April 20, 2021 • 35 mins
We know climate change is a real threat to our planet, but we hear a lot less about the threat it poses to public health. That’s why this week, Chelsea is sitting down with two people who have tackled this head on: Jane Fonda, who has used her powerful platform to engage people across generations in this fight, and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms who has made addressing climate change in Atlanta a top priority, quickly becoming a model for other cities in how to address this crisis.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Chelsea Clinton, and this is in fact a
podcast about why public health matters even when we're not
in a pandemic. Today we're talking about climate change. We
know climate change is a real threat to our planet. Well,
(00:21):
if you're listening to this podcast, you probably know that.
I don't need to convince you of it, But we
hear a lot less about the threat the climate change
poses to our health and our public health. Extreme weather events,
including floods, hurricanes, and droughts, can claim lives and disrupt
access to public health services and systems. There's a direct
connection between air pollution or smoke from wildfires and higher
(00:43):
rates of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Rising temperatures are changing
our planet, introducing new illnesses and making the crisis of
food and security even worse for even more people in
more places. And of course, climate change also has an
impact on our mental health, from year and anxiety to
postmatic stress sort among people who have survived natural disasters.
(01:06):
And while it can be tempting to feel overwhelmed by
the magnitude of the problem, it's the last thing we
can afford to do. Today. I'm talking to two people
who have tackled climate change head on. We'll hear from
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has experienced climate change
on a personal level and a political one. But first,
I'm very excited to welcome a courageous activist who never
(01:27):
backs down in the base of a challenge. In fact,
sometimes I think she goes looking for challenges to tackle
because she knows she can. Jane Fonda. For decades, Jane
has used her powerful platform on behalf of the causes.
She cares intensely about LGBTQ rights, the anti war movement,
women's rights, racial justice, and the environment. More recently, she's
(01:52):
leveraged her platform toward the environment, specifically with her fire
Drill Fridays, where she galvanizes hundred it's thousands, sometimes deends
of thousands of people to cause a lot of noise
about the urgency of climate change. She's endlessly brave, incredibly funny,
and deeply passionate about making the world a better place.
(02:13):
Welcome Jane. Thank you, Chelsea. I'm so grateful that you
have connected these two issues and want to do a
program on it. I'm really really grateful. I think it
would just be really helpful to start today with how
you came to climate change. You know, you've been an
activist for decades, I mean your entire career. You have
used your platform to stand up for women's rights, for
(02:35):
racial justice, for LGBTQ rights, and now you're standing up
for the environment and our shared future. How did you
come to this issue and why now? Well, I I realized,
because I've been studying the environment for a long time,
I've realized that what's happening with the warming of the
atmosphere because of the burning of fossil fuels and the
emission of carbon into the atmosphere, that it's creating a
(02:58):
crisis that is civilizational. It's sort of the overriding crisis
that supersedes everything, and everything is connected to it. It's
not just health, it's the economy. It's the ability for
a society to be functional, for democracy, for health, for
oceans and forests, for our ability to breathe, for all
(03:18):
these reasons. We really have to confront it. And I
realized in twenty nineteen, largely because of what the young
climate activists were doing. They inspired me a lot, and
I realized that while I had made all the individual changes,
you know, I'd drive an electric car. I have gotten
rid of single use plastics and you know all those
things that that's the on ramp, that's where you start,
(03:40):
but it's not where you stop. And that I had
to do more, and that's when I decided to stand
beside the young people as an old person. They said,
come on, don't let us do this alone. We don't
even vote. We need older people to stand with us.
So I moved to d C and started fired real
Fridays every Friday, and in we had over nine million
(04:00):
people following us across all platforms, so it was really great.
But I don't think people realize how the climate affects health.
I mean here in California, the fires, the apocalyptic fires
that burned in northern California. The air after the fires,
I mean even in southern California, the air was brown.
(04:23):
Birds were falling dead out of the sky, the rates
of asthma were skyrocketing. It also affected our water. People
got sick from drinking the water. There are so many
aspects of climate change that's affecting us, and I was
really really glad that you mentioned mental health. I've talked
to women in the old mining towns in West Virginia
(04:44):
who live in the bottom of valleys that are destroyed
these homes because of floods. And after the floods, a
woman told me the children are suffering PTSD, and then
there's just climate grief. Especially young people are carrying a
lot of green because they know what we're losing, the
billions of species that are going extinct and so forth,
(05:05):
and they worry that they really won't have a future.
And I know you have three young children. I know
that you must be so worried about this too. I
do feel this acutely as a as a citizen, as
a human being, and yes, especially as a mother, because
I have to confess ate that I find it at
best aggravating, and it were something quite darker. And when
(05:26):
people lithely say, oh, the children are our answer, like
like the children will solve these challenges, because it then
completely removes any responsibility from those of us who should
know better and who actually bear a greater responsibility for
whatever those problems are. I think it's really important for
people to pay close attention to what the scientists say.
(05:48):
It's very clear, in a nutshell, they say we have
to cut carbon emissions in half by yikes, I mean,
that's all of the world's that eonomy is based on
fossil fuel. It's a really monumental task, but there's no choice.
We have to do it. If we wait until our
children grow up, it'll be too late. We are the
(06:10):
generation who have the responsibility to do what science is demanding.
Cut back fossil fuel emissions by fifty and then begin
a gradual total phase out. It's not like we're saying
get rid of fossil fuels immediately. We can't. It's too
disruptive to the economy and to the workers and the communities.
(06:30):
And you know, we need to make sure that as
we phase out of fossil fuels that the green technology windmills,
solar panels, hydro everything that is sustainable is being developed simultaneously,
so they're there to pick up the energy slack. Jane
Brody after this last February, she said that while anyone's
(06:51):
health can be harmed by climate change, some people are
greatly increased risk, including young children, pregnant women, older adults,
people with chronic illnesses and disabilities, outdoor workers, and people
with fewer resources. I mean, that's like everybody. We know
(07:11):
that just as the ravages of climate change are falling
hardest on the already most vulnerable. The health effects of
climate change are falling on the already most vulnerable too.
