Why climate change is on the ballot this year

Nabilah Islam talks to me about why Climate is very much on the ballot this fall. She lays out the details on how the Trump Adminstration is rolling back almost all of the protections we have in this country to protect the world we live in.

Islam is the Founder of The Progressive List and National Organizing Director of Matriarch, organizations that are committed to helping progressive candidates get elected.

She is the daughter of working-class immigrants from Bangladesh, Nabilah ran as a Candidate for the United States House of Representatives, Georgia’s 7th District.

Prior to running she served as the Finance Director for the Florida Democratic Party and Southern Regional Director at the Democratic National Committee in the 2018 cycle.

Episode Transcript

(00:20):
Hey everyone, I'm Jim Williams,and welcome to this edition of the Politically
Incorrect Podcast. We're to talk aboutclimate change and specifically with Nobilites Long,
who is the founder of the ProgressiveList and national organizer director for the Matriarch
Organizations. They're committed to helping progressivecandidates for elections. She also is the

(00:41):
daughter for working class immigrants from Bangladesh. Nobila ran for the United States House
of Representatives from George's seventh district,and part of that she will served as
the financial director of the Florida DemocraticParty and the Southern regional director at the
Democratic National Committee in the twenty eighteenblue wave cycle. It's a lot to

(01:03):
put in, but Nobila, let'stalk about climate change. You know,
right now we have a president whois a climate denier, and climate,
the climate crisis is the biggest existentialthreat that faces America today. It is
a national security threat. Um aswe can see today, the West Coast

(01:25):
is in embers right now. He'sbeen massive flooding across the country where joys
your major major droughts, and thisadministration has is not acknowledging that climate change
is real and so therefore instead ofyou know, finding solutions to the climate

(01:45):
crisis, they're denying that problem evenexists in the first place, and so
it's just going to be continued tobe exacerbated in a god, I really
hope he doesn't get elected again,but if he, if he does,
I don't see him getting any more. Um. You know he's not He's

(02:05):
not going to come back to climatecrisis and where we need a change in
leadership, um as soon as possibleto undo a lot of the damage that
this administration has already done. Right. You know in here you talk about
you know, coal, and mygrandfather was a coal miner in western Pennsylvania.

(02:30):
He rose up the ranks to eventuallybecome the what in essence was the
regional director of a couple of differentminds in western Pennsylvania. Um, he
died of iron lung. I'm sorry, a black one. What you get
from going down? So let meexplain something to any of you out there,

(02:53):
and I'm going I can't wait tohear Nabila situation here and comment on
it. There is no such thingas clean coal. That is the biggest
bunch of bullshit there is on theplanet. It does not exist okay,
And if we put half the moneythat we are putting into this stupid coal

(03:16):
situation into green environmental work, wewould be way better off. Absolutely,
Nobila is up. I'm teeing youup there, go for it. No
I I'm so sorry that happened toyour family. And look, it is
ridiculous that this trope that you knowclean coal is something that's real. Uh.

(03:40):
We need to transition away from afossil fuel economy to a clean energy
economy. There's no reason that wecan't be leader in when it comes to
renewable energy, whether it's that's thesolar industry, the wind industry. UM,
we have an opportunity to cap liveson the fact that we can be

(04:00):
a leader when it comes to producingclean energy and producing jobs that are not
going to, um, you know, hurt our health and the environment and
the public health. And so itis a moral obligation that we actually do
make a just transition to a renewableenergy economy and making sure that you know,

(04:24):
folks that are working those jobs todayin in cole has good paying union
jobs in a clean energy and theenergy economy. I think that the Donald
Trump is Donald trumpat is administration justcare about the bottom line of their fossil
fuel companies, and they don't careabout regular working people. And I think

(04:46):
that in itself is a great tragedyand which I'm going to keep bringing this
up, which is why we needto get them out of office as as
soon as possible. I'll pick themup and drive him. I don't care,
I'll take him to the airport.The situation though, let's let's for

