August 26, 2023 • 23 mins
This week we are joined by sustainability scientist Dr. Sarra Tekola for a discussion about the environment. The first half of the show is dedicated to understanding environmental racism and the effects on marginalized populations in this country.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you feel like it's hotter than it has ever been,
you are not alone. Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios.
I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Sipher.
I am your host, Ramsey's job. Big shout out to
my man c Ward, who is still out of the
country doing exactly what he does best, changing the world.
He will be back with us next week, so stay tuned.
(00:20):
But we do have a special guest in the building.
She goes by the name of doctor Takola. She is
a sustainability scientist and she is Westside right on time,
because today we are going to be talking about two
very important things. The first is environmental racism and the
second is climate change and sustainability.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So welcome to the show. Thank you, of course.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
And I gotta be honest, this isn't your first time
on the show. You've been on the show a few times,
but this is your first time functioning in this specific capacity,
basically helping out humanity en mass keep from running into
this brick wall that everyone wants arms us about. Right, yeah, okay, okay,
So we're going to have a lot to talk about
(01:04):
with Like I said, environmental racism. That's something that we
broached on the show from time to time. However, today
we're hoping to do a little bit more of a
deep dive really explain what it is and how it
affects marginalized people, in particular Black people around this country,
and the healthcare outcomes and so forth and so on
that people may not be made aware of in your
(01:27):
regular travels, and of course, naturally the climate change and sustainability.
We're also going to be spending some time talking about
the first sit in protest of a whites only library
that's for our way Black History fact. That's something that
we wanted to talk about for some time as well,
because we're kind of coming we're rounding a corner as
(01:48):
a show, and we're releasing a book and so making
sure that our people have access to the books. It's
been something very important and so finally we get to
share that with you. But first and foremost, we are
going to talk about the excellence in particular Shikari Richardson.
Like Drake said, he's like Shikari smoke Mhan and off
(02:09):
the track. Well, she has been true to that bar
I'm gonna read from people. She is now the world's
fastest woman. The American spent her twenty three flu past
her competition this weekend and ran the final one hundred
meter race in ten point sixty five seconds to win
gold at the World Athletics Championships on Monday night in Budapest, Hungary.
(02:29):
Her time was a record for the women's one hundred
meter at the World Championships.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I would say never give up, richards had said afterwards.
According to the Associated Press. She goes on to say,
never allow media, never allow outsiders, never allow anything but
yourself and your faith determine who you are.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I would say, always fight, no matter what fight.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Richardson's gold medal win caps off a two year comeback
after she was left off the Team USA roster for
the Tokyo Olympics in banned for a month using marijuana
or using marijuana, a controversial suspension that was debated across
the sports world and even saw President Joe Biden questioning
the US Anti Doping Agencies rule on the drug. Hence
(03:11):
Drake's bar smoke him on and off the track. I
thought that was so clever, because you know, he's on
a tracking, she's on a tracking. He smokes other mcs
and she smokes other athletes, you get it anyway. On
Monday Night, the Dallas, Texas native outran five time world
champion Shelley Ann Frasier Price and former Olympic gold medalist
Sharika Jackson to win the gold. Quote she is the
(03:33):
best in the world, NBC sports announcer Lee Diffey proclaimed
after Richardson crossed the finish line, covering her mouth in
shock as she looked up to.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The scoreboard to see the race results.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And if that's not of any excellence, if that's not
a comeback story, I don't know what is.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So once again, shout out to Shikari Richardson.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
You have made us all proud and even when you
were going through your drama, we still held you down
on this show and we're going to continue to support
you now. Doctor to Coola, I love saying that when
I when I first met you, you weren't doctor Tacola yet,
and so that's a tremendous accomplishment. And again, you've been
(04:14):
on the show to talk to us about social justice activism,
these sorts of things, but we're now introducing a side
of you to the world that is very special, and
this is something that has always been near and dear
to your heart as long as I've known you. So
let's talk about your educational background and why you chose
(04:34):
to study to become a sustainability scientist. Now that's such,
that's so impressive. So give us that background.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, so you know, I've always had a passion for, uh,
the environment, passion for wildlife and getting into the field
as an undergraduate as environmental scientist. Initially I was actually
in wildlife biology, and I kept finding that this kind
(05:02):
of roadblock, like climate change is gonna call animals. So
it doesn't matter how many trees that plant, it doesn't
matter how much like restoration that we do. It's like
if climate change is still here, like that's the problem.