If there wasn't racism, there wouldn't be a climate crisis,
because the fossil fuel industry very deliberately puts its wells,
(07:32):
it's fracking pits, its refineries and incinerators in communities of color,
low income communities, indigenous lands because they feel that these
people can't fight back. Also, it's so unfair because the
countries like India, Africa, Pakistan, Vietnam, the countries that didn't
(07:52):
have anything to do with creating the crisis that the
more advanced industrial countries did, are the ones bearing the
brand of rise sea levels, for example, and droughts. Thinking
about the recent crisis of freezing temperatures that was horrific
for a huge swath of our country painfully highlights how
climate change and also the failure to your point to
(08:15):
build systems of of resilience in the face of the
climate change that we've already wrought, just continue to make
us more and more vulnerable. Here's the good side, though,
because of the pandemic, I think we understand now and
I think with a certain degree of empathy that along
with the activism of all the young people, is making
(08:36):
people more aware that we don't want to return to normal.
It has to be a new normal. And I think
that the Biden administration gets it. I mean, who would
have thought that Joe Biden would be our first climate
president who understands that the way out of the COVID
pandemic is to create jobs that are going to contribute
to the green, sustainable energy system and at the same
(08:59):
time help people with an increased minimum wage and just
help people live with dignity. And I think that with
the fires and the freezing and the droughts and all
the things that have made it hard for people across
this country to get by in the normal way, I
think they're much more willing to say, Okay, there is
a crisis, and we're going to have to support efforts
(09:21):
to cut back our use of fossil fuels gradually. But
we also have to understand that the workers who work
in the fossil fuel industry, it's not their fault. I mean,
fossil fuels are what built the civilization that we benefit from.
You know, for a long time it was something great,
and workers built our railroads and and and have done.
(09:43):
You know, it's not their fault what's happening. So when
we phase out of fossil fuels, all these people now
can be taken care of. And that's one of the
things that the Biden administration, I think is trying to do.
And I'm I'm really moved by it me too, And
I think it's both an appreciation of the importance of
dignity and the understanding that dignity has to be connected
(10:05):
to healthcare, education and living wage and clean environment. And
I know this is something that you've written about and
spoken about you around their real urgency of acting now,
and your fired Drill Friday's effort was really towards helping
raise awareness and this common sense of urgency. Can you
just talk a little bit more about fired droll Fridays
and also how you've continued them on Zoom. I don't
(10:28):
know if you're familiar with the Yale Project on Climate
change communication. We know from that Yale project that there
are twenty five million Americans who understand that there's a
climate crisis caused by humans, that the science agrees on that,
and they've never done anything about it because nobody's asked.
Fired Real Friday's aims to ask the great unasked. And
(10:50):
what makes me so happy is that the vast majority
of people that come to Fired Real Fridays have never
taken action before. These are the people that we want
to reach. They're mostly women, They're mostly older women, and
I understand that. Well, I'm almost eady for you know,
what the hell do we have to lose? We tend
to get more feisty and brave as we get older.
(11:11):
It's why women are in the leadership of the climate movement.
And those are most of the people that come to
Fire Real Fridays, and I just love them so much.
We'll be right back to stay with us. Jane, certainly,
(11:36):
I think you haven't just been brave and feisty as
you've gotten older. You've been brave and feisty your whole life.
I do think though, it has been really inspiring to
me to not only read your book What Can I
Do My Path from Climate Despaired Action, and and to
read those elsewhere of how climate despair really is despairing,
(11:58):
and how so many people, especially women, including you, I
have just refused to be paralyzed by that. How important
do you think that's been to your own mental health,
to the mental health of the women activists of all
ages that you've worked with over the last couple of years.
Chelsea and twenty nineteen, before I started Fired Real Fridays,
(12:20):
I was so depressed. It was an existential angst that
was in my body and I I just didn't know
what to do. But as has happened many times in
my life, once I moved to d C and started
to do Fired Real Fridays, that lifted. And what I
have seen is that it's not unique to me activism.
(12:43):
When you know that you're doing all you can, it
lifts your despair. And that's what I've heard from a
lot of the people that have joined this activist movement.
They just feel so much more empowered. We are the
last generation. It's in our hands. From young people like
you two old people like me. This is we are
(13:05):
on Earth with the responsibility now of saving the civilization.
It's an awesome responsibility that we have. I mean, it's
we must rise to this challenge and do what the
scientists tell us, and I believe we will because I
just don't think that we will allow this amazing civilization
that has been created over millennia to simply decay because
(13:30):
the oceans and the forests are dying and that's what
provides us oxygen, for example. We cannot allow this to happen,
and we have to work fast. What have you found
to be sufficiently persuasive to kind of move someone from
that group you spoke of earlier, people who recognize the
climate change is a challenge, but don't know what to
(13:51):
do because they haven't been asked, or I feel like
they may already be doing enough. Like what have you
found that really works to try to help people understand it? No,
Like we all need to be doing more well. The
fact that I'm old and that I was getting arrested
in d C. I mean, some left wing people said
it was performative and relied too much on celebrity. But
(14:13):
I have a hit series behind me. I tell you,
activism is a lot easier if you have a Grace
and Frankie behind you. People really like Grace and Frankie.
So I really like Grace and Frankie. Eighty two year
old Jane Fonda's out there getting arrested. Maybe I can
do that. You spoke so movingly earlier Jane, about how
you first did everything you could do as an individual,
(14:36):
getting rid of single use plastics, switching to an electric vehicle,
and yet to recognize if we're actually going to cut
our carbon emissions by over the next decade, if we're
actually going to escape the worst ravages of climate change,
and to protect our environment and our shared public health,
we have to recognize that we do that through shared
(14:57):
collective action. Yeah. Do you think more people understand that
now than even a couple of years ago, whether among
your fellow activists or the politicians you're trying to pressure.
Do you think people still don't really understand the link
between climate change and health. I think more and more
people do understand the link, not enough, And that's what
(15:19):
you're doing. You're alerting people to this issue. But here
in California, just an hour south of Los Angeles, there's
oil wells right outside people's homes, right next to people's schools.
You know, whether it's in Houston or Louisiana or parts
of California oil producing states, or where refineries are, where
(15:40):
kids cannot play without having an inhalers with them. They
have to constantly stop and use their inhalers. All those
people understand that it's related to the plants that are
around them, and they are fighting back now. And I
think that one of the challenges in climate change, or
in COVID nineteen too, is that the science evolves as
(16:03):
we ask better research questions. We're able to do better
research as we learn more. And I think part of
what you know we have to be able to do
is to try to create space for people to say like, oh,
you know, I didn't know that, but now I do,
and I need to now act in different ways or
ask my politicians to make different decisions, and to be
(16:23):
able to say to people like, it's okay if you
didn't know that. The scientists didn't know that before, but
now they do, and now you do, and and now
we need to have different and more urgent demands. Right.