(05:08):
a moment go back to western Pennsylvania, which is you can you can go
to Birmingham, Alabama. You cango to um you can go to Iowa
City, Iowa. You can goto anywhere out west. You're gonna see
the same thing, whether it's coalor fracking of oil or whatever that at

(05:30):
the end of the day. Afew weeks ago, I had a wonderful
conversation with Vinard's Shikar and Vnard isa is from Malaysia and he each year
holds a massive and extremely successful umgroup of people for a con on the

(06:02):
advantages of a clean economy and howcapitalism benefits from green technology, and anyway,
deep into the conversation between Ben andmyself is he was flabber gas.
I mean you think about this.Malaysia is out in Southeast Asia and there

(06:29):
are a third of the size ofthe United States of America. And Ben
was opining to me that, youknow, I don't understand it. I
don't understand why in you know,our part of the world, meaning his
parts is Malaysian Southeast Asia, thatthey get it. I mean he's made

(06:50):
he is a multi billionaire by recyclingrubber and other content and making it into
green and you know, cleaning upthe water and all kinds of things that
his Global Initiative does. And you'resteady going, we could do this,

(07:13):
but as you say, lobbyists andother interest groups, because we you know,
seem to love to allow money tobe you know, intertwined with our
government, you can't kill this stuffoff. And in the three years three
and a half years, I shouldsay that President Trump has been in office,

(07:34):
he's rolled back sixty seven sixty sevendifferent environmental laws that can be temporarily
adjusted via simply by an executive order. And that kind of irresponsibility is you

(07:57):
know, is totally off the wall. And let's talk a little bit about
what you think needs to be doneand how everybody can get involved. So
I absolutely think that I agree withum the man that you spoke with,
that is from relations beyond there yougo, and I agree with Benad.

(08:20):
I mean, like other countries getit, why why doesn't the United States?
Um? You know, this administration, Donald Trump has been the most
anti environmental president UM ever. Imean he's uh, you know, gutted
the EPA and like you said,um as gold back regulation after regulation,
whether that was you know, dismantling, He's he dismantled the Clean Power Act.

(08:43):
He's gold back pools limiting methane pollutionfrom oil and gas infrastructure. He's
loosened emissions when it comes to standardsfor cars and trucks, um, and
also withdrawing from the Paris Agreement onClimate Change. Uh. It's been a
real travesty to see how much undoinghe has done of the progress the Obamba

(09:05):
administration has made. And in fact, I think he just saw anything with
Obamba's name on it and rolled itback without even giving it a real a
due process of whether or not thiswas a policy that actually helps people.
We need to have an aggressive climatepolicy when it comes to battling the climate
crisis, you know, Joe Bidencame out with a plan where he talked

(09:30):
about investing two trillion dollars in combatingthe climate crisis and making sure that we
get to net zero emissions by twentyfifty. He understands the scale of this
problem and understands that we're going tohave to make major investments to actually address
battling the climate crisis. We're goingto have to move away from a fossil

(09:50):
field economy to a clean energy economy, as I mentioned before, and really
invest in renewable energies. And herein Georgia where I live, we're top
ten, in top five in potentialin producing solar energy. Yet last year
only less than two percent of mystate actually produced solar energy from uh,

(10:11):
you know, from solar panels,and six or six percent with from oil
and gas. I mean, theseare opportunities that we're just leaving at the
table. That we have an opportunityto create jobs, thousands of jobs,
and be able to create energy thatis locally produced, that is produced in
a responsible way, that isn't emittingcarbon emissions into the air, that is

(10:33):
depleting our ozone layer. I mean, these are things that we are seeing
happening right in front of our eyesthat we can stop and make better.
We just need the courage to doso. And so I really liked the
plan that Joe Biden has put forth, and I'd love to see that enacted

(10:54):
and come next year and put astop to what Donald Trump has been doing
and cards to just rolling back everyregulation just to make it easier for you
know, corporate fossil fuel companies tomake money. I spoke to Jeff Ford
a couple of weeks ago. Jeffis one of the key people in the

(11:16):
electric car initiative for Ford Murder Company, and Jeff said to me something that
I thought was very appropriate to whatyou're talking about here, and that is
that if we if the automobile industryin the United States were to push hard

(11:41):
at developing electric cars, not onlywould there be less pollution, the cost
the cars are cheaper because there's lessmoving parts in an electric engine, which

(12:01):
is powered by battery. It's aboutthe third size of a engine that is
a you know, combustible engine.And so obviously if you have less moving
parts, you can build a carcheaper, it goes further, and it's

(12:22):
better for the climate. So theone hundred million dollars. Questions to Jeff
was why the hell aren't you buildingit? And it's the fact that they,
I mean Ford has been Ford andChevy General Motors have been on the
cutting edge from the get go,So give them credit on that, but

(12:46):
the fact that they haven't transitioned andmade their own commitments just saying you know
what, we will not put outa car with a traditional engine in it
after twenty thirty or twenty four.I mean, pick a day, don't
care what it is, just pickit and have a plan to get there.
And you know, which is whyElon Musk would with Tesla is doing

(13:09):
so well, even though the carcompanies that do the actor, it's because
and people buy these things. Ihave two members of my family who bought
Tesla's. You know, who wouldhave thought that there'd come a day when
you would buy a car not onlysight unseen, it isn't even built yet,
so you know, it just goesto proven. To your point on

(13:31):
climate control, I'm sorry to Pairsclimbing cord. We were a signatory on
that, we helped write it,and then we buy a line that's crazy.
I mean, China is still there. M It's like are you kidding
me? How? You know,don't get me started. It is the
old saying good but now you're you'regetting ready to run for Congress in Georgia's

(14:01):
seventh district. Tell me about theseventh district in Georgia. So so I
just ran uh for fifteen months.And the seventh district of Georgia's composed of
eighty five percent is Gwinnett County,which is the fourth most diverse county in

(14:22):
the entire country. It's a workingclass community and many of us are you
know, are working hourly jobs likemy parents do. And and you know,
it's folks here that are working,you know, day to day.
And even though they're working multiple jobs, even though their wages have an increase

(14:45):
in the past decade, along withthat, their utility costs have increased in
proportion. And it's we have thehighest proportion of utility costs in comparison to
how much people of income in themetro Atlanta area. And it's just becoming
it's becoming more and more expensive tobe a working American today. And one

(15:07):
of the things that I talked aboutwas, you know, I during my
campaign supported you know, a GreenNew Deal the principles of a Green New
Deal and talk about how how importantit was that we move away from a
fossil fuel economy to renewable energy economy. And I kept going back to the
fact that we have a real opportunityin this district to produce locally produced produced

(15:33):
jobs where we can create local energywhen it came to solar, and they're
doing it in all parts of thestate. And we need a real investment
here at home to help create ahigher, good paying jobs. And so
this is something that resonated with acommunity, and you know, folks totally
understood that they needed a shift,a shift needed to happen immediately because they

(15:56):
were feeling it in their pocketbook.Not only that, it's their health.
So I know a lot of peopletalk about how the climate crisis affect you
know, frontline community is the hardest. Are black and brown communities when it
comes to you know, our air, having clean air or clean water,
and it definitely has an effect onin the metro Atlanta area. In Atlanta,

(16:21):
we have some of the worst airpollution and it and it has an
effect on people's health and when itcomes to asthma, when it comes to
you know, making sure that peoplecan breathe air and not get thick from
it. Folks are really are sufferingaround this area. So, I mean,
these are some of the issues thatwere of concern to my community that

(16:44):
resonated with it. And today,you know, two thirds of America agrees
that we need to do something aboutclimate change, and this has become a
real issue today that people agree thatwe need to become more aggressive on nibila.
I don't know if you've ever beenhelp to southern California, but if
you take the drive from Los Angelesto Palm Springs out into the desert,

(17:07):
one of the most amazing things youwill see is throughout that entire time as
you make the trip out from PalmSprings to LA to Palm Springs, which
is a little over one hundred twentymiles or so, depending upon where you
started in Los Angeles, but youwill see massive, massive wind farms.

(17:33):
And these these wind turbines have beenthere for years. I mean, we're
not talking about four years ago orten years ago. We're talking twenty five,
thirty years ago. It's those windmills generate almost fifteen percent of the

(17:56):
electricity that powers the cities of LosAngeles and San Diego. And yet we
talk about clean energy when you thinkof solar, and of course solar makes
sense, but we don't talk enoughabout wind, which is easier to build

(18:18):
less you know, it doesn't takea lot to maintain it, and you
can build it anywhere. I justI don't seem to get how people can't
connect with us. I've actually beento southern California, and yes, I
know what when wind farms are windturbines you that you're speaking of? And

(18:41):
I think it totally makes sense thatthe user are we take the strength that
we have across our environment and useit to benefit our community and produce clean
energy that doesn't that isn't harmful.I I think he is the thing.
It is a no brainer to theAmerican people. We've caught up with it.

(19:03):
It's just that our administration, ourpresident UH is just denying the science.
When he was in California, UM, you know, to go visit
the exactly and UH he mentioned hewas talking to the I believe is the

(19:23):
Natural Agency Secretary U and he wastalking about whether you know, look,
I don't think vegetation management is it? Uh? And and Donald Trump was
like oh, well, you know, sometimes to the effect of it'll start
getting cooler. And he puts backinstead that he wished the science to agree

(19:44):
with the president, and then DonaldTrump calendared, I don't think science does.
This is a man that believes heis above science because because he apparently
has a very good brain. Um, and I mean this is what this
is. Literally, the him andadministration are are leading the charge when it
comes to, you know, thepossibilities that this country can can take,

(20:07):
and they're not meeting the moment.They are just doubling down on the dirty
energy that this country has been creatinginstead of looking at the possibilities as such
as wand and solar and so Iit's just something that we're definitely going to
need a new president. That's theonly answer is we're out to get a

(20:30):
new president because if he gets anotherfour years, it's just going to get
worse. Special thanks to our guestsand abilit Islam and all the information on
her fine work on climate change andother major issues can be found in the
show box below. We'll be rightback to some final thoughts right after this
from the twenty point one for theBronco. There's still some wild out there,

(20:55):
those great out sections on maps thatmap makers haven't gotten to yet,
places where sales service and calendar remindersdon't exist. But you have to get
out there and look for it.And to look for it, you need

(21:22):
something that's just as wild as thewild. You need something that can look
at venture in the eye and giveit a firm handshake. Something built with
the toughness of an f series andthe spirit of a mustange. Something that's

(21:45):
not happy until it takes you throughwhatever creek or snow or mud or mountain
trail or doom logging road or landmarkwith death in its name. You need
a broncho, that's what you're lookingfor. Welcome back everyone. If you're

(22:18):
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(22:42):
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Correct Podcast with Jim Williams and theywill do it for you. All right,
special thanks again to our guests.Of course, was now Nabila Islam.

(23:07):
She is doing a very good jobof making people aware of all the
issues on climate change. Folks.It is not a jokes. It is
our hopes. It is something youneed to take seriously, something all need
to take seriously. Remember that youror only about a month out, will
over a month from auction day.Be sure too, if you're going to

(23:30):
vote via mail that you han't becauseyou read everything in detail, makes certain
that everything is done properly so thatyour vote will count. Okay, all
right, So next time, I'mJim Williams for the entire team here at
Deepolicele and Correct Podcast shaying, havea wonderful and safe week.