TBG U: Environmental Justice 101

Published Jan 23, 2024, 4:15 PM

Congratulations, you’ve been accepted into the inaugural class of Therapy for Black Girls University. Whether packing for a new year on campus, thinking through your gap year, enrolling in a community college, or grabbing your stoles for graduation, TBG U is here to help you thrive at this stage of your life and beyond.

Last year, videos of a flooding at Clark Atlanta University went viral. I know I’m not the only one who sees videos like these and wonders how the climate crisis will continue to impact me and my friends who are in college. 

To help mitigate some of the anxiety I’m sure we all have around the climate crisis, I’m joined today by Gen Z climate activist, Wawa Gatheru. Wawa is the founder and executive director of Black Girl Environmentalist, the largest national organization dedicated to empowering Black girls and women in the climate movement. 

She has been recognized as a Glamour College Woman of the Year, a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient, and was featured on the January 2023 cover of Vogue alongside Billie Eilish and 7 other climate activists. 

In our conversation today, Wawa breaks down some key terms relevant to the climate crisis, ways we can get involved with the environmental justice movement on our campuses, and why it’s important for college students in particular to care about climate change.

Where to Find Wawa

Instagram

 

HOMEWORK

  • Find out if your university has a sustainability office on campus. If not, explore opportunities with your professors to create one!
  • Get involved with your campus climate club, or find a local one in your neighborhood.
  • Work with your family, friends, and neighbors to create a climate plan in the case of an emergency.

 

Make sure to follow us on social media:

Instagram

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Interested in being a part of a future TBG U episode or suggesting a topic for us to discuss, send us a note HERE

Order a copy of Sisterhood Heals for you and your girls HERE

 

Our Production Team

Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Maya Cole Howard

Producers: Fredia Lucas & Ellice Ellis

Production Intern: Zariah Taylor

TBG University Host & Coordinator: Jayna Ellis

Congratulations, You've been accepted into the inaugural class of Therapy for Black Girls University. Whether packing for a new year on campus, thinking through your gap year and rolling in a community college, or grabbing your souls for graduation, tbgu is here to help you thrive at this stage of your life and beyond.

Hi.

I'm SORRYA Taylor, and I'm the TBG podcast production intern. We'll return to Jana. Right after the break.

Last year, videos of a flooding at Clarkalana University went viral. I know I'm not the only one who sees videos like these and wonders how the climate crisis will continues to impact me and my friends who are in college. To help mitigate some of the anxiety I'm sure we all have around the climate crisis, I'm joined today by gen Z Climate Activists. Wuahwah Gathiu Wawa is the founder and executive director of Black Girl Environmentalists, the largest national organization dedicated to empowering Black girls and women in the climate movement. She has been recognized as a Glamour College Woman of the Year, a Forbes thirty Under Thirty recipient, and was featured on the January twenty twenty three cover of Vogue alongside Billie Eilish and seven other climate activists. In our conversation today, Blahwah breaks down some key terms relevant to the climate crisis, ways we can get involved with the environmental justice movement on our campuses, and why it's important for college students in particular to care about climate change. Here's our conversation. Thank you, mama for being with us today. You are a climate storyteller and founder a Black girl environmentalist.

I would love to hear the story behind the birth.

Of black girl environmentalists and how your journey into the world of climate actually began.

Could you walk us through that?

Yeah, for sure. First, thank you so much for having me.

I'm so excited to share more about my story and to share about black girl environmentalist. The story and the seed idea for VGE started when I joined the climate movement. So I joined climate when I was fifteen years old. I had a really pivotal environmental science teacher who had added a chapter on environmental justice, which essentially meant it introduced me to this long tradition of particularly matriarchs of color that have been across a diaspora. Essentially at the forefront of earth advocacy, and I was also learning that the climate crisis was partially impacting black and brown people around the world, yet we were the least represented in leadership or in the narratives that we were hearing. So very early in my journey, I started joining climate organizations where I was from, in the state of Connecticut, and I quickly realized that the climate movement that I was coming accustomed to did not have any space for black women or black youth in general. I was the youngest person by at least twenty years. In every space that I was in, I was the only person of color, always the only black person in Hartford. So there were all these discrepancies that I was seeing while I was also learning about how black women in particular are experiencing the brunt of environmental degradation in the climate crisis, and getting honestly really frustrated and angry at the lack of space for us to be resource and empowered. So I remained in the climate space. You know, at fifteen, now I'm twenty four, and all these years, every year I was like, I wish there was a space for us. And so in twenty twenty I made an Instagram account called Blackgrown Environmentalist and the rest is history.

