Hey, this is Climate to Action, a California
State University San Marcos student podcast.
We're here to amplify voices and empower solutions
in the fight against climate change and to address
climate justice for all living things. We are
committed to incorporating discussions on Indigenous
knowledge in addressing the climate crisis and
to providing a call to action in every episode.
My name is Saturn Salama. I'm the current team
manager of Climate to Action. It's wonderful
to be here. back and I'm excited to share more
discussions that will make you think about your
world, climate action, and climate justice. First,
we'd like to acknowledge that our recording studio
is located on the traditional territory of the
Lusenyo -Piokowichan people. CSUSM and its surrounding
area are still home to the six federally recognized
bands of the La Jolla, Paula, Palma, Pechanga,
Rincon, and Ceboba Lusenyo -Piokowichan people.
It is also important to acknowledge that this
land remains the shared space among the Kupenyo,
Kumeyaay, and Ipai peoples. Today we have a special
episode. This is an excerpt taken from episode
6 with reporter Corey Suzuki of KPBS and Mackenzie
Elmer from Voice of San Diego. In episode 6,
we covered a number of topics from the history
of the climate crisis in reporting to exciting
solutions for climate change to the future. This
bonus episode will focus on the upcoming administration
and climate change. So, without further ado,
let's hear what these reporters had to say. Obviously,
in January, we will have a new administration,
and we're wondering how this will impact climate
news. And we're sure you're aware that during
the first Trump administration, climate data
was buried and removed from federal websites.
What does the future of climate crisis reporting
look like to you? I don't know. We've been through
one Trump administration. I'm not really worrying
myself about it. I'm sure we'll see. He's already
announced he's going to try to dismantle key
climate change tracking organizations like the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
for instance, which produces a lot of climate
data. We did see his administration pull terms
like climate change from key websites like the
EPA. But already in talking to some of these...
some of my sources in the fed like at epa people
are preparing um people in those agencies are
preparing to just sort of alter their phraseology
their terminology and still like get out the
truth without maybe saying some buzzwords which
i guess climate change becomes under the trump
administration um and even if they pull i mean
they may pull data from a federal website which
is awful But there are many, many other sources
out there, institutions, universities, scientists,
private companies like that can provide and continue
to update the public on where we're at with the
climate crisis. So to me, it's just going to
make it a little bit more difficult. And it will
probably see a lot more rhetoric we'll have to
combat, but doesn't really. It's just annoying,
really, more than anything, to me. I kind of
view the change, but I don't know, maybe Corey
feels differently. I don't know. I mean, I feel
like, Mackenzie, you would... have a much better
sense of what's actually happening within the
federal government. I don't, I mean, I don't,
on the sort of federal level, I don't cover very
much. I'm sort of, my beat is very locally focused
in both regions. So that's a little bit out of
my area of experience. But I do, I mean, I guess
I like, I am certainly. um really really worried
about things like um you know the um national
oceanic and atmospheric administration um potentially
being dissolved um the national weather service
um being dismantled or changed into some kind
of other organization that puts its services
behind a paywall um i i think that there there's
a lot to um to really be worried about and um
i I think it's too early to say what things are
really going to look like, because, you know,
it's I think it's hard to know. There's a lot
of industry pressure on President -elect Trump,
you know, for example, to continue things like
some of the Biden administrations. move moves
to support the electric vehicle industry. So
that's maybe an area where we might see some
policies roll over and continue. And I think
like similarly, you know, under the Biden administration,
the United States was producing more fossil fuels,
more oil and gas than at any other point in the
history of the United States. So i mean they're
they're sort of um i think uh you can look at
the track records of both administrations and
um and point out different ways in which they
did or did not um contribute to the um the fight
against climate change um at the same time i
i do think what i really worry about is um under
the first trump administration i mean we saw
how um just like Just the way he talked about
things, just the way his administration talked
about things has a really big effect on how people
think about them. And not only not only the climate
crisis, but in all kinds of different areas of
American life, immigration, for example, you
know, and race and identity. And I think that
that to me is almost more. one of the things
that I am more more worried about and what that's
going to mean for climate change, because I think
if you have, you know, the most powerful elected
officials in the United States and they're not
willing to acknowledge the reality of climate
change, I think that that is almost going to
be more damaging. um maybe in some ways to um
how the the kind of overall outlook on um the
the future of the climate crisis than um maybe
any other thing that the trump administration
could do and um that any administration could
do And this is all happening, you know, at such
a pivotal time for climate action and for the
climate crisis where we are starting to see the
first ripples of what what the future is going
to look like. And so I guess I think that I'm
just I don't know. I guess that's why I wonder
if we all. in the press did a good enough job
of making sure that that was at the forefront
of people's minds in this election. And I don't
think we did. Well, hopefully instead of taking
steps backwards, we can take steps forward into
the new year. This is Eldon, the production engineer.
I hope this excerpt from our conversations made
you think about the future. The climate crisis
is worsening as we speak and discussions on the
climate are needed more than ever. Climate to
Action is dedicated to hosting more discussions
just like this one next semester, so look out
for more unfiltered honesty on the climate crisis.
Our call to action for this episode is to read
an article on the climate crisis, either on the
national or local level. Want to hear more from
Climate to Action, a CSUSM student podcast? Follow
us on our socials at Climate to Action. Visit
for updates, behind -the -scenes content, and
more. Until next time, this is Eldon from Climate
to Action signing off.