Speaker 1: Hello again, Welcome back. I'm excited to continue this conversation
Speaker 1: around climate change, well really around climate action, especially after
Speaker 1: the chat we had with Amanda and Derek in part one.
Speaker 1: If you haven't heard that yet, please do go into
Speaker 1: your app, added to your queue, make it auto play
Speaker 1: right after this one. I want to shift our focus
Speaker 1: a little right now, though, to shed light on the
Speaker 1: community leaders, folks on the ground, maybe those even more
Speaker 1: directly impacted by the climate crisis. To kick off that conversation,
Speaker 1: I chat with Daphne Free as a youth activist, organizer
Speaker 1: and storyteller. She is passionate and she is super unapologetically herself.
Speaker 1: You'll hear it, especially when it comes to her work
Speaker 1: around climate action and how it affects the disabled and
Speaker 1: Latin X communities. Daphne drops major truth bombs you won't
Speaker 1: be able to miss. Well, then hear from Joe Dodds,
Speaker 1: President of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action. Joe shares the
Speaker 1: harrowing experience of facing a brush fire that ripped through
Speaker 1: her small community in New South Wales, Australia. She's a
Speaker 1: prime example of how someone can turn a deeply painful
Speaker 1: life experience into a catalyst for change. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: talk to you, and I want to jump right in.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people who know of you as
Speaker 1: a youth organizer, as a storyteller, as this peace builder.
Speaker 1: There are also people who may not have heard of
Speaker 1: you or your story. So can you tell me where
Speaker 1: your activism was born from and where you were born?
Speaker 1: And maybe the answer is the same. Sure. So I
Speaker 1: am born and raised in New York City. I am
Speaker 1: a West Haarlem girl. Harlem world. West Harlem informs my
Speaker 1: activism Thuran theory, I say, I am wholly accountable to
Speaker 1: my community always. My work is also informed by the
Speaker 1: various communities I intersect. So I am disabled. I was
Speaker 1: diagnosed Swiss fribral palsy when I was three years old.
Speaker 1: So I use a wheel chair to ambulate and roll
Speaker 1: around and zoom around. Like I like to say, every
Speaker 1: time I think about the way I live my life,
Speaker 1: I think about like that song, like they see me
Speaker 1: rolland they did, And that's my that's my life model.
Speaker 1: Like everybody out here on two legs, that's overrated, guys.
Speaker 1: I'm out here on wheels doing my thing. Daphne, you
Speaker 1: got me rolling, all right? So I'm with you on
Speaker 1: the wheels. So growing up, I was raised by my
Speaker 1: mom in a very disability positive community, but sort of
Speaker 1: inherently the Hispanic Landox community and most communities of color
Speaker 1: have a very net good of outlook on the idea
Speaker 1: of disability, and I was sort of calm way focusing
Speaker 1: sort of this intergenerational push and pull where my mom
Speaker 1: raised me to be wholly proud of my disability and
Speaker 1: who I am and what my body allows me to do,
Speaker 1: but my grandparents and other elders within my community were
Speaker 1: trying to keep me sort of in this little bubble
Speaker 1: of safety. I don't really vibe with that bubble. So
Speaker 1: really my work is informed by changing the status quo
Speaker 1: of what disability looks like, creating positive disability representation, helping
Speaker 1: folks realize that disability is not a death sentence, disabilities
Speaker 1: a superpower, and that disability doesn't need to become more
Speaker 1: palatable in society for it to be accepted. Disability should
Speaker 1: be accepted just as it is because we are amazing
Speaker 1: and capable and special. So you are changing some of
Speaker 1: that image representation that you just talked about, and I
Speaker 1: think in one place in particular, when it comes to
Speaker 1: through the lens of the climate crisis, which itself is
Speaker 1: often communicated as a bit of a death sentence. So
Speaker 1: I wonder for you, you know, are you seeing more
Speaker 1: representation of the disabled community, of the Latin X community
Speaker 1: in these global and national debates and policy discussions around
Speaker 1: climate change? Unfortunately known, but every day I am working
Speaker 1: to change that status quo. My whole life, I was
Speaker 1: experiencing the idea of environmental racism, and for those who
Speaker 1: are unfamiliar with that term, it's how the infrastructure around
Speaker 1: you is contributing negatively to the way that you experience
Speaker 1: the climate crisis, and how the built environment and those
Speaker 1: polluting structures, combined with your race contributes negatively to sort
Speaker 1: of ide enfranchise climate experience. So in West Harlem, I
Speaker 1: lived near a major bus depot, UH highway, a sewage
Speaker 1: treatment plant. All of these things are great polluters to
Speaker 1: your environment. And black and brown people are three times
Speaker 1: as more likely to have ready experience high rates of asthma,
Speaker 1: heart disease, and diabetes, So adding polluted air to that
Speaker 1: mix is definitely not something that we need to be experiencing.
