Climate justice activist Jerome Foster II talks about the impact he and his colleagues are making through their work on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Climate justice activist Jerome Foster II talks about the impact he and his colleagues are making through their work on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
You can find more about Jerome’s work by following him on Instagram @jeromefosterii or visiting the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council’s webpage at https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/white-house-environmental-justice-advisory-council.
Other resources mentioned:
OneMillionOfUs - https://www.instagram.com/onemillionofus
The Climate Reporter - https://peoplesclimate.org/actions/the-climate-reporter
1 Point 5: A Kids Climate Justice Podcast
S1 EP6 How Does Climate Change Affect Groups of People Differently?
[INTRODUCTION]
Zanagee: Hi there and welcome to One Point Five: A Kids Podcast About Climate Justice! I’m Zanagee Artis.
Olivia: And I’m Olivia Greenspan.
Zanagee: And we believe that kids like you deserve a liveable future.
Smart Speaker: A liveable future. This means a future where no one will have to worry if our planet is healthy enough for humans to live safe and happy lives.
Olivia: That is Joanna. She’s our on-hand dictionary if we ever come to a word or phrase you might not know or understand already.
Zanagee: 1P5 is a show where we explore what climate change and climate justice is with scientists, youth activists, and other environmental leaders who generously share their experience and expertise with us!
Olivia: In our last episode 5 “What is Environmental Racism?” with Kevin J. Patel, we introduced the topic of environmental racism. Today, we are speaking with Jerome Foster II, who (among other things!) is the youngest member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Zanagee: In our conversation with Jerome, we discussed what climate justice means to him, his work on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council to address climate injustice, and the ways in which environmental justice and climate justice both differ AND overlap. Ok, to the interview!
[MEET THE GUEST]
Jerome: My name is Jerome Foster II. I just turned 19 years old. Um, I am a climate justice activist. I’m executive director of OneMillionOfUs, which is an international youth education advocacy and voting organization. I'm also executive I'm the editor in chief of the Climate Reporter, which is environmental news agency.
That basically is the movement like the climate movements news agency that like really talks about the urgency of the climate movement in a way that should be, be normal throughout news industry, but it isn't. Um, and I also serve in the white house, environmental justice advisory council, um, as the first gen Z member elected selected for a federal, um, advisory council and also the youngest member as a part of it.
Um, and yeah, I'm excited to be here and to be in you guys' presence to talk about the important issues that we have to tackle today.
Olivia: As you know, the name of this podcast is 1 Point 5: A Kids Podcast About Climate Justice. And even though it's in our name, you know, our audience, uh, is roughly ages 10 to 15. And so for some of them, it might be their first time hearing this word, climate justice. So, um, how would you define what climate justice is for 10 to 15 years?
Jerome: That is so incredibly important to understanding what climate justice is. So breaking down what climate justice is all about. It's really two main facets. It's the merger of technology and science, and also the sociopolitical aspect of the environment as well. And what does that mean? That means that the climate justice movement, isn't just the. Just making solar panels and making winter binds and more accessible, but also looking at the past, looking at what, what ha what impacts has, has climate change already had on communities. And that goes into the equity piece of like the fact that over 80% of, of coal fire power plants are placed in black and brown communities.
And the fact that exploitation idea of limitless extraction come from the idea of, of, of slavery and continual just, just exploitation of that. So I think that when we talk about climate. It's that, that merger of that you can't slap a solar panel on the climate crisis. And you also have to have technology that, that, that builds on the social justice aspect of it.
So at the very root of what climate justice is, it's making sure that our environment is able to advance new technology, um, in the future, but also looking at the past and saying what damage has already happened and let's fix that as well. So it's, it's a plethora of time looking into the future while also looking into.
Zanagee: Yeah, that was a really great, and I just have to say that. I think I speak for everyone when I say that. Like the, this is the knowledge that is needed in the White House, right? Like we're, we're so grateful that, um, someone with your expertise and your experiences and a young person leading it in this movement has the opportunity to yeah.
Share this platform and, and talk about climate justice, um, to work.
Olivia: You're the youngest member of the white house, environmental justice advisory council, which is so amazing. I wanted to know, we all want to know the kids want to know what does it mean to advise the white house at a topic like environmental justice?
Jerome: Yeah. Um, so yeah, I was selected to be a part of the White House, Environmental Justice Advisory Council in March of 2021. And ever since I have, we have been advising as a part of our council on it, which basically means that all executive funds that go to the environment, 40% of that has to go to frontline communities.
Zanagee: Jerome just mentioned a really important term! Frontline communities. Since this may be a new term for many people, we asked Jerome to define what a frontline community is.
Jerome: A frontline community is a community that is, um, especially exposed to the climate crisis or that through mudslides or through increased hurricanes or through increased heat waves, um, uh, for one community as a community that is routinely exposed to the climate crisis and may not actually African attributed to the creation of CO2.
Um, a really good example of that is an island in the Pacific ocean called Tougaloo, which had minuscule amounts of emissions. But it's now one, it'd be several feet under the ocean because of the fact that us in the global north, especially in the United States, China and in the EU have polluted so much that, that pollution doesn't just stay over Europe or [mumbles): over the U S it continues to travel around.
So every country feels in so many different ways and sometimes it's frontline communities in the global south that are experiencing it first.
Zanagee: Okay, thanks Jerome! Back to Jerome’s work on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory council.
Jerome: So we directly oversee the implementation of, um, investments in the clean energy transit. Um, also we helped to advise an executive orders that pertain to climate and the environment. Um, and also we're, we're currently working to make sure that communities that are on the front lines and disadvantaged communities have access to, um, having higher seawalls, having, um, access to, to resources that are, that are, that are needed to transition to renewable energy.
And really the council has, has been a way to understand how politics, uh, the politics of, of environmentalism works and understanding that the urgency is now. And I think that with this new administration, with the Biden administration, he's understanding the transition or understand the urgency, but also we have to continue to push because when it comes to pipelines, when it comes to, to, to key infrastructure like that, we also have to continue to make sure that we're being progressive and not just continuing the status quo.
So with my role is that we advise, we send letters, we advocate on behalf of communities and we're there to, to be a direct line of communication with the American people. Um, and it's been a stellar and just amazing experience.
Olivia: Excellent. I mean like Sonos, she said earlier, we're so happy you're there and doing that work and representing, um, gen Z and the fight for environmental justice.
It's. I honestly like, yeah, it's just your, it makes me so happy that you're on that council and doing that incredible work.
Zanagee: We’re going to take a short break. And when we return we’ll have more with Jerome, including specific examples of climate injustice and your power in this movement. We’ll be right back.
[BREAK]
Zanagee: Welcome back to 1 Point 5, a Kids Podcast About Climate Justice. Let’s return to our conversation with environmental justice activist Jerome Foster II.
So I am going to jump back. A little bit, um, just, just one more thing. Um, cool. Awesome. And so you mentioned pipelines, um, and advising on that, um, to the white house and to president Biden.
And I think that's really interesting. And just to come back to that question earlier about what are like the misconceptions that people have about colonialism and talking about that as a root cause of climate change…
Smart Speaker: Colonialism. The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.
And just to come back to that question earlier about what are like the misconceptions that people have about colonialism and talking about that as a root cause of climate change, and I think a major one is. People will think that colonialism is trapped in history and that it isn't a modern problem, but we know. And you definitely know from advising the White House on this issue, that pipelines are an example of modern colonialism. And what it means is that these companies, so you mentioned Exxon earlier, but there's oil companies in the U S and all around the world. Um, They're building oil rigs and the oceans, and they're building pipelines through indigenous lands.
And I think that's super important. And for kids listening right now, you may have only seen Exxon or Mobil or Shell or any of these companies as where you go to get your gas, um, right in it. You get to go places in your car because of that gas. Um, and maybe you have heat in your home because of gas, but it's actually causing a lot of harm in other places.
In the U S and around the world. And that is an example of colonialism. Um, so just wanted to raise that too, and yeah. Feel free to add if you had other thoughts on that too, but yeah,
Jerome: I don't know. I don't like the harm of natural gas and oil, um, that Chevron and Exxon use. Um, when we talk about fossil fuels, a lot of people would just think that it's just like an oil and it comes out perfectly that we can use it. But in the case of Oklahoma, right now, we're seeing. Because so many oil companies are currently mining for natural gas.
We've seen over a hundred earthquakes in Oklahoma alone each year because of natural gas and that's right. They're making them a front line community and being aware of that client that clean energy is the only way to have stable, safe, and, and just all across, just better energy that we can use because it's not profiting off of, of continual exploitation.
Definitely remember that, that natural gas isn't anything but natural and that the true clean energy is solar and wind and in the plethora of other sources that we use, but natural gas is not natural. So remember that?
Zanagee: Yes, definitely. Um, so now yeah, really want to. Talk about, I guess, more specifics, um, with climate organizing with your work, um, and what to ask, what do you see as the difference between environmental justice and climate justice and what areas do they overlap in?
How are they different?
Jerome: They are very similar and a lot of times it's interchangeable. So I'm not a big advocate of just like language and the fact that like environmental climate and most people are just very similar, but on a technical level, environmental justice is focusing mostly on just the environment itself.
Um, focusing on like natural resources and natural, um, like occurring things like water and air and things like that. But climate change is solely focusing on climate change and focusing on the phenomenon that climate has continued to stabilize our planetary climate systems and the justice that's needed to recover from that is climate justice.
Environmental justice is more just on the level of a basic, not nature, only solutions, but climate is taking that human input as well.
Zanagee: Right. Um, so that is the end of the questions that we've planned, but want to ask if there is anything that we didn't ask you that you wish that we had, or anything else that you just really want to share for the audience?
Jerome: I'm sure. Yeah. I think that two things out, encourage everyone who's watching this podcast is understanding that everything is within the scope of your power. That may be signing one petition or listening to this one podcast or reading this book isn't the only thing you can do. You are, you are the movement, you are the change that you want to be envisioning yourself to be that you dream yourself to be. And I think that if you able to understand that you are so much more powerful than you understand, and then you can, you can lead movements and you can change the world.
You are the person everyone's waiting for to join this movement. You're you're the, you're the climate striker that, that allow us to continue to, to press this, this movement forward and have more, more powerful and positive change. So continue to organize, continue with, continue to be bold, continue to be just passionate about what you love and keep on fighting the good fight.
[CLIMATE JUSTICE GAME SHOW]
Zanagee: And that concludes our conversation with activist Jerome Foster II! Which means...you know what time it is...it’s time for:
Zanagee and Olivia: CLIMATE! JUSTICE! GAME! SHOW!
Olivia: Zanagee, you’re up first again! Question 1: What is climate justice?
Zanagee: For Jerome, climate justice means fixing the wrongs of the past while also pursuing technologies that help us overcome climate change. That could be solar panels, wind power, hydro power, all these different ways that we can produce energy and secure our right to a livable future.
Okay Olivia, what is some of the work being done by the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council to address climate injustice?
Olivia: Yes. First of all, it was so cool to learn about Jerome’s work on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. And cool that he's the first gen Z member. So, as Jerome described, the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council works to make sure communities most impacted by climate injustice are protected. They advise the White House on justice issues, they send letters to people with decision making power, and are a direct line of communication with the American people.
Okay Zanagee, third and final question: How do environmental justice and climate justice differ, and how do they overlap?
Zanagee: So, environmental justice is focusing on the environment itself, for example water and air. While climate justice is focusing solely on stabilizing our planetary climate system and protecting those most impacted by climate change. Jerome noted that they are very similar terms that both deal with protecting people and our planet.
Olivia: Yes. And you know what I loved about what Jerome said? You know, we focus a lot on terms on the show, and terms are important.But I like that Jerome said that while it's great to learn and make distinctions, it is also okay to not get caught up in the nuances between all these different terms.
And with that, that concludes today’s round of questions!
Zanagee: And remember--and this is the most important part--you are learning new things just by listening. We’re going to be exploring these topics throughout this entire season of 1 Point 5 and we’ll be building on your knowledge as we go. We invite you to revisit episodes at any point along the way! And always feel free to ask questions. We’ll give you an email address where you can contact us whenever you’d like.
[CLOSING]
Olivia: Thank you, listeners, for joining us today. And thanks to Jerome for sharing his expertise on designing policies and leading a movement to create a climate just world! You can find more about Jerome’s work by following him on Instagram @jeromefosterii or visiting the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council’s webpage. We will have links to both in our show notes.
One Point Five is written by me, Olivia Greenspan
Zanagee: and me, Zanagee Artis.
Smart Speaker: With occasional support from me, Joanna, from Natural Readers dot com.
Olivia: Our show is edited and produced by Matthew Winner with help from Ari Mathae and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Zanagee: This show is inspired by our book, A Kids Book About Climate Change, and the millions of young people around the world fighting for their right to a livable future.
Olivia: You can write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com. And check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com.