We highlight two powerful voices shaping the climate conversation—Elise Silvestri, a college student and musician passionate about climate justice, and Linda Sue Park, an award-winning author using storytelling to inspire young activists.
Elise, who has worked on the Citizens Climate Radio team for six months, shares her journey through eco-anxiety, activism, and music production. She believes that addressing the climate crisis requires radical imagination—envisioning the world we want to create rather than just reacting to the crises around us. Elise also introduces us to Linda Sue Park, whose latest book, Gracie Under the Waves, follows a young snorkeling enthusiast as she discovers the urgent need for ocean conservation.
Facing Eco Anxiety with Imagination and Action
Elise Silvestri knows firsthand the overwhelming anxiety that can come from thinking about climate change. Like many young activists, she has struggled with fears about the future, moments of paralysis, and the emotional weight of the crisis. In this episode, Elise shares how she transformed her eco-anxiety into action—first through climate organizing with the Sunrise Movement and later through audio engineering and music production.
"I consider the climate crisis a crisis of imagination. We are stuck in a status quo that hangs us high and dry. We must be bold and imagine a world that we are excited to wake up in." —Elise Silvestri
By blending her passion for music with climate activism, Elise has found ways to build resilience for herself and the communities she works with. From powering live sound stages with solar energy to using podcasting as a medium for climate storytelling, Elise exemplifies the power of creativity in climate advocacy.
Linda Sue Park on Finding Your Climate Passion
Newbery Medal-winning author Linda Sue Park joins the conversation to discuss Gracie Under the Waves, her latest book for young readers. Inspired by her love for snorkeling, the book follows Gracie’s growing awareness of coral reef degradation and its broader implications for the health of our oceans.
"Gracie's journey parallels my own. At first, I just wanted to snorkel. Then I realized that the coral reefs were imperiled, and I had to do something." —Linda Sue Park.
Linda encourages young readers to find their own path into climate activism by connecting their passions to climate justice. Whether through art, science, writing, or community work, she believes that the most effective advocacy comes from personal investment.
"There are many ways to help our planet. The most effective way is to connect it to something you already love—because then your enthusiasm is genuine, and you won’t get tired of talking about it." —Linda Sue Park.
Learn more: https://lindasuepark.com/
The Power of Community and Collaboration
In their conversation, Elise and Linda emphasize the importance of community in climate activism. Linda notes that for too long, Western culture has celebrated rugged individualism—but collaboration is essential when it comes to the climate crisis.
"For a very long time, children's books emphasized the idea of solving problems alone. But that time has passed. We are stronger when we work together." —Linda Sue Park.
Elise echoes this sentiment, recalling how her work with Sunrise Movement helped her feel less alone in her climate anxiety. By finding a community, she could channel her fear into tangible action.
Join the Conversation
What motivates you to take climate action? How have you navigated eco-anxiety in your own life? We'd love to hear your story!
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🎧 Listen to the full episode now!
share strategies for effective climate
conversations. I'm your host,
Peterson Toscano, and this is
episode 101.
(00:20):
In today's show, you will meet Elise Ah
Silvestri. Now, if you've listened to any
of the Hot Mess 8 part podcast series
we recently produced, you have already heard
a little of Elise's music and voice.
Elise wrote and performed the theme music
and read out the closing credits. She's been
(00:42):
working on the CCR team for six months now
and decided to stay for another six months. A
student at nyu, Elise is passionate about
music theory, podcasting, and climate
justice. In this episode, Elise
shares her audio introduction with
us. Then you will hear an interview
she had with author Linda Sue Park.
(01:05):
They talk about Linda Su's new book,
Grace under the Waves.
In both segments, Elise created original
music to accompany the audio she recorded
and edited.
Now here is Elise Silvestri.
>> Elise Silvestri (01:24):
M. What kind of world do you want to live in? Let's
imagine it together. My name is Elise,
I'm a college student and I've been a climate activist for four
years. I consider the climate crisis a
crisis of imagination. We are
stuck in a status quo that hangs us high and
dry. We must be bold and imagine a
world that we are excited to wake up in. Maybe it's
(01:46):
one with a, uh, huge investment in green jobs. That means you can
get a guaranteed job when you graduate. Maybe you'll get a
stipend to make your coastline house more resilient against
flooding. Maybe you can read on your commute
thanks to robust, clean public transit.
Dare, uh, to get your hopes up. If you can dream
it, you can make it happen. That's the sentiment I
(02:07):
carry with me everywhere. And by necessity,
too. You see, I've struggled with
the overwhelm of eco anxiety. And maybe
you have, too. Maybe you have racing
thoughts that won't let you go to sleep at night without imagining
your family in a tornado. Perhaps it's a
destabilizing sense of uncertainty you have
(02:27):
in making any future plans. And,
um, am I the only one that feels like I need to visit
Venice before it goes underwater?
This eco anxiety is always with me,
growing and changing, even as I try to outrun
it. In high school, I tried to outplan
eco dread with a climate emergency
plan. What if I ran away from my
(02:49):
hometown of Pittsburgh and lived on a mountain in
Vermont, installing hydropower,
growing my own vegetables? But
it wasn't a dream. More like a way
to escape the dread. No matter what I
planned, my future was tinged gray with
overwhelm. That is, until I joined
an organization called the Sunrise Movement.
(03:12):
Sunrise trains young people to effectively engage with their
communities and protest for climate justice solutions.
I realized that I felt so overwhelmed by my
eco anxiety because I felt alone in
it. In Sunrise, I found
community. Alongside my new friends, I acted
with purpose to make a powerful change in my
hometown. We met with folks in power to make our
(03:35):
case, educated Pittsburghers about climate
risks, and passed legislation.
Seeing my work bring meaningful developments gave me evidence
that there was so much we could do.
Before we get started, though, we have to imagine the world
that we want
(03:57):
outside of organizing. I love music
production and it's my major and job right
now. Last summer I worked in live sound
powering stages off of solar generators.
So cool, right? I found a methodical
calm in setting up bands to play. The
satisfying sound of cables clicking into
mixers, the feeling of faders and dials
(04:19):
on my fingers, the reward of enjoying a show
after it sounds good. A balance between logic
and creativity helps me get satisfaction out of it. And
just like climate organizing, audio engineering builds
resourcefulness and resilience. These are
values I aim to bring to organizing and to the podcast,
and I'm excited to be listening alongside you
(04:42):
in M your journey to address Climate Changed why are you
motivated to act?
This is what motivates me. Developing
countries have low carbon emissions but bear the
brunt of the climate crisis. This injustice makes
me want to go out and talk to people and hit the streets
protesting. However, that isn't the only
reason I'm scared too.
(05:03):
I have no idea what my future looks like.
I want to live in a world where disastrous hurricanes don't
hit my family every year.
It's crucial to identify both your selfless and
selfish motivations for participating in this
movement. In climate activism, we call that
(05:24):
mixture of motivation your self interest. Your
self interest is a powerful antidote to burnout and can
inform your activism. In light of that,
I recently chatted with author Linda sue park to learn
more about her self interest. Linda sue park is a
Newbery Medal winner, New York Times Best selling
author, and founder and curator of Alita Books,
(05:44):
an imprint of HarperCollins. We discussed
her newest title, Gracie under the Waves, a book for young
readers. It's about a snorkeling lover named
Gracie who goes on a family trip to Honduras.
The more Gracie snorkels, the more she learns about how
endangered her favorite marine life is. I
am a college student and I found the book insightful and
heartwarming in its approach to conservation and
(06:06):
advocacy. I chatted with Linda Su about her self
interest, the role of young people and art and climate
advocacy and more.
First, I wanted to know what inspired her to write this
book.
>> Linda Sue Park (06:19):
I had decided for many different reasons that I
wanted to write a book about a girl who loves snorkeling.
To parallel my own experience, I decided
that a research trip would be absolutely
necessary. I chose
Roatan, Honduras. It is known as one
of the best places in our hemisphere to
snorkel. It was absolutely amazing. I
(06:42):
guess I should start by saying that, uh, I did not get to
snorkel as a child the way Gracie does. I didn't
have a chance to snorkel until I was in my 20s. But I put
on my mask and I put my snorkel in and I put my
face in the water, and within 10 seconds, I was
completely hooked. I was
seeing things I had never seen before. I was
astonished, enchanted. Right
(07:04):
then and there, I said, I am going to do this for the rest of
my life as often as I can.
>> Elise Silvestri (07:10):
We dug deeper into Linda Sue's influences
that led her to write about Gracie and the climate.
Gracie's journey is a powerful case study
of going from passion to action.
>> Linda Sue Park (07:21):
Gracie's journey just parallels my own in so many
ways. She begins first of all by wanting
to plan a snorkeling trip. Even though she's only been a
couple times in her life before. That's exactly me. Even
though I'd only been a few times, I'm like, this is it. This is what I'm doing.
She becomes concerned, learning that the coral reefs are
imperiled at first because she's like, well, I want to snorkel
(07:42):
a lot. If the coral reefs aren't as beautiful, well, that will affect
my snorkeling. Then, of course, she learns very
soon it's a much bigger issue than
that. The health of the coral reefs is
intimately tied to the health of the oceans on which we are all
dependent. Even if you live in the middle of a
landlocked place, the health of the oceans affects the
health of the planet. Gracie learns that very quickly.
(08:04):
And it's how I learned to find a
personal way into caring about the
climate crisis.
>> Elise Silvestri (08:12):
With this powerful self interest in climate change. Linda
Su details how she views her role as an author in
Affecting Changed.
>> Linda Sue Park (08:19):
I see my job with a book like Gracie
is getting people to see it, uh, or at least
hopefully prompting them to go online
to look for other reason. There are many
ways into helping the planet Find a
place where your passions meet the world's needs.
In my case, that is snorkeling and the ocean.
(08:39):
In other people's cases, is it. Do you love to go camping?
Do you love to go hiking or bike riding outside?
Do you love to plant things? I'm, um, a
gardener now. Post pandemic. There are
countless ways to help our planet.
And the most effective way of all is if it can be
through one of your own passions. Because then your
(09:00):
enthusiasm is genuine and you don't get tired of
talking about it. You can spread the word to even more
people as you do your own part.
>> Elise Silvestri (09:08):
Linda Su speaks more about the importance of young people
funding their self interest and channeling their
passion.
>> Linda Sue Park (09:15):
My young readers, so wonderful to write
for them because they are idealistic
and enthusiastic and they are not
yet jaded by hopeless despair. When
they decide that they care about something, they embrace it
wholeheartedly. We all have such different
interests and passions and causes,
but the health of the planet needs
(09:37):
to be on everyone's list, no
matter what their other interests are.
If the planet gets sick and dies, there's no point
in any other cause. Need to let people know about
it. And here is another opportunity to harness
that incredible power and energy that young people
have. The result was Gracie's story.
>> Elise Silvestri (09:58):
We ended by talking about important values
like community and empathy that will continue
to be ever important in climate, education and
action.
>> Linda Sue Park (10:08):
Unless you are a, um, bonafide hermit,
you live in a world with other people.
It's very important at any time,
maybe now more than any other time in my
lifetime, that we learn to share space
with people we don't always want to share space with.
Connections and community and
(10:28):
collaboration are, uh, values that we
need to push to the front
more for a very long time,
especially in sort of the American mentality.
In our US History, what was valued
more was innovation and
individualism. We've grown as a nation.
That time has passed. It is no longer
(10:50):
serving us as well as it, uh, once might
have, including things like toxic
masculinity, a sense of Great Depression, of feeling
isolated that, uh, so many people are
experiencing and was exacerbated by the pandemic.
For many decades, there was this zeitgeist in the
children's book world that the main character needed to
solve the problems they were facing by themselves.
(11:12):
They needed to be the true hero of the story in that
way. I've always been uncomfortable with
that. And now as an adult and a writer
of books for young children, it's something I consciously
push against. It is more important
for people to learn when and how it's
appropriate to ask for help when it's
necessary. Especially once again boys
(11:35):
and young men that it's not a
weakness to ask for help.
Anyone can learn how much stronger and
more powerful we are when we work with
others and when we work on our
own. Remember that the
other people in our lives are also the
heroes of their own story,
(11:57):
that everybody has a story
and once we learn their stories,
it is very difficult to ever again see
them as part of a block or a group or
anonymous faceless stereotype.
Once we know someone's story, they become an
individual and somebody that we can care about.
>> Elise Silvestri (12:18):
After reading Linda Sue Park's book Gracie under the
Waves, I felt renewed in my motivation to
fight for climate action. Gracie under the Waves
is published by HarperCollins and is available on
Amazon at Barnes and Noble or at your local independent
bookstore. The publisher offers a free educator guide
for the book. Learn more about Linda sue park and her award
winning books by visiting lindasuepark.com
(12:41):
I put links into our show notes for you at ah
cclusa.org radio. That's
cclusa.org radio.
>> Peterson Toscano (13:04):
Thank you so much Elise and Linda sue
park. And thank you for joining
us for episode 101 of
Citizens Climate Radio. I'm, um, your host
Peterson Centiscano. Most of this
episode was written and produced by Elise
Silvestri. The music on today's show comes
from Elise Silvestri and Epidemic
(13:26):
Sound. You can follow Citizens Climate
Radio on Instagram, X,
LinkedIn, Facebook and TikTok.
If you have thoughts or stories you want to share with Elise
and me, call or text our Listener
voicemail at
619-512-96461.
(13:48):
If calling from outside the USA,
that number again is
619-512-9646.
You can also email us
radioitizensclimate.org
that's radioitizensclimate.org
Visit cclusa.org
(14:11):
radio to check out our show notes and find
links to our guests. Citizens Climate Radio
is a project of Citizens Climate Education.