Welcome to Climate to Action, a CSUSM student podcast focused on climate action, indigenous
knowledge, and climate justice.
My name is JJ.
And I'm Ann Dab, one of the faculty advisors for the podcast.
Welcome to our very first episode.
Before we begin, we'd like to acknowledge that CSUSM is located on the traditional territory
of the Luiseño and Payom Cujum people.
The university and surrounding areas are still home to the six federally recognized
bands of the La Jolla, Palma, Palma, Pachanga, Rincon, and Ceboba Liseño-Payom Cujum people.
And this land remains a shared space among the Copeño, Cumei, and E-Pai people.
So again, welcome to Climate to Action.
Recently, our podcast team traveled across campus and surrounding areas, asking folks
what they know about our three main themes, climate action, indigenous knowledge, and climate
justice.
Let's hear what students, staff, faculty, and community members had to say.
I'm here with Juliana Goduel-Morris, the director of sustainability and climate justice
at California State University San Marcos.
And what will make CSUSM a leader in solving the climate crisis?
Yeah, that's such a big question.
I think that first and foremost, I want to say there's so much already happening that's
really great.
We have students and faculty doing research in all different areas regarding the climate.
And it's not going to just be one person or one school or one place that's going to solve
this issue.
It's really all of the CSUs coming together, right?
All of the California State University's, all of the University of California's, all
of our higher education institutions coming together to work together to solve this crisis,
as well as obviously many, many other people.
But what I can say here as far as being a leader at Cal State San Marcos in the climate
crisis is we recently signed the President's Climate Commitment, President's Climate Leadership
Commitment last August.
And that's really kind of putting us on a pathway to get to carbon neutrality.
It's really also going to springboard us into being a leader within our region.
And so a couple of the things that we're working on are how can Cal State San Marcos be a place
where multiple cities and other schools, et cetera, can come together to look at resilience?
And so how do we plan for issues related to the climate crisis?
How do we plan for wildfires and drought and heat in a way that makes sense for our region
here in North County, San Diego?
So that's one area that we're really looking at is how can we be kind of a hub for North
County as it relates to climate?
And then the second thing I would just say is that young people today get it, and so
our students get it.
And my hope is that more research, more action, and more engagement will kind of be moving
forward in the next few years regarding climate.
And then the last thing I would just say is that it takes all of us to do something to
solve this issue.
And so if you can get involved in one way or another, whether it be through your coursework
or whether it be volunteering or engaged with folks trying to solve these issues, it's not
going to be one solution.
It's going to be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of solutions.
Hi, I'm Ithia, and I'm with...
My name is Jordan.
Have you ever heard of the term climate change?
Yes, yes I have.
So how did you first learn about it and how would you describe it?
I feel like I first learned about it with my good sis Greta on the internet, because
I feel like she was my first real exposure of how deep we were really into it.
And then I also took a class, oh my gosh, it was a general education science class.
We were talking about just the ozone layer and greenhouse gases, and I was just connecting
all the dots, and it was just like, oh my gosh, we are not caring for our resources,
we are overindulging and not giving anything back.
I agree.
So I think it's more of like, let's try to balance out this equation a little bit better.
My name is Alex.
How do you think college students can help with climate change?
I think on the individual level, people can strive to be more sustainable.
I think sustainability and climate change are interconnected in a way, so if you want
to be sustainable, that can help out with reducing climate change.
And have you noticed any impacts in your daily life because of climate change?
Yes, being a California native, the increase of rain over the past several years, it's
been like, unforeseen and unheard of.
I remember growing up, it would be really rain like this, but that was kind of like
the norm for winter, that's what I have seen personally.
I'm Michael Giles.
I am the producer here on Climate to Action.
I'm Professor Shannon Switzer-Swanson, assistant professor of the environment here at Cal State
San Marcos.
What does climate action look like to you?
Everybody working on an objective, either a large objective in project that's just really
trying to get at the root of all of our carbon emissions and trying to, first of all, better
understand where they're coming from, better understand how we're individually contributing
to them, how society, societal structures and laws are contributing to them, and then
trying to make a dent in that or a change in that is climate action.
So it could be anything from planting a few plants in your native plants to something
more comprehensive of trying to improve your city's waste stream and get at your own composting
going and contributing to the compost stream if you have one.
But to everything like going to city council meetings or to going, trying to address the
larger legislative issues related to reducing carbon emissions.
So I just think you can take so many different forms and most of us who care are probably
doing something already and should feel really good about that and let that continue to kind
of proliferate into other actions too.
I'm here with...
I'm Katie Ciso.
It's nice to meet you, Katie.
And what do you do here?
I teach for the geography department.
I teach a class on Earth, the habitable planet.
So I'm just going to ask you a couple of quick questions.
The first one is how can college students make sure everyone's voices are heard in climate
discussions?
Great question.
I think a big thing is trying to explore collaboration over competition.
I think there's a lot of sense of we each need to be the best or be the leader and recognizing
that we are going to make more progress when we work together and collaborate.
So I think collaboration is an important way to bring everybody into the conversation,
recognize that everybody has different skills, different knowledge, different ideas, and
that when we collaborate we can effectively hear all of those and put them to use.
And then next question is how can colleges prepare students to be leaders in fighting
climate change?
So I think offering classes that talk about climate change and not just science classes,
but that climate change is part of the conversation in all disciplines across campus.
I think that that's a great one.
Education is a big piece, but also providing opportunities for action.
We can all learn as much as we want about this, but until we start putting things into
action it's going to really limit the progress that we make.
And so that might be providing opportunities for students to talk about climate in podcasts.
It can be clubs related to climate action in which progress is actually made on campus.
For instance, working with food halls on campus to make sure that food waste is getting recovered
for composting and organics recycling.
So just providing those opportunities and providing support to students as they pursue
those opportunities.
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, absolutely.
I am here with...
Sage.
And do you feel that climate change impacts your life currently?
Oh, definitely.
I live in the desert and we already have extreme temperatures, but climate change has definitely
increased the impact.
My mom works in non-profit work with homeless people, and so does my grandma.
So we've had a lot of homeless people come in seeking shelter from extreme temperature
increases and then at night it gets really cold, so just seeing that.
I am here with...
I'm modeling.
What's the hardest part about taking climate action?
I think just spreading awareness is good, but I think it's the part where you get in
the back of your head that, oh, is this really going to change anything?
Is this really going to happen?
Finally, Ipsia and Michael from the podcast team sat down with Provost Carl Chemnitz.
Let's hear what he had to say.
Hi, my name is Ipsia and I am here with...
Carl Chemnitz.
How can colleges prepare students to be leaders in fighting climate change?
The crisis of the day is the global warming and climate change that's happening right
now.
And so what we have here at CSUSM is faculty and students who are very engaged in this
topic.
The faculty have around 200 courses and about two-thirds of our programs have curriculum
directly on related to climate change, sustainability, and climate justice.
And those topics are near and dear to many of the faculty's hearts.
And they had a climate change working group that has now proposed a climate action and
sustainability center that's right now before the academic senate of the university to help
galvanize that work into a university-wide commitment for climate action and sustainability.
And so those are some of the things that the faculty and the university are doing, but
it's really an engagement of few students that is going to make the difference.
That was so interesting and the Climate to Action podcast is just getting started.
Here's what's coming next.
In each episode, we'll visit with a guest, someone who will help you better understand
the state of the global climate.
We'll also give you concrete suggestions for what you can do about it.
Remember, call to action.
And here it is for this week.
We're starting you off easy.
Just follow us on socials.
It's climate to action on Instagram, TikTok, and X, formerly known as Twitter.
Again, it's climate to action.
That's it for now.
Thanks for listening.
This is Climate to Action, a CSUSM student podcast signing off.