I haven't always been an activist. The first thirty years
of my life, I was not an activist. I simply
didn't pay attention and I was ignorant of a lot
(16:45):
of things. Ignorance is okay, I mean it's not great,
but if you don't know something, okay, you're ignorant. But
once you know and you don't do anything, then you
become part of the problem. So once you know, then
you have to find a way that you can join
with others to do something about it. You say you're
(17:07):
not a lifelong activist, but fifty plus years of activism
is is certainly a life of activism and one that
is helping us built over the future that I want,
I want my kids to grow up in. So it's
just an incredible honor and pleasure for me today. So
thank you so much. Well, I want to thank you
for caring about this issue. It means a lot. You
(17:29):
can learn more about Jane Fonda's Fired Drill Friday's at
Fired Drill Friday's dot com and you can follow her
at Jane Fonda. When it comes to addressing climate change,
activists alone can't solve the problem. It's going to take real,
meaningful action from governments and elected officials at every level too.
(17:49):
And some of the most important and impactful steps toward
addressing climate change right now are happening in cities led
by mayors, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Atlanta has
seen zing temperatures over the last few years. In fact,
it's the nineteenth fastest warming city in the US It's
also home to diverse population and communities of color, especially
(18:10):
black and brown families in Atlanta, as in the rest
of the country, have disproportionately felt the impact of climate change.
Under the leadership of Mayor Bottoms, Atlanta has made addressing
climate change of top priority. The city is committed to
converting all its city facilities to run on clean energy
by and to creating new parks and reservoirs to address
flooding caused by changing water levels, and to give kids
(18:32):
more places to play. Atlanta is quickly becoming a model
for other cities and how to address this crisis. I'm
very excited to talk with Mayor Bottoms today, So Mayor Bottoms,
thank you so much for your time today and for
joining us. Thank you so much for having me. This
is such an important conversation. And as you mentioned Atlanta's
rising temperature. Our average summer high temperature is projected to
(18:56):
jump four point one degrees to ninety two points its
degrees in Atlanta, and as we know, rising temperatures can
often be deadly, but especially for our most vulnerable residents
are elderly. So this is day to day challenge for
us in this city. For anyone who thinks it only
(19:16):
matters what happens at the federal level, how do you
answer that, and how do you explain why it is
part of your job as mayor of Atlanta to tackle
climate change. Well, I often think of it in terms
of what my mother is discussing that her Bridge Club
meeting once a month on Saturdays, and they are my
most helpful and insightful focused group of anyone. So it
(19:38):
may not resonate with them if you speak in terms
of climate change. But if you speak in terms of
their grandkids suffering from asthma, and if you speak in
terms of how much their energy bills and their utility
bills are each month, it resonates in that way. And
so it is incumbent upon us as local leaders to
(20:01):
make it simple and to help our communities understand why
it matters to them too. It's very difficult when people
are trying to make ends meet to get them to
think of something beyond putting food on the table that day.
But if you speak of climate change and you talk
about energy burdens, and you say this is what it
(20:23):
will mean with your utility bill, if you are on
a fixed income, this is the difference that it makes,
or it may mean that your grandchild won't spend hours
on end, days on end the emergency room each year
struggling with asthma. Then it makes sense to our communities
and it's a much lighter lift to move the needle
(20:43):
in that regard. Do you think, whether it's your mom
or any parent or grandparent, that there is a growing
awareness of how vulnerable kids are two changes in in
whether in temperature. Are you seeing that in the conversations
you're having in your own family or across Atlanta? I'm
(21:05):
absolutely seeing it. I can predict literally sometimes by looking
out my window if my son, my two year old son,
is going to have problems with his asthma that day.
Are asthma rates are very high in the city, amongst
the highest in the country. And as a parent, it
hurts so deeply to watch your kids struggle with any
(21:27):
type of physical element, but especially one that you don't
have a lot of control over. So I know that
if I'm paying attention to it and I'm watching those fluctuations,
there thousands of parents, if not millions, across the state
who are experiencing the same thing. And do you think
(21:47):
that your experience as the parent of a child with
asthma has compelled you into the work you're doing now
on climate change. Oh absolutely, and thankfully his asthma is
not nearly as severe as it used to be. But
it doesn't take much. If you watch your child having
(22:08):
the asthma attack or endured pneumonia, or spend in a
number of evenings or holidays in the emergency room as
we have, you can't help but think about it from
a larger scale outside of the moment. Why is this happening?
What is it that we can do as a city
to make this not as prevalent in our communities and
(22:31):
especially impacting our kids. You've talked about the intersection of
climate change and environmental issues and structural racism and ultimately
environmental racism. We see that not only in Atlanta, but
in cities across the country, including in New York where
I live, where asmriates fall disproportionately on our black and
(22:55):
Brown New Yorkers, where there are higher costs of energy
of air condition name in neighborhoods that are predominantly African
American and Latino X Do you think that people are
really understanding that it's not just climate change, but it
really is also environmental racism that is affecting your family's
(23:17):
lives and lives across your city, my city, and our country.
I'm living at each day, my monthly utility bill runs
about seven hundred and fifty dollars a month. That's comparable
to a commercial property. What struck me about that is
when are very Able Sustainability Department and the city did
(23:39):
an assessment and we looked at the map of the city.
The energy burden is primarily on the western and southern
parts of Atlanta, which are African Americans. So suspect it's
something that happened a very long time ago, and over
time it's never been addressed. But we're talking about it differently.
We're now looking at maps, and you can argue that
(24:02):
I have four kids who leave the lights on all
day in our home, and maybe that's why my my
bill is higher than it should be. But when I'm
looking at a map and I see that the energy
burden in my city it's primarily in African American neighborhoods,
then you know that it's something deeper and more systemic
(24:22):
than one an issue in one household. It's a community
wide issue. But you think about people who are having
to make choices between putting food on the table, get
in a prescription field, or having their lights on or
having their water on. We're taking a quick break. Stay
(24:43):
with us. It's you talk about the vision and the
plans to move of all of your public buildings to
clean energy by five. How do you connect that to
(25:06):
people's lives today in Atlanta, to ensuring that they feel
like that will be good for them and their families.
