Host Taylor interviews Reverend Earl Koteen–Unitarian Universalist minister, climate activist, and Ecological Justice minister with Green the Church–about his work both in California and nationwide toward ecological justice. Discussion includes reflections on the crucial role of storytelling in movement building, the dangers of “hope-ium”, the possibilities of building multi-racial interfaith coalitions to tackle big problems, and more.
In the second half, she interviews Kim Noble–Chief Operating Officer of Green the Church, former Director of National Partnerships for Green for All, environmental justice advocate, and mother–about her work building sustainable infrastructure and political engagement on climate with Black churches. Discussion includes the challenges of working federally on climate in a hostile administration, the roots of the environmental justice movement, communities adapting to catastrophic climate change in the South (and around the nation), and more.
This show is part of a series running through the end of 2020, new episodes published weekly, in which I revisit interviews taken during a radio show road trip in the summer of 2015—checking back in with those activists, organizers and artists I met to see how their lives and work have adapted to changing times. You can find more information about that project at praxisradio.com/praxis.
Find a full transcript of this episode here.
For more information on the organizations both guests referenced, check out the links below, roughly in order of appearance:
*Green the Church website: https://www.greenthechurch.org/
*Sunflower Alliance website: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
*UU Ministry for Earth website: https://www.uumfe.org/
*California Interfaith Power & Light website: https://www.interfaithpower.org/
*Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community website: https://uujec.org/
*Moving Forward Network website: http://www.movingforwardnetwork.com/
Project Drawdown website: https://drawdown.org/
*”Powers of 10″ paper from Environmental Research Letters : https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab9ed0
*Movement Generation website: https://movementgeneration.org/
*Center for Story-based Strategy website: https://www.storybasedstrategy.org/
*Green for All website: https://www.thedreamcorps.org/our-programs/green-for-all/
*Clean Power Plan from EPA archive: https://archive.epa.gov/epa/cleanpowerplan/fact-sheet-overview-clean-power-plan.html
*Green the Church blog: https://www.greenthechurch.org/blog
*House Select Committee on Climate Crisis report: https://climatecrisis.house.gov/report