Speaker 1: If you just tuning in to Civic Cipher, I am
Speaker 1: your host, Ramsay's job. Big shout out to my manq Ward,
Speaker 1: who is out and about. He is a man on
Speaker 1: a mission and he is out changing the world. But
Speaker 1: he will be back soon and we are going to
Speaker 1: get back to rockin' in the free world for you today.
Speaker 1: I'm jorin by the one and only doctor Doctor Tacolo,
Speaker 1: a sustainability scientist who has chosen to sit in with
Speaker 1: us to warn us to take decisive action to promote
Speaker 1: sustainability and to combat climate change. And so she and
Speaker 1: I are going to be having some more conversations, particularly
Speaker 1: with respect to kind of what's at stake and really
Speaker 1: what we can do about that. So if this is
Speaker 1: something that interests you, please stick around. If this is
Speaker 1: something that doesn't interest you, please get out of the way,
Speaker 1: because it seems like we've got a whole lot of
Speaker 1: work to do. But first and foremost, we are going
Speaker 1: to discuss be A be A becoming a better Ally Baba.
Speaker 1: Today's Babba sponsored by Unknown Union, the fashion how situated
Speaker 1: at the intersection of meaning, innovation and culture. More info
Speaker 1: check Unknown Union dot com. All right, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be reading from CNN, But first I gotta ask you
Speaker 1: a question. Did you know that human and pet hair
Speaker 1: can be used to clean up oil spills? I know
Speaker 1: that this isn't a decidedly black thing, but since this
Speaker 1: is what we're talking about and there's ways to help
Speaker 1: black people, our hair curls up and we can definitely
Speaker 1: donate here, but everybody can donate. Basically, a hairstylist got
Speaker 1: the idea of using hair to soak up oil after
Speaker 1: seeing how oil stuck to the fur of wildlife, and
Speaker 1: turns out it works all right, I read from CNN.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty nine, Alabama based hairstylist Philip McRory had
Speaker 1: designed a prototype device used to that used hair to
Speaker 1: soak up oil, which was tested by NASA and bound
Speaker 1: to function well. Together, San Francisco based nonprofit Matter of
Speaker 1: Trust and McRory developed booms and mats made from human
Speaker 1: and animal hair. Every Day, salons, pet groomers and individuals
Speaker 1: send hair cuttings to Matter of Trusts San Francisco warehouse.
Speaker 1: The packages are checked for contaminants such as debris, dirt,
Speaker 1: or lice. Then the hair is separated, spread over a
Speaker 1: frame and run through a custom built belting machine to
Speaker 1: make the mats used to soak up the oil spills.
Speaker 1: It takes five hundred grams of hair to create a
Speaker 1: two foot square, one inch thick mat which can collect
Speaker 1: up to one point five gallons.
Speaker 2: And if you.
Speaker 1: Want to learn more about this, you can visit matter
Speaker 1: of Trust dot org. The fact of the matter is
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of things that we're going to
Speaker 1: need to do to make a lot of changes. As
Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier in the show, a lot of times
Speaker 1: black and brown communities bear the brunt of the worst
Speaker 1: of climate change and environmental disasters, et cetera. And this
Speaker 1: is a small thing that you can do to help out.
Speaker 1: Once again, a matter of Trust dot org. Moving on, now,
Speaker 1: let's talk about sustainability, doctor Tacola. Now, when we were
Speaker 1: talking before the show, you know, you said you sent
Speaker 1: me a text and you says, hey, we.
Speaker 2: Need to really get the word out about all these.
Speaker 1: Things that are going on in the country, these uh,
Speaker 1: these storms and fires and so forth. And you also
Speaker 1: texted me something that stood out. You said, it's gotten
Speaker 1: really bad and there's a lot at steak.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about what said Steak.
Speaker 3: Uh, I'd say, what's that steak is our future and
Speaker 3: it's the ability to live on this planet. And so
Speaker 3: what we're seeing is how it gets What will change
Speaker 3: is like agriculture zone. So for example, the United States,
Speaker 3: we have the bread basket. If the bread basket moves
Speaker 3: up to Canada because of the heat and the temperature,
Speaker 3: that increased temperature, then then we know, no longer have
Speaker 3: We're no longer a wheat exporter, We're no longer creates
Speaker 3: huge national security, huge economic implications. But more importantly, I
Speaker 3: would say, you know, like the risings of the tides,
Speaker 3: which you know, the ocean will continue to rise as
Speaker 3: the glaciers continue to melt, which means that the coasts
Speaker 3: will not be safe. Florida's underwater parts of California or
Speaker 3: underwater and New York. And when we're looking at this,
Speaker 3: these are the most populated places in the world is
Speaker 3: the coast. And so if the coast go underwater, we're
Speaker 3: talking about mass evacuation mass and you know who gets
Speaker 3: left behind, poor people, and that oftentimes means our communities,
Speaker 3: and so not not to mention you know, like how
Speaker 3: are we going to grow food? Where are we going
Speaker 3: to get water? Here in Arizona, Arizona, Nevada, and southwest California.
Speaker 3: So we all get water. Specifically Vegas, Phoenix and La
Speaker 3: get a huge component. And Phoenix is forty percent of
Speaker 3: our water from Lake Mead, which is the water from
Speaker 3: the Colorada River behind Hoover Dam. Lake Mead is we're
Speaker 3: about to run out. I was just there a few
Speaker 3: weeks ago, and I saw the impact. And ye know,
Speaker 3: I was just there ten years ago, and to look
Speaker 3: at the difference in ten years, you shouldn't be able
Speaker 3: to see that.
Speaker 2: For folks that haven't been up there, because I was
Speaker 2: just up there recently myself, and you can see the
Speaker 2: water line. You can see how much water is gone.
Speaker 2: And as someone who's lived here and gone to Vegas
Speaker 2: since I was let's call it the past twenty years,
Speaker 2: I'm used to seeing that water line at or approximately
Speaker 2: at the normal level, and now it's so far gone
Speaker 2: it's really scary. So for folks who don't make it
Speaker 2: to the side of the country, you know, it's important
Speaker 2: for you to know that this is not an exaggeration. Yeah,
Speaker 2: not making this up.
Speaker 3: Phoenix, La, Las Vegas. Can you imagine if these cities
Speaker 3: ran out of water and we're talking about. This is
Speaker 3: our reality in the next five to ten years if
Speaker 3: we do nothing, and in fact, it's actually going to
Speaker 3: be sooner. If by twenty twenty five we don't do something,
Speaker 3: that means will lock in and basically by twenty thirty
Speaker 3: there will be past the point of return. And that's
Speaker 3: the thing about climate change, and that's actually when you
Speaker 3: look at human psychology, we tend to procrastinate about things
Speaker 3: that aren't directly in front of our face. So you know,
Speaker 3: if it's a slow boiling like they say in a
Speaker 3: frog with frogs, right, you put a frog in a
Speaker 3: boiling pot, they're gonna jump out, but you turn up
Speaker 3: the heat slowly and you can willingly cook them. And
Speaker 3: that's literally what's happening to us in this world. So
Speaker 3: one of the things is that the IPCC, which is
Speaker 3: the International Panel on Climate Change. These are the best
Speaker 3: scientists from around the world that put out reports every year,
Speaker 3: and they have in twenty nineteen they said that twenty
Speaker 3: thirty is our tipping point and if we do not
Speaker 3: peak carbon emissions by twenty thirty, that will be the
Speaker 3: point of no return. So we only have seven years
Speaker 3: left really to evert the most uh evert this crisis
Speaker 3: as we know it, and if we don't by twenty thirty,
Speaker 3: then we really have to start looking at how do
Speaker 3: we survive the apocalypse. But we're already starting to feel that,
Speaker 3: like I said, like the Southwest water future is is
Speaker 3: not guaranteed. And what we're seeing is that instead of
Speaker 3: you know, you would think like meat drying up would
Speaker 3: be enough, if you know, the Southwest running out of
Speaker 3: water would be enough for behavioral change, and what we're
Speaker 3: seeing is not that. For example, we're in Tier two
Speaker 3: shortage of water, which is the federal government is telling
Speaker 3: the Southwest they have to come up with plans to
Speaker 3: reduce their water and recently when they had until like
Speaker 3: this spring to come up with plans, and Nevada and
Speaker 3: Arizona we're teamed up and we're like, we have a plan,
Speaker 3: tell California to cut all the water. California was like wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 3: hold up, you know, like that's not fair. So we're
Speaker 3: not actually being solution oriented, We're not being conducive. You know.
Speaker 3: We have people like Christian Cinema of that be like
Speaker 3: I don't like that California gets more water than Arizona
Speaker 3: and it's like this isn't that's beside the point. Okay, well,
Speaker 3: let's not debate who gets more. Let's actually talk about
Speaker 3: how do we change our behavior so that we avert
Speaker 3: this crisis of the Southwest, you know, having to evacuate
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: There's something that there's two things that you said.
Speaker 1: And I know we're kind of focused a little bit
Speaker 1: on the south West right now, but I think that
Speaker 1: that kind of shows that mentality that you described, that
Speaker 1: people are not really taking it seriously. So if you
Speaker 1: don't live in the Southwest, bear with us for a minute.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the bread basket and how there are fiscal
Speaker 1: implications and potential food and securities if you know, we
Speaker 1: don't combat this issue right now right so now we're
Speaker 1: talking about people's money, and money typically makes people that
Speaker 1: makes their ears proc up right, or if we're talking
Speaker 1: about food security, you know, those are things that people
Speaker 1: might worry about because it doesn't matter how much money
Speaker 1: you have. If you can't eat you can't eat them dollars,
Speaker 1: trust me. Yeah, So I want us to hold that
Speaker 1: in one part of our minds. The other part of
Speaker 1: our minds, I want us to imagine you don't really
Speaker 1: have to imagine because it's a real thing. But in
Speaker 1: the same state you mentioned Kirsten Cinema, in the state
Speaker 1: of Arizona, where there is a water shortage and a
Speaker 1: water crisis, let's be honest, let's call it what it is,
Speaker 1: they're actively building a water park. You're read about this, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So you can see how the intersection of corporate interests
Speaker 1: and sustainability that the alarming kind of intersection typically falls
Speaker 1: on deaf ears when it comes to politics, because politicians
Speaker 1: require money to remain in office, and then the money
Speaker 1: comes with favors and strings attached and so forth, and
Speaker 1: then we the people end up paying the price for it.
Speaker 1: And again we've talked a bit about poor people, you know,
Speaker 1: bearing the brunt of this, but the fact of the
Speaker 1: matter is that there's a lot of people that live
Speaker 1: in the Southwest, in Vegas, in southern California, and in Arizona.
Speaker 1: And for a second, let me just mention this for
Speaker 1: people that think that just because California is on the ocean,
Speaker 1: that they're going to be fine, it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2: We need fresh water, that we're we're not salt water creatures.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I just wanted to make sure that I
Speaker 1: interjected that, because people really need to understand the mentality
Speaker 1: of our elected officials so that we know how to
Speaker 1: hold them responsible for our lives, in the future, of
Speaker 1: our planet, in the future for our babies. It's funny,
Speaker 1: before the show, you were, you know, you saw my son,
Speaker 1: you know, in the studio, and you know that I
Speaker 1: definitely want a world for him to grow up in
Speaker 1: and have his own children, and so I'd imagine that
Speaker 1: most people feel the same way.
Speaker 3: So yeah, definitely, And I think when you talk about
Speaker 3: the politician's mentality, it's just ego and greed, and it's
Speaker 3: ego to the point of, you know, h it can
Speaker 3: really cause us to for us all to die because
Speaker 3: these people thought they were they could put a water park,
Speaker 3: add a Tier two shortage. It's just at this point
Speaker 3: it's like, how can you be so arrogant? But as
Speaker 3: you could see, it's also and this is part of
Speaker 3: my research and why I connected decolonization and climate change,
Speaker 3: because it's this type of colonial thinking of this man
Speaker 3: over nature, of this domination over nature, just like dominating
Speaker 3: over people of color, and it's this belief that oh,
Speaker 3: we can just solve it, And so what we hear
Speaker 3: from a lot of the Republican legislature, from a lot
Speaker 3: of people is like, oh, we got the ocean, we
Speaker 3: can just desalinize. Well, the problem with desalinization is it's
Speaker 3: credibly expensive. Right now, we're paying sense per gallon. When
Speaker 3: you look at desalinization, we're going to be spending dollars
Speaker 3: per gallon. And some people, the rich might be able
Speaker 3: to afford that, but what happens to people who can
Speaker 3: no longer afford water? Because that was the plan desalinization,
Speaker 3: not to mention that a lot of these plants break.
Speaker 3: Not to mention in states like Arizona, we don't have
Speaker 3: a coast, and they're talking about we're just gonna make
Speaker 3: a deal with Mexico, Like we don't have the greatest
Speaker 3: relationship with Mexico. Have you actually talked to them. You
Speaker 3: can't bank our future on these, you know, political negotiations
Speaker 3: that haven't even been started. So it is scary. But
Speaker 3: I also want to talk about the other side. You know,
Speaker 3: one of the things that I've heard criticism of climate
Speaker 3: activism is that, you know, they say Martin Luther King
Speaker 3: had a dream, but climate activists only described the nightmare,
Speaker 3: the nightmare of the future, right, and so we also
Speaker 3: have to look at the bright side, the possibility of opportunity.
Speaker 3: Not only Klein has a book called this Changes Everything,
Speaker 3: and really climate change does change everything. But instead of
Speaker 3: looking at it like, oh, what are we going to do?
Speaker 3: This is so terrible, we can look at an opportunity.
Speaker 3: This is an opportunity. Address existing inequities, address redlining, address
Speaker 3: all of these issues our communities already had if we
Speaker 3: really look at the opportunity. And so there's two important
Speaker 3: bills that actually passed, the Inflation Reduction Act and the
Speaker 3: Jobs and Infrastructure Bill. Both of these unlocked billions of
Speaker 3: dollars that go into one green jobs, which on average,
Speaker 3: green jobs pay more than oil jobs. They're healthier, they
Speaker 3: don't have as much toxic exposure, and then they also
Speaker 3: oftentimes are union jobs that don't require a college degree.
Speaker 3: And so these are this can actually have a material
Speaker 3: benefit to our communities. And when you look at oil
Speaker 3: versus renewable energy, since we have to build the infrastructure
Speaker 3: renewable energy that make three to four jobs per every
Speaker 3: one job in the oil industry. So when we talk
Speaker 3: about the jobs versus environment, false dichotomy. Well, if we
Speaker 3: want to play that game, renewable energy creates more jobs.
Speaker 3: And so with these two bills, they really unlock all
Speaker 3: sorts of possibilities. Now, in particular, another important thing is
Speaker 3: Biden had passed what's called Justice forty. It's an executive
Speaker 3: order which says that forty percent of these environmental and
Speaker 3: similar social bills have to forty percent of that funding
Speaker 3: has to go to communities of color. And so when
Speaker 3: we look at the Inflation Reduction Act, that's three hundred
Speaker 3: and seventy billion dollars, This is bigger than the New Deal,
Speaker 3: and forty percent of that has to go to our communities.
Speaker 3: So when we look at the decades of disinvestment, the
Speaker 3: Inflation Reduction Act, if we seize the opportunity, if we
Speaker 3: hold government accountable, if we get our cities to apply
Speaker 3: for this funding, if we get our communities to apply
Speaker 3: for this funding, we could really transform our cities, you know,
Speaker 3: and it will be an opportunity to change these historical inequities.
Speaker 3: And so I also think that we should talk about
Speaker 3: the possibilities if we address if we have what they
Speaker 3: call it just transition, where we make sure no one's
Speaker 3: left behind, it can actually put communities of color on
Speaker 3: a better outlook in the future.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, Now I want to circle back to that
Speaker 1: in just a second, because I feel like you can
Speaker 1: give us some pretty profound advice in terms of what
Speaker 1: we individually can do. You have studied, you've seen it all,
Speaker 1: you know it all most folks are. They wake up,
Speaker 1: they go to work, they get their kids from school,
Speaker 1: they go home, and like you said, it's such a
Speaker 1: far away problem for most people. But because you've seen it,
Speaker 1: and because you know what can be done and what
Speaker 1: happens if we don't, I'd love to get your advice
Speaker 1: for the every man and every woman or every person.
Speaker 1: I should say that, like what they what we can
Speaker 1: do in our in our immediate lives, but beyond recycling
Speaker 1: and you know whatever. So first, before we get there,
Speaker 1: I do want to share something that I got from Vox. Okay,
Speaker 1: so box dot com record heat normal, it's hot, hot hot,
Speaker 1: all right. That's from Laura Ingram on our Fox News show.
Speaker 1: After all, we're in the middle of a season called summer. Now.
Speaker 1: The thing is, she was being facetious, you know, just
Speaker 1: she was like, oh, everybody's complained about it's hot at summer, right,
Speaker 1: she's not understanding or she's trying to make light of
Speaker 1: the fact that it is a record breaking July, the
Speaker 1: hottest July on record. Anyway, The fact checks suggest that
Speaker 1: more than three thousand temperature records were shattered in the
Speaker 1: US for the month of July alone, something scientists say
Speaker 1: would be virtually impossible without human caused climate.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's go to forest fires. Nature naturally burns itself
Speaker 2: off every eleven years with natural disaster forest fires. This
Speaker 2: comes from Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, who's a Republican from Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: This is a forest fire, all right, Now, let's fact
Speaker 2: check him. It says the severity of wildfires, such as
Speaker 2: the historic blazes in Canada this year, are fueled by
Speaker 2: complex conditions including forest management and drought primed by climate change.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so let's go to these stronger hurricanes.
Speaker 1: All right, just a part of life. This is something
Speaker 1: that is a fact of life in the Sunshine State.
Speaker 1: This comes from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He said this
Speaker 1: in a Fox News interview. He goes on to say,
Speaker 1: I've always rejected the politicization.
Speaker 2: Is I said that right politicization. That's what it says
Speaker 2: of the weather.
Speaker 1: But the fact check suggests that climate change drives the
Speaker 1: warming of ocean waters, which provide fuel for more devastating
Speaker 1: hurricanes and typhoons. All right, so let me go on
Speaker 1: to the next one. Here, more Americans are impacted by
Speaker 1: climate change. Sixty two percent of all voters recognized climate
Speaker 1: change is caused by human activity, according to a Gallop
Speaker 1: pole from this spring.
Speaker 2: Yet, climate change.
Speaker 1: Denial is not only alive and well in the GOP,
Speaker 1: it's become a lot more insidious and polarizing, said John Cook,
Speaker 1: a University of Melbourne researcher who has tracked the path
Speaker 1: of climate disinformation online using artificial intelligence. The GOP's only
Speaker 1: climate policy is actually bad for the environment. When Representative
Speaker 1: Bruce Westerman, who was a Republican from Arkansas, first proposed
Speaker 1: the Trillion Trees Act in twenty twenty, environmentalists said the
Speaker 1: bill would significantly increase logging across America's federal forests, convert
Speaker 1: millions of acres into industrial treat plantations, increase global carbon emissions,
Speaker 1: increased wildfire risk, and harm wildlife and watersheds. The idea
Speaker 1: was a wolf in sheep's clothing effectively giving loggers more
Speaker 1: allowances as long as they planted seedlings, which are decades
Speaker 1: away from delivering climate burning. But the GOP has come
Speaker 1: to champion this idea as their climate plan. So it's
Speaker 1: important to know that there are people who may even
Speaker 1: pretend to care about this issue, and they may put
Speaker 1: something together that sounds good. Trillion trees, if that's what
Speaker 1: you name it. It sounds great, A trillion more trees. Hey,
Speaker 1: we're good, right, But when you peel back a couple
Speaker 1: of layers, you know, as I mentioned, it's really just
Speaker 1: expanding logging. And they do want to plant more trees,
Speaker 1: but it's just not realistic because the benefit of those trees.
Speaker 1: We're going to sink a lot further before we get
Speaker 1: the benefits of those and right now we need to
Speaker 1: be climbing out of the ditch. We sink any further
Speaker 1: that we may hit that point of no return that
Speaker 1: you mentioned. So we got a couple of minutes left.
Speaker 1: I do want to ask you, what again, what is
Speaker 1: it that sort of the every person can do with
Speaker 1: the information that we've discussed on today's show.
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to talk about individual actions because Frankly,
Speaker 3: I think we're beyond that. For me, the individual actions
Speaker 3: I take is more of part of my personal ethic
Speaker 3: and helps me be conscious of the environment that I'm in.
Speaker 3: But really, when we look at we need, we need
Speaker 3: political action, and so when we think about voting, when
Speaker 3: we think about talking to our legislature, we need to
Speaker 3: make climate the number one issue. We need to make
Speaker 3: sure that our politicians realize that if they're going to
Speaker 3: be an ostrich with their head in the sand, if
Speaker 3: they're going to be the emperor has no clothes and
Speaker 3: talk about like, oh, climate change doesn't exist. Meanwhile, communities
Speaker 3: in Alaska are already having to be relocated because they're melting,
Speaker 3: you know, So you can't really deny that, and if
Speaker 3: you do again, like you have to, you can't be
Speaker 3: seen as a political politically feasible. And so we have
Speaker 3: to make that reality right. We need to strengthen our
Speaker 3: democracy by ensuring that communities, that politicians know that this
Speaker 3: is one of our core issues. And then you know,
Speaker 3: there's other things that you can do in terms of
Speaker 3: like ensuring you know, like ensuring that we hold corporations accountable,
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of different ways that we can
Speaker 3: do that. There's a lot of different organizations, whether like
Speaker 3: the Sunrise Movement or other groups like Extinction Rebellion. We
Speaker 3: really need to hold these corporations accountable. And actually, on
Speaker 3: September seventeenth, which is during Climate Week in New York,
Speaker 3: there's gonna be a huge mass protest. I'll be there.
Speaker 3: If you're in New York. You should. You should be
Speaker 3: there if you're in the area. And we're really trying
Speaker 3: to again hold our politicians responsible. Let corporations know no more.
Speaker 3: But it's really important for us to be aware. So
Speaker 3: increase our awareness and then also make sure that we're
Speaker 3: holding our governing and corporations accountable.
Speaker 1: Well, that is sound advice. I appreciate you coming to
Speaker 1: share that with us. Obviously, this is this is the
Speaker 1: most important issue. It doesn't matter who's black and who's
Speaker 1: white and whatever, if there's no planet and we can't
Speaker 1: survive on it, so you know, vote accordingly. I like
Speaker 1: that advice. If you feel so inclined, please you know,
Speaker 1: share any ways that people can connect with you, virtually
Speaker 1: social media anything like that, or even sort of websites
Speaker 1: that people and go do to get some more information.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. So a few different ways. If you
Speaker 3: are if you are to connect with me personally, my
Speaker 3: instagram is doctor Sara Tacola. If you're interested in I
Speaker 3: am an environmental justice consultant. My company is at DSLM Consulting,
Speaker 3: so I help organizations improve their environmental justice analysis. And
Speaker 3: then finally, I think, just like I said, make sure
Speaker 3: that you pay attention and get involved in what's happening
Speaker 3: in your neighborhood.
Speaker 2: All right, and the until next week, y'all. Peace,