We have to lead by example, and oftentimes our communities
don't know what they don't know when you speak of
climate change. I can tell you in many communities, Latin
X communities to African American communities, it's a difficult issue
(25:30):
to get to when you're trying to deal with the basics,
and so it often appears that it's someone else's issue
or calls. But when you see an entity like the
City of Atlanta take it on and own it, and
you begin to speak about it, and it begins to
resonate and it becomes familiar to people, then people begin
(25:51):
to understand what matters and what makes it difference. So
even at our Mercedes Been Stadium, which is in the
heart of West Side Community, one of our underserved communities
in the city. I was standing in there just last
week getting my first vaccination shot, and I looked on
the parking deck and I saw the solar panels on
(26:13):
the deck. When someone looks out and they have an
opportunity to see that on the West Side of Atlanta,
it makes them go, Okay, what is that and why
is that? And when you are doing it across the city,
it becomes familiar and it becomes something that all communities
can own and seek to become a part of. But
it's got to become a household conversation. And again, I
(26:35):
can't stress enough. People have to understand why it matters
to their household. I know you're also committed to building
and nurturing more green spaces and more outdoor spaces for
kids and for families across Atlanta. I wondered if you
could talk a little bit about that, because one of
(26:56):
the things that we've learned from COVID is how important
it is for us to be outside. Do you think
that that commitment from you that predates COVID has gotten
more support. Absolutely, And if you think about COVID and
you think about how we had to shut down the
indoor spaces. One decision that we made that was very
important decision was to continue to allow people to go
(27:19):
into our parts, into our green space, because that was
all that people were able to do for recreation. We
are in the midst in Atlanta redeveloping a park that
is also it's an old quarry. This is going to
be the largest park in the city of Atlanta. So
it's now going to hold two point four billion gallons
(27:43):
of water in the reservoir emergency drinking water, taking our
reserves supply from five days to thirty days. It's going
to be the largest green space in the city, and
many people may recognize it because a lot of movies
like The Walking Dead and Hunger Games were filmed there.
So we are addressing several things at once, expanding our
(28:05):
green space but also making sure that we have a
clean water supply in case the worst ever happens in
this city. So it's quite a profound swing from The
Walking Dead and Hunger Games, these dystopian films and shows
to now being such a large water supply in green space.
(28:26):
So truly life giving and life affirming. From like Zombie Land,
it is ivronic isn't it, And especially if you think
of it in the context of what we've endured over
the last year, we brilliant so many ways have been
on the verge of apocalypse. But then there's this rebirth
and this opportunity for us to extract good from something
(28:49):
that has so many layers to it. And the reality
of this quarry, it's one of many quarries in the
city that we're used with the labor and just historical
layers there too. Now have this space and what has
been one of our challenge communities in the city, largest
(29:12):
green space in the city it will become when it's open,
plus a water supply. I think really is the hope
that we all have and the optimism that we can
continue to have in this country that for as badly
as things may get, they're still an opportunity for us
to get it right. And that's what I hope that
(29:33):
we are doing in people will see in Atlanta listening
to you, there's so much fierce like hope and optimism
in practice for the future with how you are reimagining
what's possible for Atlanta. So how would you help people
understand what you're building in Atlanta? What you're hoping for
(29:53):
your kids and any kids across the city to have
in the future. I had a great fortune of growing
up in the city in the context of folk who
dream really big and dream for things that they could
not touch, but they could certainly see and hope for
and work towards. So you can't help but look towards
(30:15):
a brighter future when you grow up in the shadow
of a Congressman John Lewis or Martin Luther King Jr.
Ct Vivian or Joseph Lowry and Ruby Dorris Smith, Robinson,
and I could name twenty other names. That's the beauty
of the city that I grew up in. And I
would imagine that everybody across this country can look to
(30:36):
some inspiration in their own communities. And it makes you
know that for as challenging as times are, we'll get
to the other side. Didn't mean that it's going to
be comfortable, but it makes it. I tell my kids
this all the time. You all will be one of
the most resilient group of kids to ever grow up
in this country. So it's hard right now, but you're
(30:57):
gonna be so much stronger than so many other are people.
That's what keeps me going and keeps me optimistic as
a leader in this city. What do you need now
from the federal government to ensure that you're able to
do the work that you're committed to doing in Atlanta,
and to ensure that our country is doing what we
need to do so that it isn't so much hotter
(31:20):
in a couple of decades, that when your kids are
parents or even grandparents, that Atlanta still looks and fields
like the city they grew up in and it isn't
overtaken by even more heat or humidity. What do you
need from President Biden and his administration What he's already
given us, And that's the leadership. I just had this
(31:41):
conversation with my husband, and I said, I didn't realize
how much of a burden I was carrying not having
leadership in the White House. Just the ability to know
that someone else is leading and thinking about those scenes
that are important to our communities. Because as mayor, you
(32:01):
want to get back to thinking about parks and green
space and your orders supplying those things, but you want
to know that on a national level, your president is
joining the Paris Climate Accord and that he's thinking about
rules and instituting policies that will make life better for
generations to come. I want my president to think about it,
(32:24):
and my national leaders to think about it and then
inform us as local leaders on what we can do
on a local level. And just having someone in the
White House who's listening, who's leading, who's following the science,
has made all of the difference, not just for me,
but for mayors and local leaders across this country. Mayor Bottoms,
(32:47):
thank you so much. Climate change is one of those
issues that I didn't know I could care more about
until I became a parent and found I could. When
I think about the world I want my kids and
every kid to grow up in, it's just so clear
to me that this is one of the most urgent
public health crises of our time and we have to
(33:09):
use every single tool at our disposal to confront it.
So what does that look like? Well, as with every
other public health issue, we have to start by listening
to scientists who have been sounding the alarm on climate
change for decades. We can educate ourselves, as Jane has done,
about the consequences of climate change for communities across our
country and all around the world. We can join activists,
(33:31):
including Jane, to call attention to this issue, and we
certainly can refuse to back down. We can make changes
in our own lives. Maybe that's reducing waste, eating a
vegetarian meal once a week, taking public transit. We're organizing
with our neighbors to support a community solar project, or
green infrastructure around our schools or our city facilities like
(33:52):
we've seen happen in Atlanta. And we can put pressure
on our local leaders to follow me or Bottoms lead
and make the issue a top priority. Hopefully we can
do all of those things because we don't have the
luxury and an action not for our lives, certainly, not
for our kids lives, not for the world that I
want them to grow up in, and not for the
(34:13):
world that I want them to live in. Thank you
all for listening. In Fact is brought to you by
iHeart Radio. We're produced by Erica Goodmanson, Lauren Peterson, Cathy Russo,
Julie Suprian, and Justin Wright, with help from the Hidden
Light team of Barry Lurry, Sarah Horowitz, Nikki Huggett, Emily
Young and Humanity, with additional support from Lindsay Hoffman. Original
(34:37):
music is by Justin Wright. If you liked this episode
of In Fact, please make sure to subscribe so you
never miss an episode, and tell your family and friends
to do the same. If you really want to help
us out, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks
again for listening, and see you next week.
Hi, I'm Chelsea Clinton, and this is in fact a
podcast about why public health matters even when we're not
in a pandemic. Today we're talking about climate change. We
know climate change is a real threat to our planet. Well,
(00:21):
if you're listening to this podcast, you probably know that.
I don't need to convince you of it, But we
hear a lot less about the threat the climate change
poses to our health and our public health. Extreme weather events,
including floods, hurricanes, and droughts, can claim lives and disrupt
access to public health services and systems. There's a direct
connection between air pollution or smoke from wildfires and higher
(00:43):
rates of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Rising temperatures are changing
our planet, introducing new illnesses and making the crisis of
food and security even worse for even more people in
more places. And of course, climate change also has an
impact on our mental health, from year and anxiety to
postmatic stress sort among people who have survived natural disasters.
(01:06):
And while it can be tempting to feel overwhelmed by
the magnitude of the problem, it's the last thing we
can afford to do. Today. I'm talking to two people
who have tackled climate change head on. We'll hear from
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has experienced climate change
on a personal level and a political one. But first,
I'm very excited to welcome a courageous activist who never
(01:27):
backs down in the base of a challenge. In fact,
sometimes I think she goes looking for challenges to tackle
because she knows she can. Jane Fonda. For decades, Jane
has used her powerful platform on behalf of the causes.
She cares intensely about LGBTQ rights, the anti war movement,
women's rights, racial justice, and the environment. More recently, she's
(01:52):
leveraged her platform toward the environment, specifically with her fire
Drill Fridays, where she galvanizes hundred it's thousands, sometimes deends
of thousands of people to cause a lot of noise
about the urgency of climate change. She's endlessly brave, incredibly funny,
and deeply passionate about making the world a better place.
(02:13):
Welcome Jane. Thank you, Chelsea. I'm so grateful that you
have connected these two issues and want to do a
program on it. I'm really really grateful. I think it
would just be really helpful to start today with how
you came to climate change. You know, you've been an
activist for decades, I mean your entire career. You have
used your platform to stand up for women's rights, for
(02:35):
racial justice, for LGBTQ rights, and now you're standing up
for the environment and our shared future. How did you
come to this issue and why now? Well, I I realized,
because I've been studying the environment for a long time,
I've realized that what's happening with the warming of the
atmosphere because of the burning of fossil fuels and the
emission of carbon into the atmosphere, that it's creating a
(02:58):
crisis that is civilizational. It's sort of the overriding crisis
that supersedes everything, and everything is connected to it. It's
not just health, it's the economy. It's the ability for
a society to be functional, for democracy, for health, for
oceans and forests, for our ability to breathe, for all
(03:18):
these reasons. We really have to confront it. And I
realized in twenty nineteen, largely because of what the young
climate activists were doing. They inspired me a lot, and
I realized that while I had made all the individual changes,
you know, I'd drive an electric car. I have gotten
rid of single use plastics and you know all those
things that that's the on ramp, that's where you start,
(03:40):
but it's not where you stop. And that I had
to do more, and that's when I decided to stand
beside the young people as an old person. They said,
come on, don't let us do this alone. We don't
even vote. We need older people to stand with us.
So I moved to d C and started fired real
Fridays every Friday, and in we had over nine million
(04:00):
people following us across all platforms, so it was really great.
But I don't think people realize how the climate affects health.
I mean here in California, the fires, the apocalyptic fires
that burned in northern California. The air after the fires,
I mean even in southern California, the air was brown.
(04:23):
Birds were falling dead out of the sky, the rates
of asthma were skyrocketing. It also affected our water. People
got sick from drinking the water. There are so many
aspects of climate change that's affecting us, and I was
really really glad that you mentioned mental health. I've talked
to women in the old mining towns in West Virginia
(04:44):
who live in the bottom of valleys that are destroyed
these homes because of floods. And after the floods, a
woman told me the children are suffering PTSD, and then
there's just climate grief. Especially young people are carrying a
lot of green because they know what we're losing, the
billions of species that are going extinct and so forth,
(05:05):
and they worry that they really won't have a future.
And I know you have three young children. I know
that you must be so worried about this too. I
do feel this acutely as a as a citizen, as
a human being, and yes, especially as a mother, because
I have to confess ate that I find it at
best aggravating, and it were something quite darker. And when
(05:26):
people lithely say, oh, the children are our answer, like
like the children will solve these challenges, because it then
completely removes any responsibility from those of us who should
know better and who actually bear a greater responsibility for
whatever those problems are. I think it's really important for
people to pay close attention to what the scientists say.
(05:48):
It's very clear, in a nutshell, they say we have
to cut carbon emissions in half by yikes, I mean,
that's all of the world's that eonomy is based on
fossil fuel. It's a really monumental task, but there's no choice.
We have to do it. If we wait until our
children grow up, it'll be too late. We are the
(06:10):
generation who have the responsibility to do what science is demanding.
Cut back fossil fuel emissions by fifty and then begin
a gradual total phase out. It's not like we're saying
get rid of fossil fuels immediately. We can't. It's too
disruptive to the economy and to the workers and the communities.
(06:30):
And you know, we need to make sure that as
we phase out of fossil fuels that the green technology windmills,
solar panels, hydro everything that is sustainable is being developed simultaneously,
so they're there to pick up the energy slack. Jane
Brody after this last February, she said that while anyone's
(06:51):
health can be harmed by climate change, some people are
greatly increased risk, including young children, pregnant women, older adults,
people with chronic illnesses and disabilities, outdoor workers, and people
with fewer resources. I mean, that's like everybody. We know
(07:11):
that just as the ravages of climate change are falling
hardest on the already most vulnerable. The health effects of
climate change are falling on the already most vulnerable too.
If there wasn't racism, there wouldn't be a climate crisis,
because the fossil fuel industry very deliberately puts its wells,
(07:32):
it's fracking pits, its refineries and incinerators in communities of color,
low income communities, indigenous lands because they feel that these
people can't fight back. Also, it's so unfair because the
countries like India, Africa, Pakistan, Vietnam, the countries that didn't
(07:52):
have anything to do with creating the crisis that the
more advanced industrial countries did, are the ones bearing the
brand of rise sea levels, for example, and droughts. Thinking
about the recent crisis of freezing temperatures that was horrific
for a huge swath of our country painfully highlights how
climate change and also the failure to your point to
(08:15):
build systems of of resilience in the face of the
climate change that we've already wrought, just continue to make
us more and more vulnerable. Here's the good side, though,
because of the pandemic, I think we understand now and
I think with a certain degree of empathy that along
with the activism of all the young people, is making
(08:36):
people more aware that we don't want to return to normal.
It has to be a new normal. And I think
that the Biden administration gets it. I mean, who would
have thought that Joe Biden would be our first climate
president who understands that the way out of the COVID
pandemic is to create jobs that are going to contribute
to the green, sustainable energy system and at the same
(08:59):
time help people with an increased minimum wage and just
help people live with dignity. And I think that with
the fires and the freezing and the droughts and all
the things that have made it hard for people across
this country to get by in the normal way, I
think they're much more willing to say, Okay, there is
a crisis, and we're going to have to support efforts
(09:21):
to cut back our use of fossil fuels gradually. But
we also have to understand that the workers who work
in the fossil fuel industry, it's not their fault. I mean,
fossil fuels are what built the civilization that we benefit from.
You know, for a long time it was something great,
and workers built our railroads and and and have done.
(09:43):
You know, it's not their fault what's happening. So when
we phase out of fossil fuels, all these people now
can be taken care of. And that's one of the
things that the Biden administration, I think is trying to do.
And I'm I'm really moved by it me too, And
I think it's both an appreciation of the importance of
dignity and the understanding that dignity has to be connected
(10:05):
to healthcare, education and living wage and clean environment. And
I know this is something that you've written about and
spoken about you around their real urgency of acting now,
and your fired Drill Friday's effort was really towards helping
raise awareness and this common sense of urgency. Can you
just talk a little bit more about fired droll Fridays
and also how you've continued them on Zoom. I don't
(10:28):
know if you're familiar with the Yale Project on Climate
change communication. We know from that Yale project that there
are twenty five million Americans who understand that there's a
climate crisis caused by humans, that the science agrees on that,
and they've never done anything about it because nobody's asked.
Fired Real Friday's aims to ask the great unasked. And
(10:50):
what makes me so happy is that the vast majority
of people that come to Fired Real Fridays have never
taken action before. These are the people that we want
to reach. They're mostly women, They're mostly older women, and
I understand that. Well, I'm almost eady for you know,
what the hell do we have to lose? We tend
to get more feisty and brave as we get older.
(11:11):
It's why women are in the leadership of the climate movement.
And those are most of the people that come to
Fire Real Fridays, and I just love them so much.
We'll be right back to stay with us. Jane, certainly,
(11:36):
I think you haven't just been brave and feisty as
you've gotten older. You've been brave and feisty your whole life.
I do think though, it has been really inspiring to
me to not only read your book What Can I
Do My Path from Climate Despaired Action, and and to
read those elsewhere of how climate despair really is despairing,
(11:58):
and how so many people, especially women, including you, I
have just refused to be paralyzed by that. How important
do you think that's been to your own mental health,
to the mental health of the women activists of all
ages that you've worked with over the last couple of years.
Chelsea and twenty nineteen, before I started Fired Real Fridays,
(12:20):
I was so depressed. It was an existential angst that
was in my body and I I just didn't know
what to do. But as has happened many times in
my life, once I moved to d C and started
to do Fired Real Fridays, that lifted. And what I
have seen is that it's not unique to me activism.
(12:43):
When you know that you're doing all you can, it
lifts your despair. And that's what I've heard from a
lot of the people that have joined this activist movement.
They just feel so much more empowered. We are the
last generation. It's in our hands. From young people like
you two old people like me. This is we are
(13:05):
on Earth with the responsibility now of saving the civilization.
It's an awesome responsibility that we have. I mean, it's
we must rise to this challenge and do what the
scientists tell us, and I believe we will because I
just don't think that we will allow this amazing civilization
that has been created over millennia to simply decay because
(13:30):
the oceans and the forests are dying and that's what
provides us oxygen, for example. We cannot allow this to happen,
and we have to work fast. What have you found
to be sufficiently persuasive to kind of move someone from
that group you spoke of earlier, people who recognize the
climate change is a challenge, but don't know what to
(13:51):
do because they haven't been asked, or I feel like
they may already be doing enough. Like what have you
found that really works to try to help people understand it? No,
Like we all need to be doing more well. The
fact that I'm old and that I was getting arrested
in d C. I mean, some left wing people said
it was performative and relied too much on celebrity. But
(14:13):
I have a hit series behind me. I tell you,
activism is a lot easier if you have a Grace
and Frankie behind you. People really like Grace and Frankie.
So I really like Grace and Frankie. Eighty two year
old Jane Fonda's out there getting arrested. Maybe I can
do that. You spoke so movingly earlier Jane, about how
you first did everything you could do as an individual,
(14:36):
getting rid of single use plastics, switching to an electric vehicle,
and yet to recognize if we're actually going to cut
our carbon emissions by over the next decade, if we're
actually going to escape the worst ravages of climate change,
and to protect our environment and our shared public health,
we have to recognize that we do that through shared
(14:57):
collective action. Yeah. Do you think more people understand that
now than even a couple of years ago, whether among
your fellow activists or the politicians you're trying to pressure.
Do you think people still don't really understand the link
between climate change and health. I think more and more
people do understand the link, not enough, And that's what
(15:19):
you're doing. You're alerting people to this issue. But here
in California, just an hour south of Los Angeles, there's
oil wells right outside people's homes, right next to people's schools.
You know, whether it's in Houston or Louisiana or parts
of California oil producing states, or where refineries are, where
(15:40):
kids cannot play without having an inhalers with them. They
have to constantly stop and use their inhalers. All those
people understand that it's related to the plants that are
around them, and they are fighting back now. And I
think that one of the challenges in climate change, or
in COVID nineteen too, is that the science evolves as
(16:03):
we ask better research questions. We're able to do better
research as we learn more. And I think part of
what you know we have to be able to do
is to try to create space for people to say like, oh,
you know, I didn't know that, but now I do,
and I need to now act in different ways or
ask my politicians to make different decisions, and to be
(16:23):
able to say to people like, it's okay if you
didn't know that. The scientists didn't know that before, but
now they do, and now you do, and and now
we need to have different and more urgent demands. Right.
