Climate Action: Why One Size Doesn't Fit All

directly impacted by the climate crisis. To kick off that conversation, I chat with Daphne Free as a youth activist, organizer and storyteller. She is passionate and she is super unapologetically herself. You'll hear it, especially when it comes to her work around climate action and how it affects the disabled and Latin X communities. Daphne drops major truth bombs you won't be able to miss. Well, then hear from Joe Dodds,

President of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action. Joe shares the harrowing experience of facing a brush fire that ripped through her small community in New South Wales, Australia. She's a prime example of how someone can turn a deeply painful life experience into a catalyst for change. I'm excited to talk to you, and I want to jump right in. There's a lot of people who know of you as a youth organizer, as a storyteller, as this peace builder. There are also people who may not have heard of

you or your story. So can you tell me where your activism was born from and where you were born? And maybe the answer is the same. Sure. So I am born and raised in New York City. I am a West Haarlem girl. Harlem world. West Harlem informs my activism Thuran theory, I say, I am wholly accountable to my community always. My work is also informed by the various communities I intersect. So I am disabled. I was diagnosed Swiss fribral palsy when I was three years old.

So I use a wheel chair to ambulate and roll around and zoom around. Like I like to say, every time I think about the way I live my life, I think about like that song, like they see me rolland they did, And that's my that's my life model. Like everybody out here on two legs, that's overrated, guys. I'm out here on wheels doing my thing. Daphne, you got me rolling, all right? So I'm with you on

the wheels. So growing up, I was raised by my mom in a very disability positive community, but sort of inherently the Hispanic Landox community and most communities of color have a very net good of outlook on the idea of disability, and I was sort of calm way focusing sort of this intergenerational push and pull where my mom raised me to be wholly proud of my disability and who I am and what my body allows me to do, but my grandparents and other elders within my community were

trying to keep me sort of in this little bubble of safety. I don't really vibe with that bubble. So really my work is informed by changing the status quo of what disability looks like, creating positive disability representation, helping folks realize that disability is not a death sentence, disabilities a superpower, and that disability doesn't need to become more palatable in society for it to be accepted. Disability should be accepted just as it is because we are amazing

and capable and special. So you are changing some of that image representation that you just talked about, and I think in one place in particular, when it comes to through the lens of the climate crisis, which itself is often communicated as a bit of a death sentence. So I wonder for you, you know, are you seeing more representation of the disabled community, of the Latin X community in these global and national debates and policy discussions around

climate change? Unfortunately known, but every day I am working to change that status quo. My whole life, I was experiencing the idea of environmental racism, and for those who are unfamiliar with that term, it's how the infrastructure around you is contributing negatively to the way that you experience the climate crisis, and how the built environment and those polluting structures, combined with your race contributes negatively to sort

of ide enfranchise climate experience. So in West Harlem, I lived near a major bus depot, UH highway, a sewage treatment plant. All of these things are great polluters to your environment. And black and brown people are three times as more likely to have ready experience high rates of asthma, heart disease, and diabetes, So adding polluted air to that mix is definitely not something that we need to be experiencing.

And although I was experiencing this, my whole life. I didn't have the knowledge or the agency to understand that that's what I was experiencing. I didn't have the language to communicate the realities of environment to racism. And I was able to sort of really see that disparity when I went to high school and predominantly white institution in downtown Manhattan, and the first time I arrived in that neighborhood, there was six supermarkets in the radius of two blocks.

And in my neighborhood in West Harlem, you have to go about ten minutes to get a tomato that looks sort of okay, yeah, like to maybe you want to eat exactly. And I was like, wait, wait, the way that I'm living is that the way that everyone is living? And it was a huge makeup car. So sometimes when we attempt to do something about an issue, we apply this like one size fits all answer, and we failed to account for some of the nuances and some of

the different impacts of those decisions. So when I'm thinking about climate, I'm thinking about some of these sustainability issues, pollution related issues. I just remember how excited people got to ban plastic straws. Oh my god, don't get me started. We couldn't get Congress to like take carbon regulations seriously. But damn it, we're gonna shame you over these straws, and we're gonna make it impossible to find these straws.

But you have another experience with these now shamed devices that have leaf you call it something of a lifeline from members of your community. Tell me about how we need to bring a bit more nuance and consideration as we're trying to care for all the communities on this planet. Yeah, so sometime fifteen years ago, an environmental photographer took a picture of this turtle with plastic straws and its snout,

and the whole world was enraged immediately. For so long we have been trying to get people to act on the climate, and then we started banning a little plastic straws because fossil fuels, you know, those are totally fine, but the straws, No, that's where the real problem the

climate crisis is coming from. And I think the problem that comes with this is disabled folks, myself included, depend on plastic straws, depend on single use plastic medical devices to survive, Those who have limited mobility, those who have a limited range of motion sometimes for them of straw is the only way that they're able to access nutrients

and feed themselves and exists as a human being. And now in instead of being able to have something as simple as a straw to be your lifeline, you're getting glaring looks from waiters at restaurants, when that anger belongs with the Phiosolphia executives because I didn't create the climate crisis. You didn't create the climate crisis, and that's strong didn't create the climate crisis. The people who have been systematically over time pumping carbon and phosophies into our environment. That

is why we're here. The systematic oppressive systems that lead to the climate crisis, that is why we're here. And I think not only is it's harmful to bampastic straws because escapegoats a community, it's also harmful because it creates to distraction of where the dialogue needs to be going. And that's exactly what the fosil fand if she wants to be happening, They want you to look at the straws instead of looking at them because they're the ones

really responsible. So we need to really shift the narrative from these lifelines these actual tools for equality and sustainability and actually ask ourselves who was most responsible for the crisis. Thank you, Daphne. That was some knowledge that is new to me, and I love your perspective on that. I want your perspective on this other thing. You are a young person, and I'm curious, how does the message, this

fatalistic message around the climate crisis strike you. How do you feel when the overriding messages we're out of time? And I want to be incoord to be transparent and say that I experienced a sort of climate anxiety, anxiety around this sort of ever present ticking clock we have in the back of our minds, and I want to give agency to that, because I think people assume that climate activists are always optimistic because we're fighting to save

the planet, and I think it's actually the opposite. We're fighting to save the planet because nine times at a ten I'm having an emotional breakdown about the state of our earth, and I want people to know that who are listening, if you're also feeling in that climate anxiety, you are completely valid. But for me, I caution this

fatalistic notion of where we're heading with our planet. The concept of climate doomism, where it's like we have to do everything or there is nothing this end all, be all scenario, and that is not the reality of how we solve the climate crisis. The climate crisis needs adaptation and gradual resilience in order to get solved. Yeah you're scared, I'm scared, But instead of using that fear to hide under a rock, I'm gonna do whatever I can to

make sure that that incredibly scary outcome doesn't happen. Do you have examples of new messages, stories, or approaches that you've seen breakthrough what's working? I believe that storytelling is one of the biggest components that we have to creating any sort of change. Words are the building blocks of revolutions. Words can make anything happen. Giving stories and agency to those who are experiencing the effects of the climate crisis right now is some of the most effective methods I've seen.

Because I think it's really easy to say the climate crisis is a thing, and I understand it exists, but it doesn't personally affect me right now, So how do I even feel compelled to do something about it? And the truth is, while many populations might not be feeling the effects of the climate crisis right now, you will at some point. The climate crisis is the greatest equalized we have on this planet in terms of even wealthy populations. At the end of the day, the fire is going

to burn your money. The fire doesn't care about all your dollar bills. It doesn't matter how much money you have. And you know we're not Jeff Bezos really must too quickly run off to space in one of Mars like that's not happening for us. So I think by sharing personal anecdotes and stories and that that has been incredibly important and saying these are real human people who right now in two you're feeling the floods, you're feeling the fires.

It's not something that's happening in two years, five years, ten years, just happening you're right now. I also think social media is one of the greatest tools for education because I think there's a huge gap and people understanding that the climate crisis didn't just come from carbon emissions and everybody getting cars over the last fifty years and

people using too much hairy spray. It came from systematic systems of oppression and how our capitalist society sort of prioritizes growth and growth and economy and using extractive materials to become wealthy over the health of our planet. So it's something that has been coming over time. And by sharing knowledge and stories and putting the people who should be accountable on platforms where we can all share and be knowledgeable too, is the most important You get my

attention with this word accountable. And there's something I've anecdotally noticed about gen Z folk. Y'all seem to have a higher bar when it comes to workplaces and who you will offer up your labor to or not when it comes to product purchases and brand alignment? Why do you think gen Z have that higher standard? And the simplest terms, gen Z is tired of the bs. We've had a future handed to us that is genuinely a plate of garbage, and we're trying to just figure out how do we survive.

We have grown up in a generation that has not known a life without school shootings. We are generation that even before we are finished high school, we know that we're going to be an insurmountable debts that we're not gonna be able to pay off, and with zero job security whatsoever, and with the bachelors becoming the new high school diploma, and with the masters becoming the new bachelors, you're increasingly have to invest in higher levels of education

with very little prospects of actually having job security. So things are not looking real cute for gen Z. And we're pretty tired of the adults saying, well, this is how it is, and you had to deal with all this inequality, so we're just going to pass it over to you. And I think the higher bar that we're putting in place is saying, we're going to take the

status quo back into our hands. Maybe it's time to have conversations with new people with new voices that actually reflect the diversity, the inclusiveness, the welcoming nature, the global nature of gen Z instead of the same men who have been in power since they were diapers because of nepotism and intergenerational wealth. And I think for me, that higher standard is is knowing that there is not any sector where gen Z is not going to hold you accountable.

It doesn't matter if your clothing brand, it doesn't matter if you're a media company, even our celebrities, you also have to be someone who is making a difference because you have a platform at expands generations and expands the globe, and we're not going to give you a platform for free. You're gonna work for it because every platform that we have is a tool for change, is a vacuum for discussion, and we need to use as many avenues and platforms

as possible. You dropped so many gems, I feel like I'm go in a jewelry store. So much of young people's power plays out on technology platforms. I have a split question for you. One is about how technology has allowed you and this next generation to collaborate more effectively, and then, paired with that, what you hope for from these tech platforms themselves in terms of their responsibility to

do more, to do better. Yeah. I think the Internet is one of the greatest equalizers, and it's also changed the way that gen Z defines itself. I say that Gen Z is the most global generation to date, and

that is because of the Internet. We are seeing a shift from individuals who are incredibly nationalistic and working in a space where it's very country specific to the work that myself and Gen D as a whole is doing not necessarily defined by country borders and barriers, but really as a global generation that is creating ally ship across the entire world. I like to say that we are

building the Avengers of activism. We are building a ecosystem that wherever you go, no matter cultural or societal differences, gen D is going to hold you accountable in the same way. Because of the Internet, we have sort of this homogeneous way of thinking as a generation that previous generations hadn't been able to have because we were less connected in real time. To answer the second part of that question, how are we holding social media platforms accountable?

Platforms like Instagram, platform like Twitter are inherently inaccessible to individuals with varying disabilities, whether it be visual impairments, hearing impairments, those of the deaf and heart of hearing community. In the platform like Instagram, which is all visual and graphic base, how do we allow blind people to utilize Instagram? How do we allow people who are deaf to hear our

voices on stories? And Instagram actually has a feature called alt texts, which allows you to put a caption describing the image of your photo. However, that's hidden in the advanced settings on posts. It's not a front end center future and I'm pushing for platforms like Twitter and Instagram

to change that. And then also simultaneously, how do we hold our social media executives accountable and the way that they have sort of allowed for disinformation to be spread across those social media putrous So sort of letting gen Z and then date those platforms with truth, with the power of stories, with the power of community to help combat all of the sort of crazy misinformation that is

being spread on those platforms. What's the one thing you want someone hearing this to take away from your work. I want everyone to know that as much as you see gen Z hooked to our devices, our phones, are laptops, are iPads, on those very same devices, we are changing the world. So I promise as much as we are scrolling Instagram and tik talk, we are also having some of the most impactful conversations of our lives and probably

of the world's going forward. Gen Z are experts, are lived experience makes us experts in trying to make the world a better place. So please, before you dwindle down oun gen Z to some weird kids who are obsessed with the Internet memes, I promise we are so much more than that. We are individuals who are kind, are powerful, compassionate, and are incredibly innovative. And I promise that if you trust us just a little bit more than you do right now, we are going to lead all of us

together to a much better place. So give us a little bit of trust, give us a little bit of liberty, and try to laugh along the way, because we are also hilarious and not everything can be so so serious, because the times of your times are strange. But gen Z has got your back. You just have to let us lead the way. Dafnely, you are for sure a leader of right now. Thank you for your humor, your energy, your clarity, your perspective, and your your realness. It's been

an absolute pleasure of meeting you. Thank you so much. You're listening to a podcast called Force Multiplier, Action meets Impact Now. I'm sure you've grown to expect ads baked into your podcast, but we're going to do something a little different to walk the walk. We've donated our AD space to the organizations that need it, most, organizations directly

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even faster and reach even more people. Join us today. Hey, I'm still Baritune Day, your host for Force Multiplier, but I'm checking in with you with a little different energy because if you're listening, you like the show, and if you like the show, you might like my other show, How to Citizen, where we take citizen as a verb and find out from people practicing the ways we can shape our community by showing up, investing in relationships, understanding power,

and valuing our collective selves. Check it out at how to citizen dot com or wherever you get your podcast. So there's a lot to love about after me. But one of the things that stands out to me is how she stresses the importance of nuance. She proves that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to the issues of climate change. Hers is an important message and a perspective we all got to be more aware of now.

Our second guest is also a testament to the same idea that we can be vessels for change by simply sharing our stories. Joe Dodds comes to us all the way from Australia and lives in her dream home within a literal forest. It's a pristine environment where we have some of the best beaches in the world. And the property that I live on is fifty acres of forest which segue straight into a Flora and Fauna reserve and thence into national parks, and there are no fences in

between any of those things. So I very much feel connected to a wild environment that surrounds my place and surrounds the little town of Tarfa, which is the closest town to me. I've managed to find myself in the sort of paradisical environment that I dreamed of when I was much younger and living in the city. I was

certainly aware of climate change before I moved here. It was something that was not really often spoken about in the news, but it seemed like a very distant future thing and almost impossible to conceive of it being a real problem for humans. But after I had moved here and was living in a forest, I started to pay a lot more attention to the seasons, to the wet to the dry, noticing the difference that that made to

the environment around me. And as most people who live in the country would be aware, you pay a lot more attention to fire seasons, the risk of fire, and to flood events as well. But one day in March, a day that should have been like any other, this distant reality suddenly became Joe's worst nightmare up close and

too personal. She was forced to evacuate her home in the Beggar Valley with only the clothes on her back, the result of a bush fire that broke out, one that would eventually destroy scores of homes and create even more collateral damage across lane. I rang my partner straight away to say whether he was aware of the fire, and he was, and I could hear his voice shaking. His voice was changed, and his voice I could I could tell he was anxious. And this is something that

I have never heard in my partner's voice before. He's a very solid, calm person who pretty well always knows what he's going to do next. But it's the only time before or since that I've heard his voice give away his fear. We had enough time to get down into the valley and across the fire front in Tarta to drop me at the edge of the river and watch my home. I can see my home from that that spot two kilometers away, and it took about four hours for the fire to reach my house, and we

could hear gas cylinders exploding. People were evacuating, and you could see on the faces of those people that something terrible was happening in Tarta. I remember distinctly seeing a convoy of four wheel drives pulling boats on trailers, and there were so many people packed inside the cars that they were sort of pressed up against the windows like

sardines and in the boats, the open boats. There were people and children standing while I were being towed, and I remember kind of lifting my arm up and waving to acknowledge, and nobody responded at all, And I just remember that look of complete shock on their faces, and then thinking, something's happening in Tarta that we don't understand yet. And of course what that turned out to be was the fire had burnt sixty nine homes to the ground.

