148. The Future is Intersectional with Leah Thomas
Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast
Persephonica
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2022
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
- MLK (1963)
This week, we reject our flawed, siloed thinking and embrace the oneness of social justice and environmentalism as a singular, inclusive movement.
In the Summer of 2020, our guest, Leah Thomas, coined the term “Intersectional Environmentalism” with a graphic she shared to Instagram that read, “Environmentalists For Black Lives Matter” as a call out to all environmentalists to stand in solidarity with BIPOC communities that face compounding social and environmental injustices daily. The Instagram post went viral, and the pledge she introduced along with it, The IE Pledge, has reached over a million people.
And so now that it’s 2022 and counting, how can we continue to root ourselves in that moment of clarity in 2020 and hold to the truth that you don’t have to separate race or racial justice from environmental advocacy? How can we scale climate solutions while advocating for marginalized communities all the while not making excuses for extractive industries?
We’re also joined this week by special co-host Abigael Kima, a young energy expert and climate activist from Kenya .She is the producer and host of the new Hali-Hewa (Swahili for ‘Climate Change’) podcast, which will profile African activists and climate experts airing through to COP27 on themes including a just energy transition, loss and damage, youth participation in intergovernmental processes and indigenous rights.
And —- Stick around for 3-Time GRAMMY Award Winning Artist Fantastic Negrito performing a live version of his song, “Rolling Through California”!
Enjoy the show!
—
Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!
Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter!
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Mentioned links from the episode:
ACT: Take the Intersectional Environmentalist Pledge
LISTEN: IE’s Brand New Podcast ‘The Joy Report’
READ: MAPS (Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary)
WATCH: How Black Lives Matter and Environmental Justice Are Connected
READ: The NAP Ministry
—
Thanks to our guest this week, Leah Thomas!
Leah Thomas
Founder | Intersectional Environmentalist
Intersectional Environmentalist
Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Patreon
BUY: The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas
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Thank you to our Co-Host this week, Abigael Kima!
Abigael Kima
Host and Producer | Hali Hewa Podcast
Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook
Hali Hewa Podcast
—
Our musical guest this week is Fantastic Negrito!
Fantastic Negrito
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify | Apple Music | TikTok
WATCH: ‘Highest Bidder’
READ: New Film + Album “White Jesus Black Problems” coming June 3rd
—
Keep up with Christiana Figueres online:
Tom Rivett-Carnac:
Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn
Paul Dickinson:
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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Outragean Optimism. I'm Paul Dickinson. |
| 0:16.0 | I'm Cristiana Figueroos. |
| 0:18.0 | And I'm Abigail Kimmer. |
| 0:20.0 | Hey Abigail, thank you for joining us. |
| 0:22.0 | This week we're going to talk about the extraordinary impact the IPCC's report is having |
| 0:26.8 | around the world. We've got an amazing interview with Lea Thomas, founder of the intersectional |
| 0:31.9 | environmentalist movement and we have music from Fantastic Negrito. Thank you for being |
| 0:36.5 | with us. |
| 0:46.2 | So it's really good to be with you, Cristiana. And Abby, thank you so much for stepping |
| 0:51.8 | in with Tom Karnak, who's a way. He did a wonderful episode last week interviewing Jane Goodall |
| 0:57.5 | and with a whole bunch of schoolchildren. And now he's just completely disappeared. But thank you |
| 1:02.0 | very much for joining us. How are you doing, Abby? I'm doing good and I'm really happy to be |
| 1:05.9 | here. Thank you so much for having me. Well, it's our pleasure. We always love to have a co-host. |
| 1:12.8 | And before we get into a little bit of discussion about what's been going on this week, |
| 1:17.4 | Abby, can you tell us a little bit about your work on climate change because it's pretty striking. |
| 1:23.5 | I've been watching videos of you talking about the amazing things you've been doing, but |
| 1:27.8 | you will explain it far better than anyone else can. So how did you get into climate change? |
| 1:33.1 | And please tell us about what you've been working on for the last couple of years. |
| 1:37.4 | So my journey in climate change and energy started a few years back in 2015 when I started my |
| 1:46.1 | bachelor's degree in environmental science here in Nairobi, Kenya. And I come from a community |
| 1:52.8 | that spends a lot of their time doing agriculture and it is actually our main source of livelihood. |
| 1:59.8 | And in our little farm back at home, we used to have this stream of water that flood right across |
... |
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