I haven't always been an activist. The first thirty years
of my life, I was not an activist. I simply
didn't pay attention and I was ignorant of a lot
(16:45):
of things. Ignorance is okay, I mean it's not great,
but if you don't know something, okay, you're ignorant. But
once you know and you don't do anything, then you
become part of the problem. So once you know, then
you have to find a way that you can join
with others to do something about it. You say you're
(17:07):
not a lifelong activist, but fifty plus years of activism
is is certainly a life of activism and one that
is helping us built over the future that I want,
I want my kids to grow up in. So it's
just an incredible honor and pleasure for me today. So
thank you so much. Well, I want to thank you
for caring about this issue. It means a lot. You
(17:29):
can learn more about Jane Fonda's Fired Drill Friday's at
Fired Drill Friday's dot com and you can follow her
at Jane Fonda. When it comes to addressing climate change,
activists alone can't solve the problem. It's going to take real,
meaningful action from governments and elected officials at every level too.
(17:49):
And some of the most important and impactful steps toward
addressing climate change right now are happening in cities led
by mayors, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Atlanta has
seen zing temperatures over the last few years. In fact,
it's the nineteenth fastest warming city in the US It's
also home to diverse population and communities of color, especially
(18:10):
black and brown families in Atlanta, as in the rest
of the country, have disproportionately felt the impact of climate change.
Under the leadership of Mayor Bottoms, Atlanta has made addressing
climate change of top priority. The city is committed to
converting all its city facilities to run on clean energy
by and to creating new parks and reservoirs to address
flooding caused by changing water levels, and to give kids
(18:32):
more places to play. Atlanta is quickly becoming a model
for other cities and how to address this crisis. I'm
very excited to talk with Mayor Bottoms today, So Mayor Bottoms,
thank you so much for your time today and for
joining us. Thank you so much for having me. This
is such an important conversation. And as you mentioned Atlanta's
rising temperature. Our average summer high temperature is projected to
(18:56):
jump four point one degrees to ninety two points its
degrees in Atlanta, and as we know, rising temperatures can
often be deadly, but especially for our most vulnerable residents
are elderly. So this is day to day challenge for
us in this city. For anyone who thinks it only
(19:16):
matters what happens at the federal level, how do you
answer that, and how do you explain why it is
part of your job as mayor of Atlanta to tackle
climate change. Well, I often think of it in terms
of what my mother is discussing that her Bridge Club
meeting once a month on Saturdays, and they are my
most helpful and insightful focused group of anyone. So it
(19:38):
may not resonate with them if you speak in terms
of climate change. But if you speak in terms of
their grandkids suffering from asthma, and if you speak in
terms of how much their energy bills and their utility
bills are each month, it resonates in that way. And
so it is incumbent upon us as local leaders to
(20:01):
make it simple and to help our communities understand why
it matters to them too. It's very difficult when people
are trying to make ends meet to get them to
think of something beyond putting food on the table that day.
But if you speak of climate change and you talk
about energy burdens, and you say this is what it
(20:23):
will mean with your utility bill, if you are on
a fixed income, this is the difference that it makes,
or it may mean that your grandchild won't spend hours
on end, days on end the emergency room each year
struggling with asthma. Then it makes sense to our communities
and it's a much lighter lift to move the needle
(20:43):
in that regard. Do you think, whether it's your mom
or any parent or grandparent, that there is a growing
awareness of how vulnerable kids are two changes in in
whether in temperature. Are you seeing that in the conversations
you're having in your own family or across Atlanta? I'm
(21:05):
absolutely seeing it. I can predict literally sometimes by looking
out my window if my son, my two year old son,
is going to have problems with his asthma that day.
Are asthma rates are very high in the city, amongst
the highest in the country. And as a parent, it
hurts so deeply to watch your kids struggle with any
(21:27):
type of physical element, but especially one that you don't
have a lot of control over. So I know that
if I'm paying attention to it and I'm watching those fluctuations,
there thousands of parents, if not millions, across the state
who are experiencing the same thing. And do you think
(21:47):
that your experience as the parent of a child with
asthma has compelled you into the work you're doing now
on climate change. Oh absolutely, and thankfully his asthma is
not nearly as severe as it used to be. But
it doesn't take much. If you watch your child having
(22:08):
the asthma attack or endured pneumonia, or spend in a
number of evenings or holidays in the emergency room as
we have, you can't help but think about it from
a larger scale outside of the moment. Why is this happening?
What is it that we can do as a city
to make this not as prevalent in our communities and
(22:31):
especially impacting our kids. You've talked about the intersection of
climate change and environmental issues and structural racism and ultimately
environmental racism. We see that not only in Atlanta, but
in cities across the country, including in New York where
I live, where asmriates fall disproportionately on our black and
(22:55):
Brown New Yorkers, where there are higher costs of energy
of air condition name in neighborhoods that are predominantly African
American and Latino X Do you think that people are
really understanding that it's not just climate change, but it
really is also environmental racism that is affecting your family's
(23:17):
lives and lives across your city, my city, and our country.
I'm living at each day, my monthly utility bill runs
about seven hundred and fifty dollars a month. That's comparable
to a commercial property. What struck me about that is
when are very Able Sustainability Department and the city did
(23:39):
an assessment and we looked at the map of the city.
The energy burden is primarily on the western and southern
parts of Atlanta, which are African Americans. So suspect it's
something that happened a very long time ago, and over
time it's never been addressed. But we're talking about it differently.
We're now looking at maps, and you can argue that
(24:02):
I have four kids who leave the lights on all
day in our home, and maybe that's why my my
bill is higher than it should be. But when I'm
looking at a map and I see that the energy
burden in my city it's primarily in African American neighborhoods,
then you know that it's something deeper and more systemic
(24:22):
than one an issue in one household. It's a community
wide issue. But you think about people who are having
to make choices between putting food on the table, get
in a prescription field, or having their lights on or
having their water on. We're taking a quick break. Stay
(24:43):
with us. It's you talk about the vision and the
plans to move of all of your public buildings to
clean energy by five. How do you connect that to
(25:06):
people's lives today in Atlanta, to ensuring that they feel
like that will be good for them and their families.
We have to lead by example, and oftentimes our communities
don't know what they don't know when you speak of
climate change. I can tell you in many communities, Latin
X communities to African American communities, it's a difficult issue
(25:30):
to get to when you're trying to deal with the basics,
and so it often appears that it's someone else's issue
or calls. But when you see an entity like the
City of Atlanta take it on and own it, and
you begin to speak about it, and it begins to
resonate and it becomes familiar to people, then people begin
(25:51):
to understand what matters and what makes it difference. So
even at our Mercedes Been Stadium, which is in the
heart of West Side Community, one of our underserved communities
in the city. I was standing in there just last
week getting my first vaccination shot, and I looked on
the parking deck and I saw the solar panels on
(26:13):
the deck. When someone looks out and they have an
opportunity to see that on the West Side of Atlanta,
it makes them go, Okay, what is that and why
is that? And when you are doing it across the city,
it becomes familiar and it becomes something that all communities
can own and seek to become a part of. But
it's got to become a household conversation. And again, I
(26:35):
can't stress enough. People have to understand why it matters
to their household. I know you're also committed to building
and nurturing more green spaces and more outdoor spaces for
kids and for families across Atlanta. I wondered if you
could talk a little bit about that, because one of
(26:56):
the things that we've learned from COVID is how important
it is for us to be outside. Do you think
that that commitment from you that predates COVID has gotten
more support. Absolutely, And if you think about COVID and
you think about how we had to shut down the
indoor spaces. One decision that we made that was very
important decision was to continue to allow people to go
(27:19):
into our parts, into our green space, because that was
all that people were able to do for recreation. We
are in the midst in Atlanta redeveloping a park that
is also it's an old quarry. This is going to
be the largest park in the city of Atlanta. So
it's now going to hold two point four billion gallons
(27:43):
of water in the reservoir emergency drinking water, taking our
reserves supply from five days to thirty days. It's going
to be the largest green space in the city, and
many people may recognize it because a lot of movies
like The Walking Dead and Hunger Games were filmed there.
So we are addressing several things at once, expanding our
(28:05):
green space but also making sure that we have a
clean water supply in case the worst ever happens in
this city. So it's quite a profound swing from The
Walking Dead and Hunger Games, these dystopian films and shows
to now being such a large water supply in green space.
(28:26):
So truly life giving and life affirming. From like Zombie Land,
it is ivronic isn't it, And especially if you think
of it in the context of what we've endured over
the last year, we brilliant so many ways have been
on the verge of apocalypse. But then there's this rebirth
and this opportunity for us to extract good from something
(28:49):
that has so many layers to it. And the reality
of this quarry, it's one of many quarries in the
city that we're used with the labor and just historical
layers there too. Now have this space and what has
been one of our challenge communities in the city, largest
(29:12):
green space in the city it will become when it's open,
plus a water supply. I think really is the hope
that we all have and the optimism that we can
continue to have in this country that for as badly
as things may get, they're still an opportunity for us
to get it right. And that's what I hope that
(29:33):
we are doing in people will see in Atlanta listening
to you, there's so much fierce like hope and optimism
in practice for the future with how you are reimagining
what's possible for Atlanta. So how would you help people
understand what you're building in Atlanta? What you're hoping for
(29:53):
your kids and any kids across the city to have
in the future. I had a great fortune of growing
up in the city in the context of folk who
dream really big and dream for things that they could
not touch, but they could certainly see and hope for
and work towards. So you can't help but look towards
(30:15):
a brighter future when you grow up in the shadow
of a Congressman John Lewis or Martin Luther King Jr.
Ct Vivian or Joseph Lowry and Ruby Dorris Smith, Robinson,
and I could name twenty other names. That's the beauty
of the city that I grew up in. And I
would imagine that everybody across this country can look to
(30:36):
some inspiration in their own communities. And it makes you
know that for as challenging as times are, we'll get
to the other side. Didn't mean that it's going to
be comfortable, but it makes it. I tell my kids
this all the time. You all will be one of
the most resilient group of kids to ever grow up
in this country. So it's hard right now, but you're
(30:57):
gonna be so much stronger than so many other are people.
That's what keeps me going and keeps me optimistic as
a leader in this city. What do you need now
from the federal government to ensure that you're able to
do the work that you're committed to doing in Atlanta,
and to ensure that our country is doing what we
need to do so that it isn't so much hotter
(31:20):
in a couple of decades, that when your kids are
parents or even grandparents, that Atlanta still looks and fields
like the city they grew up in and it isn't
overtaken by even more heat or humidity. What do you
need from President Biden and his administration What he's already
given us, And that's the leadership. I just had this
(31:41):
conversation with my husband, and I said, I didn't realize
how much of a burden I was carrying not having
leadership in the White House. Just the ability to know
that someone else is leading and thinking about those scenes
that are important to our communities. Because as mayor, you
(32:01):
want to get back to thinking about parks and green
space and your orders supplying those things, but you want
to know that on a national level, your president is
joining the Paris Climate Accord and that he's thinking about
rules and instituting policies that will make life better for
generations to come. I want my president to think about it,
(32:24):
and my national leaders to think about it and then
inform us as local leaders on what we can do
on a local level. And just having someone in the
White House who's listening, who's leading, who's following the science,
has made all of the difference, not just for me,
but for mayors and local leaders across this country. Mayor Bottoms,
(32:47):
thank you so much. Climate change is one of those
issues that I didn't know I could care more about
until I became a parent and found I could. When
I think about the world I want my kids and
every kid to grow up in, it's just so clear
to me that this is one of the most urgent
public health crises of our time and we have to
(33:09):
use every single tool at our disposal to confront it.
So what does that look like? Well, as with every
other public health issue, we have to start by listening
to scientists who have been sounding the alarm on climate
change for decades. We can educate ourselves, as Jane has done,
about the consequences of climate change for communities across our
country and all around the world. We can join activists,
(33:31):
including Jane, to call attention to this issue, and we
certainly can refuse to back down. We can make changes
in our own lives. Maybe that's reducing waste, eating a
vegetarian meal once a week, taking public transit. We're organizing
with our neighbors to support a community solar project, or
green infrastructure around our schools or our city facilities like
(33:52):
we've seen happen in Atlanta. And we can put pressure
on our local leaders to follow me or Bottoms lead
and make the issue a top priority. Hopefully we can
do all of those things because we don't have the
luxury and an action not for our lives, certainly, not
for our kids lives, not for the world that I
want them to grow up in, and not for the
(34:13):
world that I want them to live in. Thank you
all for listening. In Fact is brought to you by
iHeart Radio. We're produced by Erica Goodmanson, Lauren Peterson, Cathy Russo,
Julie Suprian, and Justin Wright, with help from the Hidden
Light team of Barry Lurry, Sarah Horowitz, Nikki Huggett, Emily
Young and Humanity, with additional support from Lindsay Hoffman. Original
(34:37):
music is by Justin Wright. If you liked this episode
of In Fact, please make sure to subscribe so you
never miss an episode, and tell your family and friends
to do the same. If you really want to help
us out, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks
again for listening, and see you next week.
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