← The Journey with Morgan DeBaun
The Journey with Morgan DeBaun
Save Our Oceans: Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on Climate Solutions & Environmental Justice
00:44:14
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- [00:00]
Morgan Debaun
Hi friends, it's Morgan debann and I have some exciting news. My book, Rewrite youe Rules the Journey to Success in Less Time with More Freedom is now available for pre order. Pre orders are so important, not just for me as a first time author, but for the message of this book. Ordering this book helps amplify the message that more people can break free from the grind, rewrite their own rules in life, and live a rich, juicy life full of joy and empowerment. So if you resonate with any of the content that I put out over this last few years, this podcast, any of the stories I share on social and you've been inspired by my work at Blavity or Afrotech, pre ordering is the best way to show your support and your gratitude for any of the work that I have done. Plus, you'll be the first to get your hands on the book when it launches next spring. And that will mean literally the world to me. So make sure you check out morgandebond.com to secure your copy and join me in this movement to create a life of freedom, abundance, and more importantly, to have the tools and the frameworks that you need to take control of your life. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Journey podcast. I'm Morgan, your host and I am joined today by an incredible woman, a scientist, an author, a future teller or person who provides hope in my daily life when I check her Instagram out. I'm really excited to welcome you, Ayana, to the podcast today. Thank you for joining us.
- [01:31]
Ayanna Johnson
It's great to be with you. Thanks for having me.
- [01:34]
Morgan Debaun
Hey everyone, I'm Morgan Debaun, a passionate entrepreneur and life advisor. With the Journey podcast, you'll discover that success isn't about the destination, it's about the journey. I'm sharing stories of amazing people who've taken control of their lives. Join me on my own journey to discover the secret sauce behind reaching success with permission from no one else. So today we're going to talk about climate change and we're going to talk about a few different things. I wanted to bring Ayanna on the podcast today because recently Blavity partnered with an organization called Climate Power. And as a part of that, we've been raising more awareness about different ways that as everyday people living in this world, we can make a small change every single day to help impact climate change. I don't really know what the right, like, language is for it, but basically we're trying to help people do something that will have a positive impact on the world and it can Be something as simple as second guessing yourself when you are buying a new item and saying, do I really need this item or could I go somewhere else and buy it that someone else has already used it? So using recycled, there's a great quote.
- [02:41]
Ayanna Johnson
From Virgil Abloh that I use in the book that's just, does this need to exist?
- [02:47]
Morgan Debaun
Does this need to exist? Like, are we sure? You know, right now there's a lot of conversations about transitioning into fall fashion and people being like, do you need all this suede? Suede is in. It's like, do you. I really need to buy the suede pants and the suede boots and the suede bag. Like, is it necessary? Can I just wear the clothes?
- [03:06]
Ayanna Johnson
Necessary? No, no, I wouldn't use that word. I mean, I love consignment store shopping. You know, the guilt free, sort of like someone else's closet vibe of it all. And like.
- [03:17]
Morgan Debaun
Exactly, exactly. It works. So I've been thinking about that too also because I have a young son, he's 10 months old and I feel like we're in a constant state of capitalism and purchasing because he's growing out of everything and it's like, oh, you actually can't fit this anymore. So. But I hate the idea that every single time he can't fit something, we have to like go to Target or on Amazon and buy something.
- [03:41]
Ayanna Johnson
Thing with that is like, it didn't used to be that you would do that. Right. Because we used to all share things in a very different way. There was a more communal, like, whose kid is this size now? Kind of like boxes in the attic labeled with years kind of thing that happened. And if you were the second or third child, like, you never got anything new.
- [04:01]
Morgan Debaun
No.
- [04:01]
Ayanna Johnson
You never. And now it's just like there was a statistic that really knocked my socks off that I wish I could remember exactly. But it's like something like the number of items of clothes in our closet has gone from like an average of like 30 things to like 300.
- [04:17]
Morgan Debaun
I believe it.
- [04:18]
Ayanna Johnson
More things, right? We just, on an order of magnitude, just more stuff. And I don't know that it makes us happier to have like suede pants and multiple shades of earth tones.
- [04:30]
Morgan Debaun
Might be cute, but I don't think that it makes us happy. I think there's enough data now that shows us that more things does not equal more happiness. But I want to get started a little bit in terms of your kind of origin story. So you started off as a marine biologist and I think all of kids at one point Wanted to be marine biologists. I uniquely remember at one point saying that was my future was I wanted to be a marine biologist.
- [04:52]
Ayanna Johnson
Very popular, dream job.
- [04:55]
Morgan Debaun
Totally. I was obsessed with dolphins and whales and manatees for some weird reason. Tell me a little bit about how you got started.
- [05:03]
Ayanna Johnson
First of all, manatees are hilarious, so great choice. I mean, they're called sea cows as a nickname. They literally. It's like a cow in a field just sort of like eats grass and hangs out with. That's what they do in the ocean. They just like eat seagrass and hang out and like float around. It's like. It's like a great life.
- [05:18]
Morgan Debaun
Yeah.
- [05:19]
Ayanna Johnson
Until, of course, there's climate change and then the seagrass can't survive the heat and the change in seawater chemistry because the ocean has absorbed about a third of the CO2 we have emitted by burning greenhouse gases. So the whole ocean's PH has changed. It's become more acidic and that's having all these ripple effects on these cute species that we adore. So the root of my work is that love of nature, that biophilia, that love of life. Right. And if you are in love with the ocean or wolves or aspen trees or fireflies or octopuses or whatever your thing is, it's only natural to want to help protect it. You know, that's something that every kid gets. Like, of course we should save the whales. Like, are you kidding me? Like, of course whales should get to hang out on this planet with us. And we kind of lose that moral clarity as we grow up. And so I've worked really hard to kind of hold on to that and have that motivate my work. But, yeah, Since I was 5, I was like, obviously, this will be my job. And then, you know, I went on a lot of detours and came back to it, and now I've sort of broadened the aperture again.
- [06:27]
Morgan Debaun
So how do you spend your days now? Tell me a little bit about the work that you're doing now and kind of how you navigate this world today.
- [06:36]
Ayanna Johnson
Well, far too much email, far too much social media. I mean, I think that's sort of the unfortunate truth of a lot of modern life. But as a writer, as a professor at Bowdoin College, as a communicator, as someone who co leads a policy think tank, it's a lot of emails, it's a lot of Google Docs, and it's a lot of spreading the word. And so I'm actually already looking forward to the end of my book tour after the election. I know it starts. I mean, I'm like, ready for. I'm an introvert. Like, all of this is just because I'm so passionate about conservation. I care so much about addressing the climate crisis. I mean, this is screwing over, like, poor people and people of color most of all. Right. Like, I'm just going to stand and watch that and not try to do something to make it even a little bit better. We're talking about places on this plan planet that are too hot for normal human life anymore. Like, hundreds of millions of people are going to have to relocate because of heat, because of flooding, because of sea level rise. And if we can change that from like 500 million to like 300 million, even, like, that's a huge win.
- [07:50]
Morgan Debaun
Yeah.
- [07:50]
Ayanna Johnson
If we can prevent half a degree of warming, that prevents a lot more bad ripple effects from happening. Right. Hurricanes are fueled by warm water. A hot ocean is hurricane food. So how do we rein that in as much as possible is kind of. I'm always thinking about different ways I can be useful with that as the goal.
- [08:12]
Morgan Debaun
I think for me it feels really overwhelming. Like, I live in Tennessee, you know, we're a tornado place. And right now, actually we're in a bit of a drought and Tennessee is a huge farming state, as you know. And I think that one of the things that overwhelms me is this idea of, like, does me recycling does me walking instead of taking a car does me pressing yes to rounding up to offset the cost of the shipping or whatever, like, green emission thing that all these retailers are doing now. Like, does that stuff actually make a difference? And if not, then what does?
- [08:49]
Ayanna Johnson
Well, the answer to each of those is actually different. So recycling. It really matters that you recycle paper and aluminum cans. Like, never, ever throw out an aluminum can because making a new one of those takes a ton of energy and you're literally mining aluminum out of the earth. But you can actually just recycle aluminum basically forever. So never throw out a can again. Paper, also super easy to recycle. Plastic, really hard to recycle. Actually, only about 9% of plastic in the US actually gets turned into a new thing. So with plastic, it's really about just using less of it. Although I totally get that oftentimes we don't have better options. But if I'm ever choosing between a can and a bottle, I always choose a can. I'm like, give me that sparkling Pellegrino in a can. Right. Instead of a plastic bottle or whatever it is the option.
- [09:42]
Morgan Debaun
Good to know.
- [09:43]
Ayanna Johnson
So that's the deal with recycling. So that's where the reduce comes in. The reduce, reuse, recycle on plastic. We just have to reduce. We should, on all fronts, but that one in particular on walking and biking instead of taking a car. Absolutely, that matters. Supporting public transit and the expansion of that infrastructure and of bike lanes and like alternatives for all of us. Sort of a systems level change problem. Right. Like I would gladly take a high speed train instead of a short flight, but often that doesn't exist.
- [10:15]
Morgan Debaun
Right.
- [10:16]
Ayanna Johnson
You just need to get to a place. You mean this is why I pay taxes. I'm like, I want public transit options, I will pay my taxes. And I know it's going to that and libraries and schools and all that other stuff. Right? And some stuff I really don't want to fund. But like, also we need the inflation Reduction act and I'm getting like huge tax credits this year for putting in solar panels and putting in a heat pump, hot water heater in my house. So if anyone owns their home who's listening to this and wants to retrofit and upgrade your home, the inflation Reduction act passed last year, or maybe even 2022 at this point includes tax credit for homeowners, 30% back on solar panels. Like huge amounts of money back on like induction stoves, heat pumps, insulation, new windows, all that stuff for energy efficiency and transitioning to renewables. So get those tax credits. So that kind of stuff really matters. And what was the last one? It was recycling, transportation. Obviously airplanes are bad for the planet right now, so just.
- [11:16]
Morgan Debaun
Yeah, I think that was it. I mean, even like I have my garden in my backyard with my tomatoes and I'm a part of a csa. I did that this summer, which has been really fun.
- [11:25]
Ayanna Johnson
Supporting, supporting local farmers is great. I mean, we don't need to be shipping tomatoes all around the world in the summer when we can all be growing them nearby often. When it comes to this, what can we do Question, it is this list of like, very personal sort of at home things, right, about how to lower our carbon footprint. And people talk about voting and protesting and spreading the word and donating. All that is super important. But I would encourage people to also think a bit bigger about what you can do also in your professional life. Right. Like a lot of people listening are entrepreneurs influencers. We're all influencers in some degree, if we're honest. I mean, the word has gotten out of hand. But thinking about, you know, business owners or just employees who can influence the environmental practices of the places that we Work. And I think it's really important to think about how we can make a difference in our professional lives, not just our personal lives and then also of course, our civic lives. Are we voting for climate candidates? Are we pushing for climate legislation and not just voting once a year, but actually engaging, going to town hall meetings and speaking up for the changes that you want to see. I mean, in New York City, low income housing is more likely to be located in flood prone areas. Like who's showing up to say to city council, we need to do better by these folks. The last thing I'll add on this, like personal, what you can do front. The biggest thing that almost nobody knows about is that where you have your money matters. So if you have retirement savings or just a regular bank account, it's really important to think about is that money funding the climate crisis because it's invested in fossil fuels. And most of us like do not know about all the things that's in our IRA or 401k or whatever account we might have. So it's really important to check. There's a resource, a great website that will give folks some options there like.
- [13:27]
Morgan Debaun
Rating different mutual funds that you can pick like in a Fidelity account, et cetera. Yeah, there's some, I think Schwab has that too. Like if you look in Charles Schwab and you look at, they actually have ratings.
- [13:38]
Ayanna Johnson
I think most large banks or funds have a more climate friendly option now. And like those businesses are growing like gangbusters, right? Everyone's putting up solar panels. Like you can make money while, you know, not harming the planet. There's a website, bankforgood.org for thinking about banks and green portfolio.com for some investment options. But on the banking side, just where you have your day to day money and credit cards. I think it's maybe useful to know that the biggest funders of fossil fuels expansion, like more pipelines, more drilling, are JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, bank of America and Wells Fargo. So you have a credit card or bank accounts with those companies. Like those are the four banks that are funding most of the fossil fuel.
- [14:26]
Morgan Debaun
The reason why where your money sits matters is because they leverage the cash that you have sitting there or loans and interest, et cetera. That's how they're able to make money off of you is because you're putting your money in the bank account, they're investing it and they're taking those returns and then.
- [14:41]
Ayanna Johnson
Right, and they're investing it in like Exxon on your behalf, which is like there are Actually other banking options now. So yeah, just check that out. I mean, it's the kind of thing where it's a one day of really annoying paperwork to move your money and do the research and then you're done and you're like, I'm on the right side of history now and I can just get my life.
- [14:58]
Morgan Debaun
The low effort ability to have a big impact is chef's kiss. So I think that's a good one. I'm looking to change my personal business bank account to another bank partially because I think the bank that I'm with is not doing good for anybody, not doing good for society, not doing good for black people. Just so much data comes out that they're not doing great. You guys can probably guess which bank it is, but I was having a hard time figuring out which bank I wanted to move it to. So actually this gives me another criteria.
- [15:22]
Ayanna Johnson
There you go.
- [15:23]
Morgan Debaun
Yeah. Okay. So your book is what if we get it right? And I'm really excited for it to come out. And I'm curious, what made you decide to write this book? What was your inspiration for saying, you know what, I'm going to step out and like really put something new into the world?
- [15:39]
Ayanna Johnson
It was a book that I was wishing existed. I think there's a lot of media, a lot of movies and news and all of it about the apocalypse and that's not where we want to go. There's only a motivation to like avoid the bad stuff as opposed to make the good stuff happen. And if we can't see those possibilities of the future we could create together if we actually just did all the climate solutions we already have, I think it was just creating this void of we're supposed to do something else, but like, show me it's worth it, like, what do I get for all this effort? And I don't think there are just enough of those. The subtitle of the book is Visions of Climate Futures. So I'm talking with all sorts of folks about what the future could be like, how do we get there? What are the hurdles? Yeah. Why we should give it a shot even though there's no certainty for what the outcome will be. And I think trying to figure out how to make a climate book that's not a textbook right. Was the unlock that I was looking for. And I ended up doing that by having the heart of the book be 20 interviews with people who I've worked with for many years, with people who I'm really good friends with. So there's a light heartedness and sort of like friendly back and forth. It reads much more quickly because it's like you're listening in on a dinner conversation and having that just make everything a bit more approachable. There's also incredible Afrofuturist art in the book by Ola Lake and J. Foose that I hope people will enjoy. As well as a piece by Erica Demon, there's poetry, including by Jacqueline Woodson, who probably a lot of your listeners are familiar with. She wrote a piece for the book called Dear Future Ones to the Next Generation. And so it is in many ways an anthology. I think there is basically a doorway into this discussion of climate solutions for pretty much everyone in this book. If you just want to look at the quotes like from Virgil Abloh and Audre Lorde and Maya Angelou that open the different sections of the book that I've sort of taken from there justice work and applied to the need to get it right on climate, then you'll get it just there, right? If you want to just look at the what if questions like what if climate adaptation is beautiful? What if we act as if we love the future? Right? There's something just in the questions to spark our imaginations. And if you want to like dig in, read the whole book and then look at all the sources, like I've got all of your references online citations at the hyperlinks. You can get sort of as deep as you want or just flip through it. And the audiobook I'll mention has all these interviewees speaking in their own voices. So it's basically like a 20 episode podcast series in an audiobook with the poets reading their own poems. And it's just this lovely mosaic of voices that I'm honored to have been able to curate.
- [18:35]
Morgan Debaun
What an incredible way of, in a lot of ways, like humanizing a complex topic. I think that's really smart and I look forward to reading it. I gotta get my pre orders in, but I haven't gotten it yet. One of the things that I think you just shared, but I know it's also in your book, is to your point, where are we on our personal lives? But then we do all spend so much time at work, we do all spend so much time in our professional world and we have unique skills. So kind of walk me through your framework of action for people as they're evaluating how they can improve in this area.
- [19:08]
Ayanna Johnson
So I use this framework myself. I just literally sketched on a piece of cardboard a few years ago and I was trying to think of what to do next and It's a Venn diagram. Three circles, super simple. The first one is what are you good at? So what are those skills, resources, networks, sparkle, fairy dust. Like, what can you bring to the table that's often unique to you? The relationships you have, the creativity, the know how. The second circle is what work needs doing. So I've rattled off a bunch of things that need to change, right? Like we need to transform our society and culture and economy and politics, but we need to do that in order to move forward. Solutions on energy, transportation, buildings, food systems, protecting and restoring nature. So there's a lot to do and, you know, just pick one, there's hundreds of options. And then the third circle is what brings you joy, or like, what is satisfying, gratifying, gets you out of bed in the morning. And that's because, like, we have got to just keep doing this work forever, like for the rest of our lives. There's not going to be a time when we're like, we've solved the climate crisis. It's always going to be about how to make the future as safe and livable as possible and as delightful as possible. So this Climate Action Venn diagram appears in the book. And actually on my tour, I've printed out these note cards for everyone to fill out. So sweet on tour. And like, write your climate action on the back. There's a worksheet on the website, GetItRight Earth, if people want some more like tips and to download. Yeah, and fill that out themselves. But finding, you know, your way to the heart of your own Venn diagram is that's the thing. Like, we shouldn't all be doing the same generic list of things. I mean, yes, we should all, you know, vote, protest, spread the word, lower our carbon footprints, donate all of that and vote with our dollars. But I think we often miss how we can use the skills, our specific skills in favor of climate solutions. And that's really a waste. Like, if you and I were doing the exact same thing, that would be sort of silly, but we can both help in really major ways.
- [21:24]
Morgan Debaun
I agree. I actually had a similar. I started blavity during the Black Lives Matter movement because I'm 4 foot 11 and everyone was protesting in the streets and I was like, my small body in the streets is probably not going to be the best use of my time. How can I leverage the skills that I have uniquely, which was a black girl in Silicon Valley when there wasn't that many of us technologists, someone who knew how to build things and create things and use the methodology of Silicon Valley to apply to our world and build platforms for people to get information. And to your point, like, I think that I was able to actually have a bigger impact and break through in a more sustainable way because it was uniquely tied to what brought me joy, which was just helping black people. And then also.
- [22:13]
Ayanna Johnson
And building things.
- [22:14]
Morgan Debaun
And building things. Yeah. And then also what was I uniquely positioned? Literally just me at that unique time in the world. I'm from St. Louis, so I had the personal motivation to prolong myself even when it was really, really hard. And I think that really matters. I don't think enough people tie it to their personal. Whatever your reason is, you know, tie.
- [22:35]
Ayanna Johnson
I think of it as like, how can we be useful? Like, just figure out how to be useful. And you know, for me, my Venn diagram, I mean, I obviously do this writing and communication stuff, but my, like, very nerdy other thing I do is I. I run an ocean policy think tank called Urban Ocean Lab that's for the future of coastal cities. How are they going to adapt to climate change? Right. I have a PhD in marine biology. I worked in policy for the government and in the Caribbean for a bunch of years. Those are my skills. I also do a lot of, like, design and communication that I can apply to that. And then the problem, obviously, like, coastal cities are not prepared for climate change or sea level rise. And it brings me joy to, like, change policy. Like, I want to change the laws. It's so satisfying. And also like helping to build the coalitions that can do that. Right. Like bringing folks together, that convening power that I somehow have. Like, if people are going to show up when I call, like, I better call them for something worthwhile.
- [23:35]
Morgan Debaun
That's right. So that's what it means to have a think tank. Like, I actually am really curious about that. We've been thinking about how Afrotech can be more of a convener. To your point, we. I have this unique ability to call a bunch of CEOs and companies and say, you should care about this. And they're like, okay, we'll care about it. But I don't feel like I've leveraged that strength to help affect policy. And so I'm curious, just like, how did you decide to start a think tank? What does that really mean? Tell me more.
- [24:02]
Ayanna Johnson
So again, it's just like looking around the world and being like, I wanted to go work for an ocean policy think tank and I couldn't find it. I'm not like, by nature a founder. I don't think you definitely are. I mean, I'm also not. Ah, yeah, yes, I will give you that. I'm like, okay, fine, like let's, we gotta make this thing. But always in collaboration, right? Like I have two amazing co founders there and obviously the book that I was supposed to write I turned into an anthology. So I'm very much on board with collective wisdom is the way. But you know, there are lots of people working on ocean policy in the government and non profits and academia. But there wasn't really a hub of thought leadership for it, although a lot of people sort of thought there was. And I didn't want to step on toes and have those turfy battles. So we realized that the niche that was definitely open was in coastal cities. So what does ocean climate policy look like for coastal cities? And that's a very important level of government, right, where mayors and city councils can make decisions about how to implement climate solutions, how to become more resilient. And so it makes sense from a policy change level as well. As I was founding this during the Trump administration and I was like, well, nothing's going to happen at the federal level for a while, so let's just think about the role of cities. But the best example of this, we write policy memos about different topics like offshore wind energy, how that can be developed in a way that's just and environmentally responsible, or regenerative farming of seaweed and oysters and how that industry could develop. Right now there's like not a good permitting policy process in place for that and we actually want that to happen. But the thing that sort of really changed the game for our organization and for my strategic thinking about how we could be useful was that we co led this coalition of organizations called the Ocean Justice Forum. And the idea was we need to get justice into the heart of federal ocean policy. Right? Like this was, you know, in the era of everyone talking about social justice and environmental and climate justice, even connecting those dots. But like, no one thought the ocean was part of that. And so I was like, we're gonna need some justice over here too, you guys. Some colleagues of mine were like, let's do this. Get a bunch of organizations together and see if we can create a policy platform together, because releasing it as a consensus statement will just be much more powerful. And so I was like, I'm in. So Urban Ocean Lab with Center for American Progress, a think tank in D.C. azul, which is a Latina led ocean conservation group, and Taproot Earth, a black led group in the Gulf south, all got together to lead this effort and brought in some of the big national groups. Nrdc, Earthjustice, Oceana.
- [26:57]
Morgan Debaun
That's quite the coalition.
- [26:59]
Ayanna Johnson
Yeah. And then like, you know, fishermen in New England and indigenous kelp farmers in Alaska, native Hawaiians. Right. All coming together to say, like, this is what it would mean to put justice at the heart of federal ocean policy. And we released Imagine, Everybody agrees, like.
- [27:13]
Morgan Debaun
It'S not a tough sell because it's.
- [27:16]
Ayanna Johnson
Just that no one has tried to sell it before in this way as this powerful collective voice. And so it actually was very well received by the White House, by the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, by the Council of Economic Quality and all of this stuff in D.C. the executives of all these. There's like 30 federal agencies that have some sort of ocean jurisdiction. It's a crazy hierarchy there. But we had their attention. And at the big climate conference international, the UN Climate conference last year, the White House released their own ocean justice strategy, which I can tell you was directly influenced by our policy platform. And so seeing how that came together, like, that's the convening power we want. Right. And so we're doing that again now. We're starting up a similar initiative focused on climate driven relocation. So as I've said, like, so many people are going to have to move. And if we don't have a policy framework in place for managing that, if we don't get ahead of that, it's going to be chaos, it's going to be full of injustice.
- [28:19]
Morgan Debaun
It's already happening. I mean, people are already. Yeah. I don't know if it's happened in the US Since Katrina. I feel like was probably the biggest moment in of our lifetime where people, we saw the implications of people having to relocate and them not necessarily making it back.
- [28:34]
Ayanna Johnson
And a lot of those people got hit with the next hurricane in Texas where they relocated to. Right. So I think we just need like a broader national strategy and then cities and states thinking about it too, because we also need to be preparing, receiving communities. That's right, like making sure they're ready to like, welcome folks instead of having like a big freak out about sharing.
- [28:58]
Morgan Debaun
Oh, our country right now. In my head I'm like, we're eating the dogs, we're eating the cats. I can't get it out of my head, like, just, we're not a place where people are open to migrants, even domestic migrants. It's actually really challenging to think through how cities can be more accommodating, particularly when I feel like every city constantly has a revolving doors of Mayors. So there isn't a prolonged leadership in a lot of these cities actually. And a lot of these strategies require prolonged strategies. It's not something you're going to get done in like a two and a half, three and a half year time frame.
- [29:37]
Ayanna Johnson
It requires, I will say, like, you know, it's worth giving a shout out to our civil servants who are just like in those career jobs in city government. Yeah, there's.
- [29:49]
Morgan Debaun
Those are the people who make the difference. It's not the big politicians that are.
- [29:52]
Ayanna Johnson
They're there. Yeah. Administration to administration, just moving things forward. And this is why it's important to elect people who get it on climate injustice. In every election, I'm volunteering with and bringing on tour with me, Lead Locally, which supports down ballot climate candidates. They have a whole slate of candidates across the country they're supporting. So folks are interested of like very diverse candidates. So folks want to check out leadlocally.org there's like phone banking and obviously you can donate, but there's all sorts of stuff they're doing from now through the election and then ongoing to just get these people who get it on climate elected.
- [30:30]
Morgan Debaun
Right. Wow. One of my other questions for you was, of course we've seen some of the data on how things are not improving, but I'm curious if there's been any bright spots on areas that have improved. I think I might have seen one of your Instagram posts maybe over a year ago at this point where you were like, look, this is, we're doing good here. Are there any other places that we should know about where we have made some improvements?
- [30:50]
Ayanna Johnson
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, one thing that might surprise folks is that the two states with the most wind energy are Iowa and Texas. And that is, you know, not because there's a bunch of hippies running around being like, catch the wind. It's because it makes economic sense and they're good jobs. It's a viable, profitable industry. Right. And because of the Inflation Reduction act and all of the incentives created for things like battery manufacturing in the US for electric cars, et cetera, those plants, a lot of them are in Georgia and other red states. So you're starting to see people just like want the good jobs, even though they don't necessarily want to talk about climate change, which is honestly fine with me. Like, let's just work on the solutions together and like not argue about the cause of the problem or the why the market exists. I think the Inflation Reduction act is a big example of that, you know, and Other things passed under the Biden administration add up to about $700 billion in investment in climate solutions. So that's, that's obviously huge. And the creation of the American Climate Core is something I'm super excited about. I sort of advocated for, for years. That was just created this year. And it's like, you know, AmeriCorps or Peace Corps, but it's putting young people to work here in this country on climate solutions, help reduce wildfire risk or install solar panels or restore wetlands. Right. These practical jobs are like good jobs that you can get, you know, gain skills and be helping, be useful. And they're aiming to employ something like 20,000 folks in their first year and grow it from there. So there's a lot of good stuff going on. I mean, people actually don't know how much the Biden Harris administration has done on climate. Like, they have passed like, huge regulations on energy efficiency, which are going to make a very big difference. Right. Because we talk about switching to renewables, but we don't talk about just like using less energy by upgrading the standards for our appliances, etc. So there's a lot of good stuff happening behind the scenes, including like, just stricter rules on emissions from power plants so that coal will have to phase out. So, yeah, we're always wanting more from our elected officials and politicians are not heroes or saviors, but this administration has done a remarkable amount given that Congress is so divided and it's hard to get anything passed.
- [33:26]
Morgan Debaun
Yeah, well, I think what you just said is the key is that there's the economic benefit and I think both parties can agree on things that result in more jobs and more security, regardless of.
- [33:38]
Ayanna Johnson
I wish that were true. I mean, you have like, red state governors rejecting government funding for things because they don't want to be seen as, like, part of.
- [33:48]
Morgan Debaun
I think once those election years go get past us, I think they'll be less concerned. Everybody was trying to see if they could be the vice president. So I'm like, no one's. None of you are going to make it. No. None of you, hopefully. Fingers crossed. I don't know. I think we're okay.
- [34:02]
Ayanna Johnson
I'm like, I mean, we all need to be working for it, right? Like, the most important thing you could do for climate from now through the election is make sure that Trump doesn't set foot in that White House ever again. There is, like, scientific projections of the difference between Harris and Trump in terms of how much greenhouse gas really, even if Harris doesn't do anything more than hold the line on The Biden policies. It's a total different future in terms of climate if you have one versus the other. Like, we need to keep that man away from federal policy. Last time he was in the White House, he rolled back over 100. Environmental Regulations was basically like clean air, clean water, whatever. Just corporations do whatever you want. Just very, very bad. I think people have a little bit of forgetting about just all the horrible things that he did. And you know, of course I would like Harris to have a stronger climate platform and I will push for that. But I will also push for people to vote for her because she's so clearly the better choice on climate and many other things. But just don't forget about local elections. Like, I hope folks will do their research and figure out, you know, who you want in city council. And the people who care about climate are usually the same people who care about justice. So you do not have to choose.
- [35:17]
Morgan Debaun
It's true. That's definitely true. Amazing. Okay, so how can people stay connected with you? And this episode will come out. Your book will be live, so. So you won't be in pre order anymore. Are there any other actions you want people to take?
- [35:30]
Ayanna Johnson
Yeah, check out the book. It's been such a treat to curate this collection of voices and ideas and to put forward my own in the mix. Of course, the website GetItRight Earth has a lot of resources. In addition to the book, there's a reading guide. There's just a list of all the problems and possibilities on different topics if you want to just get the top line there. I'm going on a tour in 19 cities from now and through the end of October, doing like over 30 events. So check out the tour part of Get It Right Earth website and come hang if I'm in your city. I think the thing people can do for me, but also for each other and the planet is like, find your role in climate solutions. Bust out your colored pencils. I see you've got some good brushes in back behind you. Get all your art supplies, draw your Venn diagram and think about what more you can do to help create the future that we all want to live in.
- [36:26]
Morgan Debaun
Amazing. Well, I feel inspired. I think sometimes on the podcast I don't always tell you guys what actions I'm going to take, but I'm going to tell you what I'm committed to. I'm going to commit to looking at my bank for my business bank and moving that money. I'm also going to look at my 401k and see if there's Any different fund options that prioritize environmental justice. We have a, because we're a small business, we have a smaller set of like, options. We use a company called Guidelines, but if we don't, then I will reach out to them and ask them to consider looking at providing those types of options to our employees. And then the other big impact that we have is Afrotech. You know, Afro Tech is in Houston this year, which is an energy city, for better or worse, depending on which part of Houston. And so we haven't worked as much with the companies that are based there because most of our clients are like, you know, the metas and the Googles and the oracles of the world. But I think that I could spend a little bit more time getting to know some of these energy leaders based in Texas and see if there's cool appetite for them to participate and help us learn a little bit more.
- [37:30]
Ayanna Johnson
I would also say on the tech side, I mean, the environmental impacts of the tech industry are only growing as data centers and AI are just huge demands of energy. I learned in researching the book that data centers in the US consumed about 2.5% of the country's electricity demand in 2022. That's expected to triple to 7 and a half percent by 2030, like, of our entire electricity demand. Right. And would you add AI to that? Like, this could be one tenth of our climate problem within the next decade. So I think we need to be really thoughtful about how that industry is either part of the problem or part of the solution.
- [38:12]
Morgan Debaun
Yeah, you're right. I haven't done enough research there. So maybe my last takeaway will just be get a little bit more educated and see who's doing it well or better than others and see if there's an opportunity for them to share at the conference. See you guys.
- [38:25]
Ayanna Johnson
This is an amazing to do list you've crafted for yourself. I'm super impressed.
- [38:30]
Morgan Debaun
Mendicious girl.
- [38:32]
Ayanna Johnson
There we go. Making it happen.
- [38:35]
Morgan Debaun
But no, I. I mean, the objective of the Journey podcast is that we're all on our own journey. You know, we're all constantly striving to be better, more informed. And I think for me, you know, you could just pick and choose always what you decide to tune into and tune out to. But sometimes, like, if you just commit to taking action and I might only get done three out of the four things that I said, but that's better.
- [38:57]
Ayanna Johnson
Than nothing, you know, you'll get them all done. Yeah, maybe not by next week, but.
- [39:02]
Morgan Debaun
Like, with the Internet's gonna keep me accountable.
- [39:04]
Ayanna Johnson
Oh yeah, let's hold you to it.
- [39:06]
Morgan Debaun
Help me to it. But Dr. Ayanna Johnson, thank you so much for being with us today. I wish you all the best success on your book and I hope that everybody goes and buys it and gets a chance to meet you and learn more.
- [39:19]
Ayanna Johnson
Thanks for having me, Morgan.
- [39:21]
Morgan Debaun
All right, y'all, I'll see you next episode. If you haven't already, make sure you check out my Patreon. We will be releasing some solo episodes on there. I know you guys love the solo episodes and and I look forward to seeing you guys on our live calls that we'll be doing monthly. Till next time, thanks for listening to the Journey podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you leave a review and head to our Instagram and YouTube to leave a comment. I look forward to hearing how this podcast has made an impact on your own Journey.