EPISODE 23 - “orange skies” with rozzi
SHOW NOTES:
Host Shawna Potter talks to singer/songwriter Rozzi about her song, “Orange Skies,” a beautifully moody song about the forest fires affecting her state of California. They dig into how Rozzi and her writing partner were able to take an overwhelmingly large issue like climate change and personalize it. As you listen, can you tell it’s just the demo?! Later, Shawna speaks with climate justice activist Julia Nerbonne about how our small actions can make a big impact, as long as we get ourselves out of crisis mode. Also, vocal party tricks, Googling “what is the saddest key,” and what Noah’s Arc has to do with any of it.
The official sponsors of this episode are First Defense Krav Maga, and Pupcakes and Pawstries, where you can use promo code waronwomen15 to get 15% off your next order.
Episode transcripts, important links, and ways to support Shawna and this podcast can be found at shawnapotter.com. Everything War On Women can be found at linktr.ee/waronwomen. For bonus episodes, behind the scenes content, and the chance to make special requests and get shoutouts on air, become a patron at patreon.com/shawnapotter.
Thanks to Brooks Harlan for chopping up War On Women’s song “Her?” to create the podcast theme song. Main podcast photo: Justin Borucki. To inquire about becoming a show sponsor, head to shawnapotter.com/contact.
SPONSOR LINKS:
firstdefensekravmaga.com
shoppe.pupcakesbarkery.pet
SHOW LINKS/RESOURCES:
https://www.instagram.com/thisisrozzi/
Her new album - https://rozzi.lnk.to/berrydeluxe
https://www.sonomafamilymeal.org/
https://www.redcross.org/donate/western-wildfires-donations.html/
The Green Boat - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/16043728-the-green-boat
https://taproot.earth/
https://www.powershift.org/
https://www.sunrisemovement.org/
https://honorearth.org/
https://www.interfaithpowerandlight.org/
https://350.org/
https://www.sierraclub.org/climate-and-energy
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
{intro music}
Shawna Potter:
Welcome to But Her Lyrics...the show where we delve into the meaning and politics behind the songs of artists you love or are about to discover right now. I’m Shawna Potter, singer and lyricist for War On Women - and your host.
I have no songs about the environment. Isn’t that strange? It’s kind of a big deal. It feels wrong to not have one, especially after interviewing this episode's guest, Rozzi. We recently discussed her song “Orange Skies”, an auto-biographical song that happens to be about the disaster that is man-made climate change. She’s done a beautiful job of personalizing this existential threat. I’m jealous, I’ve just never found my angle, you know, it seems like too big of an issue to distill into a 3 minute punk song. But luckily I’ll also be chatting with Julia Nerbonne this episode, an organizer focused on the intersections of climate change and racial justice, and she breaks it all down into smaller, more manageable pieces, and assures us, that it’s ok to start small. As always, listen through the end of the episode to hear the song in question.
PATREON:
This episode's sponsors are First Defense Krav Maga in Virginia & Pupcakes and Pawstries. Their links are in the description below. Shoutout to my badass Recruit Melissa P. Sign up as a Recruit on my Patreon if you want an official sponsor shout out on the show. You’ll also get a copy of my book for free and get to make random requests! Head to patreon.com/shawnapotter to see everything else you get at any of the 6 available support tiers.
I’m not gonna waste any more time getting to it, because we don’t have any more time to waste…that’s an environmentalist joke. hahaha. Here’s my interview with Rozzi.