Now we're a nonprofit.

I love that and thank you for explaining your process. What is the significance of establishing a dedicated space for black women and non binary individuals within environmentalism?

So the process has been a really interesting one. I think what's different about BEGE from a lot of other nonprofits is that the concept of the organization came after the community. So, like I said, I started an Instagram page in the summer of twenty twenty. I was just really frustrated at the lack of space for black women and black gender expansive people to talk about our unique experiences in the climate movement. At the same time, I wrote an article for Vice essentially the titles it's time for environmental study to own up to like erasing black people or something like that, and it went really really viral in the climate space, and the number one audience that was reaching out to me were black women and black girls in particular, other early career people that were like, I'm having the same exact experience, and that was the first time that they knew that there was someone else out there going through the very same things, but staying because the climate crisis is impacting our community, so we need to be in those spaces. So what was cool is that I took the step of taking this Instagram page and transforming it into a nonprofit. Because the community continued to grow and remain strong three years after that was a huge aspect. And then also even though I am myself very early career, I've been in the climate movement for ten years now, and all these experiences that we're seeding this idea for BGE, they were not and are not unique experiences. There are black women and black girls and black gender expansive folks that are experiencing the very same thing. So when it came down to really getting our mission solid, which is addressing the pathway and retention issue in the climate sector, for BGES, it was a process that honestly was just affirming the experiences that we know that we've been having and coming together to create really solid resources to address them in ways that actually center us and.

Are actually being led by people closest to the.

Circumstance, because right now, a lot of the pathway and retention programming or initiatives in climate are not led by young people, and they're also not being led by black or Indigenous people, yet we are the demographics that are disproportionally impacted by the climate crisis. The mission itself was a community effort, and I've been really lucky to have just such a great network honestly of mentors that I've gone throughout the years, other veges that have been like mentoring laterally and horizontally in this journey of navigating a nonprofit as a young person, because it's been very difficult.

Well, thank you for walking us through that. I'm just personally, I'm touched by the work that you do with BGE. I wanted to be an environmentalist as a little girl. I remember in my car seeing like the emissions and the fumes and the fires and be like, we need to put it into this justice. But it's inspiring to hear that you were doing the work as a fourteen year old. So I want to get into more of a definition esque part, just because the jargon of some of these words are confusing. So we often hear the phrase of climate change stone around, but some don't know the true definition. Can you define the following terms for us? So we'll start off with climate change.

So also I want to first affirm you and say that if you care about clean air, clean water, and support your community, then you're an environmentalist. I think that the movement has done a really poor job around actually having a definition that people can relate to and that is relevant to all of us, and that has been a losing strategy because it really comes down to addressing the scale and scope of this circumstance we're in. We're experiencing ecological breakdown that's tied to human activity, and not everybody. It's not like we all cause the climate crisis. The climate crisis was caused by the fossil fuel industry. As for the climate crisis, I like to call it the climate crisis. Obviously climate change is a technical term, but using the term crisis I feel like really is doing a more intentional job by fossil fuel interests and was paid for from blood money from chattel slavery. So I think what's really interesting is if you take a climate science class or even look up on Google like what caused the climate crisis, You're going to see greenhouse gas emissions that can be tied to the Industrial Revolution and the influx of greenhouse gases that came about with our global economy being shifted in that way. But the Industrial Revolution didn't come about randomly. It's not the father of the climate crisis because it didn't pay for itself, it didn't raise itself. It was subsidized with blood money from chattel slavery and validated by manifest destiny. If we look back to I don't know, like eighteen sixty for example, enslaved people represented the largest single financial asset in the entire economy, like worth more than manufacturing and railroads combined. And that doesn't even include the crops that they produced, right like the sugar, the tobacco, and of course cotton. So we already know that enslaved people subsidize the entirety of American life. We know that the US economy was built off of that wealth. So in the face of the abolishment of chattel slavery, the US launched itself into a new economic system paid for by the same family, same generational wealth. The Industrial Revolution where we went from extracting from the backs of enslaved Africans and the extraction of the land to a new type of extraction, which is the grounding of the climate crisis. So I think it's really important to acknowledge those connections because when it comes to thus solving the climate crisis, it requires us getting to the roots of how we got here and understanding that climate solutions require addressing systemic racism, addressing the historic and continue the impacts of colonialism and imperialism, the same systems that cause the climate crisis in the first place.

