Earth Day 2020

Explore the Earth Day Activism opportunities with youth Activist Madeline Canfield. Please tune in to the Earth Day Live Livestream from 8 am Central to 8 pm Central on Wednesday, April 22nd through Friday, April 24th: https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/

Find more of us at http://theyoungperspective.net
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Email: ejtheyoungperpspective@gmail.com

Transcript

spk_0:   0:01
Hi, everybody. I'm Josh

spk_1:   0:04
and I'm even. And this is the young, perceptive way.

spk_0:   0:22
Want to remind everybody to stay home? It's what the government recommends. We want you to stay home so we can flatten the curve so we can get back to our normal lives as quickly as possible. It's for the good of our country and for the good of the world. And on that note of, ah, global goodness, I'm gonna shift over to a holiday that is coming up Earth Day. It's coming up this Wednesday, Wednesday, April 22nd.

spk_1:   0:48
So, uh, in honor of birthday today, we have a guest speaker, a climate change activist, my older sister, Madeline. And she's going to talk to us today. We're gonna interview her about her experiences with in the climate change movement and how earth they has on how they're planning the upcoming birthday. Hi, I'm Alan s O. What do you What organization are you involved with? And what do you have? What have you done? So, uh, in the climate change movement,

spk_2:   1:16
So I said I'm outta line. I've been with the youth climate movement for about a year now. A little over a year money 14 15 months, Um, which is about as long as the at least the strike movement been pretty active. So I work primarily as a local organizer for the Sunrise movement, which is a youth led social justice movement organization fighting for a green new deal, which is a big climate policy that the kind of movement has adopted. And for a future where we transition our economy, tradition, our energy sector and our economy to be sustainable and green and to not leave people behind. I have what? The sunrise movement in Houston, which is our hub. I service the political actions lead, which means that I plan actions, protests, engagements with essentially the city City Council, the Office of Sustainability and primarily the climate strikes and I've been there have been so far. This is Earth Day is gonna be the fifth major day of climate action. MIT major sync up climate strikes. Um, in the history of this right movement on dso, I've been involved climate strike since September 20th which was the biggest day of climate action in U. S. History. I was one of the organizers in Houston.

spk_0:   2:38
Yeah, I wanna thank you for all the work you've done there. It was a great climate strike on September 20th. I was really amazing that it Justin Houston, there was over 1000 people that came to support the climate. Um, and this was around the world. So it was awesome.

spk_1:   2:55
Yeah, it was definitely. I been to some tantalizing protests and they're really interested and really empowering. So do you volunteer to be part of any other climate organizations the size besides the sunrise movement?

spk_2:   3:09
So, um, in addition to sunrise, I serve on the partnerships team of the zero Hour, which is an organization also another youth let climate Organization. It's in the coalition of US youth climate strike Organizations, which is a coalition that puts on these climate strikes in the country. They're allied with it'll organizations, but they do. A lot of they do. The climate strikes and they collaborate on just this movement in general because there are a lot of organizations doing the same

spk_0:   3:36
work. So So, as as we know, Earth Day is coming up. What have you and your different groups? The sunrise movement? What have you been doing to prepare for the day and one of the big events that are occurring

spk_2:   3:49
so since late December early January of it's like December 2019 early January 2020. The Coalition of thes nine organizations, which are coordinated by something called the Future Coalition, which is itself a coalition organizations. They have made a plan for Earth Day 2020 which was instead of just a single climate strike, which are usually on Fridays, there would be three days of climate strike climate strike action. So Wednesday would be then mass mobilizations. Everyone in the streets that you normally see Thursday So once it strike day Thursday about stopping the money pipeline, so focusing on divesting money from fossil fuel industries. So it was targeting the major, the biggest investment company, the biggest asset manager, which is Black Rock, a bank chase and insurance company, Liberty Mutual that have the most holdings in fossil fuel companies and targeting them with actions for divestment. And Thursday, on Friday, excuse me was a day of political engagement and youth voter registration. Now that their covert crisis is happening, this coalition of which sunrises apart, has pivoted to something called Earth Day Live, which is a live stream event that encapsulate still those three days so Wednesday strike Thursday, divest and Friday vote and political engagement and just has 72 hours of national lifestream each day. The Lifestream starts at 8 a.m. Our time and ends at 8 p.m. And it features really big celebrities and activists and performers and political figures who, um, just talk about the climate crisis and it'll be really cool.

spk_0:   5:34
Yeah, that sounds really interesting. So as you talked about Covert, 19 has shifted the your plans and Sunrise Movement's plans. The coalition's the holes plans for Earth Day. But what has it done for the environment? How has it affected the environment? So

spk_1:   5:50
is it more like a good benefit? Because we've seen the emissions? Uh, yeah, across the Internet, the international scale going gone down a lot. But it's him, or is it a bad shift towards the climate crisis

spk_0:   6:04
and not only the emissions? You hear stories about how there's having dolphins in Venice for the first time in hundreds of years? And on all these things around the world, the Great Barrier Reef is recovering all these great and promising, um, climate and environment milestones that are occurring.

spk_2:   6:23
They think that they're the way of looking at that premise of the question isn't good or is it bad is actually the wrong way of looking at it. We can definitely see the tremendous impacts of what happens when we reduce our global climate emissions. That's beautiful to see. As Josh just said, Dolphins for the first time in the coral reefs, rebounding and just being able to walk around in cities even like our own with low pollution. And for people who have asthma, that's incredible. But to consider Cove in 19 a good thing for the environment is false and is the wrong way of looking at it. We can definitely take this as a lesson of why we need act climate action. But what we need to be looking at is how the federal government and the presidential administration is using cove it as an excuse to roll back e p. A. Which the Environmental Protection Agency, their regulations regulating global up national emissions, fuels economy standards for cars set to increase the number of miles per gallon that a car must run on in by in the next couple of years and increased just regulations for companies and their pollution emissions. Um, some states, including in Texas or using carnivorous as an excuse to pass laws making it more difficult to do civil disobedience against pipelines, which are, um, fossil fuel oil and gas pipelines extracting them. And so they're a burden on climate activists and coming out of cove it We know that the economy end that, UM, consumer activity such as buying meat and driving cars and planes. All that's going to start up again. And without those regulations, it's just going to get worse. So what we need to see Cove It as is on opportunity to hold our government officials accountable for a mass action. Climate action requires transitioning our economy away from fossil fuels. That's going to cost money. But it is affordable in the long run because it's going to be way cheaper, way more economically affordable to spend the trillions of dollars to transition away from the fossil fuel industry, then to allow the climate crisis to proceed and then suffer the damages. And so when government officials have told climate activists for years and months that we can't we just can't do it, you're doing, it's not economically possible, which you're asking us. We're exposing the fact that look, if our national government can spend trillions of dollars to protect the health well being and financial stability of individual Americans and the economy as a whole in the crisis like Cove it and his global crisis to public health, well being and economics, we can do the same for the climate crisis, which is going to be an even bigger crisis of much for grander length and magnitude and scope, and that will also disrupt people's livelihoods and their health, their well being, their education, their finances for years and years and years to come.

spk_0:   9:37
So so what I understand is that the government is using this as an opportunity. Um, Thio limit regulation and allow for in the future when our emissions come back to normal. There for there to be more emissions for companies, t produce more oil and gas. So the government is limiting regulation. And in the allowance of these regulations around the country,

spk_2:   10:02
yes, that would be correct. So

spk_1:   10:04
they're like abusing the system in a sense, with cova?

spk_2:   10:08
Yes. So passing laws that have nothing to do with Kobe that actually have to do with benefiting large corporations that have that are emitting carbon and just general activity, and you see it in Texas as well as nationally. And so it's just an excuse because it's nothing to do with Kobe. You

spk_0:   10:31
spoke about how it's an investment for our future. If we transition away from fossil fuel fuels, even though we call it will cost a lot of money. It'll cost Ah, lot, a lot of jobs over the next 2030 years, You said It's an investment for our future. But how is that gonna affect the economy? And how can we limit the effect of economy as time

spk_2:   10:56
goes on? So that's definitely so people think of We can't That's really what you hear that argument most from elected officials? Who wouldn't you look into it? Argh! Get taking large swaths of money and campaign for donations from fossil fuel industry members. And the problem with that is, if you look into how much the global economy is going to suffer from climate change, say we do nothing say our global temperatures rise past 1.5 degrees, which is like the threshold of acceptable warming and it rises 345 degrees. That's it may not sound like a lot, but that is so much the cost. The climate disaster is the amount of refugees, the threat to geopolitics, the threat to sustainable agriculture, where you know we're making food. The crisis is going to be of such great intense magnitude that globally, the global economy is going to lose trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars. It's going to be such a big economic loss. So the argument that climate action is gonna cost so much money is I mean, it's not wrong. It's going to cost a lot of money. But climate in action is going to make us lose such an unthinkable amount of money. But it's not, and that's just one part of it. We won't even be able to recognize life. It will be so difficult. Um, do you think that refugee crisis is bad right now? You think that education and equality and thehe mount of time we're in school. If we're having climate disasters of all time, you will be in school, won't be able to plant you students. Kids will be suffering from PTSD from the amount of times their homes. But it's just an impending crisis. And so what Covert teaches us is, Hey, the government is actually willing to spend lots of money to avert a crisis when they see that. Oh, this is a crisis that's going to threaten our economy, and the health and well being of our people were willing to also make the changes, sometimes not money. Social distancing is a radical change to the way we live, and people are saying we'll do it because we gotta protect ourselves So people say I will eat less meat and we will use renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels. That's a change, and it's a big change. But why do we choose to do it? Because we recognize that not doing it is stirring a crisis that we cannot morally allowed to happen as young people as you, Ethan and Josh and all of us friends, ears. We're going to be living with this crisis, and we can't afford that for ourselves and then for our Children and their Children.

spk_1:   13:37
It is, though, What would you know we'd be seeing after Earth Day live, uh, Livestream on Wednesday. There's then Friday of next week. But what actually is gonna be going on during those life

spk_2:   13:50
screens? So it's gonna be really fun. You'll see a lot of interviews with youth climate activists, some local, so you'll be seeing people on the front lines of the crisis. Local activists Who's that my team has a 10 minute segment will be talking about things like the flooding, climate disasters we see here and how those impact our lives for months and years to come. It will be centering a lot of activists of indigenous climate activists and I'MA activists. Um, again, front lines comin, activists you, but not just the stories of the activists you'll be hearing from big name political figure of people like Stacey Abrams and Secretary of State John Kerry, a former vice president. Al Gore legal people you'll be hearing from big celebrities who are going to be a interviewing some climate activists. So say Joaquin Phoenix or, um, a lot of other celebrities, and then you'll also be hearing from performers. So little Dicky is one, and we've just got a big list. If you go to Earth Day, live 2020 you can see the giant list. Everyone is gonna be their political figures. Um, actors and performers.

spk_1:   15:04
Thank you so much. Metal line for lending your time and your expertise Guys wantto have all of you guys come out Thio Earth Day Live or put a link in our website to come out Thio the Livestream You go on other social media like Facebook and Twitter.

spk_0:   15:20
It's Earth Day life 2020 dot or ge

spk_2:   15:23
yes, If you go to Earth Day live 2020 dot or GE on the days of the Lifestream. If you tune in Wednesday morning or any other day, there will be a link there and you could just go. So what's the best way to do it?

spk_0:   15:35
Thank you, Madeline. Everybody remember, Please stay home. Real climate change and climate activism is for the good of the future. But staying home is for the good of the future as well. So everybody please stay home. Be safe, be healthy. And remember, this was the young perspective,

spk_1:   15:56
right? Thanks, Allan. Thanks, guys. Okay,

spk_0:   16:00
I'm gonna have to edit out some of that. Ethan, the dollar's

spk_1:   16:02
dropping it off. It was like 17 minutes. A sign. Uh, thank you, Madeline. Very much photos for you based on your

spk_2:   16:12
good podcast, you guys. Oh, yeah. Very good. Podcast. Very interesting. That