[INTERVIEW TIME - please excuse any errors, this transcript has been auto-generated]
thank you so much for joining me thank you uh for uh you know this little podcast I appreciate it introduce
2:31
yourself to everybody I'm rozzy I'm an artist a singer and a songwriter and the
2:38
deluxe version of my album just came out today yay you know people will hear this after it's come out but that means no
2:46
excuse I don't know these months whatever it's been out so grab it now so the song we're talking
2:53
about uh orange Skies yes this song is about wildfires in California getting
3:00
worse as a result of climate change uh something you've personally been affected by because you live there what
3:06
were the challenges to writing such a personal song on a topic this big
3:12
totally um I think that is I think that songs about such big concepts are the hardest
3:18
songs to write I find like the smaller the idea the easier it is and so you know it can be very daunting
3:25
and it was very daunting I remember the only reason I wrote it was because the
3:30
skies when I walked over to my friend Eric leva's house who I was riding with the skies were literally orange and it
3:37
felt insane to write about anything else like it just felt like really crazy so
3:42
that's the only reason I decided to tackle that because exactly your point it's just it can be very hard to make
3:47
something that big feel that small so what I tried to do is really find the
3:54
personal in the big because big is an issue is climate change and wildfires is it's actually just like a very personal
4:01
the real the real problem here is how it's going to affect all of us on a very personal level and so I really just did
4:07
what I always do with songs which is think of tiny little moments that mean a
4:12
lot to me um and so I tried to capture like all
4:17
these little tiny vignettes little intimate moments from my life in the Bay Area
4:23
just to paint a picture of like a life and what which which is what we stand to lose basically I was just trying to
4:29
capture like my own little life growing up in San Francisco some some hyper Californian references maybe
4:36
trying to really like capture that that individualness of it and really try to
4:42
make it clear that like that's what we stand to lose without addressing climate change I've seen images of those wildfires does
4:51
it compare at all to seeing it in real life that's Sky I mean yeah there's some
4:57
photos that are pretty terrifying that I think give a similar feeling but the crazy thing about being there in person
5:02
is like you can smell it and taste it and it's like when I walked to my friend's house after I got there I was
5:08
like I probably shouldn't have been outside like the air is it's it's it's just surreal it's like
5:16
um there's an energy in the air that like something is like incredibly wrong you
5:21
know like that's that's the it feels very silent like like I might be inventing this but it feels like the birds disappear like it just feels
5:27
really like Eerie um and haunting because you know
5:33
fortunately knock on wood where I where I actually live in Los Angeles wasn't in Flames but it was just this clear signal
5:39
that something very close by was I mean speaking of Haunting
5:45
um this song I think captures that feeling really well um the the song is really stripped down
5:52
it's just piano and voice and I don't think that's super unusual for you right
5:57
but there is a a sadness and this this haunting feeling that is different from
6:04
your other songs yeah definitely I mean that was the other thing like with such
6:09
a big concept how do we convey the heaviness of it like melodically and
6:16
chord you know the chords and everything and the production like you're saying so Eric Leva who who produced it
6:23
um we wrote it together and and the version that's out is really just a demo we did from the day that day really yeah
6:28
yeah um did you ever record a bigger version no it wasn't even mixed
6:36
because all of a sudden it was very timely to put it out you know all of a sudden it was like this is happening again
6:42
um and then it was happening in San Francisco where I'm from is the year we put it out was a year later it's like I wrote it during the LA wildfires and
6:49
then we put it out during the San Francisco once the Bay Area ones and
6:54
um we didn't even really have time to rethink it we just kind of went we just put it out to raise some money and
7:02
um yeah we definitely wanted like I think that like those Melodies are like
7:10
spooky to me um that was on purpose for sure not in like a manipulative way just in a very
7:16
honest way like it's really scary like I feel really afraid just personally
7:21
afraid of of what these fires could do to people I love to places I love to me to our
7:29
health to my future to the likelihood of being able to stay in California ever to
7:34
having kids in general like the whole thing just you know it's it encapsulates a lot of my fear so we tried to capture
7:40
that in the in the writing and the production for sure I would say that you did you
7:46
absolutely did like can you speak to any of the specific uh you know Melody decisions that you
7:54
were making like did you did you think like ah this this key is the creepiest key or you know anything like that no I
7:59
wish I had a cool answer for you I'm such an intuitive writer um
8:05
it's really all about like a feeling like I got such a cliche I guess but it really is it's like I'm I'm a little bit
8:12
methodical with lyrics like I try and be really creative uh like in a you know
8:17
like a songwritery way with my lyrics but when it comes to chords and Melodies first of all I'm just not as like
8:24
as it's probably as much of a music nerd as I'd need to be to do that successfully but also it's just not my
8:31
it's not part of my process it's more like does this feel like I feel well no judgment because I'm in the exact same
8:37
way so no worries yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it helps to have someone in the room that actually knows the names of the notes um because that ain't me right
8:43
I do I mean I know the names but I don't think of them the only song that I've ever chosen the key based on an emotion
8:50
was a song I have called bad together same writer Eric love and I wrote that together and I remember that day
8:55
he Googled what is the saddest key and I think it's in
9:00
B flat or it's in D flat I forget but apparently one of those is the saddest
9:06
key but that's the only time I've ever done that but that's like a fun writing prompt yeah like okay let's write a song that's like I love that I love that
9:13
stuff um so I love the line early in the song um laughing in the backseat of our own
9:19
damn lives whatever's coming won't be soon and I love the way you sing it I love
9:25
the way it's spaced and it puts us very relatable feeling of being young and
9:32
just being pulled Along by life like totally unbothered unfazed not thinking about the future at all like do I have
9:39
that right is that what you were trying to convey yes basically all those lyrics those like early Verse lyrics
9:46
um what I see in my head is almost like I'm pressing fast forward and I'm watching this video of My Life
9:53
um and so they're all real little moments um and early ones are there's a lot it's Bay Area and la like just from
9:59
when I grew up in San Francisco and when moved to Los Angeles and laughing the backs of her own damn lives exactly like
10:05
you said it's like I I remember being a teenager you know maybe kind of nervous
10:10
in the back seat of someone's car like maybe we're smoking weed maybe I'm afraid to you know like like just and I
10:16
what was what maybe it may or may not come across is like coming from the Bay Area a very
10:22
liberal place like I we knew about climate change we had I'd even taught about it for as long as I can remember
10:28
in science class like right right that's whatever is coming won't be soon we all believed in it we all were like climate
10:35
change is coming and it's real like no none of us were blind or unaware or in
10:40
denial but there still was this kind of and I wanted to capture that too like there is an element of Shame and guilt
10:49
in that even if we all were that way like there isn't even if I was 15 and it wasn't my job and there were plenty of
10:56
you know leaders who who have more blood on their hands it is still I mean I it's
11:01
dark but I still feel like whatever's coming won't be soon we're just laughing in the back seat like we know where
11:06
we're going but we were just kids kind of letting it happen and I think that eeriness in my worst hours comes to get
11:14
me because I think about where we're headed as a planet and it's really terrifying and it's even worse that we
11:19
knew you you know so that's what I was trying to capture it's a lot in one line but but you do it but you do it um was
11:26
there something specific that like radicalized you a little bit or made you more aware or was it just I think that's
11:33
my point it's like I there was I can't remember when I learned about climate change because I always knew coming from
11:38
San Francisco you know growing up in like the 2000s like we knew about it it's the reason
11:44
orange Skies it's like that's when it starts to be in my backyard it's
11:49
like oh here we are as expected here it comes
11:55
you know and and so it's like I'm not sure I was ever radicalized it was more just like okay this is now my life is
12:02
affected it's not just this theoretical thing it's like I breathe this air if that's when I step out of my own house
12:08
