Stories from Home: Living the Just Transition Podcast Climate Justice Alliance

After a season that journeys through the history of environmental and climate justice, how to identify good and bad solutions to climate change, the importance of storytelling and creativity in the movement, we conclude with a focus on the most foundational element of the work: each of us, our capacity for self-transformation and leadership, and our relationships in the ecosystems that are our families, neighborhoods, and communities.

The Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing includes a “commitment to self-transformation,” recognizing that “We must be the values that we say we’re struggling for and we must be justice, be peace, be community.”

Organizations like the Kheprw Institute focus on just that – community empowerment through self-mastery. In this episode, guests Aghilah Nadaraj and Asli Mwaafrika from Kheprw share what it means to build “community wealth” and how leadership is within each of us.

You’ll also hear from Najari Smith, founder of Rich City Rides, on his journey from Brooklyn, New York, to Richmond, California, and how he channeled the voices of his community into the visionary bike cooperative and ecosystem that it is today.

Lastly, you’ll meet Climate Justice Alliance’s co-executive director Marion Gee, who talks about personal loss, grief, and her calling to leadership.

We hope you’ve enjoyed Stories from Home, Season 2. Please let us know your thoughts at media@climatejusticealliance.org

Resources:
The Kheprw Institute: https://kheprw.org/
The KHEPRW Story video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6cooMdIPE
Rich City Rides: https://www.richcityrides.org/
Cooperation Richmond: https://www.cooperationrichmond.org/

To be human is to tell stories and make meaning–through art, music, words, and creation. Just as some stories help to maintain the status quo, stories can also be the currency of change. When they compel us to question dominant narratives. When they bring us together in communion. When they heal us. When they make a Just Transition future feel attainable.

In this episode, you’ll hear from two of Climate Justice Alliance’s three co-executive directors, Bineshi Albert and Monica Atkins, who share the ways their art and storytelling intersect with their leadership and organizing.

Environmental justice and climate justice are inherently creative– against all odds, communities are building ways to tackle climate change and social injustices at the same time. You’ll also hear from Lenina Nadal and Cris Laguna from Center for Story-based Strategy on how to use narrative strategy for cultural organizing and building collective power.

Resource Links:

Center for Story-based Strategy: https://www.storybasedstrategy.org/
Creative Wildfire Art Project and Manifesto: https://creativewildfire.org/
Love.Black.Warrior by Surreal: https://soundcloud.com/user-361229213/loveblackwarrior
Climate Justice Alliance Story Snapshots Project: https://storysnapshots.climatejusticealliance.org/

What are real-life examples of climate solutions that are just, equitable, community-driven, and lead to a “brighter, better world?” They are community-driven solutions that stop harm, undo harm, and heal not only the Earth, but how we are in relationship with one another.

In this episode we zoom in on “energy democracy,” a term describing a wide range of solutions that move away from a fossil fuel economy into renewable energies that also ensures energy is community-owned.

We look at the work of the following Climate Justice Alliance members: Kentuckians for the Commonwealth as they devise community energy plans, UPROSE’s solar park and clean energy development in Brooklyn, New York, and the Oregon Just Transition Alliance’s Clean Energy campaign that flips extractive economics on its head. Bonus readings in description.

Thanks to our guests, Basav Sen (Climate Change Policy Director at the Institute for Policy Studies), Cassia Heron (Immediate past chair of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, and a co-founder of the Louisville Association for Community Economics and the Louisville Community Grocery), and Elizabeth Yeampierre (Executive Director of UPROSE).

Learn more about the grassroots communities and issues featured in this episode:

UPROSE: https://www.uprose.org/

Oregon Just Transition Alliance: https://www.ojta.org/

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth: https://kftc.org/

The environmental disaster in Popal, India, that Basav talks about: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/the-worlds-worst-industrial-disaster-is-still-unfolding/560726/

UPROSE’s proposed clean energy industrial “GRID”: https://www.uprose.org/the-grid

Oregon Clean Energy Opportunity Campaign: https://cleanenergyoregon.org/

Portland Clean Energy Fund
https://portlandcleanenergyfund.org/about

Empower Kentucky, people’s energy plan: https://www.empowerkentucky.org/

In this episode, we talk to Bineshi Albert, co-executive director of CJA, about her experience at last year’s United Nations Climate Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland – and how “net zero” and “carbon capture” are FALSE solutions to climate change that distract us from what we really need to do.

If those are false solutions, how do we cut through the noise to REAL solutions that actually tackle the problems causing climate change– and not at the expense of people and all living creatures of the planet?

We answer these questions with our trusted guides Basav Sen (Climate Change Policy Director at the Institute of Policy Studies), Doria Robinson (Executive Director of Urban Tilth), and Chris Rodriguez (Community Organizer at Ironbound Community Corporation). Doria shows us how a “cultural revolution” to local food systems and reconnecting to our geographies is key to Just Transition. Chris fights greenwashing and new polluters in Newark, New Jersey, both through community action and policy change, and Basav gets into the weeds on how to decipher real climate solutions from those that might sound good but don’t really solve the problem.

News clip from Democracy Now on Chevron fire in Richmond, California: https://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/6/chevron_to_pay_2_million_for

Music by Monica Atkins, co-executive director of the Climate Justice Alliance. The track is titled “Love, Black, Warrior,” by Surreal. Find more of her work on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-361229213

Learn more about the three CJA member organizations featured in this episode:
Institute for Policy Studies: https://ips-dc.org/
Urban Tilth: https://urbantilth.org/
Ironbound Community Corporation: https://ironboundcc.org/

Learn more about:
Climate Justice Alliance Statement on the Intergovernmental Climate Change Panel’s Report: https://climatejusticealliance.org/un-ipcc-climate-report/
The Glasgow Climate Pact / COP26: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-glasgow-climate-pact-key-outcomes-from-cop26
Climate Justice Alliance Statement on COP26: https://climatejusticealliance.org/cop26-statement/
COP26 and “Net Zero”: https://climatejusticealliance.org/cop26/
False Climate Solutions:
https://climatefalsesolutions.org/welcome/

We’re THRILLED to return with a new season of STORIES FROM HOME: Moving the Just Transition, that grounds us in the history of environmental justice, climate justice organizing and present day Just Transitions. Each episode deep dives into different dimensions of the movement – from the importance of community-led solutions to the climate crisis, to what is a false “solution”, to how we relate to one another in just relationship– with our host Keenan Rhodes, and the climate justice leaders who serve as our guides and teachers.

In this episode, we travel from Indianapolis, to Puerto Rico, North Carolina to Mississippi, California and beyond, walking through the formation of climate justice - from slavery to environmental racism and environmental justice, to economic freedom and energy democracy - with our guides Elizabeth Yeampierre, Kali Akuno, and Inkza Angeles who show us the ways in which they live and embody a relationship with land and with community that sets an example for the rest of us.

Music by Monica Atkins, co-executive director of the Climate Justice Alliance. The track is titled “Love, Black, Warrior,” by Surreal. Find more of her work on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-361229213

Clips from the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit Video were provided by the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice 1992 and used with permission. Learn more about UCC and watch the full video here: https://www.ucc.org/30th-anniversary-the-first-national-people-of-color-environmental-leadership-summit/

Learn more about the three CJA member organizations featured in this episode:
Cooperation Jackson: https://cooperationjackson.org/
PODER: https://www.podersf.org/
UPROSE: https://www.uprose.org/

Soil Generation’s Shania Morris and filmmaker Joshua Mallory describe the heart of Soil Generation, a collective of Black and brown urban farmers in Philadelphia and the unique richness and challenge of creating their story snapshot, a 12-minute meditation on land, food, community, and relationship, amidst a global pandemic. Shania talks about how Just Transition is really a “just return” to our deep, fundamental, and intuitive relationship with land and community.

For over seven years Soil Generation has been a strong political advocate for urban agriculture, while also valuing Black and Brown leadership and building relationships with each other. Follow along as they grow food and dig deeper with one another (literally!)

Check out their story snapshot, a sensory-rich short film that invites viewers to show up with SG and feel what it’s like to work alongside the community on the ground. Learn first-hand how important growing food is to people in Philadelphia. https://storysnapshots.climatejusticealliance.org/