Okay, so what about environmentalism?

Yeah, So, like I said before, I think the definition for environmentalism is pretty simple. It's value based rights. Do you care about clean air? Do you care about clean water? Do you believe that we all deserve access to these basic human rights? Do you care about our ecosystems being able to continue to exist? Do we care about a future for ourselves, our aging parents, our future bloodlines if we choose to have them or not. The answer is yes to any of these questions, then you are an environmentalist because you have have a set of values that are around caring for yourself and our holistic ecosystems.

And you definitely just affirmed little Jana, So I appreciate that. And lastly, environmental justice.

Yeah, so, basically, environmental justice asserts that all people deserve access to a clean and healthy environment, regardless of their race, socioeconomic status.

Their ethnicity, their country of origin.

Just requires that we all have equitable access and pathways into experiences that allow us.

Also to self determine what a healthy environment is.

And the reality is is that all of our relationships with the environment are not all ones that are equal, and are not ones that allow us to have a healthy environment. And oftentimes it is, especially in the context of the United States, it's race that determine our relationship to the environment as well as our proximity to environmental hazards.

Well, thank you for breaking those terms down. I'm curious, why is it important for college students to care about climate change?

Yeah, oh my gosh, I love that question. It's important.

Like if we were to do like a large umbrella, everybody in it, we are all going to experience the impacts of the climate crisis, and.

Most of us already have.

It's just as a matter of whether or not we have the language to make those connections or not, which is why I'm really adamant about talking about how the climate crisis isn't just an ecological crisis, it's also a narrative crisis.

We don't know how to talk about it.

We don't know how to name these experiences that we all are having and recognize this as being climate related. And so for college students, the average college student is a young person that is in college attempting to gain the skills and resources to be able to be young change makers. The climate crisis is the biggest threat of all time because not only does it create new problems, but it exacerbates and intensifies all existing social ills. So the climate crisis is this thing that we can either experience the impacts of or decide to be a part of the solutions that can ultimately allow.

Us to, in my opinion, love a better world into existence.

Well, thank you for explaining that.

So a big part of your work is making climate issues accessible. Could you break down some of today's urgent climate issues.

I can talk about extreme heat.

So that's an example where I think we all experienced and solve the impacts of the heat waves and the extreme heat that happened this summer and last summer. But this past July was actually the hottest month ever recorded in history.

And that's not by accident.

That is tied to the climate crisis, and oftentimes people might be confused as to how that circumstance, for example, showcases the ways in which the.

Climate crisis doesn't impact us all the same.

There's this saying that I like to say, which is, we're all experiencing the same storm, which is the climate crisis, but we're all not in the same boat. So we look at demographics that have been disproportionately impacted by extreme heat. An obvious example would be the house's populations, but also black communities in general. So we think about black communities and where we are, particularly in our cities. The reality is is that there has been a ton of research that showcases that previously redlined communities are actually hotter by five to thirteen degrees hotter than neighborhoods that weren't previously redlined and that are predominantly white. Why well, when we think about redlining the discriminatory lending practices in the nineteen twenties, those areas were also disproportionately chosen and selected for the placement of highways, the placement of warehouses, the placement of essentially infrastructure with impervious surfaces that absorb heat, making them actually hotter from the concrete in addition to the fact that these very same communities don't have the same amount of canopy cover or green space, which also supports with mitigating extreme heat. So that's an example in which while extreme heat was something we all experienced, whether it was like not being able to go to I don't know if festival because it messed up the energy forcing or just being uncomfortable going outside, or even sometimes the infrastructure of the buildings we're in aren't actually created for this type of heat.

Black communities were actually hotter, and.

So that's a very clear example of how this is like an issue that we're all experiencing. But because of things like redlining, discriminatory lending practices, and the history of Jim Crow, we are seeing how, for example, infrastructure can lead to worse outcomes and health outcomes for black communities and black college age students as well.