Speaker 1: And although I was experiencing this, my whole life. I
Speaker 1: didn't have the knowledge or the agency to understand that
Speaker 1: that's what I was experiencing. I didn't have the language
Speaker 1: to communicate the realities of environment to racism. And I
Speaker 1: was able to sort of really see that disparity when
Speaker 1: I went to high school and predominantly white institution in
Speaker 1: downtown Manhattan, and the first time I arrived in that neighborhood,
Speaker 1: there was six supermarkets in the radius of two blocks.
Speaker 1: And in my neighborhood in West Harlem, you have to
Speaker 1: go about ten minutes to get a tomato that looks
Speaker 1: sort of okay, yeah, like to maybe you want to
Speaker 1: eat exactly. And I was like, wait, wait, the way
Speaker 1: that I'm living is that the way that everyone is living?
Speaker 1: And it was a huge makeup car. So sometimes when
Speaker 1: we attempt to do something about an issue, we apply
Speaker 1: this like one size fits all answer, and we failed
Speaker 1: to account for some of the nuances and some of
Speaker 1: the different impacts of those decisions. So when I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about climate, I'm thinking about some of these sustainability issues,
Speaker 1: pollution related issues. I just remember how excited people got
Speaker 1: to ban plastic straws. Oh my god, don't get me started.
Speaker 1: We couldn't get Congress to like take carbon regulations seriously.
Speaker 1: But damn it, we're gonna shame you over these straws,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna make it impossible to find these straws.
Speaker 1: But you have another experience with these now shamed devices
Speaker 1: that have leaf you call it something of a lifeline
Speaker 1: from members of your community. Tell me about how we
Speaker 1: need to bring a bit more nuance and consideration as
Speaker 1: we're trying to care for all the communities on this planet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so sometime fifteen years ago, an environmental photographer took a
Speaker 1: picture of this turtle with plastic straws and its snout,
Speaker 1: and the whole world was enraged immediately. For so long
Speaker 1: we have been trying to get people to act on
Speaker 1: the climate, and then we started banning a little plastic
Speaker 1: straws because fossil fuels, you know, those are totally fine,
Speaker 1: but the straws, No, that's where the real problem the
Speaker 1: climate crisis is coming from. And I think the problem
Speaker 1: that comes with this is disabled folks, myself included, depend
Speaker 1: on plastic straws, depend on single use plastic medical devices
Speaker 1: to survive, Those who have limited mobility, those who have
Speaker 1: a limited range of motion sometimes for them of straw
Speaker 1: is the only way that they're able to access nutrients
Speaker 1: and feed themselves and exists as a human being. And
Speaker 1: now in instead of being able to have something as
Speaker 1: simple as a straw to be your lifeline, you're getting
Speaker 1: glaring looks from waiters at restaurants, when that anger belongs
Speaker 1: with the Phiosolphia executives because I didn't create the climate crisis.
Speaker 1: You didn't create the climate crisis, and that's strong didn't
Speaker 1: create the climate crisis. The people who have been systematically
Speaker 1: over time pumping carbon and phosophies into our environment. That
Speaker 1: is why we're here. The systematic oppressive systems that lead
Speaker 1: to the climate crisis, that is why we're here. And
Speaker 1: I think not only is it's harmful to bampastic straws
Speaker 1: because escapegoats a community, it's also harmful because it creates
Speaker 1: to distraction of where the dialogue needs to be going.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what the fosil fand if she wants
Speaker 1: to be happening, They want you to look at the
Speaker 1: straws instead of looking at them because they're the ones
Speaker 1: really responsible. So we need to really shift the narrative
Speaker 1: from these lifelines these actual tools for equality and sustainability
Speaker 1: and actually ask ourselves who was most responsible for the crisis.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Daphne. That was some knowledge that is new
Speaker 1: to me, and I love your perspective on that. I
Speaker 1: want your perspective on this other thing. You are a
Speaker 1: young person, and I'm curious, how does the message, this
Speaker 1: fatalistic message around the climate crisis strike you. How do
Speaker 1: you feel when the overriding messages we're out of time?
