WEBVTT - Cultural Preservation with Sabrina Elba 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:04.200 I think it's a complete injustice of the world and 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:08.160 so wholly unfair that someone who can contribute so little 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:12.159 to this issue can be affected so devastatingly. And I 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:14.680 see it all the time. You know, people do think 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.520 that it's coming ten years down the road, or you know, 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:19.840 twenty years down the road. But like we said earlier, 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.160 people are living through it now. 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:25.040 Fucked. 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:32.720 Welcome to I'm Fucking the Future. I'm your host, Chris Turney. 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.639 I'm a climate scientist based in Sydney, Australia. I've been 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.120 missearching climate change from the poles to the tropics for 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.440 almost thirty years, and I'll be the first to admit 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:47.320 that we've royally fucked up our planet. Well, I believe 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.240 that we can still turn things around. That's what this 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.920 show is all about. We'll talk to people making a 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.400 real difference in fighting against global heating, and then how 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.800 we can make a difference too. So let's get started. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:02.760 Fucking the future. 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.160 We fight with those who have been forgotten. We fight 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.680 with those who have been neglected, millions of rural people 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:16.480 who starve feeding the world, people who depend on their 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.640 land for independence, but whose land suffers the effects of 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:23.520 climate change, not in some near future, but today, people 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.480 who remind me of my mother who once depended on 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:30.600 that land as well and is now here with me today. 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:36.240 That's our guest today, Sabrina Elba accepting the Time one 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:40.560 hundred Impact Award. She and her husband, the actor Idris Elba, 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.800 are you and Goodwill ambassadors. They've been focusing on an 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:48.840 often overlooked aspect of a climate crisis, the impact on 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.880 the rural of developing world. It's important work for two reasons. First, 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:56.920 these areas are often the most vulnerable to the effects 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:01.960 of global heating. And second, these populations have not caused 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.840 the mess we're in. They've produced so little greenhouse eating gases, 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:08.800 but they've been at the forefront of a climate crisis 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:09.839 four years. 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:11.080 It's just not right. 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.840 It's also a personal passion for Sabrina because of her background. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.880 While she was born in Canada, her family is from 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:23.000 Somalia in Eastern Africa, and her Somali heritage was a 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:24.720 big part of her life growing up. 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.760 My mom left in the early eighties, and she says 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.480 she thinks she was one of three Somali people in Canada. 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.960 I cannot guarantee those numbers are cracked, I mean, but 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:36.639 that's what she says, so we'll take her word for it. 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.280 She came to Canada, she was pregnant with my older sister. 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.440 She had so many dreams, you know, she wanted to 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.480 finish school, she wanted to do all these exciting new 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:46.160 things that were new to her, obviously being in a 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.600 different country. But she quickly had five kids before she 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:51.440 knew it. And she was a stay at home mom, 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:55.040 and I always saw that as powerful because she did 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.240 so many things in one day. I couldn't imagine how 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.520 she could do all these things and you know, drive 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.840 me one place and cook dinner and you know, take 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:03.840 care of my dad. 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.040 Even though she had a lot on her plate. Sabrina's 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.000 mum marry him, made sure her kids understood their cultural heritage. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.560 There is a very strong identity attached to the country itself, 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:17.520 and I carried that with me. You know, the language, 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.320 the food is a big part of it. Family over 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.960 all the time. And I loved it. I loved growing 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.519 up in my Somali Canadian household. And my mom made 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:30.160 sure that, you know, we understood our culture and went 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:31.920 back to visit as often as we could. So I 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.960 was super thankful to be growing up two languages and 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.520 two identities, and I think it only made for good, 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.000 you know, conversation, especially in Canada where cultures are welcome. 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.520 It was through her mom's example, but Sabrina found her 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:46.760 passion for activism. 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.880 She's always been a humanitarian, which I don't know if 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.120 I quite appreciated when I was younger, because she left 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.120 a lot to go help when she could. She'd go 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.760 to Somalia, she started a water project, she'd distribute water 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.040 to rural areas that didn't have much, and she'd, you know, 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:04.280 she'd help families in whatever way she couldn't. When I 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.120 was younger, I remember thinking, why do you have to 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.680 keep leaving? You know why I can't do you stay 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.000 with us? And when I was younger, I didn't understand 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.400 why she was so passionate, but she always did say, 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:16.960 you know, this is what I want to change, this 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.280 is why I'm doing what I do. I want to 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.200 go back one day and see the beauty that I remember, 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.440 and actually in my advocacy and my humanitarian work. As 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:28.400 I get older, I start to realize a lot of 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:29.960 my passions have aligned with hers. 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.280 As a kid, Sabrina's Mum would take her to Somalia 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.400 and what she saw was a country full of pristine, 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.320 natural beauty. But that was changing and fast. 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.960 My visits when I was younger. The difference between visiting 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.159 back then and visiting you know last year was my 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:51.840 most recent visit. It's astronomically different, just in terms of 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.120 I feel, you know, the weather. You notice a big 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.240 change when we were younger. I don't know if I 0:04:57.320 --> 0:04:59.480 quite noticed it because I only noticed like, oh my gosh, 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:03.560 Camel's exciting, sad, how exciting. But the older I got 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.479 and the more i'd go back, I'd realize that, you know, 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.839 these people really are trying to rebuild from massive amounts 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.000 of not only physical but cultural destruction. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.600 Somalia suffers from some of the worst effects of global heating. 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:21.159 While you might just think that means rising temperatures, the 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.279 situation goes far beyond that, which brings us to our segment. 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:37.320 Holy fuck. Less than two percent of Somalia is productive farmland. Meanwhile, 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:41.640 that tiny portion generates seventy five percent of the country's economy, 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.919 so that means having productive growing seasons every year is 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:51.440 critical in Somalia. Unfortunately, Somalia has had five years of drought. 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.159 No rain means no crops, and no crops means famine. 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:59.240 There's seven point eight million people in Somalia who experience 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.040 food into security, and one point four million of them 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.640 are children under five years old who are suffering from malnutrition. 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:12.640 It's absolutely heartbreaking. And to make matters even worse, Somalia 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.800 actually did get rain this year, so much rain that 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.919 it's caused catastrophic flooding and displaced more than seven hundred 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:24.560 thousand people. The country is experiencing one climate extreme event 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:29.000 after another. This kind of crisis has another terrifying side effect. 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:34.640 It creates political instability and enables violent extremism. And that's 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.040 exactly what's happening in Somalia. The country is in the 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.080 middle of a decade long civil war between the federal 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.960 government and al Qaeda aligned militants. The causes of a 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:48.400 what are complex, but the climate crisis is contributing to 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.520 famine and therefore to the political instability. It's just one 0:06:52.560 --> 0:07:02.480 example of the enormous and far reaching impacts of global heating. Okay, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.760 back to Sabrina. As she discovered, but climate crisis is 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.160 not just about bad weather. It creates a risk of 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:12.480 war and of cultural destruction. 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.360 We do think of it as being a sole an 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.840 environmental issue, but we also forget that it's happening right 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.040 now in a lot of places, and we're seeing more 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.120 and more climate conflict. On one hand, you have the 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:29.080 idea of whole areas being underwater as some future type 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:32.680 thing where you can imagine communities might be lost and 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.520 cultures might be lost, and that haunts me. But on 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.240 the other hand, you're seeing real conflicts, and conflict can 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:42.040 lead to very real things like genocides and and other 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:47.720 horrendous things where you see other beautiful cultures and peoples 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.720 potentially wiped out. We forget that there are rural people 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:52.840 all over the world who are not only suffering the 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.440 impacts of climate change now, but are really extremely vulnerable 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.800 to worsening effects or maybe things we haven't even thought 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:01.520 of down the road. 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.680 So Somalia and other rural communities are experiencing some of 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:09.520 the worst impacts of a climate crisis, and maybe the 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:14.880 most gut wrenching parties that it's not their fault. It's 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.760 rich developed economies for the pumped out a vast majority 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.760 of pollution that is causing global heating. 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:26.320 It's a complete injustice of the world and so wholly 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.280 unfair that someone who can contribute so little to this 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.360 issue can be affected so devastatingly. And I see it 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.960 all the time. You know, people do think that it's 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:38.720 coming ten years down the road, or you know, twenty 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.480 years down the road. But like we said earlier, people 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.680 are living through it now. People are being affected now 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.760 and also feeling that injustice. You know, we're not just 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.320 talking about crops or livestock. We're talking about people's lives 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.880 when we're talking about loss and damages. And you know, 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.200 I find it hard to find an argument against. 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:02.640 Okay, I want to pause right there on that concept 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.800 loss and damages. It's a hot topic in the environmental 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.040 community right now, and it brings us to a segment 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:11.840 we call what the. 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:16.679 Fuck are you talking about? What the fucking you target about? 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.080 Across the world, we are all trying to figure out 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.920 how to adapt to the climate crisis. In the United States, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:30.840 the government recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act. This historic 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.559 bill contains at least four hundred billion dollars in climate 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.840 related spending. That's billion with a B. And this is 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.920 a great thing because Transitioning to clean energy and mitigating 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.439 the impacts of a hotter world is going to be expensive, 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.880 so this money is going to be really helpful. But 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:54.800 here's the thing, not every country has that kind of money. 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.960 To use Somoli as an example, their whole GDP is 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.760 only about eleven and billion dollars. To match the investment 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:07.480 of the Inflation Reduction Act adjusted for population, Somalia would 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.480 still have to spend roughly seven years of their entire 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:14.320 economic output or for a problem they didn't even cause. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:17.560 This has led to an effort to make rich countries 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.080 like the US compensate poorer countries for the losses and 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.680 damages caused by the climate crisis, and this could go 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.079 a long way in helping these poorer countries recover from 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.800 these crises and adapt to a hotter world. If we 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:35.040 want place is like Somalia to continue to exist, we're 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.480 going to need to pay up for the harm we've caused. 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.720 And that's what the fuck we're talking about. What the 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:47.840 fuck are you're talking about? Sabrina believes that paying loss 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.960 and damages to poorer countries is the absolute least we 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:52.240 can do to make things right. 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.080 So much of the narrative in so many different parts 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:58.520 of the world has become about there's lots of talk 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.920 about migrant issues and oh, who's welcome and who's not welcome? 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.680 But why do people leave? You know, so many people 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.480 wouldn't have left Somalia if there wasn't conflicts. So people 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:10.160 leave because there's a reason they can't stay. And if 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:15.640 more frequently that's becoming climate we're causing in the global north. 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:17.800 How are we then going to turn around and say, well, 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.000 we're sorry that your homeland is getting destroyed. There's no 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.480 opportunities there because of either drought or family or whatever flooding, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.160 but no, you can't come in here either. It's a 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.640 very kind of ignorant way of thinking when we don't 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.640 think holistically about issues. So I hope that people look 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:39.400 at issues like the ones that we're talking about as 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.760 global issues rather than a them problem versus an US problem. 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:48.000 Unfortunately, that's something we're seeing more and more. Climate change 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.400 knows no borders. When the climate changed in the past, 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:55.640 you moved. But nowadays we have these pesky borders and 0:11:55.679 --> 0:12:01.719 they're limiting movement and opportunities for people affected by climate change. 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:05.880 The UN International Organization for migration says that as many 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.720 as one billion people will be environmental migrants in the 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.320 next thirty years. The question is not whether this will happen, 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.480 but how we will respond to it. So far, the 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.520 reaction for countries that have caused for climate crisis, and 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.439 I should mention for countries that have historically benefited from migrants, 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:28.120 has been to make migration difficult for people seeking safety. 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.120 But I also want to point out that climate migration 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.600 isn't just an international issue. Even in the United States, 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.160 people are leaving low lying and fire prone areas for 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:43.400 places with stronger climate resilience, but that doesn't change that 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.600 the global self is facing the harshest symptoms of climate change, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.839 and we're seeing a huge number of migrants fleeing their 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.839 homelands because of climate related issues, and those numbers are 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:58.760 only increasing. But migration doesn't have to be the only solution, 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.320 and it shouldn't be. People shouldn't be forced to flee 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:05.520 their homeland, and so right now we need to help 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:08.280 support resiliency efforts in the areas but they're on the 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:10.280 front lines of a climate crisis. 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:15.040 We also put this I think expectation on rural communities 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.280 to scale up to the same way that the global 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.560 North can, and to move quick to change over to 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:27.720 renewable energies when it's like they you know, it takes time. 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.680 It takes time. How are you expected to to fight 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.959 climate change if you can't you don't even have an 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.320 accurate reading device or the weather. You know, like simple 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:42.160 technologies to adapt to changing climate are so important, but 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:47.880 even these technologies are so underfunded for rural people. How 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.280 can we put these expectations on people. 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:59.840 We're on fucking the future. We're on fucking the future. 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.920 The good news is there are people working hard to 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.280 solve this problem. Loss and damages was a big issue 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.560 at a recent COP twenty eight climate summit, and I 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.080 was slightly relieved to see several wealthy countries put up 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.760 money for the Loss and Damage Fund, but their contributions 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.800 amounted to less than half a percent of what is needed. 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:28.560 I'm a hopeful person, but honestly, really it's a drop 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.880 in the ocean, which is why we have to focus 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.400 on the many different avenues and approaches to solving for 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:37.440 global saff's climate crisis. 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:38.640 Right now. 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:44.280 Sabrin has been working with e FAD, the International Fund 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.080 for Agricultural Development is a UN agency that focuses on 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.240 projects related to agriculture and rural communities. 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.600 I wouldn't have thought that I would ever be doing 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.480 work in agriculture. I mean, if someone said that to me, 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.080 I probably wouldn't, well, what are you talking about? But 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.240 there might have been maybe a couple of things about 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:04.800 my identity and my beliefs that I shared with my 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.160 husband that kind of influenced us to work with EFAD 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:09.840 in the first place. And one of those was that 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.240 we looked at the AID model and the general aid model, 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:15.760 and I, look, there's a time and place for AID. 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.720 I think it's super important, but I do think it 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.480 can be really shortsighted if you're offering a band aid 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.040 over a band aid over a band aid, not really 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.200 getting to the root cause of an issue. And when 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.640 I learned about the work that EFAD was doing and 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.040 how they not only teach people how to live off 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.320 the land they live on by providing them with education 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.360 around agriculture and giving them a sense of entrepreneurship as 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:47.120 well as food security, I was blown away because I 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:51.640 realized that that model was meant to actually make people 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:56.880 more independent rather than on an agency. And I thought Wow, 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:01.200 what a great model. You know. It goes to show 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.600 that actually the majority of impoverished people live in rural communities, 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.800 and what they do have is land, and in that 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:10.120 land is opportunity. 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.280 Places that aren't economically developed often have large regions of 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.800 unspoilt land, forests and important natural resources. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.880 They're also technically the custodians of this planet. Imagine the 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.640 potential if they were given the appropriate tools and education 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.280 and investment that they deserve, because it is an investment 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.320 in ourselves, particularly when you translate that to the climate conversation, 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.040 because then you're talking about people who are protecting the 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:39.040 biodiversity of areas, who are adapting communities to the climate 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:40.720 changes that are happening in real time. 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:46.320 Sabrina's witnessed firsthand for benefits of empowering rural communities in 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.520 the fight against global heating, and it gives a hope. 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:52.880 I'll never hear this image of this swamp land in 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:58.760 sire Leone that was converted into rice farms, and seeing 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:01.160 them before and after, I could not believe that nine 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.280 that was so degradated and so turned into this like, 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.960 you know, massive community with women farming. And I always 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:09.840 thought that was so amazing, and it just goes to 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.560 show like even things like land degredation, like we need 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.879 rural people to restore the world through nature based solutions. 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:20.159 Nature based solutions are such a big part of it. 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.119 And who else is going to protect these areas? Like 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:27.080 I said that, the genuine custodians of our planet rural people. 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:32.919 And I'm endlessly amazed, endlessly amazed, and also endlessly touched. 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:38.159 I think seeing programs change people's lives with such simple 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.320 technology and such simple you know, climate resilien seeds for instance, 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:47.240 or you know, different kinds of fertilizers, it just makes 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.800 a huge, huge difference in people's lives. And at the 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:52.760 end of the day, that's really what it's about. 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.600 After some time working with EFAT on their projects with 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:01.120 agricultural communities for you and approach Sabrina and about becoming 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:06.520 official good Will ambassadors. It was a surreal moment, especially 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.119 because her mother had connected her with EPHAD in the 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:09.840 first place. 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.440 I remember calling my mom and being like, mom, they've 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:16.639 asked me to be an ambassador. It's so cool. And 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.919 the first ambassadors that they've had on this scale, and 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.639 actually the first couple ever asked to be new and 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:24.679 good Will ambassadors, which is kind of interesting. 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.880 Serving as good Will ambassadors has given Sabrina and Idris 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.240 a totally new platform to raise awareness about the challenges 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.240 rural communities are facing. And one of the ways they've 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.439 been using at platform is to empower women and girls 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:39.640 in these communities. 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:44.159 So the ties between gender and agriculture became so intertwined 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:45.679 for me in a way that I didn't know that 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.840 I just it became so much of my passion to 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:53.400 see that women are historically at a disadvantage and that's 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:58.440 amplified and sort of, you know, made extreme when you're 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:02.680 in situations around climate because you realize if you already 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.000 at a dispantage and you're trying to get land rights 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:10.040 or access to finance, it only makes it harder for 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.600 you to adapt or make the changes you need to change. 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:15.880 And EFAT does a lot of work in gender and 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.800 it's you know, it's all of these different touch points 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.520 that they've been able to expand their work into that 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.160 really made me passionate about the work they that they do. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.640 Once people understand by empowering women or girls, you empower 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.879 a community, you actually see communities buy into it because 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.879 it works, and a lot of them field visits I do, 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.440 and like, you know, no shade to men, but men 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.479 are often in the city at the bars, and I 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:45.800 see women in the fields you just do, with babies 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.120 on their back or children on their back, farming all day, 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.879 sending their kids to school, and not spending the money 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:57.000 you know, at a bar on their friends, but at 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.880 home and building their home and building women around them. 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.800 And women give back, you know, in a way that's 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:09.919 so much more community led than men do. That the 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.960 statistically true, and I think, look, it's a good thing. 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.000 It just means we just need to empower women. 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.879 Women make up nearly half an agricultural labor force in 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:23.840 developing countries. They're often also the ones who actually have 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.560 to feed their families, but as farmers, they have lower 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.320 yields on their land than men, and that's because of 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:35.520 unequal access to resources like fertilizer, credit and good quality land. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.840 One UN study found that if women who were afforded 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.960 the same access as men, their agricultural yields would increase 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.760 by up to thirty percent. This could even reduce world 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:50.720 hunger by twelve to seventeen percent. That would mean pulling 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:55.200 one hundred and fifty million people out of hunger. That's 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:57.720 a population in Mexico and Australia combined. 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:02.879 If you empower women, they'll be able to do that, 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:07.520 you know. So food security, if we're empowering women, they'll 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:11.119 help feed their families. And it's been shown and proven 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:13.200 time and time again. If you support women and girls, 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:17.879 you change communities, you change countries, and I feel the 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.200 world really needs to step up to that. ePAT is 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:22.480 doing its part, and that's where I'm hopeful is there 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:26.159 are amazing programs. There are such amazing grassroots programs, and 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:29.960 e FAT does go through government to support grassroots projects 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.159 as well, and so there are all of these different 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.119 ways to support rural women and girls. It's just about 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:39.879 the funding. The funding isn't there. I mean, look at 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:42.760 food security funding or climate funding even and of itself, 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.200 only one percent goes to something like adaptation, which is 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:48.600 one of the biggest hurdles of your community. 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:58.280 We're on fucking the future. We're on fucking the future. 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.840 One of the big takeaways from this conversation, and I 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.560 imagine a lot of the conversations will have on this show, 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:10.320 is that it's not always technical fixes that will help 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:14.080 us unfuck the future. One big discovery in the lab 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:16.959 of the newest startup is not going to get us 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.840 out of this mess on its own. It's about how 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:23.600 we live as a society, and in this case, it 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:27.000 means giving rural communities for resources they need to thrive, 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:32.119 not just survive. Rural people deserve to be compensated for 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.960 the losses and damages caused by the climate crisis, and 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:39.680 by investing specifically in rural girls and women, we can 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:43.440 make progress on climate issues as well as related problems 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:47.960 like food insecurity. But those are big government level solutions. 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:51.040 So what can we do as individuals sitting at home 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:52.600 listening to its podcast. 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:54.840 One of the most important things that we can do 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:56.720 is use our voices. And I say that a lot 0:22:56.800 --> 0:23:02.080 because the conversation around food systems and rural people and 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:07.160 climate it needs to be sort of frontline. Like I 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:10.440 sometimes I'm looking at headlines and we're flooded with information 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:15.159 that feels so, look, if we're not talking about our survival, 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:18.160 which is really what it is as a human race, 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:20.720 then I don't see why we would be talking about 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:23.320 anything else. But I think conversation is so important. I 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:26.399 think you inspire change by being the change that you 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:29.240 want to be. If you're mindful of these issues, other 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:32.040 people will be inspired, and then maybe that'll lead to 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:35.040 more people reaching out to their leader. It's more people 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:40.199 voting and also kind of understanding and being able to 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:42.680 combat the misinformation that's thrown at us all the time. 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:45.359 I always say, being a You and Goodble ambassador is 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:48.000