Wow, that is I would never think about July being so hot in that way. So that's definitely something I think we should all look into more closely as we're transitioning into warmer temperatures just on average with the climate crisis.

Right, Hi, I'm Sorria Taylor and I'm the TBG podcast production intern. We'll return to Jana right after the break.

So what other ways do climate issues affect the black community?

The fact that black youth are actually experiencing eco anxiety climate anxiety at very high rates. My hot take, and which isn't really a hot take, is that I think eco anxiety is an environmental justice issue and that it disproportionately impacts black youth in the spaces that I'm in, I hear eco anxiety and climate grief all the time, but I realized that that terminology might not be talked about in other spaces. So eco anxietyological grief is defined by the American Psychological Association as quote a chronic fear of environmental doom, which may include feelings of worry, fear, guilt, or shame, and even hope. This is just something that young people in general are experiencing, however, because like I said before, the climate crisis doesn't impact all people in communities equally, neither does ecological grief. Right, The nature of a person's eco anxiety often is dependent upon how immediate the impacts of climate change are on their lives, and that immediacly often depends on privilege. I just gave you an example on how extreme heat looks different in different communities. But when we also think about the existing resources that are and largely are not there, especially for black youth in regards to mental health services and access to those spaces, Black youth are already more at risk of depression, anxiety, and stress, and I believe black girls right now have the highest rising suicide rate in the country. So those are the existing circumstances and the baseline of where we're in when you bring climate, natural disasters, and all of these circumstances in which climate is intensifying existing circumstances, creating new problems, displacing people, and we know it's this imminent threat that's getting worse. Why is it that when you type in eco anxiety, you will never hear a nuanced conversation of how it impacts particularly Black and Indigenous people and Black and Indigenous youth. That we're in this situation where we're kind of like we didn't lead to these dynamics.

Our grandparents didn't do it.

Like our grandparents were of the people seeding the money for the Industrial Revolution.

We definitely weren't.

The ones that were behind childel slavery. So there is a huge narrative issue, and that narrative issue actually informs the resources that exist around eco anxiety because I think that a lot of us are rightfully very fearful and don't know where to go about all these really complex emotions that we're feeling about climate and unfortunately, right now, the mainstream space has really embraced this color blind perspective.

On eco anxiety.

And I think that it's a missed opportunity as well, because I think that all of these complex things that we're experiencing and emotions can actually be pushed towards action.

I get really angry when I think about the climate crisis. There's like a lot of.

Anger that I have and finding sustainable pathways communities like BGE, where you get to be in community with other people that are experiencing the same things, have a space to talk about them upfront, even if it's uncomfortable, and then have avenues to contribute it towards advocacy and action that is supporting our communities very directly and very intentionally. All of those things are to me pathways for us to begin addressing this.

Like you said, with so much distressing news about the climate crisis, some people feel overwhelmed and disheartened, leading them to withdraw or lose motivation to care. So what are some words of advice or encouragement that you would share with someone grappling with these emotions or even climate anxiety.

Yeah, I feel like it's always an interesting line to tow. I feel like when I'm specifically like talking to like black women around addressing climate because everything inside of me, I know for a fact that we will solve the climate crisis.

When black women are in leadership period, Like black.

Women are the first in line of defense with bascism in this country. We literally hold up democracy on our backs. And I also don't want us to be martyrs. So it's this balancing act. Generally, I'd say, like, here's the thing, when I'm talking to like other black people, I don't need any convincing of whether or not people should act like social advocacy activism is our generational birthright, point blank period. We think about examples of youth organizing in the climate space in the past decade, for example, like the Sunrise movement that was largely behind this recent announcement around the Climate Core, which we'll be providing climate jobs for twenty thousand young Americans. Sunrise movement quite literally, and they are known for like acknowledging this, they're organizing platforms and strategy literally comes from the textbooks of the civil rights movement. So I feel like in this there is this unique opportunity, particularly from so many.

Aspects of our community. Whether we're talking about.

How to navigate hope in a time of despair, literally look no further than the Black Church, like an institution that has been able to support folks in the midst of so much. You literally don't have to look any further than you know, civil rights leaders and activists, many of folks that are still alive, that have children, that have been able.

To remain leaders in our communities.

So much of what the climate movement is looking for, I believe exists.

In our communities.

So it's just a matter of integrating, like i'd say, like a climate lens into existing work, because I don't necessarily believe that you necessarily have to go outside of what's going on for it to be climate adjacent. But that's also i'd say, like carving out spaces for us to be able to intentionally address the way that climate is impacting us.

And that's why I always give the pitch to people.

If you're looking for a community of other black women and black gender expansive folks, especially if you're like gen Z, you should follow Black grown Environmentalists.

Join one of our hubs.

We have ten hubs across the US. We're in everywhere from New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Miami. I'm on the spot, so I'm like, what about DC, Philly, We're in the Bay, We're in Houston, We're in Atlanta.

And we do bi.

Monthly engagements in each of these cities and have already cultivated really beautiful community spaces for us to essentially engage in climate action and advocacy, but also rest like our spaces can be anything from going to like a town hall together, or going to a march together, to meeting up with a black bee keeper and getting to see that process, or all having like a self care day or like going to a happy hour. I think there are ways for us to come together and rest and heal and have spaces of resilience.

That's building collective power. So when we need to show up.

We already have that community that we can come together and do the things.

I love that BG has that while you were in college, how did you balance your studies with your climate activism and running the organization.

Yeah, so I'll like quickly clarify, I mostly was navigating BGE and school work in grad school, so like I graduated undergrad May of twenty twenty, but I still was doing this balancing act of being a climate activist in school and it was really difficult.

But something that really really helped.

Me was having mentors within the school system that supported me and knew what I was doing was really important, and finding ways to have allies in this system. I think for me, like my I did a degree in like environmental studies, so our program was already very very small. I had the privilege of getting really close with a lot of my professors, so like they kind of got it. So I was able to, like in a lot of ways, sometimes finesse credit for things I was doing outside of the classroom.

And those things started because I was asking. I was like, is there.

Any way we could do like an independent study for this project or this internship. And it was interesting because when I was able to have a very clear ask and deliverable that.

Would come out of this independent study.

For example, most times people were willing to work with me, and I understand that it was like a huge, huge privilege. And looking back, and when I tell people that, they're like, wait, what, but I think it begins with asking.

I think a lot of people aren't asking. So there.

I'd also say, looking back, there's a lot of things that I wouldn't do again. And I did a really bad job at balancing. I wouldn't necessarily change the way I did college. But looking back, I was perpetually burned out. I was taking at least twenty credits a semester and working at least thirty hours outside of class, which meant I was barely sleeping. And the reason why I was doing all this is because I was like climate crisis so urgent. I'm not spending all this time doing this. What am I doing?

YadA YadA, YadA, YadA YadA.

And looking back, I wish that I was able to like, really fully appreciate the community is that I was organizing alongside with. Because no successful movement allows for folks to perpetually burn out, we should feel comfortable to take a step back and to take care of our mental health, to take care of our soul, like our personal relationships, to just have time to be a young person, being young, doing fun sometimes stupid stuff, you.

Know what I mean.

And the only wish I'd have for my younger self is that I wish that I had the wisdom I have now or had someone in my life like look me in the eye and be like, Wowa, the climate crisis, it's here, it's not going anywhere.

You Deciding to not take.

This job or not take this internship for a semester or even a year isn't going to make you any less qualified or isn't going to make you, know what I mean. There are opportunities looking back that I'm like, I definitely could have taken a step back.

I could have done a lot better with my health.

And so I would say, just like being honest with oneself, I feel like there's a lot of pressure when you're in college to do it all and be all the things to all the people in your life, and the reality is is that it's a journey.

It's a journey.

Once you're done with that, and then you're going to be post brad and that's another that's another journey. So the best thing is just like to pace yourself like these problems unfortunately they're not going away. But when we are working towards finding sustainable pathways for us to contribute, that actually is better for the movement.

As a whole.

Right because at the end of the day, the way that I think about the environment and our holistic ecosystems, our bodies are a part of that. When people are like, your body's a temple, your body is a part of our ecosystem. So taking care of yourself is a form of environmental action to me and in the communities that I'm building alongside, And if someone in my community is burnt out, they're not even useful for themselves to be able to actually experience the world that we're seeking to save and love into even a better iteration. So I think that framing of being like we should have time to experience all the things that we are trying to save and trying to love on.

I love that so much. You mentioned some good important tips to call.

Students right now to know the signs of burnout and to know that you're not going to be able to conquer it all right here, right now, and today, and also to honor yourself because to your point, you are a part of this ecosystem. So I love that that's super powerful. What guidance or tips which you offer to black women activists both within and outside of climate activism when discovering and asserting their voices.

Yeah, I have a couple tips, i'd say.

Also, the first thing I'd want to say and something that I'm I'm navigating all these things still now, but one of the first things is you aren't your work, you aren't your output. That's quite literally like a symptom of the sixth system that we're in, which is capitalist system that quite literally places our value and our work on the output of work that we're putting out there, and on the external validation of people telling.

You that your work is valuable. That is, lack of a better word, bullshit.

You are valuable and precious regardless of what you do. And I think that this is something that I'm definitely navigating now. Of Wawa as Wawa me like my full name is with Jiggo, so not even Waba like, Butko is beautiful outside of the work that I do and outside of what people might assume I am or who I am, and I'd say a part of that and setting yourself up for success just in general, is having people in your life that value you. Outside of that, I think that unfortunately, ego can come in when you're doing activist work, being able to like stay true to the things that got us into the space, and sometimes we need people in our lives that can be like, hey, let me check yourself. Like the movements about the movement, the movement isn't about me as an individual, you as an individual.

We are trying to.

Collectively empower and better our communities and being reminded of that and being in environments that are constantly reminding you that is so so important and something that I'm in the midst of like making sure that I'm holding myself accountable to those things. I'd also say that it's completely fine to change your mind, change your ideas. We're young, we're growing, and I think in this public facing activist space, there is this tendency for people to be pigeonholed and want to pigeonhole themselves around exactly what they're working on or how they're saying things.

And honestly, it's normal to change your mind.

It's healthy. It actually is what we should be doing. Like I look back to what I not necessarily because it was wrong. I just grew an experience and perspective, and so while I might have had a different perspective on X thing at eighteen, now in twenty four and I'm like, oh, well, I actually don't believe that necessary. And I think that it's actually a great sign for yourself if you're able to like address that head on.

Yeah, I actually don't.

Agree with myself five years ago. That's totally fine because also other people need to hear that so that they.

Feel like it's okay.

And then lastly, another piece of advice that I have is just around wellness and wellbeing because like so many of the people that I know that are like activists, because the work that we do.

Is so urgent and feel so urgent because.

It is we do really put oftentimes like we'll taking care of ourselves on the back burner. I recently started trying to work out more regularly just because I really needed those endorphins, and the difference has been like great. But sometimes that's taking a little hot girl walk outside. Sometimes it is just going outside. There's tons of research that shows that even like five to ten minutes out side can like really really impact your mental health.

For example, the outdoors and nature does have a lot.

Of antidotes to what circumstances that we are experiencing.

And sometimes it is.

Like I needed to take a walk, and now I feel a lot better. Ball side, take a walk, move your body and know that again, like taking care of yourself because we're a part of this collective ecosystem is a part of ecosystem help. So like understanding ourselves and connection to others and our planet is so so important. And I think that perspective is really good when we think about community care.

I love that for our black women activists, our sisters doing the work, it's really important to remember that and it's really hard, I can imagine, to remember that while you're doing the work every day.

Hi, I'm SORRYA Taylor, and I'm the TBG podcast production intern. We'll return to Jana right after the break.

What are three things a college shouldn't could do on their campus to contribute to climate activism and be prepared for potential climate disasters on their campuses.

Yeah, I love that question.

So I would say the first thing is and this is so different because I feel like I did know this in college, but knowing your neighbors is so important. At least know their names, say hi, build like some sort of community, especially where you're living. Why because in the face of honestly, in the face of climate disaster or any type of emergency, your immediate community who is living near you, that is your lifeline.

The second thing is there's a.

Lot of colleges these days that have sustainability offices, but a lot of colleges that don't. I think that most HBCUs don't have like a sustainability office. And usually in the sustainability offices is where like folks are working on like climate action plans that can be accessible to students in the midst of, for example, a power outage or a storm or a flood or something like that. So if there is that type of institutional entity that is working on sustainability, reaching out to see if they have those resources, and if not, maybe seeing if there's like an internship opportunity to help support and develop those things, or maybe that can be like a thesis project or an independent study situation. And then the other thing I'd say is there's not necessarily this need to, like, for example, on college.

Campus, create a whole new climate club.

They usually are like environmental or climate clubs out there, depending on your campus.

Thank you for that, OA. So I'm curious to know, WAWA, what is your vision for BEG in.

The future, Black Grown Environmentalist I already shared our mission. Our mission is to address the path or and retention issue in the climate sector for bges right, with a particular focus on early career folks gen Z and hopefully like this new generation Jen Alpha.

But ultimately we're.

Here to provide community and resources to black women and black gender expansive folks with this focus on particularly young people. And I just want people to know that BEGE is a space for them to come to define community and it is also a space that's for you. Even if you hear the term environmentalists and you're kind of like, I'm not really sure if that's something that I'm about. I already shared the way that I see environmentalism that I feel like is shared.

Honestly across the movement.

And so if you're even just looking for a space to meet other like black women and like black gender expensive folks in your community, obviously, if you're in one of the hub cities come out to an event. It's a great way to meet other folks, to even network, especially like latterly, which is really important. I think a goal for me in general for the organization is that I'd like to see, especially from like black cultural spaces, is sustainability and climate being more upfront. I'm not going to name names because it's everybody and I totally get it, but like we have all these types of like conferences or gatherings that are really really for us, Like those are the spaces that we want to go to and that we're flying out to and whatever it might be. And there is literally no programming around climate and it is like the biggest like mind boggling thing to me because I'm like, we'd literally experiencing the climate crisis first and worse. And to be honest, I started BGE and the space that we're cultivating in BG largely is due to the fact that I don't trust the mainstream climate movement to create spaces for us in which like we're actually being resourced from the early career into senior leadership and realizing our full potential in climate leadership. I don't see those spaces as necessarily having the resources or even having the purviews. You know that that's something that they should be doing if they're actually equity focused. So like we have to be focusing on building within our own communities, and what I would like BGE to do and helping to bridge those gaps is to help show up in those spaces to go to the essen's best and the culture cons I guess i'll name drop, so the manifesting being able to connect bges that are already leading in climate because trust me, there are black women that are out here doctor Beverly Wright, who is like one of the foremost environmental justice scholars in the country, in the world, who is a black woman that started as a professor at Dillard University at the age of twenty seven in the Deep South and has been doing this work for decades, that should be platformed in these spaces that should be out here in the non climate black spaces, so that we can better make these narrative connections so that we are well prepared in the face of a climate disaster, flooding storm, whatever it might be, and that we have the resources to know how to.

Navigate those things.

In a perfect world, I like to see every institution, whether it's like a church, whether it's a school, whether it's whatever type of gathering space, for example, having.

A climate action plan. We should and we don't.

It's not something that we oftentize other resources to know how to navigate. And so I see BGE as being a space in which people can see themselves reflected in the space in this movement, and one that can connect people to the climate sector as a way for folks to build generational wealth from their career, but then also be able to do work that is supporting the vitality and health and wellbeing of our communities because climate connects with everything, and so any opportunity that BGE could continue to bring those conversations, bring resources, particularly to black women and black gender expansive folks, We're going to do it. And so like a goal of mine would be that we are in by next year twenty cities that we have twenty hubs that were able to have like a national summit every single year where bgs from around the country can come and network and build community, build collective power. I'd love for us to have a podcast like y'all one Day to be able to explore these conversations, and I'm going to put a quick plug. We are launching our Hazel and Johnson Fellowship next summer, named after the mother of environment justice, Hazel and Johnson, look her up.

And we will be placing twelve to fifteen early career bges.

College students actually at ten week climate internships, and those internships are across disciplines, so some of the placements actually, for example, we're going to have an intern or two at coach Topia, which is the sub brand of Coach who is actually one of our leading funders for this bellowship program. Or folks are going to be able to be at the forefront of the circular economy that's happening within the fashion industry and be able to learn from experts that are quite literally leading that from like a luxury brand perspective. We're also going to have folks that are interning at grassroots environmental justice organizations, Folks that are going to be working at the intersection of ESG and finance. For example, finance is a space that has the fastest growing jobs in the green economy, but the least amount of talent to fit that, so there's tons of potential like young Black women to get their bag in that space and do go work. So like having more pathways for people to get their foot in the door to ultimately continue to have a career in climate and whatever discipline that you're in. So if that's something that you're interested in, definitely make sure to follow so on Instagram, follow our website, and be on the lookout in the next couple of months for the application, because this program is going to be the first that it's kind for black women and black tenner or expansive young people to be able to actually have black mentorship navigating the climate sector, have a foot in the door and a lot of these institutions or placements that can be really difficult and competitive to get in and have that direct entry in a way that's culturally competent and that also allows us to create spaces for community to be built amongst the fellows.

That sounds amazing and I fully believe that BG will do so everything you just said in more. Do you have any recommended podcasts our social media pages that we should look into to deepen our knowledge of climate action?

I have a ton of suggestions. The first thing I want to shout out is a new show. Actually it is called Wild Kingdom and it is a show that actually ran for over forty years and is coming back with a co host by the name of doctor raywnd Grant, who is a friend of mine, a black woman that's leading in the space of wildlife conservation and she's just like the sweetest person, the most intelligent person as well, and I'm so excited to be able to celebrate her on the big screen because, as we all know, we don't often see black women in science communication, let alone nature broadcasting.

So she's quite literally making history.

So if you have some time to watch it, support As far as social media accounts, obviously, I'm going to tell you to follow Black Grow Environmentalist.

We are great.

We're always posting events that we're doing in person as well as just posting educational continent resources that are focused particularly for gen z so college aged students as well. Other folks that I would suggest to follow are from the outdoorsy point of view. There's like High Club, which is another incredible organization.

It's an intersectional high.

Club for women of color and they are really really great. The founder, Evelyn is such a visionary and does so much for community color the Trails is also a good organization. Peace in the Wild is an incredible organization.

They are based in Atlanta, Georgia. So if you're in the atl and you're looking for community.

We have a hub in atl too, but I'm gonna put them on if you're looking for opportunities to do fun outdoor activities. They put on really really incredible outdoor experiences for black folks in this state of Georgia.

And yeah, they're really really cool.

As far as direct resources, I would really recommend. There's this book called Black Earth Wisdom is a collection of focal conversations with black environmentalists. It has a pretty intergenerational set of experts that are essentially at the beginning, it starts with giving a very very clear look into the legacy of black women, in particular in our relationship with earth advocacy. Everyone from like Harriet Tubman as a naturalist, as a wilderness expert, and making sure that we're like putting respect on her name, especially in the space of wildlife conservation and nature and outdoors knowledge. She's one of the ogs and should be understood as such. And this book just steps such a good mix of historical accounts to really be able to ground ourselves and our ancestry in this work, but also just beautiful words and conversations from black folks across the diaspora.

That are incredible and are leading in this space. So I would really recommend that book.

Thank you for sharing all of those. Where can we keep up with you? What are your social media handles and website?

Yeah? So I'm on Instagram and TikTok.

My instagram is huawa underscore getherro, so wa wa underscore g A t h E r U and my TikTok is that without underscore, So just Wawa get thero and Yeah, feel free to follow me there tap in if you're interested, and also reach out if you're interested in learning more about getting into climate.

Thank you so much Fawa for meeting with us and indulging me in all all the work that you do keep going. I'm so proud of the work that you're doing and we need we need it so bad. So thank you so much again for talking with me.

Yeah, I appreciate you. Thank you for having me out.

I want to thank wah Wah once again for joining us for this episode. Class is over for now, but before we dismiss take the following notes from my conversation with Wahwah home with you. Find out if your university has a stainability office on campus. If not, explore opportunities with your professors to create one. Get involved with your campus climate club or find a local one in your neighborhood. Work with your family, friends, and neighbors to create a climate plan in case of an emergency.

To learn more about the.

Work Wawah is doing, or to do more research on this topic, be sure to visit Baarppoblackgirls dot com, slash tvgu This episode was produced by Frieda. Lucas, Elise Ellis, and Zaria Taylor. Editing is by Dennison L.

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The Therapy for Black Girls podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a license 
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