on: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheFounderSpirit- Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/TheFounderSpirit- YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@TheFounderSpirit- Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/TheFounderSpirit- X:  https://twitter.com/founder_spiritIf this podcast has been beneficial or valuable to you, feel free to become a patron and support us on Patreon.com, that is P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com/TheFounderSpirit.As always, you can find us on Apple, YouTube and Spotify, as well as social media and our website at TheFounderSpirit.com.The Founder Spirit podcast is proud to be a partner of the Villars Institute, a non-profit foundation focused on accelerating the transition to a net-zero economy and restoring planetary health.About This Podcast:Whether you are an entrepreneur, a mid-career professional or someone who's just starting out in life, The Founder Spirit podcast is for you!In this podcast series, we'll be interviewing exceptional individuals from all over the world with the founder spirit, ranging from social entrepreneurs, tech founders, to philanthropists, elite athletes, and more. Together, we'll uncover not only how they manage to succeed in face of multiple challenges, but also who they are as people and their human story.So TUNE IN & be inspired by stories from their life journey!

Karenna Gore is Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Earth Ethics, an organization started in 2015 to focus on the intersection of ecology, ethics, and faith. It's no easy task! Karenna started this organization after convening 200 of the top religious leaders in 2014 to discuss climate change during the Religions for the Earth conference. She realized a centralized system was needed. During our conversation we discuss: -How we can all play our part in combatting climate change -What policies are working well, and where they could be improved -The time she got arrested -How growing up as the daughter of VP Al Gore shaped her-Much more! "The Center for Earth Ethics works to change the dominant value system from one based on short-term material gain—no matter the pollution, depletion and inequity that result—to one based on the long-term health of the whole community of life. We work through education, convening and advocacy to raise public consciousness as well as to shift policy and culture."Karenna is a graduate of Harvard, Columbia Law School, and Union Theological Seminary. Join their newsletter here: https://centerforearthethics.org/newsletter/I love hearing from you! Please send feedback & sponsorship opportunities to: andrew@permissiontoshine.orgThank you for listening. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/permissiontoshine_?igsh=bndtZDN0MjEweDAy&utm_source=qrYouTube: https://youtube.com/@permissiontoshinepodcast?si=A2VEd6-_jM9NPsUZLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-namanny@PermissionToShine_

This episode features Sara Jolena Wolcott, an ecotheologian, minister, healer, ceremonialist, consultant, singer, and founder of Sequoia Samanvaya—an organization dedicated to harmonizing with ancient wisdom. She is also the host of The ReMembering And ReEnchanting Podcast. We discuss some of the many facets of her interdisciplinary but also cross-sector work. She addresses the crucial role that origin stories play in cosmovisions, and why it is so important for the climate leadership and religious leadership to take them seriously. She also focuses on decolonization as a critical and often-missing piece from ecospiritual discussions. She discusses her time at Union Theological Seminary, including her experience volunteering for a climate Justice conference hosted by the Center for Earth Ethics, led by Karenna Gore.She has ongoing courses and boutique offerings for academics, spiritual/religious leaders, environmentalists, investors, and others who are being called forth to live courageously in these times of interconnectivity. These include a ReMembering Course, an Origin Stories course, and Circular Calendar courses. Listeners might also enjoy reading Sara Jolena's published work, including articles about circular time - The Deer at the End of the World and the Goddess of the Dawn and Reckonings with Time(s); her M.Div. thesis ReMembering the Story of the Anthropocene Age; and the From the Darkness. 

Kelly Moltzen is a Co-founder and co-convener of the Interfaith Public Health Network, which helps organizations and faith communities to create impactful relationships to advance public health. She is a Registered Dietitian, has her Master's of Public Health, and is a member of the USA Secular Franciscan Order. Kelly was a 2022 Rockefeller-Acumen Food Systems Fellow. Her 2021 Rockefeller Food System Vision Prize proposal, Faith Communities Leading the Way Towards Healthy, Sustainable Food Systems, reached the semi-finalist stage. She is a steering committee member of the Center for Earth Ethics' Faith and Food Coalition, and was named to Hunter College's NYC Food Policy Center 40 Under 40 Class of 2020. Kelly has worked to address health disparities in the Bronx with Bronx Health REACH for 13 years, and is also currently supporting the Chief Impact and Sustainability Office of Church World Service as a consultant.    Kelly her social media handles are: Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram and her organization IPHN: Twitter/X, Facebook,  Instagram. The website is: iphnetwork.org   The songs picked by all our guests can be found via  our playlist #walktalklisten here.    Please let me/us know via our email innovationhub@cwsglobal.org what you think about this new series. We would love to hear from you.   Please like/follow our Walk Talk Listen podcast and follow mauricebloem on twitter and instagram.  Or check us out on our website 100mile.org.  We also encourage you to check out the special WTL series Enough for All about an organization called CWS. 

Andrew Schwartz, a passionate advocate for environmental and climate justice, currently holds the esteemed Director of Sustainability and Global Affairs position at the Center for Earth Ethics. Under his leadership, the Center has pioneered initiatives like the 2021 Faith + Food Coalition Dialogues and the 2022 Values, Culture, and Spirituality Consultation Series, aligned with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. These programs have been instrumental in uniting global voices to champion environmental causes. With almost ten years under his belt, Andrew has collaborated with community torchbearers and governmental figures, forging multilateral alliances and bolstering environmental movements. His current role as the leader of the Climate Working Group for the UN Multi-faith Advisory Council further underscores his commitment to the cause.Before his tenure at CEE, Andrew's journey saw him at the helm of Bend 2030, a diverse coalition in Bend, Oregon. He also co-directed the Micah Challenge USA, striving to eradicate extreme poverty, and managed the Climate Reality Project, an initiative by Al Gore to shape pivotal environmental policies on climate change.A proud alumnus of Pacific Lutheran University and Union Theological Seminary, Andrew's fervor for environmental advocacy was ignited during his time at Union. He represented the youth at the United Nations 2012 Rio+20 Conference in Brazil, a significant summit addressing climate change.Hailing from Oregon, Andrew also dedicates his time as the vice chair of the board for the Sierra Club's Oregon Chapter. Join us as we explore Andrew's insights and experiences on our journey towards a more sustainable future.

This episode of Spotlights features Gopal D. Patel, a faith-based environmental activist, campaigner, and consultant. He is co-Founder and Director of Bhumi Global, an international Hindu faith-inspired NGO that works to promote environmental care. He is also a senior advisor for the Center for Earth Ethics, co-chair of the United Nations Multi-faith Advisory Council, and an advisor to the World Wildlife Fund Beliefs and Values Programme. We discuss his personal experience of Hinduism, his background with multi-faith dialogue, and the challenges and opportunities facing religious environmentalism around the world, including some ways that religious environmentalism can facilitate constructive responses to climate grief and eco-anxiety.

Mindahi Bastida is Director of the Original Nations Program of the Fountain, a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, and an Otomi-Toltec Ritual Ceremony Officer. He is a consultant with UNESCO on issues related to sacred sites and bioculture. Mindahi has also served as Director of the Original Caretakers Program at the Center for Earth Ethics.  He is also the author of Ancestors:  Divine Remembrances of Lineage, Relations and Sacred Sites published by Common Sentience. Stop Ecocide International Find out more about Dr. Steven Farmer author, teacher, shamanic practitioner, Soul Healer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the seventh and final episode of The Climate Imaginary, a Below the Radar series, Am Johal is joined by Karenna Gore, the founder and executive director of Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. In their conversation, they discuss the intersection of environmental ethics and theology, the wisdom contained in tradition, and the need for a new relationship between humans and nature – one not based on domination. Through the contemplation of faith and ecological responsibilities, this episode puts forward alternative ways to resist the climate crisis. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/198-karenna-gore.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/198-karenna-gore.html Resources: Karenna Gore: https://centerforearthethics.org/profile/karenna-gore/ Center for Earth Ethics: https://centerforearthethics.org/what-are-earth-ethics-tk/ Union Theological Seminary: https://utsnyc.edu/about/ EcoPeace Middle East: https://ecopeaceme.org/about/ Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor by Rob Nixon: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072343 Ahmed Shaheed Report to 77th session of the UN General Assembly: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a77514-interim-report-special-rapporteur-freedom-religion-or-belief Seth Klein Interview: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/27-seth-klein.html A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency: https://www.sethklein.ca/book Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html Dayenu: https://dayenu.org/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=44444444-4444-4444-4444-444444444444 Hazon: https://hazon.org/about/mission-vision/ Bio: Karenna Gore is the founder and executive director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She previously worked at the legal centre of Sanctuary for Families, which serves victims of domestic violence and trafficking, and had authored the book, “Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America” (2006). Karenna graduated from Harvard College, earned her law degree from Columbia Law School, and a Master's in Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary. Cite this episode: Chicago Style Johal, Am. “The Climate Imaginary: Earth Ethics, Spirituality and Social Justice — with Karenna Gore.” Below the Radar, SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, December 13, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/198-karenna-gore.html.

Mindahi Bastida is Director of the Original Nations Program of the Fountain, a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, and an Otomi-Toltec Ritual Ceremony Officer. He is a consultant with UNESCO on issues related to sacred sites and bioculture. Mindahi has also served as Director of the Original Caretakers Program at the Center for Earth Ethics.In this interview with Mindahi Bastida, you'll discover:-How consciousness and our ancestors are intertwined...01:40-Using the wisdom of our ancestors to address the issues of the modern day...04:05-We're desensitized to the essence of the human experience...08:30-Connecting with nature engenders trust among humans...12:00-Do we choose the decaying past, or the alive, conscious future?...15:10-How we treat Mother Earth is a reflection of how we view ourselves...22:50-Go from the "Me" to the "We"...25:30-And much more...Resources mentioned:Mindahi's YouTube channelAncestors: Divine Remembrances of Lineage, Relations and Sacred Sites (Common Sentience)OM HealsQuantum physics reveals that we are 99.9999% energy and only .00001% physical matter. When we flow, move, and balance blocked energies we hold, then our mind, body and soul return to its natural state of well being.We are committed to matching you with the best possible energy meta-cine practitioners to support your wellness with our customized algorithm. After each energy session, we will ask for your feedback on how well we are matchmaking you with energy practitioners so we may serve you as best as we can.Visit om-heals.com to learn more and to get started today! Mentioned in this episode:Thank you so much for joining us today for another episode of regarding consciousness with Jennifer K. Hill. We would love it if you would take a moment and write a review for us, or rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or whatever your favorite podcast platform is. And if you'd like to stay in touch and find out about upcoming events with some of the amazing guests we've had on the show like Deepak Chopra and other world thought leaders feel free to join my email list at metabizics.com. Thanks so much. And we look forward to having you join us next week.

Karenna Gore, the director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, talks with us about spirituality as an outlet for humility, why we're in a “species-wide identity crisis,” and how the paths forward we choose now about the climate crisis are ultimately about human survival.Episode sponsored by Grand Seiko.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://thecitylife.org/2022/09/18/noosphere-arts-presents-we-are-nature-2022-patterns-of-connection-earth-ethics-september-24-2022/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/citylifeorg/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/citylifeorg/support

https://thefountain.earth/ mindahibastida@gmail.com ANCESTORS Divine Remembrances of Lineage, Relations and Sacred Sites The full scope of our ancestral legacy extends far beyond blood relations. Our family of origin links us back to motherlands; we “inherit” these territories and all sentient forms of life in these locales. The consciousness of ancestors is interwoven through the web of time and space. In the present, it includes our parents, grandparents and others who have formed who we are. Sit around the fire with us and listen to the stories of when a living or deceased relative passed down great wisdom or traditions in a mystical way. Or how doing ancestral work to resolve family patterns led individuals to reestablish a spiritual connection with someone in their lineage. Walk with us as we visit foreign lands through the eyes of our authors who felt its welcome and remembered who they truly are. Feel the healing in these stories of when a significant figure from one's ancestry showed in their dreams or energy work to help them heal past, present or future family karma. Our featured author, Mindahi Bastida, shares his own deep bond with his (and the topic of) ancestry. His wisdom will inspire you to open to the possibility of Divine remembrances in your own life. Mindahi Bastida Mindahi Bastida is a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, an Otomi-Toltec Ritual Ceremony Officer, Director of the Original Nations Program of the Fountain, and a UNESCO consultant on sacred sites and biocultural issues. MINDAHI BASTIDA is Director of the Original Nations Program of the Fountain, a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, and an Otomi-Toltec Ritual Ceremony Officer. He is a consultant with UNESCO on issues related to sacred sites and bioculture. Mindahi has also served as Director of the Original Caretakers Program at the Center for Earth Ethics, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York; and General Coordinator of the Otomi-Toltec Regional Council in Mexico. Born in Tultepec, Lerma, Mexico, Mindahi holds a Doctorate of Rural Development from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and an M.A. in Political Science from Carleton University, Canada. He has written and published extensively on biodiversity, Indigenous knowledge and related topics, and has taught on subjects ranging from sustainability, ethics and earth spirituality to Indigenous voices, communitarian links and intellectual property rights. Mindahi frequently lectures on Indigenous Peoples-Nation State relationships, intercultural education, sustainability and Indigenous peoples, cosmologies and philosophies of indigenous peoples, and biocultural sacred sites. He is also deeply involved with the Biocultural Sacred Sites for Humanity, Original Peoples proposal, UNESCO, the Timekeepers Program and the Process of Unification in charge of the Latin American and the Caribbean region. Mindahi is also President of the Mexico Council of Sustainable Development, a member of the Steering Committee of the Indigenous Peoples' Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative, and has served as a delegate to several commissions and summits on Indigenous rights and the environment.

Lisa chats with Karenna Gore, daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, about Center for Earth Ethics. Photo: iStock / Getty Images Plus Vanessa Nunes

Climate change author, Barbara Kingsolver, plus Urban Tilth. The Center for Earth Ethics, and using Lake Geneva to cool...Geneva!

“Forthright but also full of grace”: that could be a mantra for how we should all live our lives. It's also how Jacqui Patterson has described her ideal as she fights for environmental justice in a world that can feel like it's submerged completely in environmental injustice.From the South Side of Chicago, to Jamaica, to South Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, Jacqui has continually asked what deep, transformative change looks like. She grounds her theory of change in community-led advocacy. She envisions a world of eco-communities and works with real communities across the country who have already created elements of these utopian visions.But never does she lose sight of climate change and environmental exploitation as multipliers of injustice.Jacqui Patterson directed the Environmental and Climate Justice Program at NAACP from 2009 to 2021. Most recently, she is Founder and Executive Director of The Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership.I've had the great privilege of knowing Jacqui for the last few years, and she's an advisor on my current documentary film in post production, called Raising Aniya.In our conversation, Jacqui discusses the origins of the environmental justice movement and the importance of community-led activism, and she charts her path to a life devoted to the struggle for environmental justice.This is the first episode of the Chrysalis podcast! You can listen on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.Please rate, review, and share to help us spread the word!Jacqui PattersonJacqui Patterson is the Founder and Executive Director at The Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership. Since 2007, Jacqui has served as coordinator & co-founder of Women of Color United. She directed of the Environmental and Climate Justice Program at NAACP from 2009 to 2021. Jacqui has worked as a researcher, program manager, coordinator, advocate and activist working on women‘s rights, violence against women, HIV&AIDS, racial justice, economic justice, and environmental and climate justice. Jacqui served as a Senior Women's Rights Policy Analyst for ActionAid where she integrated a women's rights lens for the issues of food rights, macroeconomics, and climate change as well as the intersection of violence against women and HIV&AIDS. Previously, she served as Assistant Vice-President of HIV/AIDS Programs for IMA World Health providing management and technical assistance to medical facilities and programs in 23 countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Jacqui served as the Outreach Project Associate for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Research Coordinator for Johns Hopkins University. She also served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica, West Indies.  Jacqui holds a master's degree in social work from the University of Maryland and a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves on the Steering Committee for Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, Advisory Board for Center for Earth Ethics as well as on the Boards of Directors for the Institute of the Black World, The Hive: Gender and Climate Justice Fund, the American Society of Adaptation Professionals, Greenprint Partners, Bill Anderson Fund and the National Black Workers Center.Quotations Read by Jacqui Patterson“If you come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because, you know, and feel that your liberation is bound to mine, let's walk together.” - Lilla Watson“you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land” - From "Home" by Warsan Shire“If one of us is oppressed, none of us are free.” - Unknown“the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.” - Che GuevaraRecommended Readings & MediaTranscriptionIntroJohn Fiege “Forthright but also full of grace”: that could be a mantra for how we should all live our lives. It's also how Jacqui Patterson has described her ideal as she fights for environmental justice in a world that can feel like it's submerged completely in environmental injustice.From the South Side of Chicago, to Jamaica, to South Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, Jacqui has continually asked what deep, transformative change looks like. She grounds her theory of change in community-led advocacy. She envisions a world of eco-communities and works with real communities across the country who have already created elements of these utopian visions.But never does she lose sight of climate change and environmental exploitation as multipliers of injustice.Jacqui PattersonFor example, if a child is having a hard time paying attention in school, because lead and manganese are some of the toxins that come out of these, these smokestacks, or if a child is having a heart is not able to go to school on poor air quality days, or if the school that 71% of African Americans live in counties in violation of air pollution standards, and an African American family making $50,000 a year is more likely to live next to a toxic facility than the white American family making $15,000 a year. And we know that. But yeah, then on average, if you're living next to a toxic facility, your property values are significantly lower, and property values go directly into funding our school system. So if you have all of these challenges with being in school in the first place, learning in school, and then the school itself doesn't have the level of quality of other schools, then studies show that if you're not on grade level, by the third grade, you're more likely to enter into the school to prison pipeline.John FiegeI'm John Fiege, and this is Chrysalis.Jacqui Patterson directed the Environmental and Climate Justice Program at NAACP from 2009 to 2021. Most recently, she is founder and executive director of The Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership. I've had the great privilege of knowing Jacqui for the last few years, and she's an advisor on my current documentary film in post production, called Raising Aniya.In our conversation, Jacqui discusses the origins of the environmental justice movement and the importance of community-led activism, and she charts her path to a life devoted to the struggle for environmental justice.Here is Jacqui Patterson.---ConversationJohn Fiege  You grew up on the South Side of Chicago. Could you start by talking a bit about the neighborhood where you grew up how that shaped you and you know, being an urban environment, how you viewed your relationship to the rest of nature?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, growing up on the South Side of Chicago, been an area where it was, there was lots of, of trees, there was lots of I was just talking with someone yesterday about how how we would get excited when we would see a Blue Jay or a Robin in our trees, there were squirrels, there was an occasional rabbit, which was very exciting. And, and there was a lot like summers were all about being outside. Winters were moderately about being outside John Fiege  If there was snowJacqui Patterson  Exactly. Only if there's snow. And otherwise it was being huddled inside and and at the same time, there was the other side's being to being born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, which is that it was a gang land area with the Black P Stone Nation and the El Rukns. As the main gangs and the pressure on boys to to affiliate and the guns, as you hear the challenges you would have. So being outside was also challenged by that as well. I mean, it didn't, I don't remember it being kind of a constant thing, but I don't remember it necessarily meaning that we didn't go outside but I do remember a couple of times where, where, where there were times when they were kind of fights or so forth, it would be inside. So to put my dad was from Jamaica, so we took a trip, we went to the park often and my dad was definitely big on the outdoors. And so we would go to the park frequently, both our local park as well as sometimes going to a national park to hike.John Fiege  Oh, awesome. And, you know, that must impact your view of what the environment is to when you, you know, you see the birds in the trees and those beautiful, tree lined streets of South Side of Chicago. And at the same time, there's this, like, this potentially dangerous environment you're dealing with sometimes as well.Jacqui Patterson  Yes, it definitely, definitely makes it a mixed situation. It reminds me of when I was at a  conference of the Power Shift Network, I was moderating a panel with youth. And, and this person who was on the panel, I mean, it was a real striking and moving moment because the person was on the panel stood up and she said, You know, I would like for me being you know, I would love to be able to have the luxury to go to the park and so forth. But for me just surviving was the objective and and if I can get beyond just focusing on survival to be able to go to the park, you know, that would be a good day. And she actually started crying while she was saying that because I think it was such an emotional moment to be attacked about the very thing that you know, about the very thing that that kind of puts in stark relief, the difference in realities and what's what's kind of normal to other people would be a luxury to her.John Fiege  And survival survival is a prerequisite for enjoying the world  Jacqui Patterson  exactly, exactly.John Fiege  Well, not not only is your father from Jamaica, but you spent time in the Peace Corps in Jamaica. Yeah, which I find really, I find so interesting, because not many Peace Corps volunteers work in a country so close to their roots. Can you can you tell me about the path? This this young girl from the South Side of Chicago took to Jamaica and and how that experience influenced you?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, sure. Um, I grew up I grew up very active in the church, we'd be in the church like five days out of the week, during the summer. And, and during the winter, this at least a couple of times weekly. When during the summer, so I was always a Sunday school teacher and during the summer, I was a vacation Bible school teacher and and as I decided on my career path, I decided I wanted to be a teacher. And so and then I was watching TV one day and saw this commercial about the shortage of special education teachers. Oh, I could do that. And I decided to do that as well. And so after I, long story short, I was in Boston going to school for undergrad at Boston University. And it was. And that was when I first started to really get involved around social justice. I was working in a shelter for homeless people who were unhoused in Boston, and then also at the same time getting involved in the Housing Now movement there. Anyway, then I fast forward to deciding after I graduated to go to Peace Corps, what was interesting there in terms of the time between me going to Peace Corps and a place that I know is that to make us known was the recruiter was telling me that Jamaica was I had actually wanted to go to a place that where I could learn Spanish or French, or some other language, you know. And so she was she really put a hard pressure on me to go to Jamaica, because it has a high rate of attrition of people dropping out. And, and so she also needed like someone who was kind of specialized in special education, and it's a little bit at the back then it was almost rare to be able to do something that's so aligned with your actual career that I'd like there was someone there in my group who was a drama major in school, and she ended up being a bananas extension officer with the Agriculture Department. So it's kind of funny. So anyway, she says, Yeah, so all of that is what led to me being in in Jamaica.John Fiege  What did you see there and experience that you can connect with what you did later, you know, what you're doing now and what you did later with your work?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, so a couple things. One is, as a special education teacher in the parish of St. Thomas one situation arose where there was a whole group of three year olds who had hearing impairments because, you know, a little bit over three years ago, almost four years ago, they had an outbreak of rubella. And I guess when a mom has rubella, then it's more likely for her child to be born with a hearing impairment. And so, so I ended up being because I had taken one sign language class in undergrad, I ended up being a sign language teacher to these, these, these parents and their children, it was like a parent child group, and so helping them to be able to communicate. And so both that in and other kind of situations of people with special needs, there are who are differently abled was just struck me in terms of being a systemic issue, kind of people not having either choices and not having resources to live a thriving life, in those circumstances of being differently abled made me really think about the prevention aspect, you know, and so I, I started to decide I was coming, come back and go into, into public health, and also do a double degree one in public health, on the technical side of things, as well as one in social work, but macro level social work, to learn about community organizing, because at that point, point, it was just clear that important to community voice, community power community leadership, parallel, or, you know, at the same time, I was also kind of in Jamaica, just observing the circumstances in terms of, you know, what led there to be not the resources to have to have the rubella vaccine in a place that is so beautiful, so, so much possibility for people to be able to, to a to have the, the whether it's that natural resources to eat or the natural resources to, to provide energy for the country and all of these different things. And then also the the natural beauty that attracts, you know, millions of tourists there with all of the billions of dollars that are coming with with that. And yet we have communities where the you know, people are living in abject poverty. And so, so, so seeing that, watching films like Life and Debt that talked about structural adjustment programs, and then and then reading books, like How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, I started to really understand some of these systemic issues as well. So that was an important kind of politicization. And then the last thing I'll say is also I was there I was in a community where the water supply was contaminated by Shell Oil and the community had to push for, for justice and that situation, but in that situation, it was definitely a David and Goliath, where the community ended up getting as part of their settlement a series of ventilated improve pit latrines for the community, as well as some money given to the school for three Rs program. So that was the settlementJohn Fiege  in exchange for a billions of dollars worth of oil,Jacqui Patterson  and in exchange for having their water supply contaminated, drinking poison for several, yeah, I mean, whatever long term illnesses that was that was caused. And so these were the so these are the things these are the lessons I learned in my short time in Peace Corps, they really kind of all all contributed to the trajectory of my life since thenJohn Fiege  I find that so interesting, when there's something there's some short period of time when in when you're young, and you can find in that period of time, so many seeds that germinated later in your life. And when you're talking about Jamaican, like, I'm hearing like all of the elements of your later work. It's so interesting. Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, it is fascinating. John Fiege  So I've heard you say that climate change is a multiplier of injustice, which is, which is really beautifully succinct. Can you explain what that means?Jacqui Patterson  Absolutely. So both on the on the the whole climate continuum, we think about in terms of the drivers of climate change, and the impacts of climate change. on the driver side, you have all of the polluting practices that contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. And so the fact that these facilities are disproportionately located in BIPOC communities, whether it's coal plants, or or oil and gas refineries, or other or fracking, or it's even near roadway, air pollution, and air in the ways that that impacts all of those are disproportionately located in, in in BIPOC communities and also in trash incineration, and landfills and so forth. And I could make more, agricultural, like confined animal feeding operations, etc. So with all of those being disproportionately located communities of color, it's not only that they're emitting greenhouse gases, but they're all also emitting pollutants that that also harm that compound harm to the public health and well being of those communities. And so whether it's the sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, which is tied to asthma rates, and African American children are three to five times more likely to go to the hospital for asthma attack two to three times more likely to die of an asthma attack, or it is the mercury which is known to be an endocrine disruptor. And we know that low birth weights, infant mortality, etc, are much higher, for example, in African American communities and beyond. So there's just so many examples of these negative health impacts. But then on top of it all, we talk about multiplier as well, it's a multiplier of a multiplicity of issues. And so, for example, if a child is having a hard time paying attention in school because lead and manganese are some of the toxins that come out of these, these smokestacks, or if a child is having is not able to go to school on poor air quality days, or if the school, 71% of African Americans live in counties in violation of air pollution standards, and an African American family making $50,000 a year is more likely to live next to a toxic facility than the white American family making $15,000 a year and we know that then on average, if you're living next to a toxic facility, your property values are significantly lower and property values go directly into funding our school system. So if you have all of these challenges with being in school in the first place, learning in school, and then the school itself doesn't have the level of quality of other schools, then studies show that if you're not on grade level by the third grade, you're more likely to enter into the school to prison pipeline. So we see all of these interconnected, you know, multiplier issues, and then a multiplicity of issues that they get exacerbated. And so these are, and that's just one scenario. That is an example when we talk about the gender, gender and justice that already exist, and then on the pipelines, along the lines of the pipeline, there's a high rate of sexual assault of Indigenous women in particular, along those pipelines. Also, around the man camps that are propped up around these oil and gas rigs, there is a high rate of missing and murdered Indigenous women, there's a drug trade that's come up, there's trafficking that that happens in those areas. And, just a known level that you know that you can when googled one can see all the different statistics and stories around this. And so that's just on the driver side of the continuum. And then we go on the other side in terms of the impact. We know that climate change that, for example, when we talk about the increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather events, that women are more likely to experience violence against women after disasters. Whether it's, yeah, so we saw that with the earthquake in Gujarat, the tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, for sure. And even the BP oil drilling disaster where I was down there and that the, the police blotters showed a four fold increase in domestic violence in one particular area, I was sitting in Alabama, and we look at place after place, it was the same thing. And they even though the BP oil drilling disaster wasn't caused by climate change, it also was on the other driver's side of the continuum as well. So anyway, so then, then, when we talk about the the shifts in agricultural yield, we know that already, for example, 26% of African American families are food insecure. And when we have shift in agricultural yields that mean that healthy nutritious foods are going to be even more inaccessible and less affordable, than that just exacerbates what's already a bad situation for for African American families who too often live in communities where it's easier to get a Dorito or a Cheeto or Frito than kiwi or quinoa or anything. So when we, when we see that then we also see how these various chronic health conditions that are that are causing premature deaths and shorten our very life expectancy as a people. And then that has made us even more vulnerable to the impacts of of COVID-19 and has contributed to our high rates of mortality. Then when we talk about sea level rise, also communities that are less likely to be homeowners, we know that 44% of African Americans are homeowners versus 75% of white Americans, for example. And so when when you know when you have when you need to move or even impacted by disasters, all of that, being in a homeowner, you know, when you have equity you have in not only do you have equity in your home, conceivably, but you're also also some of the aid from FEMA and so forth is directly tied to being a homeowner and the work of relocation is still emerging and how that's going to be financed and what the mechanisms are going to be. ButJohn Fiege  I wonder who I wonder who wrote those, those rules?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, as I say, we can pretty much rest assured thatJohn Fiege  they were homeowners at least,Jacqui Patterson  yeah, that's really something. So all of these things. Oh, and then finally, I'll just say to as it relates to sea level rise, combined with, combined with the frequency and severity of extreme weather events is the fact that even after we think we find out that the levee fortification is, like so many other things was tied to property values after Hurricane Katrina, where they decided to to fortify all these levees in Louisiana. they used a formula to decide which levees they were going to be fortifying first. And it was based on what the economic impact would be if the levy was overtaken, which literally legislates or institutionalizes the the disregard for the people who are the most vulnerable, just literally by definition, by design.John Fiege  Early on in the COVID pandemic, you wrote an article for Color Lines, that that connects the pandemic to climate justice, among other things.  So you write:  "Centuries of racist policy and practice have shaped the neighborhoods we live in, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, our access to education and justice, and the health care we receive (or don't). Layers of harm, generation after generation, alter our bodies at the molecular level and even the genes we pass on to our children. Those harms, past and present, render us more vulnerable to the coronavirus—and also to the longer-term crises caused by climate change."  Wow, it's really amazing how you can connect dots and wrap so much into this single paragraph. Can you talk about the importance of seeing whole systems, rather than separating out these interconnected issues in order to envision what you call deep transformative change?Jacqui Patterson  Yes, absolutely. So when we have a system that, as I said before, is doing exactly what it was designed to do by those who, as you said, designed it. And, and when we continue to try to tweak a system, which at its core has a different intention, then then what we should be seeking, which is literally liberty and justice for all, then then we have to think transformation rather than than reform. But we have a system that means that, that certain people are only more likely to live in certain communities when you have a system that says that those communities are, by definition, are the communities that are the asthma clusters, the cancer clusters, the communities where the life expectancy is shorter, too often by decades, sometimes by almost a lifetime, when we talk about infant mortality, and and, and so forth. So when we talk when we have a system where before African Americans were emancipated from slavery, there were policies that enabled white people to be able to access these grants for land for those for schools, or for farming or otherwise. So and when African Americans were emancipated, not only had they put in this in slave labor, that that to build a country that was completely uncompensated, but also didn't even have the legal rights to be able to write legal wills to pass down their property. And so not only do we have white Americans who, for whom, African Americans were part of the, their actual generational wealth, but then on top of it all, they were given all these additional aids by by the government system. And so it's clear why at this point, we have white wealth at $171,000 on average, per household, African American wealth at $17,000 per household. And then yeah, there will be a layer gender on top of it all, we have African American female headed households with the average wealth of $5. And so if we just continue to try to tweak a system that's doing exactly what it was designed to do in the first place, you know, now 400 years after the transatlantic slave trade, this is where we are. So what's going to be the increments of change? And what what, what century will there be equality if we don't actually do something transformational now?John Fiege  Yeah, I, I talk a lot about the problem with how we've set up environmental issues where, you know, if somebody wants to learn about why we have environmental problems, they're often told to go study science or to go study economics. But the best place to start really is American history. You can't separate how the systems were built from the problems they've caused, and to pretend that we can address them without acknowledging and confronting those those things is so delusional.Jacqui Patterson  Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you.John Fiege  So to talk about the NAACP and the roots of the environmental justice movement. Many people consider the birthplace of the environmental justice movement to be in Warren County, North Carolina, in 1982, when 500 people were arrested, protesting the siting of a toxic waste dump for PCB laden soil and a county that was predominantly African American, and one of the poorest counties in the state. Among the coalition of community members of the Civil Rights Organizations, was the NAACP and Reverend Benjamin Chavez, who later became the executive director of NAACP. Can you talk about the importance of this moment, both for the movement and the NAACP?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, thank you. Um, yes. So one thing that is important about that, that the rise The movement in its inception is the power of the people and the importance of frontline community leadership, it was never going to be some organization or some entity that's outside of the community looking at and seeing this is wrong. And then, you know, organizing a plan and in and so forth, it was the power of the people that that really unsurface the situation that that the push for the type of change that they need to have and, and that we all need to have. And really gave rise to this movement. And so it needs to kind of go as it started in terms of the movement. And this is why we're always pushing for frontline community leadership. And so for us, that situation was critical around the the roots of the problem and the depth of the problem. And it was critical around the, in terms of just like the extreme level of contamination and so forth in the health impacts and so forth. And it was also critical in terms of the method and the ethos behind the solution of the problem and addressing it. And so for us, it just means that we, but it also was critical in terms of how long it took. And we often now when I'm doing presentations often show this kind of four image slide of three, of four toxic situations, the Flint water crisis, the Chicago Indiana arsenic and lead crisis and Eight Mile Alabama Mercaptan oil spill and then I show the Porter Ranch gas spill that happened and talk about how you know for each of the other situation it was they were decades, you know, decades and still seeking justice. Before the Porter Ranch gas spill, it was literally within a matter of months there was kept within a matter of less than a year that they were they were given $4 million in damages to this white wealthier white community versus decades and hundreds of 1000s of dollars at best for these other communities. John Fiege  Yeah, well, the coalition is the coalition around that event was, was incredible. And, you know, this kind of genealogy of civil rights within environmental justice, it seems to really be you know, NAACP is a is a huge national organization, just like the big environmental organizations. But do you see that it's kind of history and valuing and ability to work with local groups on the ground changes the way this giant national organization interacts with communities?Jacqui Patterson  I do. So for one thing, one of the things that has that drew me to the work and has kept me at the NAACP is the fact that we are accountable first and foremost to our frontline community leadership and so that that being the marching orders for for us as a program and for the association really does set it apart from from other organizations in that sense, like we do things because our state and local branches think that they are important. And so that's quite different than if you are setting an agenda and then you're deploying all of these, these these chapters to do like some other large national organizations. And so but but when we're when we're working in the environmental climate justice program, for example, we're we're out there in the branches and we're saying, like, let's, let's do a visioning session, what do you want for your community, and then now, well, we can help with political education, we can help developing a strategy. We can walk alongside you once you have your action plan of what you want to do and help connect you to resources and so forth. So that model of like, it's about what you want for your community. And then we kind of see the patterns of what people are interested in and what they're facing. And then we roll that up into a national agenda that we get res ources for on behalf of the units and that we then advocate for at the federal policy level as well. So if a community might be working on, you know, a lead crisis in their backyard, we might be helping them with how to deal with that. Then at the at the federal level, we're working on the lead and copper rule under the Clean Air Act and so forth. So that's always kind of a corresponding national agenda, but it corresponds with the leadership of our state and local units.John Fiege  Oh, that's, that's interesting. And it's such so important. Always going back to that. Yeah, accountability to the communities. So key. So can you talk a bit about your theory of change and the work you're doing, and maybe first describe what a theory of change is? And then how your theory of change has shifted over time as you've engaged ever more deeply in this work?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, thank you. So, first, the theory of change is exactly what the words imply, is the theory of how change happens in our world. So for us, and it's interesting to even when we were kind of like, formally crafting our theory of change, there was kind of the difference between the change that's needed, and how do we get there. And then there's also kind of models and theories of change that were more granular, but our broader theory of change is rooted in the just transition framework that we work with the Climate Justice Alliance, and others facilitated Movement Generation, when we, when we talk about the just transition framework, we are moving from a society that is rooted in exploitation, domination, extraction, and enclosure of wealth and power militarism, as a vehicle to do it. And so moving from that, to what we consider is a living economy, versus an extractive economy, a living economy that's rooted in principles of caring, caring for the sacred cooperation. And really, kind of honoring the earth and honoring each other, as well as really rooting it all in deep democracy. And so, for us, that means that the work that we do, in terms of how we get there is around visioning, starting with a visioning, visioning of our communities and then helping with political education so that if a community has a certain vision, then thinking about how they get there is rooted in understanding how it fits in with this broader context. And then three is then working with the community to develop a strategy to advance change. And then four is then working with communities on developing an action plan based on that strategy and their understanding of the political education, but rooted in their vision, and then we accompany folks through achieving that action plan helping along the way with connecting them to formational, technical, financial resources and so forth. And and so our overarching work as a national program is, is is around, you know, all starts and ends with with that with our community vision. And then we also work on the types of policy changes that need to shift the system. And we also work on narrative shifts, because too often narrative dictates what's happening from the very beginning, in terms of this false narrative of scarcity that has pushed so much of this notion that there's an inverse relationship between my well being and your well being I can only be well if you're not well because there's only so much to go around and so that has pervaded so much of this decision making and actions that we see and even down to, you know, our kind of extremely divided political system it is so based on that people feeling threatened people feeling fear people feeling whether it's the immigration, or it's this notion of Black Lives Matter, kind of meaning that other lives don't. So...so all of this so, so yes, a narrative shift is a critical piece as well as the policy change. And again, all rooted in the vision of our communities.John Fiege  Yeah, awesome. Yeah. And you know, as you can imagine, you know, I'm super interested in narrative and environmental storytelling and how we're telling the stories that matter. And so that really caught my eye when you talked about controlling the narrative. Can you give maybe an example of like, what does controlling the narrative mean? What does that look like?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, I'll give an example on the, the problem up to till now in terms of some of the ways of the narrative has been controlled a wedge resulted in and then on the other side, so we have everything from, you know, at that end, again with African American folks, the ways that the narratives that have been advanced, whether it's the rise of the term super predator, or the ways that the black men have been considered to be an enemy or something to be feared, or someone to be feared, and though, and how that has led to in black folks in general, but definitely black men, and how that that led has led to profiling. And then that led to, to kind of this criminalization as well as police brutality and what has resulted in state sponsored violence. I talk about how, in the context of Hurricane Katrina, how there is this image that I show where it's two white couple, and they're in these floodwaters, and then there's African American, male in floodwaters and it's the same day. Associated Press is the outlet telling the story in both cases, but the caption with the two white people is, you know, "Two residents wade through chesty floodwaters after 'finding' bread and soda in the grocery store." With African American young man it says "A young man waves through testy floodwaters after looting a grocery store." And so that kind of characterization and a difference of it is exactly what leads to this racial profiling. And then leads to that criminalization and then to, for group of families on the Danziger bridge, where they were crossing in again, trying to find food, trying to find relatives, they were going back into New Orleans, and someone called the police on them and said that they wer e, you know, probably looking to loot and so they were unarmed and the police encountered them on the Danziger bridge and killed some of them as a result so that racial profiling that image of those two folks that you know, seemingly just an image in a newspaper but what it contributes to a narrative that certain people are up to no good and so we've seen how these days they're talking about living while black all the ways, I just myself I'm staying at an Airbnb in Florida and I went outside to, anyway there's some construction going on and so they left a package in the front that they're supposed to bring around to the back anyway, so I had to go under the construction tape to get the package and as I'm walking out I hear this voice go, May I help you? And it was this lady across the street who thought that I was stealing the package I mean, so and the irony was that I had met her like a couple days ago and had a conversation with her and she just didn't remember it. So but unfortunately but so the other day there was a whole another situation with another package and I walked around the neighborhood and I saw the packages, it had been delivered to another neighbor but I didn't want to kind of walk up and look at them for sure and didn't even want to knock on the door because, and so I called the person who owns the Airbnb and I'm like, do you know the lady who lives a couple doors down you know, and then there was a whole long two hour long process where she was trying to get Jonathan the real estate age all these different things you know, just so that I could get my my packages there on this door a couple of days back. So this is the kind of difference in life, you know that and reality but that's just you know, but that could have fatal effects or someone saw me skulking around it was they would have characterized it, and, you know, considered themselves to be defending their property, and people have the right to do that. And these, you know, again, with our system, this is what results and so, so all of this go on on the negative side of narrative, but and the importance of why, you know, and then when we talk about environment, this notion of 'job killing regulations' and, and again, that's based on scarcity assuming that like the only way that people will be able to work is that if they work at least jobs that also are fatal for other like people killing pollution, you know, the post job killing regulations and so we as communities are reframing to say it is possible for us to have all the jobs that we want, it is possible for us to have it in the context of clean air, clean water. And what we, what we do often is to do that by saying that it's already happening, here's where it's happening. And it's possible for us to take this to scale. John Fiege  Well, how much of that taking back the narrative is, I mean, there's, you know, your example of Hurricane Katrina and, and the AP captions on the photos, you know, that kind of ties into this, the myth of objective journalism, and kind of these outside folks who are building a narrative that you're trying to counter, but in some ways, I'm wondering how much you have to reformulate the narrative from within your own ranks. You know, I'm thinking about early on environmental justice movement. You know, there were some communities that were pushing back against some environmental regulations, because they were concerned that the jobs in these communities were going to be reduced or or go away. And, you know, even today, we're seeing, you know, pushback from unions around the shift to to electric vehicles, because it's there gonna be fewer jobs involved. So what is that? How do you navigate that of like, people who are on your side, are also buying into some of these narratives?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, I mean, it's kind of what I just said, is really helping people to see how how all of it is possible. So that's true for whoever's on whatever side is the importance of that. And so we have, for example, put together the Black Labor Initiative on Just Transition. And, and for that initiative, we work with folks who stand to be impacted by these job shifts, that will happen and we say, okay, we need to make sure that we're supporting you who is impacted, and that you're in the driver's seat. So it's not, that's not something that's happening to you, but you're saying, here's what's happening, you know, in terms of the the needs of the earth, in our communities, and here's how I'm going to be impacted. If I don't say, Alright, this is what I want, that's going to allow us to have clean air clean water, and allow me to have a livelihood at the standard that I need to support my family. And so then both kind of making sure that people are in the driver's seat, and we're not just trying to tell them that this is better, they're actually determining that for themselves, and we're supporting that, but then also, so they, they will also be the ones who are able to educate and inform their, their peers as well. So, that's definitely what's most important, working with working with people to be able to self actualize whatever enlightenment might come, and what the path is.John Fiege  So that that's what I hear you saying is that's, that's the key element of taking back the narrative and controlling the narrative is, is telling that story within your community and having that spread. Is that accurate?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, making sure that the community themselves kind of generate the story, like really being in dialogue with the community and have having that conversation, which are always always right, always kind of results in, in the truth versus, versus people kind of parroting what's been told to them. And so for us, it's all about an organic process. John Fiege  Ok. That's awesome. Great. So, in in 2013, you released a report, a report called "And the People Shall Lead" which which is a great title. And it has, it has a subtitle, "Centralizing Frontline Community Leadership, and the Movement Towards a Sustainable Planet." So the report addresses working with big national environmental groups or big greens as you call them here.  And you open the report this way: "How often do we hear frontline communities say, “We refuse to work with Big Green A until we hear an apology for past wrongs and a commitment to a fundamental change in how they operate” Or, “Why would I want to work with Big Green B? They will take the credit for the work I do!” Or, “I'll never work with Big Green C again. They have no respect for my culture.” At the same time, we often hear mainstream enviros speak with angst, “We want to work more with grassroots groups but we don't know how to engage them.” Or, “We reached out, and they didn't respond.” Or, “This plant is bad for this community but they just don't get it! We are trying to help them.” So that really cuts to the chase and shines a light on on the history of the kind of rocky relationship between white led and Black and brown led organizations when it comes to environmental justice. What has changed and what hasn't changed since 2013?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, thank you. Oh, that brings back memories. I haven't. Yeah, so what has changed is that those questions are less happening behind closed doors, particularly on the grassroots side. And also, what has also changed is that there have been formations that have been put together to deal directly with this issue, like the Building Equity and Alignment, no, Building Equity and Alignment for Impact one way, or like the B...Yep, that's exactly the B--Building Equity and Alignment for Impact, which is a combination of kind of these large green organizations, frontline grassroots groups, and philanthropy coming together to talk about to talk about these challenges, and how do we build more alignment recognizing that, yeah, that we know, we need it sorely. And so trying to work through some of those challenges that have been surfaced. But recognizing that, that, that the the power is in the collaboration and saying that we have to do this, we have to, we have to do this. And so that has changed, recognizing that and, and the formations to deal with it. And also certainly, what's also changed is the fact that philanthropy is supporting the need for that shift, and supporting the spaces to help to bridge those challenges. And that philanthropy is also recognizing that continuing to put, you know, millions upon millions of dollars and resources in the hands of only in the hands of big green organizations is actually exacerbating some of those dynamics and challenges. And there's a lot more of an effort to support frontline grassroots groups. So all of those things have changed, as well as the urgency of the climate clock, that it hasn't changed, but it's become much more well known. And, and therefore, as Martin Luther King says, "People are feeling the fierce urgency of now" in terms of the the nature of a critical this of kind of getting it together. So not to say that in some ways, all those things have shifted. And, and, and some and and the very same things are still being said at the same time. You know what I mean? John Fiege  RightJacqui Patterson  Yeah, so the problems persist, but at least there's an acknowledgement of them, which is the first step and some, some steps in the right direction. John Fiege  Right. It's a process. Always a process. Jacqui Patterson  Exactly Yes. John Fiege  So what does antiracism look like in the environmental movement? Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, in the environmental movement, it means that across the board and all the work that we do around the environment, we have to acknowledge and intersectionally address the impacts of racism. I famously talked about when I was doing a talk for a funder, a funder ask me to do a talk to a group of solar, like solar industry, folks. And when I gave my slides, the funder was like, "Yeah, we just want you to focus on solar, you know, and on energy. And so, so I, I said, so after kind of going back and forth with them, I was like, Alright, I'm not gonna use slides, and I'm renaming my talk. Black Lives Matter, Energy Democracy in the NAACP Civil Rights Agenda, and after I gave the talk like people, like it was kind of a well, it was an exponentially better received talk than if I had just I don't know what they what even just talking about this would mean in the context of, you know, the reality of life. But but but, but the folks in the industry really saw a new purpose and what they were seeing doing and political purpose and what they were doing, and they felt brought meaning to the work that they do. And so, so, so in some, it's first of all, kind of understanding that a) how how racism impacts how it impacts environment, environmental work and environment in the environment and b) understanding that, and that the very same systemic underpinnings that are driving climate change, are rooted in racism and so forth, and that we and if we don't kind of address these issues at their roots, we we won't be able to address climate change. And so that that's another piece that people need to understand. John Fiege  Can you talk about your work across the international borders and how it fits into what you're doing here in the US?Jacqui Patterson  Sure. Yeah. When we first went to actually one of the first things that I did, when I joined the NAACP, actually, I was already I was already going to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties in Copenhagen, before I joined the staff and so so I ended up going in kind of this hybrid role of kind of starting to join the end up starting to be a staff member of the NAACP and already planning to go as part of this project I'd started through Women of Color United looking at the intersection of gender and climate. And at that UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties will call it COP that I first encountered the Panafrican Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), and and I had been my work my work leading to working with NAACP had been International, that's the work that I do so I always had that international orientation and seeing how things are connected and so forth. But and in the context of connecting with the PACJA, done other international groups, we now have a memorandum of agreement with PACJA,. And being a part of the US Climate Action Network, which is part of the Global Climate Action Network, we we see the connections between US policies, domestic and quote unquote, foreign policy, and and everything from at those UN climate talks. Historically, no matter what administration the US has played an obstructive role always wanting to kind of commit as little as possible from an national standpoint, but then that also impacts the level of commitment across the board, if you have one group bringing it down, it kind of waters down  the the teeth and the aspirations and the ambition in the in the agreements. And so recognizing that we need to be there as us voters to hold  the delegation that's there to you and climate talks accountable for, for not weighing down because we can't like if we even if we all in the US stopped all of our emissions tomorrow, we're still in a globe. And if we're kind of weighing down the rest of the processes, then other people's a missions like yeah, we are 25% of the global emissions. So it would definitely have a significant impact. But we need to we need everybody to stop emitting in order for us to as a as a world to advance. And so the US has to be there making commitments on its own part, and it has to push for ambition with all the industrialized nations who are driving climate change for us all to be able to survive and thrive. So that's one thing. We in our connection with the Panfrican Climate Justice Alliance, we in our storytelling that we've done since then,we go there for those UN climate talks. We were in Nairobi for those conversations they've come here, and what's emerged as the story of our connections are like the same ways that countries in the Global South and BIPOC communities in the global north are least responsible for climate change. We all share... We all share the fact that we're at least responsible and we all share the fact that we're most impacted. And we all share the fact that we're the least politically powerful in terms of the decision making thats had, so we have our organizing as a bloc to say, you know, we, as global Afro descendant, leaders on environmental and climate justice, want to have a common agenda so that we are, we're pushing in concert and building power of as a global majority, in terms of BIPOC folks. And so with that, that means that we like even as I push for something here, or if our if our communities and movement here push for like stopping the burning of coal, then at the same time, we're pushing to stop global exports of coal. And at the same time, countries in Sub Saharan Africa are pushing to stop the global imports of coal. So we really we deal at all sides of that, that continuum. So those are just some...and then I'll just end with another example of kind of those connections as well. So as we talk about immigration policy, again, US being 4% of the population, but 25% of the emissions that drive climate change. But yet we have these punitive immigration policies so that when people are driven out of their nations because of disaster, or because their breadbasket has dried up as a result of our actions, on climate me on on emissions, but also our kind of imperialist actions, and the ways that the structural adjustment programs that others have made, have made those nations in, you know, uninhabitable, in some cases in some of the communities, then instead of kind of offering refuge in sanctuary, we're putting people in cages. And so while we work on better immigration policies to really so that not just, you know, so we're taking responsibility and being accountable for the actions that are driven people from their nations, but at the very least, but ideally, just because people need need they their need, and we and we have abundance, again, pushing back on that false narrative of scarcity. But then at the same time, we're also pushing for the types of policies that allow countries to be self sufficient, and able to address the impacts of climate change or avoid climate change in the first place. So through the US commitments to the UNFCCC and so forth, and that we're helping the to work with our kind of partners in the Global South, to be able to have nations where we where people don't have to kind of flee in order to survive. And I'll just end with a quote from, Warsan Shire, which is... Somali...a Kenyan, a Somali born Kenyan poet. Anyway, she says, "You have to understand that no one puts their children in a boat. Unless the water is safer than the land."John Fiege  Wow. That's a good punctuation mark. Yeah, it makes me think back to what you were saying earlier about whole systems and the absolutely importance and importance of thinking in terms of whole systems. So how is your work change since the killing of George Floyd and the blossoming of the movement for Black Lives?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, for one is gotten more, we've been just crushed by by demands that so that's one thing. And not only, the full the fulfilling the demands is kind of the least of it in terms of capacity, because we, for the most part, don't even get there. But uh, but just fielding all of their demands, as is so many and trying to filter out which ones are from people who are pushing or  are performative, because you know, they look good, which ones are people who are trying to do something because a funder is saying that they need to do this,John Fiege  What are folks asking of you?Jacqui Patterson  It's everything from just wanting to quote unquote, pick our brains. Like, "Here's what's going on in my company," like sometimes it's corporations sometimes is organizations. "Here's what's going on in my organization. Here's what I'm planning to do. Can you give them feedback on it?" That kind of thing. A lot of times is wanting people wanting us to come and speak, you know, just kind of help to educate folks. So that's another thing. Sometimes it's wanting us to recommend consultants, which is another thing. Giving feedback on on documents. And sometimes it seems like it's just so people want to be able to say that they talk to us, so it's just kind of wanting to have a conversation. Um, and then a lot of people wanting us to join, whether it's advisory groups or boards or steering committees or all these other things, because so various, various things.John Fiege  A lot of things that are asking for a lot of time. Jacqui Patterson  Yes, definitely. So there's that. On the other side, though. Some, some, some groups have come and they've said, Oh, now what you said, we see what you were saying all these years ago, and are kind of pulling, you know, dusting off some memo that I may have written way back way back when say, and actually taking it seriously now. So that's been interesting. And so that, so so on a positive side, there are there are organizations, companies and so forth that are making concrete commitments as a result of what has come. Yes. And so some folks are going beyond the statements and shifted their funding priorities shifting the way that they do the work integrating, at least a more anti racist frame into the work that they do. So that kind of enlightenment and action has definitely moved the ball in an important way. For sure.John Fiege  So social movements often focus on what's wrong and what needs to change. But sometimes, they don't spend enough time imagining what could be, and getting people excited about those dreams of alternative possibilities. I've heard you talk about creating eco communities and locally controlled sustainable food and energy systems, with the potential for communities to become the owners and beneficiaries of local distributed generation and micro grid energy systems. I personally really love this kind of thinking, can you talk about some of these specific regenerative, self reliant eco-community ideas? And in how you think about what might be called utopian visions?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, definitely. So first, as I was talking about before, in terms of the type of societal shifts that we need, we know that the way each and every one of the systems around the commons are designed have been problematic, and not delivering universally what's needed. And, at best, and then at worst, actually causing harm in the generation and the delivery of, of whatever the good is. So we talk about our energy systems, we're saying we need to shift to, to more energy efficiency, to clean energy. And we need to have a distributed system of doing so we know that not only you know, whether we've we've already talked about extensively in terms of the pollution and so forth, but the energy sector, but the other thing that's important to note is the is the the energy companies in the millions...the billions of dollars in profits that they've made and how they've, they've invested that in, and not only anti-regulatory lobbying, and anti clean energy lobbying, but also invested in groups like ALEC, that push on voter suppression, water privatization, school privatization, prison privatization, etc. And so for us, when we talk about the alternative, it is about making sure that there's affordable and accessible energy for all and it's about making sure that that becomes the focus of the energy sector, versus the focus now which is on, again enclosure of wealth and power to the tune of billions of dollars. And so that's why we feel like the whole sector needs to shift. And so that's just a little bit of background there. And so we we've been able to lift up the stories where people are developing, whether it's micro grids, or even larger grids in for example, on Navajo Nation. They're replacing the Navajo Generating Station, which was one of the largest, most polluting coal fired power plants in the country, and now they have a Navajo Nation owned a solar farm. That is creating energy in a way that don't pollute, and it is owned and operated by the Navajo Nation. John Fiege  That's awesome. Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, that's awesome. John Fiege  One thing that's exciting to me about the green new deal and similar ideas that came before it is, is the possibility for labor and sustainability to be on the same side for issues rather than constantly to be pitted against one another. What are your thoughts about how labor and justice and environment can can build solidarity as as we move into this new era?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah, so we put together this Black Labor Initiative on Just Transition for that very reason. So that we are all talking together at the same table with a common agenda, we were speaking at the coalition of Black Trade Union this meeting a couple of years ago. And when someone asked us about the Cold Blooded Report, and we spoke on that, then someone raised their hand in the audience, and they were like, "Well, we're from the United Mine Workers of America. And we kind of take exception to this Cold Blooded framing." And so we really had a chat about that. And understood where they were coming from, and really kind of talk about how we had reached out to them, we put together the Black Labor Initiative on Just Transition a couple of years before. And we would love if they consider coming back to the table there. And so they they did, and we really had a great conversation that resulted in...I was going literally from that meeting, to a meeting of the 100% Building Blocks, which is being put together by this 100% Renewable Network. And so as one of the authors of the Building Blocks, I really pushed hard for us to have a building block that's dedicated  to labor. And it was out of that conversation that I said, we need to have, like, right alongside the renewable portfolio standards and the energy efficiency standards we need to have in just right in tandem demands for high road jobs, for pensions, and for health care for transitioning workers. Like that can be like an afterthought, and "Oh, we need to do this too." It's not like, it's like, these are the things we need to do not like we need to do this too, because that automatically is like, but no, like we like these are the things we need to do. No caveat, no qualifier. Just like these are the things; renewable portfolio, standard energy, local higher provision, disadvantaged business, enterprise division, health, you know, health care, pensions and high road jobs for transitioning workers are inextricably tied prerequisites for this transition.John Fiege  Yeah, and that goes back to what you talked about before of rooting, the work in the dialogue with with multiple groups, multiple people, multiple stakeholders, and finding truth through that negotiation discussion, rather than imposing it in some theoretical way on top of other people.  So when the internet started to roll out in the 1990s, and 2000s, there was this, what was called the digital divide. Well, you know, wealthier, whiter, more urban communities got access to computers and the Internet, poorer communities, more rural communities, communities of color, were often not at the negotiating table and left out of the digital revolution. Some people are concerned that the rapid shift to green energy could cause a similar divide. Maybe you know, you could maybe call it a "green divide." What's your view on, on how this concern is playing out? And what do you see as the key elements to understanding what's going on and what to do about it?Jacqui Patterson  Yeah. So before what I was talking about one of the groups wiping off the dust off of a memo I had written some years ago, it was on that very thing, basically saying that, you know, how we need to have leadership of frontline groups in the new energy economy. And again, similar to what I was just saying about Black labor and labor in general, that it can't be an afterthought, like you can't continue to focus as a sole industry on quote-unquote, the low hanging fruit or this false notion that "a rising tide lifts all boats." And so that's all to say that, uh, that we need to make sure that we're working with with, with the, with the policies to make sure that we have clean energy in terms of universal access, we have to make sure that we're working with communities to make sure that they understand what the routes are to be able to access, we have to work with these regulatory agencies, whether it's for FERC, or, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or the PCs and the PSCs, to make sure that they are, that they're holding these utilities accountable for practices that are pushing us to where we need to go as a society towards clean and efficient energy. So all of that needs to happen in concert to make sure that we don't have those kinds of separations, in terms of who acts who's accessing it, who's paying the price. John Fiege  That your narrative doesn't get co opted by people with a furious intention for using that narrative. That's exactly ridiculous. Yeah. Well, going back to young Jackie, growing up in the south side of Chicago, how has your thinking changed since then, about who you are, and about your relationship to the rest of life on the planet?Jacqui Patterson  Hmm. One is, I see that...for one thing I now understand in a way that I now understand the relationship between whether I turn the light switch on, you know, this, this relationship to this larger world, like this, literally the implications of turning my life switch on and were, like, tracing that back to its roots, and then tracing it out to its impacts. Similarly to, if I "throw something away"  knowing know where that will go and what its impacts will be like. So now just from being that innocent child who, who didn't, who didn't have a sense of that larger world, now I see all of that. And see like my, my, the importance of my individual actions, but then the importance of my actions as a part of a collective, and the and the possibilities of a change as a change agent, and shifting from a person who kind of life happened to me, to someone who is actually able to influence what's happening in in the world in a different way. So that's a major shift. Also, just like the innocence of childhood, I was were aware of racism fairly early on, because it was a constant refrain with my mom, and so forth. My brother, a

“What we feel shapes what we believe. What if we could feel the future before it arrives?” So reads the back cover of new fiction book ‘Mage' written by sustainability professional, post-growth advocate and Adelaide local Sharon Ede. In this penultimate episode of the second season of PGAP, Sharon tells us why fiction, story-telling and emotional resonance are essential communications tools for the environmental movement to engage with the broader community. Providing facts and figures to rally the troops over large-scale existential crises has so far failed to work. Engaging people emotionally through storytelling and providing a ripping yarn just might be the missing link. Mage is definitely this kind of book and hopefully this interview will convince you to add 'Mage' to your post-growth library. I have not come across much post-growth fiction in my travels. Up until a few years ago, the 1970s novel ‘Ecotopia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia#Reception)' provided a fascinating day-to-day account on how a more ecocentric society might operate on the west coast of the USA. Unfortunately, the book is starting to show its age somewhat in some of its social justice attitudes when looked back through the lens of the 21st century. A much more up to date fictional account of a post-growth society can be found in the 2013 novel ‘Entropia' (https://au.permacultureprinciples.com/product/entropia/) by Dr Samuel Alexander. At a seminar at the 2019 Earth Ethics conference in Melbourne, Dr Alexander shared with attendees the importance for story-telling and art to carry the environmental message to the broader world. In fact, the music project ‘Mortimer's Method' (https://mortimersmethod.bandcamp.com/) took this idea of art as education a step further by putting samples from the audio-book of 'Entropia' to modern music. An extract of the track 'How Now Shall We Live' is provided at the end of the episode. ‘Mage' joins this pantheon and yet Sharon Ede goes beyond utopian society fiction and casts a much broader net with her new novel. Spanning the continents between Adelaide, Venice and the Arctic, Mage brings together many of the ideas and innovations that Sharon has picked up through her years as an environmental and Post-Growth advocate. It is a ripping epic of a yarn, worthy of comparisons to Dan Brown, Tim Powers or even an episode of Doctor Who. This episode was recorded, once more, on site at Christie Walk (https://www.urbanecology.org.au/eco-cities/christie-walk/) eco-development in Central Adelaide. In fact, it was recorded on the same evening as my interview with Sue Gilbey and Mark Allen in the previous episode of PGAP! So thank you to Christie Walk for providing the venue and Sue for providing the recording technology. Sue and Mark stayed around for the interview, so on occasion they can be heard in the background during the interview. It has been a pleasure to spend some time in Adelaide and to interview the post-growth movers and shakers who call this fine part of the world home. So it is with slight sadness on my part that this is not only the penultimate episode of The Adelaide series of interviews, but also the penultimate episode of the second series of PGAP. The second season of PGAP has been an epic travelogue almost worthy of ‘Mage' including on site interviews from Northern Rivers to Adelaide and just about everywhere in between. It has been an incredible ride and thank you all for listening and travelling with me on this journey of discovery. ** Too much Post-Growth barely enough? Here are some links to further occupy your time. Thank me later!** A online link to find out more about Mage (and the seal the deal on your own personal copy) can be found here (https://www.magethenovel.com/) Want to find out more about Sharon and her extensive work outside of writing great fiction? Make a good start here (https://medium.com/@sharonede) The previous episode of PGAP was also recorded at Christie Walk (link here) (https://pgap.fireside.fm/christiewalk). Sue Gilbey interviewed Sharon for the Adelaide Chronicles podcast (link here) (https://adelaidechronicles.com/mage/) I mentioned Dr Michelle Maloney and the Earth Ethics conference of 2019. Michelle and her work with Australian Earth Law Alliance (AELA) and New Economy Network Australia (NENA) were interviewed for PGAP here (https://pgap.fireside.fm/4) Sharon was a founding member of the Post Growth Institute (https://www.postgrowth.org/). PGI's Robert Wanalo was interviewed in PGAP season 1 here (https://pgap.fireside.fm/pgo) The ABC article I referred to in the intro for this episode was titled "Sustainable development won't solve environmental crises, say these experts. It's simpler than that" (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-07/the-myth-of-sustainable-development/100504448?fbclid=IwAR03ZNRqZL2YaCwQjsRKiXCqWTC5u60fuco42a2YKT3pMU5k7rjJ8eOZBK8) Special Guest: Sharon Ede.

Content warning: violence. If this raises any issues for you, contact: Lifeline 13 11 141800 RESPECT 1800 737 732Visit our website for more support services >Visit thetrap.com.au to learn moreProductionHost & writer Jess HillCreative producer Georgina SavageProducers Mary Crooks AO, Ally Oliver-Perham, Maria Chetcuti, Lucy BallantyneProduction manager Ally Oliver-Perham, Maria ChetcutiSound design & mix Romy Sher, Pariya Taherzadeh-DesovskiResearch Leah McPhersonTranscription Max Favetti, Amanda BarbourProduction assistance Sanduni Hewa Katupothage, Esther Davies-Brown, Alexandra Collins, Georgia Lazarakis, Georgia Shepherd, Aaryn Melzer, Rachael Imam, Lily MooneyArt direction Aimee CarruthersVideo The Social ParadeAnimation Mari FrithPhotography Saskia WilsonWith thanks to the entire team at VWTThe Trap is a harm prevention podcast, created by the Dugdale Trust for Women & Girls (of which the Victorian Women's Trust is Trustee). This project has been made possible thanks to the support of donors. Special thanks to the Phyllis Connor Memorial Trust of Equity Trustees Limited, Jo Baevski, a private donor, and The Bokhara Foundation.© The Dugdale Trust for Women & Girls 2021We are indebted to everyone who courageously shared their stories and wisdom with us. Thank you all.

Mindahi Bastida Muñoz is the Director of the Original Caretakers Program, Center for Earth Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, and General Coordinator of the Otomi-Toltec Regional Council in Mexico, a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, and has been a Ritual Ceremony Officer since 1988. Mindahi is also the President of the Mexico Council of Sustainable Development, a member of the Steering Committee of the Indigenous Peoples' Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative. Born in Tultepec (Tool-te-peck), Mexico, he holds a Doctorate of Rural Development. He has written extensively on the relationship between the State and Indigenous Peoples, as well as intercultural education. Here is my conversation with Mindahi Bastida.

Mindahi Bastida Muñoz is the Director of the Original Caretakers Program, Center for Earth Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, and General Coordinator of the Otomi-Toltec Regional Council in Mexico, a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, and has been a Ritual Ceremony Officer since 1988. Mindahi is also the President of the Mexico Council of Sustainable Development, a member of the Steering Committee of the Indigenous Peoples' Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative. Born in Tultepec (Tool-te-peck), Mexico, he holds a Doctorate of Rural Development. He has written extensively on the relationship between the State and Indigenous Peoples, as well as intercultural education. Here is my conversation with Mindahi Bastida.

Catherine Coleman Flowers is the author of "Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret" and the founder and current director of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice. Since 2008, Catherine has been the rural development manager at the Race and Poverty Initiative of the Equal Justice Initiative. She also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Climate Reality Project, and as a Senior Fellow for the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. This week, she joins the show to talk about her career as an environmental justice advocate and her fight against sanitation inequality and the devastating impacts caused by the inability to provide affordable means to properly dispose of waste. We discuss the widespread and harmful problem of wastewater, how it stems from structural racism and class inequality, why it's been a long overlooked issue, and how to address the problem.   Co-hosts Ty Benefiel and Brock Benefiel also discuss 2020's historically active Atlantic hurricane season. As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Check out our updated website!  Further Reading: The 2020 Hurricane Season in Rewind

With the recent $600 million legal settlement and creation of a victim's compensation fund in the Flint water crisis, Amerikan Therapy decided we needed to better understand what environmental justice is and why black people need to be in this fight. We sit down with Catherine Flowers, the founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ) organization and one of the nations leading back environmental justice warriors. Ms. Flowers educates Amerikan Therapy on how the African American community is routinely and intentionally exposed to environmental toxins and unsafe living conditions whether we live in an urban city or in the rural south. This conversation exposes how our environment directly impacts our mental and emotional wellness. There is no escaping the impacts of environmental injustice when it comes to being black in America. This is a powerful conversation that will change undoubtedly change you. Catherine Coleman Flowers: Catherine Coleman Flowers is the founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ) which seeks the implementation of best practices to address the reduction of health and economic disparities, improve access to clean air, water, and soil in marginalized rural communities by influencing policy, inspiring innovation, catalyzing relevant research and amplifying the voices of community leaders. This is done within the context of climate change and through the lens of environmental justice.A member of the Board of Directors for the Climate Reality Project, she is employed as the Rural Development Manager for the Equal Justice Initiative and serves as a Senior Fellow for the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. Her goal is to find solutions to raw sewage that exist in rural communities throughout the United States. Catherine is also an internationally recognized advocate for the human right to water and sanitation and works to make the UN Sustainable Development Agenda accountable to frontline communities. Her journey is chronicled in her book entitled Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, which will be published by the New Press this fall.Catherine's Testimony and Content: https://centerforearthethics.org/catherine-flowers/ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/AMERIKANTHERAPY)

This episode of Blue Earth is a conversation with Father Andrea Vicini, S.J. of Boston College. He is Professor of Moral Theology and Professor of Bioethics. He holds numerous degrees including an M.D. from the University of Bologna and a Ph.D. from Boston College. His research interests include moral theology, bioethics, genetics and environmental issues. Future Frogmen's President, Richard Hyman, first met Father at Fairfield University, where he lectured on “Saving the Earth: Ethics, Health Care, and the Common Good". Richard was impressed by Father Vicini's ability to relate to the common man, and his concern for the earth and environmental sustainability. Given today's humanitarian crisis, and forced migrations as a result of sea level rise and other impacts, we thought it was important to repurpose our 2019 video conversation with Father Vicini, and share it with you on Blue Earth. Our guest host for this episode is Donald M. Kerwin Jr., the Executive Director of the Center for Migration Studies of New York. Mr. Kerwin writes and speaks extensively on immigration policy, refugee protection, access to justice, national security, and other issues. Look for more episodes of Blue Earth at https://anchor.fm/blueearth or wherever you listen. For information about Future Frogmen check out www.futurefrogmen.org. We're also on most social platforms @futurefrogmen. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/blueearth/support

Join EDS at Union on Tuesday, May 12th at 2:15 PM ET for a Facebook Live conversation between Dean Kelly Brown Douglas and Karenna Gore on COVID 19 and the Environment. Karenna Gore is the founder and director of the Center for Earth Ethics (CEE) at Union Theological Seminary. The Center for Earth Ethics bridges the worlds of religion, academia, policy and culture to discern and pursue the changes that are necessary to stop ecological destruction.   Hip Hop Rap Instrumental (Crying Over You) by christophermorrow https://soundcloud.com/chris-morrow-3 Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/2AHA5G9 Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/hiYs5z4xdBU

Karenna Gore, founder and director of the Center for Earth Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, describes eco-ministry, and the need for healing in multiple arenas and contexts in our communities. She discusses the historic context of colonialism and cultural subjugation, and how such dynamics over centuries have lead to the […]

Some sections of our population bear more of the burden in a warming world, and it’s not just the folks who live on the coast. Join Kait for a discussion with Catherine Flowers, a senior fellow at the Center for Earth Ethics, who knows first-hand how disproportionately poor communities are affected by climate change.

Environmentalist Karenna Gore goes beyond carbon emissions to the root causes of climate change and talks about how framing the crisis as a moral issue can help us adapt and mitigate its worst effects. Ms. Gore is Director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary.

I talk with Karenna Gore, Director of the Center for Earth Ethics from Union Theological Seminary about climate justice, spirituality, and how to parent our children through climate anxiety. She talks beautifully about how the climate justice moment is clarifying our interconnectedness and how to find authentic community in the social movement for life. Lots of recommendations for more resources, see the links below. There’s really some deep wisdom in this episode all, don’t miss it! Links (affiliates included): Center for Earth Ethics - https://centerforearthethics.org  Karenna Gore on twitter - https://twitter.com/KarennaGore  The Blessing of a Skinned Knee - https://amzn.to/2QUUDnK  How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk - https://amzn.to/2XO5xgy  The Uninhabitable Earth - https://amzn.to/2DmAUpk  Global Weirding with Katharine Hayhoe - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6RkdaEqgRVKi3AzidF4ow Parenting Forward Conference Recordings - https://www.parentingforwardconference.com  Join us at the Parenting Forward Patreon Team - https://www.patreon.com/cindywangbrandt  Parenting Forward, the Book - https://amzn.to/2GB6eDB  *** EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com 

Michelle Maloney is the co-founder and national convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) and along with a team of helpers and volunteers will bring a two-day conference to Melbourne in November - "Building Earth Ethics in Australia: Pathways and Challenges".Michelle, who oversees programs focused on Earth-centred law, economics, education, ethics, the arts and bio-regional governance, created Australia's first university level course on Earth laws that has been taught at the Griffiths University Law School in Brisbane since 2016.Passionate about ensuring as many as possible understand Earth laws and Earth centred governance, Michelle introduced lectures and workshops on both topics into Queensland high schools in 2018.

Dean Kelly Brown Douglas speaks with Karenna Gore, Director of Union's Center for Earth Ethics. They discuss the moral dimensions of our ecological crisis, how environmental issues are playing out in the presidential primary, and Karenna's recent New York Times op-ed. The Center for Earth Ethics is an institute at Union Theological Seminary that envisions a world where value is measured according to the sustained well-being of all people and our planet. Learn more at their website www.centerforearthethics.org/  

After participating in the Food and Faith event alongside one hundred interfaith leaders, politicians, climate change experts and farmers, host Amy Dolan shares her inspiring and life-changing experience and how she plans to connect her learnings on land, labor and food with her life and work. The conference was presented by the Methodist Theological School of Ohio, Center for Earth Ethics, The Climate Reality Project and the Ohio State University Initiative for Food and Agricultural Transformation (InFACT).

Karenna Gore has been an environmental activist for many years, following in the footsteps of her father, former Vice President Al Gore. She’s currently the director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and joins Errol to discuss her efforts to reframe climate change as a moral and spiritual issue and engage faith-based leaders to help fix it. Gore also touches on politics and family, discussing her relationship with her grandfather, former Tennessee Senator Al Gore Sr., and working on her father’s presidential campaign. Weigh in on Twitter with the hashtag #NY1YouDecide or give us a call at 212-379-3440 and leave a message.

On this episode, I have a discussion with Dr. Tom Berendt. Dr. Berendt is a Professor of Religion at Temple University whose work focuses primarily on the veneration, or worship, of animals and nature in different religious traditions throughout history. I first met Dr. Berendt when I took his "Earth Ethics" class at Temple, and continued to have discussions with him in this field when I joined his Pagan Studies club, where we looked deeply into nature-based religious traditions. In this episode, we explore the broad question of how religion mediates humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Dr. Berendt is not currently active on social media, but within the next year he will be upon his release of his new book, “The Animality Manifesto”. So stay tuned and I will be posting about that when it is released. You can stay up to date on any new podcasts at liftingtheiceberg.com or by following Lifting the Iceberg on Facebook and Instagram. Podcast available on Spotify and Itunes, and Youtube. Thank you to Alexa Spaddy for designing the graphics for this podcast. You can find her at Alexaspaddy.com Thank you to Kerusu for the soundtrack Stay with me. You can find Kerusu on Spotify, Youtube and Soundcloud.

Karenna Gore, director of the Center for Earth Ethics, talks about the moral dimensions of the ecological crisis, her interest in American indigenous traditions, studying liberation theology with James Cone, challenging GDP as a measure of social well-being, connections between women's rights and environmental issues, and what gives her hope.

Karenna Gore, director of the Center for Earth Ethics, talks about the moral dimensions of the ecological crisis, her interest in American indigenous traditions, studying liberation theology with James Cone, challenging GDP as a measure of social well-being, connections between women's rights and environmental issues, and what gives her hope.

Karenna Gore, director of the Center for Earth Ethics, talks about the moral dimensions of the ecological crisis, her interest in American indigenous traditions, studying liberation theology with James Cone, challenging GDP as a measure of social well-being, connections between women’s rights and environmental issues, and what gives her hope.

"The early Anthropocene is where I leave my life behind and you begin yours. You cannot know what I would give so you did not live out your days on this trajectory of climate instability, mass uncertainty, and breath taking extinction across the community of life. I pray that you are able to bring adaptation from distress. What I know, is that Anthropocene citizens who continue Holocene habits, doom their children. Nonetheless, the world has not stopped being beautiful, so claim the beauty that is. Beauty is it's own resistance." Larry L. Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York City. His book, Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key, received the Nautilus Book Awards as the Gold Prize winner for Ecology/Environment and as the Grand Prize winner for best 2014 book overall. He has been the organizer of the decade project on Earth-Honoring Faith at Ghost Ranch. An earlier volume, Earth Community, Earth Ethics, won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Religion of 1997. He served as a member of the Science, Ethics, and Religion Advisory Committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was a recipient of a Henry Luce Fellowship in Theology, 1998-99, the Burnice Fjellman Award for Distinguished Christian Ministries in Higher Education, the Joseph Sittler Award for Outstanding Leadership in Theological Education, and the UNITAS (Distinguished Alumnus) Award from Union Theological Seminary, New York. From 1990-2000 he served as co-moderator of the World Council of Churches unit, Justice, Peace, Creation. He and Nyla live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They are Santa Fe County Master Gardeners. To learn more about Holden Village, visit: http://www.holdenvillage.org or to listen to more audio recordings visit: http://audio.holdenvillage.org The Holden Village Podcast is accessible through Apple iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeart Radio, and most podcast apps. To contact the podcast author, podcast@holdenvillage.org

The Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas was joined by the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas and Ms. Karenna Gore for a conversation about their experiences with faith-based organizations engaged in the Care of Creation, and the Episcopal Churches response to the climate crisis.  The Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas is an EDS alumna, author, retreat leader, and Episcopal priest. She serves as Missioner for Creation Care for both the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts and Mass, Conference, United Church of Christ. Karenna Gore is Director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. This organization grew out of the Religions for the Earth conference held at Union Theological Seminary in September 2014.

The Laura C. Harris Series welcomes Rachel Marco-Havens, a “solutionary” artist, performer, activist, facilitator, and storyteller. She currently serves as advisor for the Center of Earth Ethics and as a UN representative for the Wittenberg Center focusing on indigenous and environmental issues. Joined by faculty and local activists Carol Apacki, Rita Kipp, and Ceciel Shaw, Marco-Havens will lead an Activist Workshop focused on how to effectively and efficiently engage as grassroots organizers and activists on the local, state, and national scale. Workshop participants will develop an action plan to address a selected issue and propel the movement forward. During her visit to Denison, Marco-Havens will visit classes on Wednesday, Feb. 7 and Thursday, Feb. 8. Also, she will take part in the Courageous Voices Roundtable at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 8, at the Robbins Hunter Museum. The roundtable is the first event of a three-year program of the museum to celebrate Victoria Claflin Woodhull, a native of Homer, Ohio, and the first woman to run for U.S. President in 1870. Marco-Havens will be one of four panel members moderated by Judith Dann, a professor at Columbus State Community College, who will also deliver the opening remarks. Carol Apacki, Rita Kipp, and Ceciel Shaw round out the panel. Using the backdrop of Woodhull’s own courageous voice, Rachel, the panelists will introduce their stories and their community activism work.

The influence of the capitalist system on our spirits: this was the theme of discussion I proposed to Lyla June when we began our interview. You see, Lyla June’s story is quite different from those we’ve heard previously. Believing that capitalism is the root of destruction of the earth and the people, she’s lived a series of life experiments, consciously weaving in and out of the capitalist system with an ultimate goal to change that very system. Life experiment number 1: She chooses not to be part of the capitalist system and for three years she practices what she calls “fearless generosity”, giving away her work and gifts, in a selfless act, for the betterment of her people. Life experiment number 2: she enters the corporate world, this time with the goal to change the system from the inside. Life experiment number 3: she decides to build her own system, returning to her traditional institutions and working with Diné peoples to create and sustain their own education systems free of white colonial fetters. In addition to Lyla’s very unique personal story, you’ll also hear her talk about: + The role indigenous cultures and traditions play in helping western societies rebuild social systems and models for a more sustainable world. + Putting women at the root to create stable societies + And stories highlighting the historical events and treatement of the Diné people.   ABOUT LYLA JUNE Lyla June is a anthropologist, educator, musician, public speaker and internationally recognized performance poet. She was raised in Taos, New Mexico and is a descendant of Diné (Navajo) and Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) lineages. She is a fellow with the Original Caretakers Initiative at the Center for Earth Ethics. She is a co-founder of The Taos Peace and Reconciliation Council, which works to heal intergenerational trauma and ethnic division in the northern New Mexico. She is a walker within the Nihigaal Bee Iiná Movement, and is the lead organizer of the Black Hill Unity Concert. She is the also the founder of Regeneration Festival, an annual celebration of children that has occurred in 13 countries around the world. Her most recent book is a poetic rendition of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, entitled Lifting Hearts Off the Ground: Declaring Indigenous Rights in Poetry. Lyla graduated with honors from Stanford University in 2012 with a degree in Environmental Anthropology. She is currently pursuing graduate studies in American Indian Education at the University of New Mexico. Her current work involves working with Diné peoples to create and sustain their own traditional education systems free of colonial fetters. Connect with Lyla June at: + Website: sodizin.net + Facebook: /lylajune + Instagram: @lylajune   SPONSOR UNTANGLED If my podcasts have helped you, inspired you or spoken to you, I would be so grateful for your generous contribution. As a one-woman show, in which I do everything myself, your sponsorship – from as little as $1 a month – will help to cover the costs of producing and hosting Untangled plus, eventually with enough support, I hope to release additional episodes and create in-person live untangling events and workshops. This is my dream. To make a contribution, head to the Patreon page here.   LOVE AND FEEDBACK If you love this podcast, I would be so grateful if you would take a couple of moments, head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review + subscribe to the podcast while you’re there.   WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE TO UNTANGLED You can subscribe to Untangled so you never miss an episode. + Click here to subscribe on Apple Podcasts + Click here to subscribe on Stitcher + Click here to subscribe on SoundCloud