WEBVTT - Bonus: Game Changers, Part 4

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<v Speaker 1>Hello, and welcome to Game Changers. I'm Matt Goldman. As

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<v Speaker 1>the Earth is facing an increasingly consequential climate crisis, thinkers

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<v Speaker 1>around the world are racing defined solutions. Many of them

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<v Speaker 1>have been able to translate their Eureka moments into action

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<v Speaker 1>at a greater pace and scope than we might have thought.

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<v Speaker 1>In this four part miniseries, we've been meeting the visionary

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<v Speaker 1>minds attempting to sculpt the future of sustainable energy and

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<v Speaker 1>save our global resources. In this fourth and final episode,

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<v Speaker 1>A Green New Deal, because today is the day that

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<v Speaker 1>we truly embark on a comprehensive agenda of economic, social,

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<v Speaker 1>and racial justice in the United States of America. That's

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<v Speaker 1>what this agenda is all about, because climate change, climate

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<v Speaker 1>change in our environmental challenges are one of the biggest

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<v Speaker 1>existential threats to our way of life, and in order

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<v Speaker 1>for us to combat that threat, we must be as

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<v Speaker 1>ambitious and innovative in our solution as possible. Since it

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<v Speaker 1>was announced in February, the Green New Deal has sparked

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<v Speaker 1>intense debate, championed by New York Representative Alexandria Occasio Cortez,

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<v Speaker 1>who you just heard. It contains a plethora of ambitious ideas.

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<v Speaker 1>The Green New Deal maps out a plan for the

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<v Speaker 1>US to step away from its dependence on fossil fuels,

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<v Speaker 1>but also to create high paying jobs in the process.

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<v Speaker 1>Many have praised it. Here is Canadian author Naomi klein Well.

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<v Speaker 1>I think it is the first time that we have

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<v Speaker 1>politicians putting a response to the climate crisis on the

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<v Speaker 1>table that is on the scale of the actual crisis.

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<v Speaker 1>But many have vocally opposed it, like Utah Senator Mike Lee.

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<v Speaker 1>Unlike some of my colleagues, I'm not immediately afraid of

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<v Speaker 1>what carbon emissions on address might due to our environment

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<v Speaker 1>in the near term future or our civilization. Rather, after

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<v Speaker 1>reading the Green New Deal, I'm mostly afraid of not

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<v Speaker 1>being able to get through this speech with a straight face.

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<v Speaker 1>There's no doubt the Green New Deal has accomplished one thing,

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<v Speaker 1>generating attention to the global climate crisis. But much of

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<v Speaker 1>the plan that has attracted so much attention and political

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<v Speaker 1>jockeying was actually drafted by a political newcomer. My name

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<v Speaker 1>is Rihanna Gunnright. I'm the director of Climate policy at

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<v Speaker 1>the Roosevelt Institute UH and I helped develop the Green

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<v Speaker 1>New Deal. Rihanna only had three years of political experience

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<v Speaker 1>when she accepted the task of writing the Green New Deal.

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<v Speaker 1>Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, she originally cut her teeth as

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<v Speaker 1>a policy analyst for the Detroit Health Department, and Detroit

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<v Speaker 1>is a hotbed for environment to injustice. When I was

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<v Speaker 1>working there, there was an incinerator in the middle of

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<v Speaker 1>the city right and around that area. Asthma rates were

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<v Speaker 1>like three times the state average. Residents were complaining that

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<v Speaker 1>they couldn't go outside because it smells so bad, etcetera.

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<v Speaker 1>It just became clear that these things had health effects.

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<v Speaker 1>In the aftermath of the Flint water crisis, Health Department

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<v Speaker 1>Commissioner Abduel el Sayed decided to run for governor. Rihanna

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<v Speaker 1>joined his campaign. L say Ed's race was unsuccessful and

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<v Speaker 1>Rihanna moved on applying for law school. But she needed

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<v Speaker 1>something to do for the rest of the year. So

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<v Speaker 1>I emailed Representive Okazy, the Cortes's campaign manager, because she

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<v Speaker 1>had endorsed a duel, and I just reached out to say, hey, uh,

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<v Speaker 1>do you all need any support on policy? Do you

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<v Speaker 1>think you will want support in Congress? You know, just

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<v Speaker 1>doing what I have to do to try to get

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<v Speaker 1>a job, and they email me back consent. So we

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<v Speaker 1>are developing a Green New Deal, which is a World

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<v Speaker 1>War two style mobilization on climate to restructure the US

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<v Speaker 1>economy and reduce emissions, uh and also create I think

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<v Speaker 1>at the time it was zero waste, zero poverty, zero

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<v Speaker 1>racial wealth gap. And so they were like, oh, so

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<v Speaker 1>you can write this whole thing in like four months, right,

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<v Speaker 1>And I was like, no, but maybe if you give

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<v Speaker 1>me to research assistants which can draw uh. And so

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<v Speaker 1>that's what we did. Zero waste, zero poverty, zero racial

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<v Speaker 1>wealth gap. Therein lies the origin of much of the

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<v Speaker 1>praise and ridicule of the Green New Deal. The fourteen

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<v Speaker 1>page document covers a lot of ground and goes beyond

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<v Speaker 1>just counting parts per million. It not only promises to

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<v Speaker 1>get carbon emissions to zero, but to add thousands of

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<v Speaker 1>green new jobs and makes the argument that climate issues

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<v Speaker 1>like fossil fuel emissions are social justice issues. This is

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<v Speaker 1>why Rihanna was the perfect pick to write the text

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<v Speaker 1>for her. Pollution and social issues go hand in hand.

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<v Speaker 1>I've always been interested in working on systems, so I

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<v Speaker 1>care a lot about specific issues, but ultimately what I'm

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<v Speaker 1>interested in is how do you change conditions? Right, Because

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<v Speaker 1>conditions actually shape what happens. Because if you think about it,

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<v Speaker 1>for most people, when we talk about climate change, and

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<v Speaker 1>I feel like this was one of the biggest innovations

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<v Speaker 1>if there was one for a Green New Deal, is

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<v Speaker 1>that most times people were talking about super scientific stuff

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<v Speaker 1>carbon footprints, parts familiar, how much carbon is in the atmosphere. Right.

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<v Speaker 1>But the fact is that most people experience climate change

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<v Speaker 1>is economic effects and health effects. They experienced it as

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<v Speaker 1>Hurricane Katrina, right. They experienced it as the wildfires in Paradise.

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<v Speaker 1>They experienced it as this heat wave where they don't

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<v Speaker 1>have money to afford air conditioning. For Rihanna, it all

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<v Speaker 1>comes down to racial inequality. People of color are more

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<v Speaker 1>likely to live near power plants and other polluting factories,

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<v Speaker 1>and they suffer higher levels of asthma and greater risk

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<v Speaker 1>of early death from air pollution. For Rihanna, this hits

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<v Speaker 1>close to home. So when I was growing up, I

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<v Speaker 1>had asthma, and I had asthma to the point that

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<v Speaker 1>by the time I think I was in like third

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<v Speaker 1>or fourth grade, I was out for like a week.

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<v Speaker 1>Every spring I would get sick. I would have to

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<v Speaker 1>be put on like a breathing machine, one of those nebulizers. Uh,

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<v Speaker 1>and I would be out of out of school. We

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<v Speaker 1>know today that Rihanna's asthma, like many other children should

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<v Speaker 1>grew up with, was most likely linked to the air

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<v Speaker 1>pollution in her neighborhood. This had enormous consequences. Now, my

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<v Speaker 1>mom was a single mother who had her own nonprofit right,

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<v Speaker 1>so every year she had to take off time to

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<v Speaker 1>take care of me. There was always a limit on

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<v Speaker 1>how much time she could take off because she didn't

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<v Speaker 1>have childcare. My mom, in a lot of ways, was

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<v Speaker 1>sort of protected from the worst of our sort of

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<v Speaker 1>economic system. She had a college degree, right, she ran

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<v Speaker 1>her own business. She could control her own time off.

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<v Speaker 1>But the situation for a lot of other kids was

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<v Speaker 1>that their parents worked hourly jobs. Right, So every time

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<v Speaker 1>your child is out of school, not only are you

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<v Speaker 1>hurting their educational outcomes, you have mothers trying to figure

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<v Speaker 1>out what to do about childcare right, how to take

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<v Speaker 1>care of their babies. They're getting docked at work. The

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<v Speaker 1>fate of the Green New Deal is up in the air,

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<v Speaker 1>but Rihanna is busy putting thought into action via the

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<v Speaker 1>Green New Deal Network. A coalition of movements and activists,

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<v Speaker 1>and there's no shortage of issues to tackle. A stark

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<v Speaker 1>example of the domino effect pollution can bring is the

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<v Speaker 1>story of Lucy Valez. I thought, you know, my cough

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<v Speaker 1>was just a cough. All these uh congestion issues in

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<v Speaker 1>colds were just things that normally, you know, most people experience.

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<v Speaker 1>Like Rihanna, Lucy suffered from persistent medical issues that could

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<v Speaker 1>be traced back to pollution. Some of Lucy's health problems

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<v Speaker 1>were likely linked to the Peace Bridge connecting Buffalo to Canada,

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<v Speaker 1>where cars released emissions into the surrounding neighborhoods. In the

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<v Speaker 1>year I getta house and I thought that that house

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<v Speaker 1>was was good, in good condition. And about the year

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<v Speaker 1>two thousand and sixteen, I started to get a lot

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<v Speaker 1>worse and the I was hospitalized with like a long

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<v Speaker 1>and brown kill infection. And when Lucy returned from the hospital,

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<v Speaker 1>so I went into a room which happened up in

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<v Speaker 1>my office at the time, and uh, as I walked in,

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<v Speaker 1>there was this black, fuzzy mold. That's when a member

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<v Speaker 1>of the organization People United for Sustainable Housing or PUSH,

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<v Speaker 1>knocked on Lucy's door one day by complete chance pushes

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<v Speaker 1>associated with the Green New Deal network, and they were

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<v Speaker 1>able to help Lucy fix her house. This is pushes

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<v Speaker 1>John Washington. It took a while to figure out how

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<v Speaker 1>to find different funding sources to add up to the

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<v Speaker 1>amount of money it was required to fix Lucy's home

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<v Speaker 1>because it was in pretty bad shape. The clost to

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<v Speaker 1>my house was dollars, which is really unheard of because

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<v Speaker 1>that is more than most grants out there. They had

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<v Speaker 1>to look for a second grant to cover the things

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<v Speaker 1>that I needed. So Lucy got her home fixed. She

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<v Speaker 1>got the resources to get her home fixed. But a

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<v Speaker 1>few months later, if she gets a she gets a

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<v Speaker 1>thing from Key Banks saying that they're redoing her mortgage.

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<v Speaker 1>Right because the value of her home has gone up,

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<v Speaker 1>they're redoing her mortgage, and now her mortgage payment was doubled.

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<v Speaker 1>I didn't have the money. I couldn't find the money

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<v Speaker 1>to pay for you know that kind of that kind

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<v Speaker 1>of jump. And ultimately we were not able to win

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<v Speaker 1>that fight. And so she used part of her burial

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<v Speaker 1>fund to pay her taxes so she could keep her house.

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<v Speaker 1>That's exactly the type of systematic domino effect the Green

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<v Speaker 1>New Deal is trying to prevent summer calling Joe Biden's

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<v Speaker 1>one point seven trillion dollar Green Initiative plan his spin

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<v Speaker 1>on the Green New Deal. But Rihanna still knows she

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<v Speaker 1>has a long, hard fight ahead of her to achieve

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<v Speaker 1>her goal, because ultimately changing an entire system means getting

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<v Speaker 1>citizens to realize their own power over that system. You

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<v Speaker 1>ran into a lot of people who would talk about

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<v Speaker 1>how they felt powerless, and so I think that's just

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<v Speaker 1>like really important to remember. We all have the ability

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<v Speaker 1>to emotionally affect another person to make them feel connected, right,

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<v Speaker 1>and that is powerful. There is always an element of

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<v Speaker 1>power that you have that no one can take away.

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<v Speaker 1>This episode of Game Changers was produced by Magnus Henrykson

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<v Speaker 1>and presented by Yours Truly Matt Goldman. It was based

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<v Speaker 1>on reporting by Michael Bihaf. For a visual experience of

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<v Speaker 1>Game Changers, check out our videos at Bloomberg dot com

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<v Speaker 1>slash Green. Francesca Levi is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening.