Hey, this is Climate to Action, a California State University, San Marcos student podcast.
My name is Saturn.
I'm the current team manager of Climate to Action and a student at CSUSM.
Today we're bringing you a special episode, freshly unearthed from our archives.
It's collected a little dust, but the discussion is still relevant.
In this episode, you'll hear from students of years past, recorded at the dawn of this
podcast as they share a lively discussion about the climate crisis, climate-related
protests and art.
But first, we'd like to remind you that Climate to Action is here to amplify voices and explore
solutions in the fight against the climate crisis and to address climate injustice for
all living things.
We are committed to incorporating discussions on Indigenous knowledge in addressing the
climate crisis and in providing a call to action in every episode.
First, we'd like to acknowledge that our recording studio is located on the traditional
territory of the Luiseno-Payocuichum people.
CSUSM and its surrounding area are still home to the six federally recognized bands of the
Alhoya, Pala, Palma, Pechanga, Rincon and Ceboba-Luiseno-Payocuichum people.
It is also important to acknowledge this land remains the shared space among the Cumpenio,
Cumayai and Ipai peoples.
So without further ado, let's see what students before us were really thinking.
My name's Katie.
I'm Buchanan.
Today we're going to be talking about climate crisis.
Oh, love it.
Love freaking out about how the world's going to explode.
Absolutely terrifying, but hopefully we can work some stuff out.
I really do hope so.
Get to the bottom of this.
Climate crisis.
Why should we care?
Why should anybody care about, you know, our planet?
Well, I care personally.
I'm a POC, person of color.
I'm a student of color.
And I've taken this like a couple of years learning about, you know, myself as a person
and the people around me to really figure out how I'm going to help socially.
And one of the things that stuck out to me the most that I, strangely enough, came across
in my women's health class was discussing how climate crisis affects people disproportionately.
Like it's an interesting dynamic because you think that, oh, we all live on the planet
so we all feel the effects, but some feel it more than others.
Specifically like lower colored in class communities.
That's usually the people who suffer a lot more.
Right, right.
And as college students, we kind of see all of that.
We see great amount of diversity, you know, here at San Marcos specifically too.
So taking all that into account while we're here is a big deal.
I didn't get my eyes open to this until I was in college either.
Big experience is how I'll describe it.
Cause like, you know, we all learn about social change, right?
We're all talking about how we create social justice for those around us.
But the weirdest part was like hearing how social justice is also climate justice.
Right.
Like the weird dichotomy between the two of like how they play into one another, that
intersectionality of it all.
Right.
And that's the most like, I guess baffling part of it all.
Yeah.
You know, how much they actually go hand in hand.
Industrial, technological, all of these advancements, they all come at a price and we are constantly
paying that price without even knowing.
We live in this unaware state.
We are so disconnected from where these resources are coming from that we're using to progress
society that if we don't see it, we're not thinking about it.
And I think that it's time to show everyone what they're not seeing.
So the out of sight, out of mind thing.
Exactly.
I think that's the most frustrating part because college is a bubble.
Unfortunately, for everyone who thought they were like super woke or were like an adult
now, we're living in the very strangest kind of bubble.
That's where like all the adverse things of society are one heightened or lessened.
And then we're all like bonding in a place because we're all lost, you know?
Right.
College is like a place of a bunch of lost adults to figure out who they want to be.
But hearing about like the social justice and how climate justice is the same, I think
being on college is the place to be for it because you learn about how they intersect
and all the minute details in between them, how people like me or people who are native
to a land or people who are suffering from, you know, class inequality, how they are truly
affected because I feel like outside of school, you don't really get that objective knowledge.
Right.
It's hard to say, which is weird to say.
Right, right.
Because you were just saying how in college we're kind of in a bubble, but we're still
getting that knowledge that is not going to be found anywhere else.
That true honesty of letting us know what is really going on in the world.
Yeah.
Because it's like, I feel like we all understand that if you control the knowledge, you control
the people.
So like being on a college campus, even though most are either left or right leaning, I feel
like it's a place where you can actually, it's not pushed by an agenda because like
a lot of the information we see on climate crisis or like helping the earth, it's always
based in an agenda for somebody else, for some bigger company, some bigger organization
who's claiming to help, but in reality they're just feeding back into the problem.
You know?
Yeah.
Like virtually signaling them trying to repackage things to make more money because they're
trying to convince the consumer that it's eco-friendly, that they're making a difference
and that's just not what's happening.
Yeah.
I think it's frustrating.
Absolutely.
It's very frustrating being a person of color who's suffering because like people of color
already are already suffering.
They go through difficult times all the time, like just simply trying to walk out and be
yourself is a problem for a lot of people.
But what I've found is like being able to share like trauma bond, unfortunately, is
something that I can understand.
Like we can all trauma bond over like, hey, the planet is dying and that means we all
might die.
Like I think that's a fair statement to make, right?
Right.
Absolutely.
I've seen groups come together before to trauma bond, but I feel like this is one of the few
times it's going to, everyone's going to come together and potentially...
Like all people can trauma bond over this.
It's not like specific groups who are like, oh, we understand it.
We get it.
We should all look at each other and be like, no, we all understand that the earth is dying.
But what are we going to do?
Facts.
Well, I'm just a guy.
So I'm an actor by trade, but I love, you know, people and I love the planet because
without people or the planet, I can't act.
So there's the problem.
That's the issue at hand.
So like, Katie, what are some of like the solutions or things that you've come across
that have been like small things that we can do to help?
Right.
Okay.
These might sound simple, but there's just certain things we can do, like really paying
attention to our waste and maybe even collecting it all over a week and just seeing how much
we are consuming and putting out into the world as individuals.
I did a lot.
A lot of my interest in this topic came from being involved in the carbon credit market.
So I'm a business student and the carbon credit market basically consists of people being
able to pay to become carbon neutral.
And usually these carbon credits are backed up by planting trees or doing something that's
going to help the overall like ecological state of the world.
But very often businesses will try to just cut by giving money to the California cap
and trade program or whatever program carbon credits goes through.
And they are able to just get away by saying that they're carbon neutral and they're not
making any fixes to their output of GHG emissions or anything like that.
So I think that as individuals, the more aware we are of our carbon output, how much we are
taking of, you know, from the world, that's going to put us in a state of mind where we're
constantly more aware of our presence and our impact.
So I see.
Yeah.
So do you think it's like a moral injustice that businesses, I guess, like virtue bait
us in that way?
Absolutely.
It's an ethical issue.
It's a moral issue.
It goes against our values, but it's not being talked about.
And I think that's why I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but people are throwing
soup on van Gogh paintings instead.
And that's because it's not being talked about.
We are willing to preserve art and history, but we are not willing to preserve our world
that we live on.
I think that's a great point because it's like, what do we really value as people?
Right.
You know what I mean?
And like, don't get me wrong, art and history are very important.
Things are great.
Yeah.
I love both of those things.
Those things are a necessity to function as a society.
And I feel like we lose focus on what's really important.
You know, we, for the sake of art, for the sake of history, we like drop things.
You know what I mean?
We put things under the rug or sweep it away in hopes that, hey, maybe we'll just outgrow
it.
It's kind of narcissistic.
Yeah.
Exactly.
We want to look so good to the people in front of us, but they're only going to look down
on us and think, what were they doing?
Exactly.
I just think it's crazy that we preserve history, yet the history that we're creating is not
good.
We're preserving it for people who aren't even here today.
True.
I mean, there's a lot to unpack because it's like, I understand the attack on the paintings.
I understand the purpose and the point behind it.
Do I think it was the correct action?
Me personally, I wouldn't attack beautiful art because that's not me.
I understand why they did it though.
And I feel like drastic measures need to be taken.
I mean, in that manner, I don't know.
In that sense, I don't know.
I don't know personally, but I do think it's important to stand up.
I think that there's something that can be done that brings the same amount of shock
without destroying something so personal to some people as well, which is art can have
that kind of impact on people.
I find it strange sometimes that we have to get to these points, especially for something
that we all share.
We share the planet, then it's gotten to this point of now slight acts of violence are starting
to become a thing in the name of peace, which is like, I don't know.
I don't know how to feel about that part.
That part is where I'm conflicted because I get it.
Fight the good fight.
Can I say something?
Absolutely.
Oh, this is Jay.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because I was listening to this whole thing.
I feel like people are taking that aspect of history within itself and trying to frame
it around, they've been the planet and this and that.
And I feel like that's where it's just the common sense of it, I feel like has left.
Because like you said, there are people who look at like groups like activists, groups
like this that are like they're trying to save the planet, but yet they're destroying
historical paintings.
Now you're looking down upon instead of I personally probably would have taken those
paintings and been like, look, like we saving this, but we're not saving our planet.
It's more of a historical.
And I feel like too, since now social media is such a big thing now.
You got TikTok, you got Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, you see this more.
So now future generations and then they're going to think and then 15, 20 years from
now as our planet is continuing to die, where are the other, you know, historical things
that kind of brought community art brought people together, which in within art, if you
really look at art, it's there's reason why that they made art is to messages like, hey,
look, this is what the future will look like.
You know, this is what the planet will see.
You know what I'm saying?
And it's I feel like, yeah, you got the most delicate ones like Van Gogh, but then you
also got ones that are very like outward and worldly and just showing us as a people, you
know, that like this is why we're here together because we're on this beautiful planet to
take the time to listen to art music.
Right.
You don't need to decrease the value of other things to increase the value of things you
want people to look at.
I think that's something that history has shown us like lots of times that we see in
like I keep bringing it up, but like social movements, like they tried to lower the value
of very brave men like MLK, even Rosa Parks, they tried to lower her value by saying she
was just like a criminal.
She was just some crazy black woman who sat on the bus on purpose to try to make them
seem like they were inciting violence, but to actually incite violence.
I feel like that pulls away from the cause.
Right.
I mean, it's like it does the opposite of what we hope for.
And I feel like as people, as college people, as, you know, young minds fresh from molding
or whatever, I feel like it's our job to differentiate between like protesting and then being violent
or being abrasive or being seeded in a negative light.
Cause like at the end of the day, it is a social, it's a social issue.
Right.
So that means you're up for judgment by the people that you're trying to change.
Right.
And if you're, if you're conflicting with their, the way that they view the world so
much, what are you, you're not communicating.
You're not gaining anything.
No, you're just creating more issues.
You're screaming into the void.
They're not listening.
They stopped listening because you, you messed up their pinning with soup.
You know, like rejected your insecurities about how the way you feel about something
which somebody else's insecurities is going to deflect it.
And then now you have these two arguments going back and back and back, you know, it's
like, I'm right.
I'm right.
Exactly.
Instead of, I understand what you're saying.
I may not agree, but how can I help and support you?
Exactly.
Yeah.
I feel like finding common ground is the first place to start.
And I think the common ground is that we all live on earth.
And I think it should start there from a really human place.
Cause I feel like a lot of people are just like on the attack already for a lot of social
movements, including, you know, climate crisis.
It's like everyone is always on the attack.
You know what I mean?
But wars and battles like this aren't one through brute force or strength.
They're one through the humanity of it all of like dropping your weapons and trying to
release your pride and just being like, Hey, I'm a person, you're a person.
And we're going through something that we both can understand.
How do we get from here?
That was beautifully said.
Thank you.
No, finding that common ground.
That's just the number one thing we need to be doing right now.
You know, is really just really understanding.
We're all here together.
Why are we polarizing?
Where's the polarization coming from?
Hey, Saturn again.
I hope this discussion made you think about climate justice in a different way.
The climate crisis is getting worse and student conversations are needed more than ever.
Climate to action is dedicated to hosting more student discussions on climate justice
like this one.
Look out for more unfiltered honesty on the climate.
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Signing off.
Thank you.