Let's process this for us at You've got Joe her community, completely devastated, just trying to process the fact that they've lost almost every day, but the one thing they didn't lose, their resilience. Despite all this trauma and loss, or maybe because of it, Joe and her friend decided to take action the best way they could at that point by sharing their story. So a few of us who like my neighbor Jan whose house was the first to burn down,

she had evacuated with nothing. Everything was melted. There was very little left of her home that was recognizable in any way. So out of her devastation and my near miss, we got together and realized that we were both actually

now furious about the same thing. We were not able to have a conversation, because there was still this political toxicity about mentioning climate at all, which meant that people like us Jan standing in the ruins of her home, me standing in the forest that I loved so much that was now unrecognizable, we were not allowed to talk about the cause. And that seemed to me and Jan absolutely unacceptable, because if the cause of that fire had been an arsonist, that would have been all over the

news and we would have been allowed to talk about that. Sorry, I made a little video just out of desperation, just standing in the forest, propped my iPhone in a tree, a burnt tree trunk, had my dog sitting next to me, and I just talked to the phone and said, I want the Prime Minister to talk about this, not to

tell us to be quiet, because this is important. We need to have this discussion, and I will stand by any politician who's willing to have the courage to do that, because I now know what's at stake, and I now know how urgent this is, and if we don't talk about this, it's just going to get worse. And the video took off and kind of went viral in a small way, which then attracted attention from a lot of people in Australia and around the world. So bush Fire

Survivors for climate action. What we've done is try and insert the reality of lived experience, but also take those stories to some of the big institutions who invest in fossil fuels, to the insurers, to the desks of our local representatives, the politicians at the state and federal level, and by telling those stories and having a person who survived those events present saying when you make decisions that have any impact on the climate, we want you to

remember by us, we want you to remember what we went through, and we want you to remember what we saw and felt and heard, and the pain that caused and the trauma that caused, and the length of time that it takes any single person to get over an event like that. While you're making that decision, don't leave us off the scales when you're weighing up the good and the bad, when you're weighing up the money, because

we will not go away. In fact, there will be more of us every year because we know that climate change is going to get worse. This should not be a political issue. This should be a nonpartisan issue. You have a right to go to your local member and say I I've experienced this, and I don't want to experience it again, and I don't want to see anyone else experience it. Therefore, I want you to act on

my behalf to make me safer from climate damage. Joe has paved the way for her community by creating the space for victims, the fire survivors for climate action. But what can we do, even if we're halfway across the world to support the cause. I think that that there is so much that people can be doing to shift action towards climate and do it urgently. When you take action on something like this, it actually has this incredibly beneficial effect on your own mental health because you know

you're doing something about it. So some really simple things that people can do, and the first would be to tell the stories of climate survivors. So if you've seen or heard or felt anything in your own environment that you say, this is a symptom of climate change. This can be as simple as observing peeps more potholes. Why catastrophic levels of rain have chewed big holes in the road, people are running into the holes, getting flat tires. That

is climate change. Look for the signs and talk about them, call them out for what they are, name them in conversations with other people. Make sure that your he is not sitting doing damage. It's pretty simple these days to change where you're banking and you're investing, so sort that out. The other thing, of course, is if people want to support bushfire survivors for climate action, we've got a website Google Is. It's really easy. You can join as a supporter.

You don't need to have had direct impact of fire to support us and support the work that we're doing on raising this conversation, so it's a pretty easy thing to do. We're welcome all comers and we've got a few people from around the globe now joining us. And nothing could make me more thrilled than us becoming an international rather than just an Australian organization, So welcome to

anyone who wants to do that. I am definitely feeling inspired and humbled after hearing from Daphne and Joel, and it's not just because their stories are high impact. It's also because they make me realize we have the power to influence change right where we are, exactly as you are. Even though most folks come with the right intention. It's really up to us to voice and say, Yo, I'm

gonna make some adjustments. I'm gonna tweat this even a little bit, because there are a few things in this plan that won't work for me and mine and like Joe, sometimes sharing your truth is all that's needed for the world to start taking notice. These two stories are so different, but they're also equally powerful in the ability to raise awareness of the same issue in a relatable and emotional way. Are you ready to do more than listen to people

like Dafne and Joe? Find out more about them, their organizations, and how you can support by going to Salesforce dot Org slash Force Multiplier. Force Multiplier is a production of I Heart Radio and Salesforce dot Org hosted by me barituned Thurston. It's executive produced by Elizabeth Stewart, produced by Vane Chien, edited and mixed by James Foster, and written

by Yvette Lopez. A special thanks to our guests Daphne Free Us and Joe Dot Listen to Force Multiplier on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast m