This is Democracy – Episode 54: Environmental Activism Among Young People

Unknown Speaker 0:05
This is Democracy,

Unknown Speaker 0:07
a podcast that explores the interracial intergenerational and intersection of unheard voices living in the world’s most

Unknown Speaker 0:13
influential democracy.

Jeremi Suri 0:16
Welcome to our new episode of This is Democracy. Today we’re going to talk about climate change and environmental activism. We live in a moment when it appears that climate change is becoming a dire necessity for policy attention, particularly as fires burn in Brazil, as we have record high temperatures around the world, as water levels rise as ice seems to melt. And we’re in a moment when national policymakers, particularly in United States seem unable to take effective action. Today we’re going to talk about the creative, important and during actions that are being taken at the local level by young people, particularly students and local elected representatives. We have with us, Matthew Kim. Matthew is the president of the Austin chapter of students for climate action. He’s also the district 10 and Austin representative for the Austin Youth Council. And he’s a junior even though he’s already achieved these things. He’s only a junior at St. Stephen’s school here in Austin. Matthew, welcome.

Matthew Kim 1:18
Oh, thank you. Glad to join. It’s great to have

Jeremi Suri 1:20
you on here and great to learn all about your activism. And we also have with us, one of the dynamos of local politics and Austin. City. Councilwoman Allison. Nice to have you here, Allison.

Alison Alter 1:33
I’m excited to be here because important conversation.

Jeremi Suri 1:35
It is a very important conversation. And since it’s an important conversation, we will start with an important poem from Zachary Siri, what’s the title of your poems?

Zachary Suri 1:44
Not seen settings? Not what is it? Again? It’s not seen settings. It’s not

Jeremi Suri 1:49
seen setting today? I know we have an important poem that’s also seen said yes. What is your poem?

Zachary Suri 1:54
This one is called the only ones the only ones please

Jeremi Suri 1:57
let’s hear it.

Zachary Suri 1:58
Are we the only one who care the only ones who can remember the earth beneath our feet? The soil that sticks to the bottom of our sneakers? Are we the only ones who drive between the valleys of Steinbeck’s dream and can remember the flower traced raging rivers Salinas Valley into the paved highway. And as the Earth The only thing that we can’t find in the stacks of the library of the inter web machines, and the cells stacked inside her head, and why is it that every movies greatest seen as some grandiose view of natural wonder, zoomed out on a mythical train flying across the mire, the match cut of a bone in the sky of an African desert, and that we absorb like toothpaste, the importance of everything around us. But you can only stare at the toothbrush and wonder at it disintegrating in your hands. Except we are on the edge of a waterfall hanging like every tragic hero from a weakening twig. And there’s others yell about taking the knee at the national anthem or buying pieces of our planet swamped and ice. Is it only us who can see how far we have to fall? and comfortably you watch your phones in the dark? Like you can ignore hurricanes? Like you could ignore fire falling from the sky? And are we stuck be who will inherit your debt to the earth selling off parts of our lifeline at your estate sale? Ever? What price? Will we sell our homes to save our lives? For what price? Can we let go of water? You can’t teach life and death in school you can teach the greenhouse effect the human cause. You can teach science the ozone layer, but you can’t teach just life and death. You can’t teach us the end of the world.

Jeremi Suri 3:34
That’s a ponderous poem, Zachary, what is your central message?

Zachary Suri 3:38
My central message, I think is something that I think a lot of young people are feeling today. And I’m sure Matthew does as well. And that is that, that that climate change is a very personal looming issue for many young people, because it’s something that we will have to deal with in our future and our children, children will have to deal with in the future. And it’s very frustrating to see. see many politicians and others, especially in the national level, ignore these issues and instead choose to focus on petty political argument.

Jeremi Suri 4:09
Right, and your poem captures how serious this is. And in a way, how obvious it is to Matthew, do you agree with Zachary’s assessment?

Matthew Kim 4:17
Totally. I was that was a great poem. I mean, I think that the youth young people, we’re now now that we’re older, we’re looking towards our future, we’re looking towards what our jobs will be like how will raise our future kids, and we’re seeing a trend that’s going downhill, and we’re seeing negative effects take place today, and negative Plex place take place, um, when I was growing up, and now I’m kind of like looking back on different things like the droughts and or floods and hurricane Harvey. And I think all of what you said was completely true.

Jeremi Suri 4:48
Yeah. What do you say, Matthew, to those who say, well, we don’t know what the climate change is happening? How do you know, this is really happening?

Matthew Kim 4:55
Well, when you look at just current current patterns in the current climate, you look at, you know, there’s been Ice Age, there’s a cycle where you have harder periods in warmer periods and colder periods. But you have never seen such a high level of things like carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. You know, we have Greenland melting as we speak, the Arctic Circle in Antarctica, it was 94 degrees not that long ago. These things are they’re not normal. And I don’t think that all of these things lined up perfectly just out of the blue naturally, just randomly. And do you feel that young people share that view? is this? Is this a wide consensus among your friends and colleagues? I think they do. Generally. When I think of my future, you know, I’m now expecting hurricanes and droughts. And I know that’s not supposed to be what’s expected. Because I mean, Hurricane Harvey, one of the cities, they experienced a one in 500,000 year rainfall. And if that can happen once, of course, it can happen again. And situations are only becoming worth

Jeremi Suri 6:00
like Gulf Coast. So Allison, do you and other city leaders share Matthews assessment about how dire insignificant this moment is?

Alison Alter 6:09
I think we do we have an Austin had a tradition of being concerned about the quality of our climate and have actively pursued steps for many, many years, we have goals of net zero by 2050, and zero waste by 2040. we own our own energy companies. So utility, so we have a 65% renewable goal by 2027. And by 2020, will be at 61%. So we have for a long time pursued steps that we can take. I think, though, that recently, we’ve had to take stock and accelerate our thinking, and really recognize how much climate change can impact us as a city,

Jeremi Suri 6:56
right? And what are the hindrances? Why can’t we do more?

Alison Alter 7:02
Part of the hindrances that a lot of the direction needs to happen from the state and federal level, both in terms of regulations, but also in terms of resources. Because we’ve waited so long as a country, the amount of resources that we need to have to take action, to stop climate change is enormous, but also to be resilient to the impacts of climate change is quite enormous.

Jeremi Suri 7:26
Interesting. And Matthew, do you see students contributing to this discussion of policymaking? In addition to raising awareness about these issues,

Matthew Kim 7:36
I think the past two years, yes, students are now including myself, students are now focusing on policy and seeing what we can change. But I think as a whole, especially places like Texas, where they don’t really teach government or civics in class, I think people are very distant and kind of, like, zoned out of the whole policymaking. And when students come up to strike, you know, they come up to strike with good intentions. But a lot of these students don’t actually know that policymakers, representatives are right at the door, and they’re very accessible.

Jeremi Suri 8:05
Right, right. So what are you doing? What are you doing to fix all?

Matthew Kim 8:08
Well, my group is doing well. First of all, like we’ve met, we’ve introduced ourselves to many policymakers, including Councilmember altar, and we’ve met with some of the state representatives, our Texas representatives, and Austin, and we’re currently in a little bit resolution writing process. And so next year, you know, when they can, like a November, they’ll be able to start filing for new laws to be put in the next session. We’ll start working with them a little bit more. So you guys are really engaging in grassroots activism?

Jeremi Suri 8:39
Yes, yes. And is this something that students for climate action are doing around the country?

Matthew Kim 8:44
Yes. And actually, interestingly enough, the students for climate action New York, they were with the mayor, I’m sorry, not the mayor, the governor, New York Governor when he was signing their climate bill? And, yeah, interesting. So is this coordinated among students? Um, well, we kind of always read a little bit independently, because we’re so far apart, and we’re in completely different political environments. Sure. But generally, I believe students have like the same kind of goal and the same path in mind. But they may not be working like closely with each other, but kind of like meeting once a month. Sure, sure. So helping each other but working separately for the local conditions. Yeah,

Jeremi Suri 9:19
yeah, your face. And Allison does does this make a difference? Some, some cynics might say, well, so students are concerned about this. Who cares? This doesn’t make a difference to you as a policymaker?

Alison Alter 9:29
It certainly does. Well, Matthew is my constituent, he came to speak at our citizen communication, and we’ve been in touch. And then he did an internship with one of my colleagues this summer, as well. And as a politician, when young people come up and speak to us, our ears perk up a little bit, we pay a little bit more attention. We know they have a lot of competing demands, and we have an obligation to future generations. So we absolutely do pay attention. As a policy maker who wants us to to do more in this area, I would say that student voices are extremely important for helping us to keep attention on the issue to help focus resources, both in terms of dollars, but in terms of staff time. And in terms of attention.

Matthew Kim 10:15
Great, exactly you

Zachary Suri 10:17
Well, many of us see these sort of very drastic reports of climate change and the effects that is going to have very recently, and many of us have can’t even imagine the effects that that many experts are saying that climate change will have if not reversed. And and so many of us turn away from learning about these issues and and just try and ignore it and go on with our daily lives. How do you how do you respond to students who feel that way?

Matthew Kim 10:45
Well, I believe that no matter what, in the future, we will be up front and in the face of climate change. And we’ll have to respond. And I know that many people, you know, in hurricane Harvey, they had to respond because their houses were destroyed. And people in places like Port Aransas, it looked completely different. And it still will be completely different. If you go today. And I think that once students have that one on one experience with climate change, you know, they’ll start to act and I believe it is a climate crisis, and that people will come around and will start learning about it, if not, if they’ve already experienced it. And in a way, the sense of crisis can focus people’s attention, right?

Alison Alter 11:24
Yes, yes. And that is precisely why here in Austin, the other week, we declared a climate emergency, we joined about 900 other jurisdictions and declaring an emergency and we’re calling on the federal government in the state government to do the same, we have a problem, and we need to name it. And we need to call it an emergency. And by actually stating that we have an emergency, we need to marshal the resources that are needed to address that. And we as leaders need to call it an emergency and take the actions that are within our purview. But the students also need to ask, they’re individual steps that folks can take, you can carry your water bottle, you can ride your bike, you can take your take the bus, you can fly a little bit less on the airplanes, there’s a lot of different things that individuals can do that if everyone did, they would add up to big impacts. And we shouldn’t underestimate the power we have to make even small changes

Jeremi Suri 12:22
show the power of example, for example, so do you, Matthew think that your generation approaches these issues differently, even from other young people like me,

Matthew Kim 12:32
of course, I mean, it’s particularly at my school, right? I’m at my school with my Earth club, we do a lot of composting, I do a lot of lunch announcements, we do a lot of social media. And I find with older retired individuals, particularly groups like 350, Austin, you know, they have monthly meetings, they like to go to different community events, they like talking to them within the community. And they focus a lot on the community and on politics, while we assume we kind of focused on ourselves, and kind of trying to spread the message within the student body.

Jeremi Suri 13:06
And in the end, do you think that’ll make a difference? Do you do you see yourselves carrying these habits forward as you get older?

Matthew Kim 13:12
I do think so. Because I mean, once we’re in college, once we’re out of college, starting a family’s, you know, that same kind of culture, I hope stays with every one of us. And we can continue maybe even having more positive effects on our lifestyles,

Alison Alter 13:27
not to be a pessimist. But we need to take action now. So that they have that future. And I used to think when we are teaching our kids and that would change everything, but particularly in the last few weeks. And as we prepared the climate emergency resolution, and and you you’re always learning more, but when you see the wildfires, and the Amazon and the Arctic melting, and all sorts of things, the hottest July on summer, it’s hard not to think that Mother Nature is upset with us. And you know, we need we only have so much time left. And so we can’t just wait for this generation to grow up. We have to be acting now. And we need them to be acting in concert with all of us and forcing us to act.

Jeremi Suri 14:13
Right. And so what’s most helpful, what should they do to help elected leaders like yourself who do care about these issues?

Matthew Kim 14:20
Well, I think you want to speak a little bit about the action day that you have planned and showing up and speaking out. That’s one concrete thing coming up that they can be involved in. Yes, of course of on September 20, we’re going to have a climate strike, rally, depending what you feel. And on that day from 9am, we’re going to walk out of our classrooms, homes respected places of work, because we don’t want to only include youth, but adults in the community. And starting at around 12 will have speakers at the state capitol. And then around four will kind of End The End The strike. But the main point of the strike is to point out to the Texas state leaders, that youth and citizens in the state, they’re worried about climate climate crisis, and they believe that they should focus on their climate crisis. And we asked that they put that on one of their number one priorities, because we know down down the road, that it’s going to affect every bill every life of every Texan. And so we want our lives to be we want our lives to be not only livable, but you know, be enjoyable, we want to be able to walk outside run during the day, not have hundred seven degree weather, just around the corner. And we think that it should be one of the number one priorities. And so that’s why we think a strike, particularly as international strike, which all over the world. Last strike, March 15 123 countries had youth striking Wow. And we believe that number can grow. And I’m optimistic that our hundred strikers at blast strike in Austin will increase to maybe 500. And then maybe further down the road, we’ll go against the state capitol and even have a larger showing

Jeremi Suri 16:03
and who is your audience? Is it just members of the state government and national government? Or is it a broader community?

Matthew Kim 16:10
Well, we believe, of course, we’d hope for it to be a broader community. And our main goal, I think, is to the state and to the city, to show that we often nights, and we Texans are worried about it. And if it goes to the federal level will welcome it. You know, we are hoping that some us representatives from the Congress may want to speak and even in the future will reach out to them still and hope that they start paying attention to us. And because I think Texas is a particularly good point to start on the climate conversation with this because we produce a lot of co2, you know, Houston, it’s like the oil capital of the US. Yeah. And I think that it would be a great place to start in terms of, you know, turning around the US is carbon footprint, and trying to get that net carbon zero on a mission to be like,

Jeremi Suri 16:58
so it sounds like it’s a parallel to the me to movement. In many ways.

Matthew Kim 17:01
I think that our climate movement, I’m like the civil rights movement, me to movement. And I’ll pretty much almost all the movements in our history, it’s all kind of interconnected, because a lot of people from March for our lives, they’re actually in involved in planning this because it’s similar, similar kind of strikes is largely rally. And again, like the me tooth movement, we’ve had other people who’ve stepped in to, like offer support, and you know, they’re involved with human a woman’s rights. And I think just because climate climate kind of covers everything, it says, you know, climate is involved with, I think lower income communities are affected the most like climate change, because you know, these chemical factories, they’ve been placed, they’re strategically placed to be away from higher income communities, and the only like the lower income communities, the minority communities are the ones who suffer and all of those movements to try and uplift those members of those communities. I think they’re kind of in the we’re working together with the climate movement.

Jeremi Suri 18:02
It’s very powerful. And it’s also historically accurate, right over time, it has been movements like the civil rights movement, the women’s rights movement, LGBT movements, that were populated by young people that were ahead of our politicians, and then pulled our politicians along. Is that going to happen? Now, Allison, are these students going to pull us alone?

Alison Alter 18:21
I hope so. I hope so. I think, here in Austin, we’re already moving in the right direction. But we can do more. And we need folks holding us accountable to our declaration of emergency and our desire to invest the resources to create a safer climate.

Jeremi Suri 18:38
Zachary, you had a question on this?

Zachary Suri 18:39
Well, I think it’s more i think it’s it’s more of a it’s more of a common because I think that many of the historical moments that Matthew mentioned, teach us is not only do we need cooperation, and between, between city government and and national government and state government and young people, I think we also need to, to encourage and to allow young people into these institutions. Because I think one of the things that’s really been missing is that young people care about these issues. And in many ways they haven’t. They haven’t been corrupted, in a sense by the sort of the energy industry in our in our country. And these are bad habits

Jeremi Suri 19:21
that many of us grew up with in a different time,

Zachary Suri 19:24
like gas guzzling cars is something that everyone must have. And I think that young people really bring a new perspective to government. And it’s not just money that’s ruining our politics. I think it’s also the fact that there are so many people have an older generation, who don’t quite understand the way that these issues speak to young people. You agree, Allison,

Alison Alter 19:46
I agree that we need the voices of young people. And that’s why I support things like the youth council, I’ll be speaking at the Climate Action Day. Change comes by a lot of people coming together and demanding it. And so I think that part of what this is about, if I might, I wanted to build a little bit on the conversation. So far, we’ve talked a lot about how this is an existential crisis, Matthew brought up some very real equity issues that should matter when we have this conversation. But the economics of it, from a city’s perspective, from a business perspective are really important to have on the table, we now have to be asking different questions about our infrastructure, our infrastructure was not built to withstand the kind of climate shifts the kind of natural disaster events that we experience. And so its lifespan will be less, we have to factor that into how we do that. Here in Central Texas, we are currently in attainment with respect to air quality, but we are very much on the verge of losing that status. And if and when we become a non attainment zone, we stand up potentially lose billions of dollars economically, as we adjust to the requirements that will be playing on us

Jeremi Suri 21:00
as a community, just briefly, what is attainment mean in this context,

Alison Alter 21:04
so there’s a certain level of clean air that you need to be at, I don’t have the statistic of which particles per mil, or what the measurement is. But if you don’t succeed, and being that having that clean of air, then you fall into this non attainment category. And when you’re in that non attainment category, the federal government places lots of restrictions on you that you have to obey in order to be able to get transportation money and other kinds of things. But they’re, they have impacts on development and other things like that. But they’re also cost to businesses of having to be flooded roof and fireproof. And we as a city have to take seriously how we plan for those events, and we have to invest in those instead of other things, we would want to be investing it

Jeremi Suri 21:57
right. And and this is true at the national level as well, the US Department of Defense has done a lot of studies that have indicated that climate change is going to cost the US Department of Defense a lot more money to maintain basis to maintain appropriate fuels for different vehicles and things of that sort. So there’s there are costs to not addressing this issue. It’s not simply altruism. In many ways, our podcast is always about democratic renewal and the positive opportunities for us out there. What are you most optimistic about Matthew? But what what makes you believe, as I know, you do believe that students for climate action, that you’re going to have an effect that you’re going to change things. What what what makes you optimistic?

Matthew Kim 22:37
Well, I believe that, as a US citizen, we’re very lucky to live in a country that actually the democracy, the representatives, they listen to their constituents, and most, most, most, most representatives, and I believe we have the opportunity to talk to those representatives, and maybe convert them to becoming a climate change, like to believing in it, I think that just in the future will start, I think that just our system will start slowly changing. And once people start realizing it and are affected because around the world, there’s supposed to be an estimated 1 billion climate, immigrants just because of places where there is no water, and just like or they’re underwater, right places like Miami, you know, they’re predicted to be underwater, and they are the largest asset city in the world that will be completely covered by the ocean. And once those cities with lots of people and lots of money, particularly once they start realizing how important this is to confront, then, you know, I believe the US government will take action. And I know that President Trump he’s mentioned that he wants to leave the Paris Agreement, but actually, there’s the day after the next election is the first day that the US can legally leave. So I believe that, you know, the US as a whole will take responsibility for it. And I think they’ll hold for the best. And do you see evidence that people are listening to students like you that older people are listening? I do believe because especially in the communities where climate activism, has, they’ve been doing it for, you know, a couple decades. And they’re they’re very inspired by us on a particularly when I’ve spoken with organizations like 350, Austin, another organization called sustainable living guide. They’re very excited to have our high school and college voices, and they celebrate it, you know, we’re relatively popular within the community because we want to take action, and they see us like they saw themselves many decades ago, and they want to help us as much as we could.

Jeremi Suri 24:38
They can it’s hard to gain, say young people who want to protect the world for the future. Right?

Matthew Kim 24:42
Yes. And particularly young people are motivated to act on the crisis.

Jeremi Suri 24:49
Right. Zachary, you want to come in on?

Zachary Suri 24:51
Well, I just think that what Matthew saying is really it’s really important for for us to understand this, we move into another election cycle is that the the power of of what Allison was dictating about pragmatic politics, and getting young people involved in our democratic policies, processes is really important. And I think that hopefully, as Matthew articulated in 20 years, we will look back on this podcast and and say, How silly we were to be somewhat pessimistic about the future of our of our world, and and

Jeremi Suri 25:23
how coming back to your poem how we are finally adjusting and finally doing something about

Zachary Suri 25:29
finally realizing the problem?

Jeremi Suri 25:30
Yes, yes. Well, I think that’s a perfect note for us to close on. As always, the solutions, as Zachary has said many times before, or in front of us, and our podcast today, and in all episodes is about activating those democratic impulses that provide the energy and ingenuity and insight for moving our society forward. Matthew, thank you for all that you do. I hope many, many young people listening will join students for climate action and other groups. Thank you, Matthew. Oh, thank

Matthew Kim 25:57
you for having me. lovely to be here. It’s great to have on

Jeremi Suri 26:00
Allison, thank you for your leadership at the local level and for the model you provide to so many other elected officials and citizens of leadership with integrity and forward looking vision. Thank you.

Alison Alter 26:13
Thank you. Before we conclude, though, Matthew, would you like to tell people how they can join you on the strike on the 20?

Matthew Kim 26:18
Oh, yes, of course. We’ve created our coalition called Austin Climate Coalition, AC CO, or Eco, it’s kind of cute. And you can follow us on Facebook, we have a Facebook event, we also have an Instagram. And as far as students for climate action, we have our Austin chapter Instagram at S for CA, Austin. And we you can find us also at our national one at students for climate action. And if you have any concerns or you want to join, you can email me at Matthew Kim, TX at gmail. com and I’d be happy to respond fantastic. You still use email? Oh, yes, of course.

Jeremi Suri 26:54
Yeah. Students sometimes say I’m a dinosaur for using email.

Matthew Kim 26:57
Oh, no worries. I mean, you know, it’s a good way to was a

way to save the earth in a way to say

Jeremi Suri 27:04
thank you, Matthew Allison, and of course, Zachary, for another wonderful poem and thank you for listening to this is democracy.

Unknown Speaker 27:18
This podcast is produced by the liberal arts development studio and the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. The music in this episode was written and recorded by Harrison Lemke and you can find his music at Harrison lemke.com.

Unknown Speaker 27:32
subscribe and stay tuned for a new episode every Thursday featuring new perspectives on democracy