Journey of a Former Coal Miner

Climate One

Social Sciences, Science, News, News Commentary, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2021

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

What motivates the activists? Grassroots activism can take many forms, from protests to letter-writing to citizen science to community organizing. But these often more local forms of activism can get short shrift compared to the more powerful, national players in climate and environmental movements. Nick Mullins, a former fifth-generation coal miner, grew up seeing multiple generations of his family endure hardships created by our nation’s demand for cheap coal. In search of decent pay, he became a miner himself – but he eventually left the industry in search of justice for his mountain communities. James Coleman started his career as a teenage climate activist before becoming the youngest elected public official in California in over 100 years. San Francisco activist Marie Harrison fought against environmental contamination of her community by the U.S. Navy and a fossil-fuel-burning power plant – and now her daughter, Arieann Harrison, has picked up her mantle to continue pushing for environmental justice. Mullins, Coleman, and dozens of activists featured in Audrea Lim’s book The World We Need, Stories and Lessons from America’s Unsung Environmental Movement represent just a fraction of those motivated to take action on climate. “The thing about grassroots activism, actually, apart from the stereotype is that it’s really just people in a community who see a problem and then they get together on their own and try to find a solution to it,” says Audrea Lim. What can grassroots activists do that national organizations can’t? And what can their stories and experiences teach us? Guests: Nick Mullins, former fifth-generation coal miner, blogger, Thoughts of a Coal Miner Audrea Lim, Journalist & Editor, The World We Need, Stories and Lessons from America’s Unsung Environmental Movement James Coleman, City Councilor, South San Francisco Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Shopify. With Shopify, 2026 is the year you make it happen. It gives you the tools to build your dream store, online and in person. Plus with marketing built in, it'll help you reach exactly who you need to. Join the millions who've already made the leap, like Jim Shark and all birds, and ring in the new year with Shopify.
0:23.4	Sign up for your £1 per month trial at Shopify.com.uk.org.
0:28.4	This is Climate 1. I'm Greg Dalton. A former coal miner turned environmentalist says grassroots
0:36.1	activists can best motivate citizens in the fight to confront climate disruption.
0:40.5	They can communicate with their local people.
0:43.0	They know what people care about because they live in the community.
0:47.2	And so it makes it so much easier for them to be more persuasive.
0:51.1	The grassroots stereotype often involves angry people with a megaphone, but that isn't
0:55.5	always accurate. It's really just people in a community who sort of see a problem, and then they
1:01.6	get together on their own and try to find a solution to it. And what can we learn from young people
1:07.8	pushing for change? A lot of what I do, I don't really consider
1:11.5	work. I consider it a passion of mine that these issues need to be addressed equitably and in a way
1:17.2	that does not leave any community behind. What motivates the activists at the grassroots level,
1:22.3	climate ones empowering conversations feature all aspects of the climate emergency. I'm Greg Dalton.
1:28.7	Today we're talking with local environmental and climate justice advocates about what drives
1:32.8	them and what the big name organizations might learn from their work.
1:37.4	Nick Mullins is a former fifth generation coal miner from Clintwood, Virginia, and creator
1:41.9	of the blog, Thoughts of a Coal Miner. He says growing up, his father taught him to love the woods that surrounded them.
1:48.2	He would take me and my brother to the top of the ridge line, show us the trees.
1:53.2	We'd play in the streams.
1:55.5	I really got connected to nature that way.
1:58.7	His family also hunted and fished there.
	...

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