proceeds from this song are being donated can you tell us about that where they're going
12:13
um you know what it's been so long I know we did Red Cross and Sonoma family meals I believe what the second one's
12:19
called but I just want to make sure I got that right because it's been it's been a couple years since I've talked about this song yeah we just wanted to
12:26
try to do something you know I just was like that's the whole point of putting the song out and so we did we did I
12:32
wanted to do one very local and one very major organization just to because
12:38
sometimes I don't really know what's going to work and what's not going to work and so I just wanted to spread it out a little bit and give it like Sonoma
12:43
you know I'm from I guess that San Francisco the Bay Area was really affected I wanted the people from where I'm my community to help them as much as
12:50
possible and then Red Cross is just so massive I just thought kind of it's like the two book ends of the spectrum
12:56
Switching gears a little bit uh your voice is quite resonant and on the
13:02
deeper side and if I'm being honest it's not the voice I expected to come out of
13:07
you visually um do you get that a lot constantly yes no no it's okay I I I find it uh
13:17
flattering I think a lot of my favorite singers I think you could say the same thing or if not they look nothing like
13:22
me so I I appreciate um that sentiment um but I do hear it all the time and it
13:29
can be like almost a party trick sometimes I love them somewhere I'm like
13:34
you know it can be a fun party trick yeah that's fun what's my party train maybe like a wrap
13:42
all right rezzy we'll tell people how to get in touch with you and let us know what you're up to in the year 2023 so
13:49
you can get in touch with me on all my social media I will respond to your DMs on Instagram if you DM me at this is
13:55
really um and my plans in 2023 well I just put out my Deluxe album It's called Barry
14:03
and it's the culmination what kind of berry berry like b-e-r-r-y like this
14:08
okay yeah depending on the accent not the person yeah
14:14
uh the fruit and um it's a culmination of like honestly I've been I've been
14:20
working on and releasing this music for years like it's come out in pieces and it's finally out in its entirety in the
14:27
order I've always wanted it without on vinyl it's the first vinyl I've ever done and that just came out in November
14:32
thank you and um I have to say I I actually just had a
14:37
meeting with my management team and we have and we're discussing I have a very um specific idea that I'm obsessed with
14:44
for my next record so I'm about to go back home to L.A to write to write it every day and so hopefully
14:52
um I mean I will be playing shows I'm playing a show in San Francisco in February I know for sure and then hopefully some more shows
14:58
throughout the year but I think more music uh it might be coming sooner than even I thought
15:05
exciting yeah that's awesome yeah all right cool thank you so much for joining me razi for this interview of course
15:12
thank you so much for having me it's been a pleasure to talk about the song with you it's beautiful people should go
15:18
listen to it and then of course check out the show notes to see what else we can learn or where we can donate I mean
15:24
one thing I will say is just always vote with climate in mind I feel like that's
15:29
that's um I'm not gonna have numbers right now but I know that your state and your federal
15:36
or your your I'm assuming I don't know about other countries but your state and your federal government spends more money than any non-profit in the world
15:45
so they have more of an effect and as far as I understand than anybody so I
15:52
would love to include some non-profits that we can also support of course but every time you vote
15:57
um I would keep the climate in the Forefront I certainly do thank you so much rozzy thank you so much for having me
Shawna: When I was way young, I lived in LA for a few years. Hearing Rozzi talk about the west coast really brought back some memories. Like getting a smog forecast every day along with the weather, or rushing to the nearest door frame when an earthquake hit. And though I think I am a little older than her, when I was in school, I also remember learning about recycling, or cutting up 6 pack rings, buying less plastic, and taking shorter showers. As if this shit is down to the individual! As if the power to reverse climate change was on each of us kids! But I still recycle. I still cut up the rings from a 6 pack. I don’t think I’ll stop, because it helps me feel like I have a little control in a seemingly out of control situation. Thankfully my next guest assures me that it’s not quite out of control yet. We do have power to reverse course, and it starts small.
[guitar break]
[INTERVIEW TIME - please excuse any errors, this transcript has been auto-generated]
thank you so much for joining me on the
17:21
podcast please introduce yourself to everyone and tell them why the hell I invited you on the podcast today well
17:27
thanks for having me so my name is Julia and Julian Urban I am a climate
17:33
organizer in Minnesota and for the past 10 years I've been running social
17:38
movement organizations uh trying to get people out and about and taking action
17:44
on climate change and racial Justice and to talk about climate justice so I've
17:51
been involved in movements across the country to try to reduce fossil fuels
17:57
and get both the government and also local communities to take action that's amazing
18:03
um I want to start by asking why should someone in Middle America or Florida or
18:08
the Northeast even care about some fires over in California what's the big deal
18:14
um you know I I was thinking about this question a little earlier and of course the real question is why do we care
18:19
about anything that hurts somebody that's not us right it's a pretty important question I think
18:26
that Americans need to be asking themselves today because it's certainly a pretty self-centered culture as a
18:32
general rule um but you know I think about you know 2018 there were 103 people who were killed in
18:40
California because of forest fires and there were I think 25 000 structures that were impacted maybe
18:47
18 000 homes that burned down wow um and I don't know about you but I saw some of
18:53
those images coming across the news of people trying to outrun a fire with
18:58
their vehicle and really literally running for their lives from um this hellscape that was emerging
19:05
there and um you know when we see those images as humans right we're sort of
19:11
psychologically built to respond with empathy or with
19:16
horror or um you know people give money people think to themselves wow that's
19:22
incredibly terrible you know what can I do to help that you know person in that truck
19:28
running out running the fire um I think it's a little more difficult for people to see that fire in
19:34
California as a symptom of something that's much much larger global climate
19:40
change and um you know starting to think about the fact that actually maybe we do need to
19:45
care about this not just for that person in that truck or the person who lost their mother but also because in fact
19:52
it's a early warning sign of of the kinds of disasters that are coming Fast
19:58
and Furious across the world and we need to be thinking about that as
20:03
the the at least you know in Minnesota if I'm asleep in the middle of the night and my smoke alarm goes off I wake up
20:10
and I take action and adrenaline runs through my body um you know can we think about those fires in California like a smoke
20:18
detector or a warning sign that will cause you know call us to action so that
20:23
we can make sure that the world that our children live in is something that's you know livable
20:36
um rozzy's song is obviously about a personal experience
20:41
um something that they witnessed uh but to zoom out how bad are things really
20:49
you know they're super bad not gonna mince words um you know I started this 10 years ago
20:57
and um I I've been thinking about climate change for a lot longer than that but professionally I've been talking with
21:03
people and helping them sort of step into a powerful place of action for over a decade and
21:09
um since then things have gotten dramatically worse even in my short life
21:15
um right now in 2022 or in 2021 the United Nations has a report it's the
21:23
intergovernmental panel on climate change and they put a report out they've done six reports now
21:28
and um I'm gonna actually open this document and read to you what the
21:33
Secretary General of the United Nations said okay um so he said uh this report that they
21:40
did in 2021 where they're summarizing all of the information from scientists across the world on the sort of state of
21:46
global warming so your question you know how bad is it um and he says
21:52
um this report is a code read for Humanity the alarm bells are deafening and the evidence is in irrefutable
21:59
greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions
22:05
of people at immediate risk and um you know that was a sort of a
22:11
more striking warning than we've had for a long time I actually get very
22:16
distressed by people who talk about well on average the temperature will raise you know
22:23
1.5 degrees or two degrees and people just think oh I don't mind you know 1.5
22:28
degrees is 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit what's the difference between 90 and 93 right
22:34
um and I like people to think about instead of thinking about an average temperature like you know how would it
22:40
impact you on a particular day think about your air conditioning that day yeah it's not about that right no not
22:46
about the air conditioning but like how um like if your child had a fever of
22:54
um you know 99.5 versus 104 that would be the difference between
23:01
life and death and that are those are the kinds of differences and temperatures that we're talking about as we think about what the un is predicting
23:09
so if they're predicting that if we do everything that humans are able and
23:14
prepared to do that the temperature is still going to be up 1.5 degrees
23:20
Celsius which is 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the middle of the century
23:25
and they say if we don't do anything at all we're going to see uh three degrees Celsius or 5.4 degrees
23:34
Fahrenheit so that's that's what they're that's what they're talking about um and and so if we think about that
23:41
like a a child who is sick it's very dramatic um what that means though is that we are
23:48
going to have temperatures in for example in India or in Pakistan that are in the you know 120 degree range
23:55
Fahrenheit and those are temperatures that humans literally can't live under um but we're also seeing floods and
24:03
droughts and forest fires like the one that you described you know that are
24:08
impacting people um you know right now so you know 33 million people were
24:14
displaced in Pakistan this summer because of flooding 33 million people wow I know it's just insane
24:22
um so it's really bad what is the best way for an individual to affect change because like you
24:29
talking about this it obviously feels very overwhelming um and I bet it's easy for a lot of
24:36
people to say well what the am I supposed to do and it's easier to do
24:41
nothing uh than to actually grapple with the reality of this our world trying to
24:49
um get rid of us because we are parasites
24:54
so what do we do what can we do that's right I like to think of ourselves as yeah so you know the cool thing about
25:00
humans and human brains right is we actually are great at solving problems um we're very smart and we're very
25:07
compassionate as people and I think that there's first thing to remember is there's been a concerted campaign to
25:12
keep the public from knowing about climate change understanding its risk Etc right so same exact people who
25:20
designed the campaign to try to convince people that everybody agreed that smoking was bad right have also designed
25:27
the campaigns to um convince us that well climate change you know yeah maybe
25:32
but it's maybe it's just not a big deal sort of thing so they've been doing this for decades we know why climate change
25:38
is happening it's greenhouse gases that are coming from fossil fuels super clear everybody agrees and agriculture cows
25:45
fart out methane I always like to think about all the compounds we got to get rid of the cow Parts go vegan people
25:51
that's right and we got we got you know forests that are as they burn of course
25:57
um it's hard to those trees are themselves carbon sinks right so when we
26:02
burn the forests we um so anyway a couple of things climate change is real it's real it's really
26:09
serious it's caused by us we know what it's it's coming from it's happening right now it's not something that's
26:15
supposed that's out 50 to you know 50 years in the future um but the thing you need to know is that there's huge things that we can do
26:21
in the next decade that will that will make a difference and so right now we
26:26
have seen the biggest climate bill in American history just past this past
26:33
summer in August the it's called the inflation reduction act which is kind of a jargony thing
26:39
um but basically 370 billion dollars are being deployed in the U.S to help communities in States and businesses
26:46
combat climate change um so right now is the time maybe give it four or five months start researching
26:54
how you can become solarized how you can get a heat pump how you can do Energy
27:00
Efficiency in your home because that stuff is going to be basically free for people who have a little bit of capital
27:05
to invest in it like you're going to invest a couple thousand dollars and then your heat bill will It'll like pay
27:11
itself off in a couple of years so in the states in the middle of the
27:16
Year 2023 start looking into this start looking into this in the United States right away yep
27:23
um or in the middle of 20 yeah because things right now are sort of being the details are being worked out all the agencies are trying to figure out how to
27:29
give the money out and stuff like that but basically there's going to be tax breaks for good stuff electric cars and
27:34
solar panels and heat pumps and things that will reduce your carbon footprint
27:40
um so that's that's really cool um I also think that you know we forget that actually just talking about climate
27:48
change is a huge part of a movement for changing the Status Quo um so there's
27:53
this really cool study you can look it up it's called global warming six Americas
27:58
um there's a guy at Yale Anthony lazarowitz who puts this out and he says that 70 he's they've done research for
28:05
years on like what is the perceptions of climate change or global warming amongst Americans and he said 72 percent believe
28:12
that global warming is happening 66 report to be really worried about
28:17
global warming but only 35 percent of Americans discuss global warming at
28:23
least occasionally and only 33 percent report to hearing about it in the media at least once a
28:30
week so we've got this huge gap between what people are feeling and what they
28:35
know and what they talk about or what they hear about in the news and in the middle of that Gap is this total void of
28:43
Netflix and you know fun times right um and basically denial although it's
28:51
not denying that climate change exists it's like people are like just living their lives and they're thinking about it only you know a very little amount so
28:59
let's talk about it we got to talk about it we can't like respond to a smoke alarm unless there's a smoke alarm so we
29:04
need to like all together be thinking about this um and then I think that we need to really
29:12
think about this like like you would think about trauma right if you get a
29:18
cancer diagnosis right you may not be feeling sick that very day
29:23
um but if you know that you have stage four cancer you're going to be filled with with fear you're going to want to
29:29
take action right um we don't want people to be traumatized about climate change but we
29:34
do want people to take action and so if we don't think of it like something that is traumatizing people we know that the
29:40
first thing people do when they're traumatized is try to put it out of their mind right and we know that the
29:46
things that help us respond to to I know you've done a lot of work in you know
29:52
helping survivors I I think that you know one of the first things that that you have to do if you've experienced
29:57
trauma is to figure out how you can tell your story and put things on your own
30:03
terms and sort of reclaim uh your life and I think that that's what people will
30:09
need to do if they like have heard that the world is ending right they're feeling this tension and they need to be
30:16
able to get out and do things about it um and I just love the work of this woman Mary pifer who wrote a book called
30:23
The Green Boat and she talks about how she and her buddies in Lincoln Nebraska got together and you know they baked
30:31
pies and they took them over to the Nebraska legislature and gave them to
30:36
the lawmakers who are considering bills about global warming right wow and so they got together be joyful together
30:42
they got to they got to acknowledge that they were in this real crisis but then they got to be you know hanging out
30:49
doing something fun taking action articulating what it was that needed to
30:54
change in order for them to you know see a livable future and so I think we can
31:00
do that we just need to we need to get together and figure out how to be with each other and you know create I think
31:06
that it was um Thomas Freeman's said like if we had a million Noah's and a million arcs
31:11
we're not just trying to get one Noah's Ark we're trying to each one of us in our household or in our neighborhood you
31:17
know so I think that's that's a big a big part of it I also think something that's really helpful for people to get out of a
31:24
crisis mode where they're freezing up and you know don't know what to do is is creating a plan and so I like the idea
31:31
that those folks you're talking about uh that author created a plan of like okay we're gonna make pies we're gonna give
31:37
them to people we're gonna influence them we're gonna tell them what we want um like taking action can can feel very
31:45
empowering even if it seems small or can or is just pie you know totally oh my
31:51
God and something else right people think that we have to convince the entire world right but actually there's
31:58
all this research on social movements that says you only have to to influence like 3.5 percent of the people in your
32:05
community in order to have a massive sea change in wow like legislation right so
32:10
we only need if you were to imagine your school for example if there was a thousand people in it can we get 35 of
32:18
those people coming to regular weekly meetings and then those 35 people each have you know 30 people that are in
32:24
their networks and they're going to get those people out and then once or twice a year we're all going to come together at the state capitol and like build the
32:31
mass movement that we need we know is necessary that's great yeah that that makes it a lot more manageable when we
32:39
can wrap our minds around it a little bit uh which is hard to do for something that seems just so big so thank you for
32:45
that yeah um I just wanted to ask uh are there any you know organizations that you want to
32:52
shout out that you think are doing really good work a place where our money if we donate is you know is really
32:58
getting used properly um any of the resources organizations anything like that
33:04
um you can also tell me if you can't think of any you could tell me and I could just put it in the show notes but anything else that you want to share
33:11
with people totally well I just want to say that one thing we haven't talked about is how
33:17
this movement for climate Justice intersects with other essential movements that are happening oh yeah on
33:22
this planet today so you know I work I've been on the front lines of resisting the line three pipeline
33:28
um also part of that movement is this movement uh the missing and murdered indigenous women movement has grown out
33:35
of the same circles right so as we think about climate change and the like what
33:43
many of my indigenous women friends have talked about the literal rape of planet Earth right
33:49
um and we think about the way that we treat the Earth as the same as the way we treat humans right it's it is
33:56
um again you know it's like heart-wrenching um but I think that one of the things that we need to do I mean we need to do
34:02
all those things that I just said but we also need to remember that we can't allow people to divide our movements so
34:08
you know I live in Minneapolis where you know I'm a mile from the sort of epicenter of the uprising here around
34:15
the murder of George Floyd and you know for us to say that police abolition or
34:21
protecting women or you know the movement for black lives is different or
34:27
the sort of understanding what's happened in terms of genocide in this country with with I know I'm opening up
34:33
this whole other can of worms which I will stop but I would say follow organizations that are not trying to
34:40
make uh climate change like a single issue thing but but folks who are
34:46
thinking about climate change as a integrated part of the movement to create a livable
34:53
um Equitable future for everybody um and so you know there's there's this amazing
34:58
um uh Network that's coming out of the Gulf South it's called um Tap Root Earth and
35:06
um they're sort of connecting the the marginalization of um black and brown people in Louisiana
35:13
and around the world um with the the fight for climate Justice and so following groups like
35:19
that um you know certainly the youth movements power shift Sunrise
35:25
um you know the young people there's no question about whether climate change exists it's like you know the they're
35:30
we're gonna vote out all these uh folks who are making that even a question that
35:36
we talk about yeah so but anyway young people doing great work um you know I work a lot with honor of
35:41
the earth native organization um and then you know I mean my organization does work with the faith
35:47
community and um trying to get them in rate relationship with climate change as
35:53
a moral issue has been a powerful all lever I think so if people are interested in how their religious denominations are
36:00
um or groups are you know engaging with this Interfaith Power and Light Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light
36:07
um are great places to go I have a lot of thoughts about that where religion
36:14
um intersects with environmentalism that we do not have time for maybe it's not
36:20
the nicest uh things to say so I will keep my mouth shut for now um yeah but that's a good work that's
36:26
important work that you're doing the religions are at the base of both all of the biggest problems and sometimes they
36:33
sustain people through difficult times and help to provide a moral voice so figuring out what that complicated
36:39
relationship is is kind of the same as figuring out the complicated relationship between people and each other
36:45
um anything else before we Before We Say Goodbye I don't think so you know oh I
36:51
gotta just send out my love to Folks at 350.org here there's a lot of great environmental organizations that really
36:58
get the climate justice story as well where can people reach you and what do you want to promote right now
37:04
yeah um you can find me it's uh Julia MN IPL
37:10
mnipl.org and um yeah I just want everybody to go and find their their uh their place in this
37:17
movement and don't feel like any action is too small you gotta start and you gotta you gotta talk about it and then
37:23
you gotta wake up and do the next thing and that's how we're gonna make it happen together
37:29
that's lovely that's a lovely place to end thank you so much Julia for joining me today oh that was great that was
37:35
great thank you so much [Music]
Shawna: Thanks to Julia for that informative interview, and again to Rozzi for giving us a reason to talk about climate change. That’s my first small step - talking about this stuff! What’s yours? Keep listening to hear Rozzi’s song Orange Skies and maybe some inspiration will strike.
You can support this podcast by liking my youtube channel, and sharing, subscribing, and reviewing But Her Lyrics.. Wherever you get your podcasts - it’s free and it helps. To find episode transcripts, or to find out more about what I do, my book, my trainings, my patreon, head to shawnapotter.com
To learn about all things WOW, head to linktr.ee/waronwomen
All of those links we mentioned in the interview are in this episodes description. Here’s “Orange Skies.”
LYRICS:
It went by
Never felt the seasons and we didn’t mind
Summer of gardenias laurel canyon nights
And every other moment too
Ocean drive
Water was too freezing so we just got high
Laughing in the backseat of our own damn lives
Whatever’s coming won’t be soon
Ooo it’s getting warmer
Ooo it’s getting warmer now
Ooo just like they told ya
Ooo just like they told ya now
Say goodbye
Baby take one last good look at orange skies
Greatest love you had you shoulda held on tight
Now there’s nothing you can do
Orange skies that should be blue