And as I learned more and as I grew in
my analysis, I realized one my father is actually a
refugee from Ethiopia, and he the way he said he
(05:25):
left when there was like, uh, they took out the king,
like kind of stuff hit the fan, and and he's
like I fled for more. But when I started learning more,
what really caused the political instability, At the root of
it was the drought, a drought caused by climate change.
And so even himself. He is an I consider a
(05:47):
climate refugee. And so I started realizing that this is
so much more than like we always talk about climate
change that was gonna affect the polar bears, but it's
it's affecting people. It's affecting the most vulnerable people, it's
and it's gonna be It's the defining issue of our time,
and especially as we think about going forward, we are
(06:09):
gonna hit twenty thirty is one of those milestones that
if we don't make certain behaviors before then, if we
don't change our fuel systems before then, we'll h It
really changes our future and the livability of our future.
And so in as an undergraduate, as an environmental scientist,
(06:29):
I found myself doing all this research and doing this
studies around like Okay, when is the last you know,
the last starfish going to die? When is the last
rhino going to die? And I was like, this is depressing.
I want to do something, you know, I've always been
an activists and so looking at like what can we
do about it? And I was told actually when I
(06:52):
was interning for NOAH, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, and
was able to see the zoo plank thing starting to
dissolve and they make up the bottom of the food chain,
and I'm like, we're the federal government. We have to
do something. And they're like, it's not our job as scientists.
We're going to write another report. And I was like, oh,
(07:12):
I'm in the wrong field. Then, so I got into politics.
I started doing activism around the climate, and really what
switched me to sustainability is that sustainability as a science
is really more a solution oriented. It's like, what do
we do about it? We're not just going to report
how bad the problem is. We're going to do something
about it. And that's always been my mission to take
(07:33):
the science to the sidewalks. For too long, communities of
color have felt like, oh, this is a white people think.
But not only are we dying at the highest rates,
but also like we deserve to be at the table
because when our communities come forward, we come with innovative solutions.
And so that's why I wanted that's why I went
to sustainability science because I want to be a part
of the change and I want to be solution oriented
(07:55):
to the climate crisis.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Sure, now, for a lot of folks, you know, before
we get to like the most vulnerable people, because obviously,
you know, environmental racism as a term exists for a reason.
But before we get there, In recent even weeks, but
certainly recent months and years, we've seen a lot of
(08:20):
very intense things happen around the planet. I want you
to speak to our listeners a bit about any connection
that there may be between some of the more recent
goings on and this this climate change issue, and and
(08:40):
and well, and then I have to follow up question
after we've done so.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
July was the hottest month on Earth's record. We've never
experienced that before, and that's directly caused by humans. It's
directly caused climate change is because of the fossil fuels
that we put in the atmosphere that's causing this now
the Maui's fire, it's again was not only caused by
climate change, but also colonialism because once the colonizers took
(09:09):
over Hawaii, colonizers being the United States, they changed the
management and so indigenous, the indigenous people of Hawaii had
a different management technique that was protecting the island. Once
they started creating monocrops, they started removing the water from
the areas that made it more vulnerable. Then you add
climate change that's why Maui burned out. Then you look
(09:30):
at a lot of the things like the Hurricane Hillary
that just hit, that was the first hurricane that hit
in over eighty years in California, that again was caused
by climate change. So the wildfires that are affecting really
the whole world, but more specifically, we know in Canada
they had caused.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Smoke.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
In New York, we're seeing it in Seattle as well.
We're seeing it in California. These wildfires, again caused by
climate change, made worse by western or colonial management techniques.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
So now I want to shift our focus to Eventually
I want to talk about the environmental racism, right, but
before we get there, let's talk about how this affects
poor people, maybe unhoused people. You know, you and I
both live in a place that's very hot, and so
(10:31):
I was reading something recently that I was really kind
of reading a piece that gave me some insight into
what day to day life is like for folks who
are unhoused. And because most people just kind of live
their lives and don't really take a moment to I
guess pull back the curtain and examine the humanity that
(10:55):
there's a human being there that is only fiscally poor
and as a result to that suffering at the worst
end of you know, everything that's happening with respect to
the climate. I want to get your thoughts on kind
of what that must be like or give some insight
to our listeners on how they're affected.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah, So the unsheltered communities, communities who do not have housing,
who are living outside, are the most vulnerable to climate
change because climate change is causing increased natural disasters. If
you don't have shelter, that means that you're facing that
with no protection. And Phoenix or the last in July,
they just released the they call it the transient death list.
(11:40):
I don't like to use that term, but the unsheltered
death list they just released. Over three hundred and twelve
people died in Maricopa, over two hundred in Phoenix. And
the thing that is difficult in determining these deaths, they
won't immediately call them heat deaths. They you know, have
(12:00):
to do all sorts of optopsies and investigations. But it
does feel like a smoke screen to really, because over
two hundred people dying in in one city in one month.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Is a crisis.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
But they're saying, oh, well, they had drugs in their system,
so it could have been the drugs. But you know,
we know, like if you're living outside, you're gonna have
to take coping method methods. You know, maybe it's drugs,
maybe it's alcohol, but that doesn't that's not why they died,
you know, and it could have been a contributing factor.
But we know that this is definitely was caused by.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
The extreme heat.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
And so when whether it's you know, extreme heat, whether
it's the hurricanes, whether it's flooding, all of the people
who don't have shelter, they're gonna die first. And the
worst part is that our society has deemed them unworthy
because of you know, the capitalist society we live in.
They're like, well, if you don't, if you don't succeed
in capitalism, blame yourself, pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
(13:01):
It allows us not to have humanity for them, because
two hundred people dying in a month, that should be
a crisis. There should be you know, federal funds, there
should be an emergency, we should do something. But because
of this narrative, they're able to say they're not worthy.
And then when we look at who makes up the
unsheltered populations, by and large across the United States, black
(13:23):
and Indigenous people are the people dying for are at
the highest rates of being unsheltered. And so this is
again homelessness, this is this is communities of color issue.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Sure, now let's take this a step further. Okay, I
want to do a bit of reading. I'm going to
read from n our DC dot org and we're going
to talk a bit about environmental racism. These things are connected,
but it's going to sound like a shift in topic.
(13:58):
But following the lead in Flint, Michigan's water, the toxic
petrochemical plants in Louisiana's cancer Alley, the raw sewage backing
up into homes in Centreville, Illinois, and the oil and
gas projects that overburden some US tribal reservations. Looking at you,
Dakota Access pipeline, all have at least one thing in common.
(14:20):
There are all examples of environmental racism. The phrase environmental
racism was coined by civil rights leader doctor Benjamin F.
Chabis Junior. He defined it as the intentional sitting sorry,
the intentional sighting of pollution and waste facilities in communities
(14:41):
primarily populated by African Americans, Latinos, indigenous people, Asian Americans,
and Pacific Islanders, migrant farm workers, and low income workers.
Study after study has since shown that those communities are
disproportionately exposed to fumes, toxic dust, ash, soot, and other
pollutants such as hazardous facilities locate in their midst As
(15:01):
a result, they based increased risks of health problems like
cancer and respiratory issues. Now, when you combine these the
dirty business practices that lead to disparate healthcare outcomes for
(15:21):
black and brown people in black and brown communities with
the dirty business practices that contribute to climate change, you
realize that black and brown people are at the receiving
end of the worst of both issues. I want to
talk to you a bit about maybe some of the
(15:43):
things in your estimation that might lead to environmental racism.
People feeling like they can get away with this.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, So it.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Has to do with a few things.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
One the social determinants of health, which is a sociological
term which is a lot of big words for where.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Tell me where you live, and I'll tell you how
you know how you're living like uh, and so based
on your neighborhood that it can determine like what grocery
stores do you have access to, what's zoned into your
neighborhoods because a lot of black and brown neighborhoods, oftentimes
there's zoned industrial. Makes the housing cheaper, so more affordable,
(16:21):
but it also means that dirty industries can pollute there.
And then you have the issues of redlining and so
decades of disinvestment again cause the communities to be more vulnerable.
So with all this combined, it makes our communities less healthy,
so more vulnerable to these impacts. And it also means
(16:43):
that we're gonna have more pollutants into our neighborhoods. And
so when you look at in a lot of cities,
be it Seattle and Phoenix, I could speak to specifically,
the difference between living in the South End and the
North End can have up to a decade of difference
in lifespan just the same city, but we're living in
(17:05):
two different realities based on our zip code, and so
it makes a huge difference. And they're able to do uh,
they like to call it, you know this colorblind racism
where they're like, oh, we're not targeting them. We just
happened to put this industrial.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Plant in their neighborhood, you know, and so they're able
to you know, they talk about racism without racis, but
they're still contributing to killing black and brown lives. When
in Phoenix, for example, people on the south end, they
have higher rates of asthma.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That means when.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
COVID hit, they're more likely to die, and so it
has all of these additional impacts. And again, why do
they have the highest rates of asthma? They have the
highest rates of pollutants because it was zoned industrial.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
No, there's something that Q and I talk about on
the show quite a bit. We have been rightfully critical
of capitalism in general, and there's been some push back
here and there because there are people who are fans
of capitalism. It does have its benefits. I will see
(18:06):
that when it's unfettered, it becomes problematic for everyone. But
on this show at least, we don't reallyase. We try
to have a human first approach to things, and we
realize that capitalism causes really bad people to become very
(18:26):
powerful and they are often given to their worst instincts
greed and apathy, right, And so you start to see
that it's, you know, when you're mentioning that, you know,
people can can call it like colorblind racism. It's they're
not intentionally targeting a neighborhood. They're just going where they're
(18:48):
going to get the least funk, where they're going to
get the least pushback, where the people have the least
amount of political power and the least capacity, the lowest
capacity to actually stop something like that from happening. In
other words, the corporations go after the most vulnerable because
it's cheaper to go after them. It protects their bottom
line more than going after an affluent neighborhood to put
(19:09):
some industrial waste plant there. And again the fact that
oftentimes these communities are disenfranchised. It ensures that people will
continue to make money hand over fist and then go
live in a community where it's free from pollutants and
free from really the harshest effects of climate change, and
(19:29):
on and on, and then we're stuck at the bottom again.
And so now you're starting to see why this was
kind of an important topic that I wanted to discuss.
I'm going to read a little bit more and then
I want to get some more of your thoughts. So
why does environmental racism exist? All right, It's a form
of systemic racism, and it exists largely because policies and
(19:51):
practices that if historically and to this day, favored the health,
wellbeing and consumer choices of white communities over those of
non white, low income communities. Case in point, General Iron
is a metal shredding business that operated in Chicago's predominantly white,
wealthy Lincoln Park neighborhood in twenty eighteen. Emails showed that
city officials from then Mayor ram Imanuel his administration pushed
(20:16):
the business to move out of this neighborhood, and after
community members complained and to make way for a multi
billion dollar private real estate development, the city then struck
a deal to relocate the polluting operation to Chicago's predominantly Latino,
low income and working class South Southeast Side neighborhood. So
(20:37):
you start to realize that there's big business, there's crony capitalism,
there's people that do these kind of backdoor deals, and
not only like where you and I might think, well,
why don't they just clean up their business practices? There's
no governmental incentive to do it and really no consequences
(21:00):
if they don't.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I recall the former president won't say his name, but
him kind of dismantling certain parts of the EPA to
make it easier for companies to pollute in the interests of,
you know, business.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And when everyone.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Looks at that and it's like, okay, well that's good
for business, you don't look at the effects of how
does this affect the communities surround it. But those communities, again,
the voices don't often make it that far. And so
I'm glad that there's people like you and that you
would come up on the show and help people learn
a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah, I'm glad you about that, because the whole idea
of jobs versus the environment is such a false dichotomy
that was created by big businesses. But there's no jobs
on a dead planet. And we're already seeing that the
farmers the impacts of this extreme heat wave. So many
some of the work that I do, some of the
mutual aid work that we do, we bring up produce
(21:58):
from directly from arms up to the Navajo Nation.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
And what we found was the farms are.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Saying, we don't have the crops, they all died, and
so you know, like this is that's a huge job impact,
where when you're looking at the cost of rebuilding entire
cities like Maui, that's a huge and economic impact. And
so the longer that we put off addressing climate, that
more expensive it's going to become. But it's also important
(22:29):
to talk about you know, while it's important to recycle,
it's you know, like ride your bike when you can
use public transit.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
The reality is two thirds of emissions are caused by
ninety corporations.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
So at the end of the day, we have to
hold these corporations responsible.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
They're destroying our future, they're destroying everything.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, So with that in mind, I know that there's
a whole lot more for us to talk about here.
So I would appreciate if you stick around because I
definitely want to cover the rest of us with Yeah,
If you feel like it's hotter than it has ever been,
you are not alone. Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios.
I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Sipher.
I am your host, Ramsey's job. Big shout out to
my man c Ward, who is still out of the
country doing exactly what he does best, changing the world.
He will be back with us next week, so stay tuned.
(00:20):
But we do have a special guest in the building.
She goes by the name of doctor Takola. She is
a sustainability scientist and she is Westside right on time,
because today we are going to be talking about two
very important things. The first is environmental racism and the
second is climate change and sustainability.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So welcome to the show. Thank you, of course.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
And I gotta be honest, this isn't your first time
on the show. You've been on the show a few times,
but this is your first time functioning in this specific capacity,
basically helping out humanity en mass keep from running into
this brick wall that everyone wants arms us about. Right, yeah, okay, okay,
So we're going to have a lot to talk about
(01:04):
with Like I said, environmental racism. That's something that we
broached on the show from time to time. However, today
we're hoping to do a little bit more of a
deep dive really explain what it is and how it
affects marginalized people, in particular Black people around this country,
and the healthcare outcomes and so forth and so on
that people may not be made aware of in your
(01:27):
regular travels, and of course, naturally the climate change and sustainability.
We're also going to be spending some time talking about
the first sit in protest of a whites only library
that's for our way Black History fact. That's something that
we wanted to talk about for some time as well,
because we're kind of coming we're rounding a corner as
(01:48):
a show, and we're releasing a book and so making
sure that our people have access to the books. It's
been something very important and so finally we get to
share that with you. But first and foremost, we are
going to talk about the excellence in particular Shikari Richardson.
Like Drake said, he's like Shikari smoke Mhan and off
(02:09):
the track. Well, she has been true to that bar
I'm gonna read from people. She is now the world's
fastest woman. The American spent her twenty three flu past
her competition this weekend and ran the final one hundred
meter race in ten point sixty five seconds to win
gold at the World Athletics Championships on Monday night in Budapest, Hungary.
(02:29):
Her time was a record for the women's one hundred
meter at the World Championships.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I would say never give up, richards had said afterwards.
According to the Associated Press. She goes on to say,
never allow media, never allow outsiders, never allow anything but
yourself and your faith determine who you are.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I would say, always fight, no matter what fight.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Richardson's gold medal win caps off a two year comeback
after she was left off the Team USA roster for
the Tokyo Olympics in banned for a month using marijuana
or using marijuana, a controversial suspension that was debated across
the sports world and even saw President Joe Biden questioning
the US Anti Doping Agencies rule on the drug. Hence
(03:11):
Drake's bar smoke him on and off the track. I
thought that was so clever, because you know, he's on
a tracking, she's on a tracking. He smokes other mcs
and she smokes other athletes, you get it anyway. On
Monday Night, the Dallas, Texas native outran five time world
champion Shelley Ann Frasier Price and former Olympic gold medalist
Sharika Jackson to win the gold. Quote she is the
(03:33):
best in the world, NBC sports announcer Lee Diffey proclaimed
after Richardson crossed the finish line, covering her mouth in
shock as she looked up to.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The scoreboard to see the race results.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And if that's not of any excellence, if that's not
a comeback story, I don't know what is.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So once again, shout out to Shikari Richardson.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
You have made us all proud and even when you
were going through your drama, we still held you down
on this show and we're going to continue to support
you now. Doctor to Coola, I love saying that when
I when I first met you, you weren't doctor Tacola yet,
and so that's a tremendous accomplishment. And again, you've been
(04:14):
on the show to talk to us about social justice activism,
these sorts of things, but we're now introducing a side
of you to the world that is very special, and
this is something that has always been near and dear
to your heart as long as I've known you. So
let's talk about your educational background and why you chose
(04:34):
to study to become a sustainability scientist. Now that's such,
that's so impressive. So give us that background.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, so you know, I've always had a passion for, uh,
the environment, passion for wildlife and getting into the field
as an undergraduate as environmental scientist. Initially I was actually
in wildlife biology, and I kept finding that this kind
(05:02):
of roadblock, like climate change is gonna call animals. So
it doesn't matter how many trees that plant, it doesn't
matter how much like restoration that we do. It's like
if climate change is still here, like that's the problem.
And as I learned more and as I grew in
my analysis, I realized one my father is actually a
refugee from Ethiopia, and he the way he said he
(05:25):
left when there was like, uh, they took out the king,
like kind of stuff hit the fan, and and he's
like I fled for more. But when I started learning more,
what really caused the political instability, At the root of
it was the drought, a drought caused by climate change.
And so even himself. He is an I consider a
(05:47):
climate refugee. And so I started realizing that this is
so much more than like we always talk about climate
change that was gonna affect the polar bears, but it's
it's affecting people. It's affecting the most vulnerable people, it's
and it's gonna be It's the defining issue of our time,
and especially as we think about going forward, we are
(06:09):
gonna hit twenty thirty is one of those milestones that
if we don't make certain behaviors before then, if we
don't change our fuel systems before then, we'll h It
really changes our future and the livability of our future.
And so in as an undergraduate, as an environmental scientist,
(06:29):
I found myself doing all this research and doing this
studies around like Okay, when is the last you know,
the last starfish going to die? When is the last
rhino going to die? And I was like, this is depressing.
I want to do something, you know, I've always been
an activists and so looking at like what can we
do about it? And I was told actually when I
(06:52):
was interning for NOAH, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, and
was able to see the zoo plank thing starting to
dissolve and they make up the bottom of the food chain,
and I'm like, we're the federal government. We have to
do something. And they're like, it's not our job as scientists.
We're going to write another report. And I was like, oh,
(07:12):
I'm in the wrong field. Then, so I got into politics.
I started doing activism around the climate, and really what
switched me to sustainability is that sustainability as a science
is really more a solution oriented. It's like, what do
we do about it? We're not just going to report
how bad the problem is. We're going to do something
about it. And that's always been my mission to take
(07:33):
the science to the sidewalks. For too long, communities of
color have felt like, oh, this is a white people think.
But not only are we dying at the highest rates,
but also like we deserve to be at the table
because when our communities come forward, we come with innovative solutions.
And so that's why I wanted that's why I went
to sustainability science because I want to be a part
of the change and I want to be solution oriented
(07:55):
to the climate crisis.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Sure, now, for a lot of folks, you know, before
we get to like the most vulnerable people, because obviously,
you know, environmental racism as a term exists for a reason.
But before we get there, In recent even weeks, but
certainly recent months and years, we've seen a lot of
(08:20):
very intense things happen around the planet. I want you
to speak to our listeners a bit about any connection
that there may be between some of the more recent
goings on and this this climate change issue, and and
(08:40):
and well, and then I have to follow up question
after we've done so.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
July was the hottest month on Earth's record. We've never
experienced that before, and that's directly caused by humans. It's
directly caused climate change is because of the fossil fuels
that we put in the atmosphere that's causing this now
the Maui's fire, it's again was not only caused by
climate change, but also colonialism because once the colonizers took
(09:09):
over Hawaii, colonizers being the United States, they changed the
management and so indigenous, the indigenous people of Hawaii had
a different management technique that was protecting the island. Once
they started creating monocrops, they started removing the water from
the areas that made it more vulnerable. Then you add
climate change that's why Maui burned out. Then you look
(09:30):
at a lot of the things like the Hurricane Hillary
that just hit, that was the first hurricane that hit
in over eighty years in California, that again was caused
by climate change. So the wildfires that are affecting really
the whole world, but more specifically, we know in Canada
they had caused.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Smoke.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
In New York, we're seeing it in Seattle as well.
We're seeing it in California. These wildfires, again caused by
climate change, made worse by western or colonial management techniques.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
So now I want to shift our focus to Eventually
I want to talk about the environmental racism, right, but
before we get there, let's talk about how this affects
poor people, maybe unhoused people. You know, you and I
both live in a place that's very hot, and so
(10:31):
I was reading something recently that I was really kind
of reading a piece that gave me some insight into
what day to day life is like for folks who
are unhoused. And because most people just kind of live
their lives and don't really take a moment to I
guess pull back the curtain and examine the humanity that
(10:55):
there's a human being there that is only fiscally poor
and as a result to that suffering at the worst
end of you know, everything that's happening with respect to
the climate. I want to get your thoughts on kind
of what that must be like or give some insight
to our listeners on how they're affected.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah, So the unsheltered communities, communities who do not have housing,
who are living outside, are the most vulnerable to climate
change because climate change is causing increased natural disasters. If
you don't have shelter, that means that you're facing that
with no protection. And Phoenix or the last in July,
they just released the they call it the transient death list.
(11:40):
I don't like to use that term, but the unsheltered
death list they just released. Over three hundred and twelve
people died in Maricopa, over two hundred in Phoenix. And
the thing that is difficult in determining these deaths, they
won't immediately call them heat deaths. They you know, have
(12:00):
to do all sorts of optopsies and investigations. But it
does feel like a smoke screen to really, because over
two hundred people dying in in one city in one month.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Is a crisis.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
But they're saying, oh, well, they had drugs in their system,
so it could have been the drugs. But you know,
we know, like if you're living outside, you're gonna have
to take coping method methods. You know, maybe it's drugs,
maybe it's alcohol, but that doesn't that's not why they died,
you know, and it could have been a contributing factor.
But we know that this is definitely was caused by.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
The extreme heat.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
And so when whether it's you know, extreme heat, whether
it's the hurricanes, whether it's flooding, all of the people
who don't have shelter, they're gonna die first. And the
worst part is that our society has deemed them unworthy
because of you know, the capitalist society we live in.
They're like, well, if you don't, if you don't succeed
in capitalism, blame yourself, pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
(13:01):
It allows us not to have humanity for them, because
two hundred people dying in a month, that should be
a crisis. There should be you know, federal funds, there
should be an emergency, we should do something. But because
of this narrative, they're able to say they're not worthy.
And then when we look at who makes up the
unsheltered populations, by and large across the United States, black
(13:23):
and Indigenous people are the people dying for are at
the highest rates of being unsheltered. And so this is
again homelessness, this is this is communities of color issue.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Sure, now let's take this a step further. Okay, I
want to do a bit of reading. I'm going to
read from n our DC dot org and we're going
to talk a bit about environmental racism. These things are connected,
but it's going to sound like a shift in topic.
(13:58):
But following the lead in Flint, Michigan's water, the toxic
petrochemical plants in Louisiana's cancer Alley, the raw sewage backing
up into homes in Centreville, Illinois, and the oil and
gas projects that overburden some US tribal reservations. Looking at you,
Dakota Access pipeline, all have at least one thing in common.
(14:20):
There are all examples of environmental racism. The phrase environmental
racism was coined by civil rights leader doctor Benjamin F.
Chabis Junior. He defined it as the intentional sitting sorry,
the intentional sighting of pollution and waste facilities in communities
(14:41):
primarily populated by African Americans, Latinos, indigenous people, Asian Americans,
and Pacific Islanders, migrant farm workers, and low income workers.
Study after study has since shown that those communities are
disproportionately exposed to fumes, toxic dust, ash, soot, and other
pollutants such as hazardous facilities locate in their midst As
(15:01):
a result, they based increased risks of health problems like
cancer and respiratory issues. Now, when you combine these the
dirty business practices that lead to disparate healthcare outcomes for
(15:21):
black and brown people in black and brown communities with
the dirty business practices that contribute to climate change, you
realize that black and brown people are at the receiving
end of the worst of both issues. I want to
talk to you a bit about maybe some of the
(15:43):
things in your estimation that might lead to environmental racism.
People feeling like they can get away with this.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, So it.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Has to do with a few things.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
One the social determinants of health, which is a sociological
term which is a lot of big words for where.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Tell me where you live, and I'll tell you how
you know how you're living like uh, and so based
on your neighborhood that it can determine like what grocery
stores do you have access to, what's zoned into your
neighborhoods because a lot of black and brown neighborhoods, oftentimes
there's zoned industrial. Makes the housing cheaper, so more affordable,
(16:21):
but it also means that dirty industries can pollute there.
And then you have the issues of redlining and so
decades of disinvestment again cause the communities to be more vulnerable.
So with all this combined, it makes our communities less healthy,
so more vulnerable to these impacts. And it also means
(16:43):
that we're gonna have more pollutants into our neighborhoods. And
so when you look at in a lot of cities,
be it Seattle and Phoenix, I could speak to specifically,
the difference between living in the South End and the
North End can have up to a decade of difference
in lifespan just the same city, but we're living in
(17:05):
two different realities based on our zip code, and so
it makes a huge difference. And they're able to do uh,
they like to call it, you know this colorblind racism
where they're like, oh, we're not targeting them. We just
happened to put this industrial.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Plant in their neighborhood, you know, and so they're able
to you know, they talk about racism without racis, but
they're still contributing to killing black and brown lives. When
in Phoenix, for example, people on the south end, they
have higher rates of asthma.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That means when.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
COVID hit, they're more likely to die, and so it
has all of these additional impacts. And again, why do
they have the highest rates of asthma? They have the
highest rates of pollutants because it was zoned industrial.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
No, there's something that Q and I talk about on
the show quite a bit. We have been rightfully critical
of capitalism in general, and there's been some push back
here and there because there are people who are fans
of capitalism. It does have its benefits. I will see
(18:06):
that when it's unfettered, it becomes problematic for everyone. But
on this show at least, we don't reallyase. We try
to have a human first approach to things, and we
realize that capitalism causes really bad people to become very
(18:26):
powerful and they are often given to their worst instincts
greed and apathy, right, And so you start to see
that it's, you know, when you're mentioning that, you know,
people can can call it like colorblind racism. It's they're
not intentionally targeting a neighborhood. They're just going where they're
(18:48):
going to get the least funk, where they're going to
get the least pushback, where the people have the least
amount of political power and the least capacity, the lowest
capacity to actually stop something like that from happening. In
other words, the corporations go after the most vulnerable because
it's cheaper to go after them. It protects their bottom
line more than going after an affluent neighborhood to put
(19:09):
some industrial waste plant there. And again the fact that
oftentimes these communities are disenfranchised. It ensures that people will
continue to make money hand over fist and then go
live in a community where it's free from pollutants and
free from really the harshest effects of climate change, and
(19:29):
on and on, and then we're stuck at the bottom again.
And so now you're starting to see why this was
kind of an important topic that I wanted to discuss.
I'm going to read a little bit more and then
I want to get some more of your thoughts. So
why does environmental racism exist? All right, It's a form
of systemic racism, and it exists largely because policies and
(19:51):
practices that if historically and to this day, favored the health,
wellbeing and consumer choices of white communities over those of
non white, low income communities. Case in point, General Iron
is a metal shredding business that operated in Chicago's predominantly white,
wealthy Lincoln Park neighborhood in twenty eighteen. Emails showed that
city officials from then Mayor ram Imanuel his administration pushed
(20:16):
the business to move out of this neighborhood, and after
community members complained and to make way for a multi
billion dollar private real estate development, the city then struck
a deal to relocate the polluting operation to Chicago's predominantly Latino,
low income and working class South Southeast Side neighborhood. So
(20:37):
you start to realize that there's big business, there's crony capitalism,
there's people that do these kind of backdoor deals, and
not only like where you and I might think, well,
why don't they just clean up their business practices? There's
no governmental incentive to do it and really no consequences
(21:00):
if they don't.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I recall the former president won't say his name, but
him kind of dismantling certain parts of the EPA to
make it easier for companies to pollute in the interests of,
you know, business.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And when everyone.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Looks at that and it's like, okay, well that's good
for business, you don't look at the effects of how
does this affect the communities surround it. But those communities, again,
the voices don't often make it that far. And so
I'm glad that there's people like you and that you
would come up on the show and help people learn
a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah, I'm glad you about that, because the whole idea
of jobs versus the environment is such a false dichotomy
that was created by big businesses. But there's no jobs
on a dead planet. And we're already seeing that the
farmers the impacts of this extreme heat wave. So many
some of the work that I do, some of the
mutual aid work that we do, we bring up produce
(21:58):
from directly from arms up to the Navajo Nation.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
And what we found was the farms are.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Saying, we don't have the crops, they all died, and
so you know, like this is that's a huge job impact,
where when you're looking at the cost of rebuilding entire
cities like Maui, that's a huge and economic impact. And
so the longer that we put off addressing climate, that
more expensive it's going to become. But it's also important
(22:29):
to talk about you know, while it's important to recycle,
it's you know, like ride your bike when you can
use public transit.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
The reality is two thirds of emissions are caused by
ninety corporations.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
So at the end of the day, we have to
hold these corporations responsible.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
They're destroying our future, they're destroying everything.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, So with that in mind, I know that there's
a whole lot more for us to talk about here.
So I would appreciate if you stick around because I
definitely want to cover the rest of us with Yeah,
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