Speaker 1: And I want to be incoord to be transparent and
Speaker 1: say that I experienced a sort of climate anxiety, anxiety
Speaker 1: around this sort of ever present ticking clock we have
Speaker 1: in the back of our minds, and I want to
Speaker 1: give agency to that, because I think people assume that
Speaker 1: climate activists are always optimistic because we're fighting to save
Speaker 1: the planet, and I think it's actually the opposite. We're
Speaker 1: fighting to save the planet because nine times at a
Speaker 1: ten I'm having an emotional breakdown about the state of
Speaker 1: our earth, and I want people to know that who
Speaker 1: are listening, if you're also feeling in that climate anxiety,
Speaker 1: you are completely valid. But for me, I caution this
Speaker 1: fatalistic notion of where we're heading with our planet. The
Speaker 1: concept of climate doomism, where it's like we have to
Speaker 1: do everything or there is nothing this end all, be
Speaker 1: all scenario, and that is not the reality of how
Speaker 1: we solve the climate crisis. The climate crisis needs adaptation
Speaker 1: and gradual resilience in order to get solved. Yeah you're scared,
Speaker 1: I'm scared, But instead of using that fear to hide
Speaker 1: under a rock, I'm gonna do whatever I can to
Speaker 1: make sure that that incredibly scary outcome doesn't happen. Do
Speaker 1: you have examples of new messages, stories, or approaches that
Speaker 1: you've seen breakthrough what's working? I believe that storytelling is
Speaker 1: one of the biggest components that we have to creating
Speaker 1: any sort of change. Words are the building blocks of revolutions.
Speaker 1: Words can make anything happen. Giving stories and agency to
Speaker 1: those who are experiencing the effects of the climate crisis
Speaker 1: right now is some of the most effective methods I've seen.
Speaker 1: Because I think it's really easy to say the climate
Speaker 1: crisis is a thing, and I understand it exists, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't personally affect me right now, So how do
Speaker 1: I even feel compelled to do something about it? And
Speaker 1: the truth is, while many populations might not be feeling
Speaker 1: the effects of the climate crisis right now, you will
Speaker 1: at some point. The climate crisis is the greatest equalized
Speaker 1: we have on this planet in terms of even wealthy populations.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, the fire is going
Speaker 1: to burn your money. The fire doesn't care about all
Speaker 1: your dollar bills. It doesn't matter how much money you have.
Speaker 1: And you know we're not Jeff Bezos really must too
Speaker 1: quickly run off to space in one of Mars like
Speaker 1: that's not happening for us. So I think by sharing
Speaker 1: personal anecdotes and stories and that that has been incredibly
Speaker 1: important and saying these are real human people who right
Speaker 1: now in two you're feeling the floods, you're feeling the fires.
Speaker 1: It's not something that's happening in two years, five years,
Speaker 1: ten years, just happening you're right now. I also think
Speaker 1: social media is one of the greatest tools for education
Speaker 1: because I think there's a huge gap and people understanding
Speaker 1: that the climate crisis didn't just come from carbon emissions
Speaker 1: and everybody getting cars over the last fifty years and
Speaker 1: people using too much hairy spray. It came from systematic
Speaker 1: systems of oppression and how our capitalist society sort of
Speaker 1: prioritizes growth and growth and economy and using extractive materials
Speaker 1: to become wealthy over the health of our planet. So
Speaker 1: it's something that has been coming over time. And by
Speaker 1: sharing knowledge and stories and putting the people who should
Speaker 1: be accountable on platforms where we can all share and
Speaker 1: be knowledgeable too, is the most important You get my
Speaker 1: attention with this word accountable. And there's something I've anecdotally
Speaker 1: noticed about gen Z folk. Y'all seem to have a
Speaker 1: higher bar when it comes to workplaces and who you
Speaker 1: will offer up your labor to or not when it
Speaker 1: comes to product purchases and brand alignment? Why do you
Speaker 1: think gen Z have that higher standard? And the simplest terms,
Speaker 1: gen Z is tired of the bs. We've had a
Speaker 1: future handed to us that is genuinely a plate of garbage,
Speaker 1: and we're trying to just figure out how do we survive.
Speaker 1: We have grown up in a generation that has not
Speaker 1: known a life without school shootings. We are generation that
Speaker 1: even before we are finished high school, we know that
Speaker 1: we're going to be an insurmountable debts that we're not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to pay off, and with zero job
Speaker 1: security whatsoever, and with the bachelors becoming the new high
Speaker 1: school diploma, and with the masters becoming the new bachelors,
Speaker 1: you're increasingly have to invest in higher levels of education
Speaker 1: with very little prospects of actually having job security. So
Speaker 1: things are not looking real cute for gen Z. And
Speaker 1: we're pretty tired of the adults saying, well, this is
Speaker 1: how it is, and you had to deal with all
Speaker 1: this inequality, so we're just going to pass it over
Speaker 1: to you. And I think the higher bar that we're
Speaker 1: putting in place is saying, we're going to take the
Speaker 1: status quo back into our hands. Maybe it's time to
Speaker 1: have conversations with new people with new voices that actually
Speaker 1: reflect the diversity, the inclusiveness, the welcoming nature, the global
Speaker 1: nature of gen Z instead of the same men who
Speaker 1: have been in power since they were diapers because of
Speaker 1: nepotism and intergenerational wealth. And I think for me, that
Speaker 1: higher standard is is knowing that there is not any
Speaker 1: sector where gen Z is not going to hold you accountable.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if your clothing brand, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if you're a media company, even our celebrities, you also
Speaker 1: have to be someone who is making a difference because
Speaker 1: you have a platform at expands generations and expands the globe,
Speaker 1: and we're not going to give you a platform for free.
Speaker 1: You're gonna work for it because every platform that we
Speaker 1: have is a tool for change, is a vacuum for discussion,
Speaker 1: and we need to use as many avenues and platforms
Speaker 1: as possible. You dropped so many gems, I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm go in a jewelry store. So much of young
Speaker 1: people's power plays out on technology platforms. I have a
Speaker 1: split question for you. One is about how technology has
Speaker 1: allowed you and this next generation to collaborate more effectively,
Speaker 1: and then, paired with that, what you hope for from
Speaker 1: these tech platforms themselves in terms of their responsibility to
Speaker 1: do more, to do better. Yeah. I think the Internet
Speaker 1: is one of the greatest equalizers, and it's also changed
Speaker 1: the way that gen Z defines itself. I say that
Speaker 1: Gen Z is the most global generation to date, and
Speaker 1: that is because of the Internet. We are seeing a
Speaker 1: shift from individuals who are incredibly nationalistic and working in
Speaker 1: a space where it's very country specific to the work
Speaker 1: that myself and Gen D as a whole is doing
Speaker 1: not necessarily defined by country borders and barriers, but really
Speaker 1: as a global generation that is creating ally ship across
Speaker 1: the entire world. I like to say that we are
Speaker 1: building the Avengers of activism. We are building a ecosystem
Speaker 1: that wherever you go, no matter cultural or societal differences,
Speaker 1: gen D is going to hold you accountable in the
Speaker 1: same way. Because of the Internet, we have sort of
Speaker 1: this homogeneous way of thinking as a generation that previous
Speaker 1: generations hadn't been able to have because we were less
Speaker 1: connected in real time. To answer the second part of
Speaker 1: that question, how are we holding social media platforms accountable?
Speaker 1: Platforms like Instagram, platform like Twitter are inherently inaccessible to
Speaker 1: individuals with varying disabilities, whether it be visual impairments, hearing impairments,
Speaker 1: those of the deaf and heart of hearing community. In
Speaker 1: the platform like Instagram, which is all visual and graphic base,
Speaker 1: how do we allow blind people to utilize Instagram? How
Speaker 1: do we allow people who are deaf to hear our
Speaker 1: voices on stories? And Instagram actually has a feature called
Speaker 1: alt texts, which allows you to put a caption describing
Speaker 1: the image of your photo. However, that's hidden in the
Speaker 1: advanced settings on posts. It's not a front end center
Speaker 1: future and I'm pushing for platforms like Twitter and Instagram
Speaker 1: to change that. And then also simultaneously, how do we
Speaker 1: hold our social media executives accountable and the way that
Speaker 1: they have sort of allowed for disinformation to be spread
Speaker 1: across those social media putrous So sort of letting gen
Speaker 1: Z and then date those platforms with truth, with the
Speaker 1: power of stories, with the power of community to help
Speaker 1: combat all of the sort of crazy misinformation that is
Speaker 1: being spread on those platforms. What's the one thing you
Speaker 1: want someone hearing this to take away from your work.
Speaker 1: I want everyone to know that as much as you
Speaker 1: see gen Z hooked to our devices, our phones, are laptops,
Speaker 1: are iPads, on those very same devices, we are changing
Speaker 1: the world. So I promise as much as we are
Speaker 1: scrolling Instagram and tik talk, we are also having some
Speaker 1: of the most impactful conversations of our lives and probably
Speaker 1: of the world's going forward. Gen Z are experts, are
Speaker 1: lived experience makes us experts in trying to make the
Speaker 1: world a better place. So please, before you dwindle down
Speaker 1: oun gen Z to some weird kids who are obsessed
Speaker 1: with the Internet memes, I promise we are so much
Speaker 1: more than that. We are individuals who are kind, are powerful, compassionate,
Speaker 1: and are incredibly innovative. And I promise that if you
Speaker 1: trust us just a little bit more than you do
Speaker 1: right now, we are going to lead all of us
Speaker 1: together to a much better place. So give us a
Speaker 1: little bit of trust, give us a little bit of liberty,
Speaker 1: and try to laugh along the way, because we are
Speaker 1: also hilarious and not everything can be so so serious,
Speaker 1: because the times of your times are strange. But gen
Speaker 1: Z has got your back. You just have to let
Speaker 1: us lead the way. Dafnely, you are for sure a
Speaker 1: leader of right now. Thank you for your humor, your energy,
Speaker 1: your clarity, your perspective, and your your realness. It's been
Speaker 1: an absolute pleasure of meeting you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast called Force Multiplier, Action meets
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Speaker 1: I'm still Baritune Day, your host for Force Multiplier, but
Speaker 1: I'm checking in with you with a little different energy
Speaker 1: because if you're listening, you like the show, and if
Speaker 1: you like the show, you might like my other show,
Speaker 1: How to Citizen, where we take citizen as a verb
Speaker 1: and find out from people practicing the ways we can
Speaker 1: shape our community by showing up, investing in relationships, understanding power,
Speaker 1: and valuing our collective selves. Check it out at how
Speaker 1: to citizen dot com or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot to love about after me. But
Speaker 1: one of the things that stands out to me is
Speaker 1: how she stresses the importance of nuance. She proves that
Speaker 1: one size doesn't fit all when it comes to the
Speaker 1: issues of climate change. Hers is an important message and
Speaker 1: a perspective we all got to be more aware of now.
Speaker 1: Our second guest is also a testament to the same
Speaker 1: idea that we can be vessels for change by simply
Speaker 1: sharing our stories. Joe Dodds comes to us all the
Speaker 1: way from Australia and lives in her dream home within
Speaker 1: a literal forest. It's a pristine environment where we have
Speaker 1: some of the best beaches in the world. And the
Speaker 1: property that I live on is fifty acres of forest
Speaker 1: which segue straight into a Flora and Fauna reserve and
Speaker 1: thence into national parks, and there are no fences in
Speaker 1: between any of those things. So I very much feel
Speaker 1: connected to a wild environment that surrounds my place and
Speaker 1: surrounds the little town of Tarfa, which is the closest
Speaker 1: town to me. I've managed to find myself in the
Speaker 1: sort of paradisical environment that I dreamed of when I
Speaker 1: was much younger and living in the city. I was
Speaker 1: certainly aware of climate change before I moved here. It
Speaker 1: was something that was not really often spoken about in
Speaker 1: the news, but it seemed like a very distant future
Speaker 1: thing and almost impossible to conceive of it being a
Speaker 1: real problem for humans. But after I had moved here
Speaker 1: and was living in a forest, I started to pay
Speaker 1: a lot more attention to the seasons, to the wet
Speaker 1: to the dry, noticing the difference that that made to
Speaker 1: the environment around me. And as most people who live
Speaker 1: in the country would be aware, you pay a lot
Speaker 1: more attention to fire seasons, the risk of fire, and
Speaker 1: to flood events as well. But one day in March,
Speaker 1: a day that should have been like any other, this
Speaker 1: distant reality suddenly became Joe's worst nightmare up close and
Speaker 1: too personal. She was forced to evacuate her home in
Speaker 1: the Beggar Valley with only the clothes on her back,
Speaker 1: the result of a bush fire that broke out, one
Speaker 1: that would eventually destroy scores of homes and create even
Speaker 1: more collateral damage across lane. I rang my partner straight
Speaker 1: away to say whether he was aware of the fire,
Speaker 1: and he was, and I could hear his voice shaking.
Speaker 1: His voice was changed, and his voice I could I
Speaker 1: could tell he was anxious. And this is something that
Speaker 1: I have never heard in my partner's voice before. He's
Speaker 1: a very solid, calm person who pretty well always knows
Speaker 1: what he's going to do next. But it's the only
Speaker 1: time before or since that I've heard his voice give
Speaker 1: away his fear. We had enough time to get down
Speaker 1: into the valley and across the fire front in Tarta
Speaker 1: to drop me at the edge of the river and
Speaker 1: watch my home. I can see my home from that
Speaker 1: that spot two kilometers away, and it took about four
Speaker 1: hours for the fire to reach my house, and we
Speaker 1: could hear gas cylinders exploding. People were evacuating, and you
Speaker 1: could see on the faces of those people that something
Speaker 1: terrible was happening in Tarta. I remember distinctly seeing a
Speaker 1: convoy of four wheel drives pulling boats on trailers, and
Speaker 1: there were so many people packed inside the cars that
Speaker 1: they were sort of pressed up against the windows like
Speaker 1: sardines and in the boats, the open boats. There were
Speaker 1: people and children standing while I were being towed, and
Speaker 1: I remember kind of lifting my arm up and waving
Speaker 1: to acknowledge, and nobody responded at all, And I just
Speaker 1: remember that look of complete shock on their faces, and
Speaker 1: then thinking, something's happening in Tarta that we don't understand yet.
Speaker 1: And of course what that turned out to be was
Speaker 1: the fire had burnt sixty nine homes to the ground.
Speaker 1: Let's process this for us at You've got Joe her community,
Speaker 1: completely devastated, just trying to process the fact that they've
Speaker 1: lost almost every day, but the one thing they didn't lose,
Speaker 1: their resilience. Despite all this trauma and loss, or maybe
Speaker 1: because of it, Joe and her friend decided to take
Speaker 1: action the best way they could at that point by
Speaker 1: sharing their story. So a few of us who like
Speaker 1: my neighbor Jan whose house was the first to burn down,
Speaker 1: she had evacuated with nothing. Everything was melted. There was
Speaker 1: very little left of her home that was recognizable in
Speaker 1: any way. So out of her devastation and my near miss,
Speaker 1: we got together and realized that we were both actually
Speaker 1: now furious about the same thing. We were not able
Speaker 1: to have a conversation, because there was still this political
Speaker 1: toxicity about mentioning climate at all, which meant that people
Speaker 1: like us Jan standing in the ruins of her home,
Speaker 1: me standing in the forest that I loved so much
Speaker 1: that was now unrecognizable, we were not allowed to talk
Speaker 1: about the cause. And that seemed to me and Jan
Speaker 1: absolutely unacceptable, because if the cause of that fire had
Speaker 1: been an arsonist, that would have been all over the
Speaker 1: news and we would have been allowed to talk about that. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I made a little video just out of desperation, just
Speaker 1: standing in the forest, propped my iPhone in a tree,
Speaker 1: a burnt tree trunk, had my dog sitting next to me,
Speaker 1: and I just talked to the phone and said, I
Speaker 1: want the Prime Minister to talk about this, not to
Speaker 1: tell us to be quiet, because this is important. We
Speaker 1: need to have this discussion, and I will stand by
Speaker 1: any politician who's willing to have the courage to do that,
Speaker 1: because I now know what's at stake, and I now
Speaker 1: know how urgent this is, and if we don't talk
Speaker 1: about this, it's just going to get worse. And the
Speaker 1: video took off and kind of went viral in a
Speaker 1: small way, which then attracted attention from a lot of
Speaker 1: people in Australia and around the world. So bush Fire
Speaker 1: Survivors for climate action. What we've done is try and
Speaker 1: insert the reality of lived experience, but also take those
Speaker 1: stories to some of the big institutions who invest in
Speaker 1: fossil fuels, to the insurers, to the desks of our
Speaker 1: local representatives, the politicians at the state and federal level,
Speaker 1: and by telling those stories and having a person who
Speaker 1: survived those events present saying when you make decisions that
Speaker 1: have any impact on the climate, we want you to
Speaker 1: remember by us, we want you to remember what we
Speaker 1: went through, and we want you to remember what we
Speaker 1: saw and felt and heard, and the pain that caused
Speaker 1: and the trauma that caused, and the length of time
Speaker 1: that it takes any single person to get over an
Speaker 1: event like that. While you're making that decision, don't leave
Speaker 1: us off the scales when you're weighing up the good
Speaker 1: and the bad, when you're weighing up the money, because
Speaker 1: we will not go away. In fact, there will be
Speaker 1: more of us every year because we know that climate
Speaker 1: change is going to get worse. This should not be
Speaker 1: a political issue. This should be a nonpartisan issue. You
Speaker 1: have a right to go to your local member and
Speaker 1: say I I've experienced this, and I don't want to
Speaker 1: experience it again, and I don't want to see anyone
Speaker 1: else experience it. Therefore, I want you to act on
Speaker 1: my behalf to make me safer from climate damage. Joe
Speaker 1: has paved the way for her community by creating the
Speaker 1: space for victims, the fire survivors for climate action. But
Speaker 1: what can we do, even if we're halfway across the
Speaker 1: world to support the cause. I think that that there
Speaker 1: is so much that people can be doing to shift
Speaker 1: action towards climate and do it urgently. When you take
Speaker 1: action on something like this, it actually has this incredibly
Speaker 1: beneficial effect on your own mental health because you know
Speaker 1: you're doing something about it. So some really simple things
Speaker 1: that people can do, and the first would be to
Speaker 1: tell the stories of climate survivors. So if you've seen
Speaker 1: or heard or felt anything in your own environment that
Speaker 1: you say, this is a symptom of climate change. This
Speaker 1: can be as simple as observing peeps more potholes. Why
Speaker 1: catastrophic levels of rain have chewed big holes in the road,
Speaker 1: people are running into the holes, getting flat tires. That
Speaker 1: is climate change. Look for the signs and talk about them,
Speaker 1: call them out for what they are, name them in
Speaker 1: conversations with other people. Make sure that your he is
Speaker 1: not sitting doing damage. It's pretty simple these days to
Speaker 1: change where you're banking and you're investing, so sort that out.
Speaker 1: The other thing, of course, is if people want to
Speaker 1: support bushfire survivors for climate action, we've got a website
Speaker 1: Google Is. It's really easy. You can join as a supporter.
Speaker 1: You don't need to have had direct impact of fire
Speaker 1: to support us and support the work that we're doing
Speaker 1: on raising this conversation, so it's a pretty easy thing
Speaker 1: to do. We're welcome all comers and we've got a
Speaker 1: few people from around the globe now joining us. And
Speaker 1: nothing could make me more thrilled than us becoming an
Speaker 1: international rather than just an Australian organization, So welcome to
Speaker 1: anyone who wants to do that. I am definitely feeling
Speaker 1: inspired and humbled after hearing from Daphne and Joel, and
Speaker 1: it's not just because their stories are high impact. It's
Speaker 1: also because they make me realize we have the power
Speaker 1: to influence change right where we are, exactly as you are.
Speaker 1: Even though most folks come with the right intention. It's
Speaker 1: really up to us to voice and say, Yo, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make some adjustments. I'm gonna tweat this even a
Speaker 1: little bit, because there are a few things in this
Speaker 1: plan that won't work for me and mine and like Joe,
Speaker 1: sometimes sharing your truth is all that's needed for the
Speaker 1: world to start taking notice. These two stories are so different,
Speaker 1: but they're also equally powerful in the ability to raise
Speaker 1: awareness of the same issue in a relatable and emotional way.
Speaker 1: Are you ready to do more than listen to people
Speaker 1: like Dafne and Joe? Find out more about them, their organizations,
Speaker 1: and how you can support by going to Salesforce dot
Speaker 1: Org slash Force Multiplier. Force Multiplier is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Salesforce dot Org hosted by me
Speaker 1: barituned Thurston. It's executive produced by Elizabeth Stewart, produced by
Speaker 1: Vane Chien, edited and mixed by James Foster, and written
Speaker 1: by Yvette Lopez. A special thanks to our guests Daphne
Speaker 1: Free Us and Joe Dot Listen to Force Multiplier on
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast m