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Young Environmentalists Rally Behind Kamala Harris for President · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  If you think President Biden was good for climate change and
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  the environment by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, well,
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  a lot of environmentalists in the U.S. think that P.P.
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  Harris will actually be better. And
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  we're going to talk about why on this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's
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  start the show. Hey
• 0:23
  everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm
• 0:26
  your host Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with
• 0:29
  the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for
• 0:33
  a better ocean by taking action. And on today's episode, we're
• 0:36
  going to be talking about action taking from a policy perspective. And
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  look, it's all on your news feeds, it's on your TV,
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  you can't get away from it, it's on the radio, it's on podcasts. We're
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  gonna talk about the presidential debate. I know last
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  time I talked about politics, I said, we're not gonna talk about the presidential debate.
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  But there is a significant difference in the parties
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  and their approach towards doing something about climate
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  change. And if you wanna know how both parties
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  are doing, on one side you have the Republicans, who
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  are rumored and even, I guess, the VP candidate
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  for the Republicans, Vance, J.D. Vance, has
• 1:19
  come out, or not has come out, but actually wrote
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  the forward, I believe, for Project 2025, a
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  notorious bill or a notorious plan of action that
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  some Republicans think that Donald Trump should take when
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  and if he gets into the presidency. And
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  if you want to know how that's going to affect the environment, I'm going to link to
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  an article on LinkedIn by a good friend of mine, doctor, or
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  doctor, should be a doctor, Angelo Villa Gomez. He
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  put out just all the resources you need to know how the
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  Project 2025 is going to affect climate change,
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  fossil fuels, Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, Ocean
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  Conservation, NOAA Weather Service, Department of Interior, Antiquities
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  Act, public lands, wildlife and migratory birds.
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  and also reduce inflation. And it's an act that is
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  probably the most progressive act. It has been touted as the most
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  pervasive act to
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  fight climate change than we've ever seen before. However, a
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  lot of environmentalists and a lot of environmental organizations in
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  the US and outside the US have criticized the Biden administration for
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  not doing enough. and so especially young
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  environmentalists, and they want to see more action. And
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  they also pointed out that Harris's record, Kamala Harris's
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  record for prosecuting oil companies and her co-sponsorship of
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  the Green New Deal are reasons for her to be, that
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  she will be a better president for the environment than
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  President Biden. So there's a lot of excitement in the air. Look, it's
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  been about a week since, a little over a week that
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  you're hearing, since you're hearing this, that uh... washington like this
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  is two weeks that uh... kamala harris vp kamala harris has
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  been named as the presidential candidate for uh...
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  the democrats uh... and uh... she has injected a
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  lot of excitement she got actually quickly became uh...
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  the nominee with the amount of money that she raised from
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  a lot of different groups people are happy people are in our energize
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  their is this sort of new
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  sort of look on the presidential campaign. You could see it before
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  when Biden was still running and it ran against Donald
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  Trump that you know he was people were not excited
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  people like are you serious this is these are the only two out
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  of the population of over 350 million these are the only two people that we
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  get to choose from. People were a little distraught. They were distraught not
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  only at Donald Trump and his antics, but they're distraught by you know,
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  President Biden in his antics, you know, he's looks old.
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  He looks older. He looks like he's having trouble, you
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  know, putting words together during speeches. His the last debate
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  he did with Donald Trump was not very good. And so people were
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  concerned and a lot of people in the Democrats were very concerned. And
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  so that's when, you know, we started to see this shift
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  and started to see, hey, you know, Kamala Harris is going to be the
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  next presidential nominee. And nobody believed it. It was a long shot
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  because President Biden had to be the one that was going
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  to say no when he finally did it. Whether he wanted to do it or
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  not, he did it. And there's just been this new energy that
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  in the election itself. The Republicans are trying to
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  figure out what to do. They were attacking Biden for his
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  age and the fact that he was messing up words and messing up people's
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  names as he was introducing them, calling President
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  Zelensky, who's Ukrainian, President Putin, who's
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  Russian and trying to invade, is invading his country. Obviously,
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  not a good sign. And so now with
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  Kamala Harris in as the nominee and
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  as the candidate, you know, holy cow, like this is,
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  this has changed. And, you know, just as I'm recording this
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  episode, it's been about a day since they, I
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  believe it's Watts is his name, the VP candidate
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  for the Harris ticket. He's going to be on the ticket. He's
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  going to be, if she gets elected president, he will
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  be the next vice president. And, but What's
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  going back, and let's get away from that, and let's go into sort of
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  her record against oil and
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  gas companies, and why people
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  are really following her. So representatives from 11 organizations devoted to elevating
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  young voters' concerns about climate change said Harris's record
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  of going after big oil companies as a prosecutor and
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  her co-sponsorship of the Green New Deal as a senator make
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  her a more appealing candidate than Biden despite his
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  environmental wins. So it's not saying that Biden was bad, just Biden over
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  the last little bit has approved oil
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  and gas projects that were not expected to be approved and had
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  a lot of controversy surrounding it. But when it comes to Harris,
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  she has a history around holding big oil accountable in
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  a way that we haven't seen and haven't been able to do for the
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  last four years. This is said by Aru Shiniaeji, a
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  26-year-old that's the executive director of the Sunrise Movement, which pushes
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  for government interventions to address climate change. And
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  the Green New Deal Network, a coalition of 19 progressive environmental and
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  social justice organizations, including the Sunrise Movement, endorsed Harris
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  this week, but had not previously issued an endorsement for
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  Biden. So having these young
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  environmentalists as part of the endorsement really
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  helps the environmental movement. They represent a lot of people. And at one
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  point, they were telling members, when Biden was president, they were telling members, we're
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  just telling them not to vote, which is something you don't want to do, because that
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  happened in 2016 when Donald
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  Trump became president, and people were just abstaining from
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  voting because they just didn't think Hillary Clinton was the
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  right candidate. They didn't like Donald J. Trump. And all of a
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  sudden, they didn't vote. And people who didn't come out to vote You
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  know, lots of the people who came out to vote and we saw a change in
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  American history for, you know, several times. So now
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  we're seeing that, hey, look, you know what? We're actually seeing,
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  you know, activists ages ranging from 16 to 29. You
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  know, this is huge. We're going to start to see
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  people come out in droves. We're going to start to see these environmental networks that
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  want big changes against climate change to vote somebody in who has
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  a history of going up against big oil and gas companies and
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  saying, no, we're not letting you get away with
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  this. And I think that's the big appeal when
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  it comes to Harris. And I think that's
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  huge. Dana Fisher, director of the Center of Environment, Community, and Equity at
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  American University said, it's not that young voters are
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  ignoring Biden's work on climate, it's that they want to see more.
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  So the young people know it's not enough because they recognize how severe the
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  climate crisis is. This is a quote from Fisher, from Dana Fisher.
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  And so We're constantly seeing this battle of
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  like, how many votes can you get, right? That's what you want. You
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  want as many people out as possible to get votes. And this is
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  what you want. Like, this is how you want people to
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  vote. And so that's sort of, and Dana Fisher, once she found
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  out that people in environmental networks were saying, hey, you know what, don't even bother going
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  on vote if it's going to be Biden or Trump. She was like, I
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  was like, are you kidding me? This is a quote from Dana Fisher. Don't
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  you remember what happened in 2000? She goes, of course not. They didn't
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  remember because they probably weren't alive or they were in diapers. But it's very
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  hard to have a long view when you're younger. So it's hard to like, you
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  don't know if you're repeating past mistakes. But since Biden
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  dropped out of the race, Fisher said the youth climate activists that
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  she's talked to are more likely to vote, which is great. That's what we want to see.
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  So Harris's young supporters have highlighted the settlements she secured as
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  California Attorney General with Chevron, BP, and ConocoPhillips over
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  their handling of hazardous materials. Now, when
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  you go after and you try and stop oil companies,
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  you've stopped them in the courts. That's how it's been done historically.
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  You can protest and you can scream and
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  yell at the top of your lungs. but to really get them
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  to stop is through injunctions and suing the government. quite
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  a bit. Then a number of organizations banded together, they
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  had a coalition, including, I believe it was
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  the Environmental Defense Fund, but don't quote me on that, but there were a number
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  of environmental lawyers that sued the government, not
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  the Shell or the oil company, but sued the
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  government because they said that the
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  government did not hold Shell to the proper accountability in
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  the environmental assessment that they had to do before they
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  were going to even think about drilling on the North Slope. So
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  because they did that, they said they just breezed through some of the problems.
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  And this is what happens quite often. If you don't get the right consulting
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  firm, and organizations and oil
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  companies are going to be like, hey, you know what? Let's just breeze over some
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  of the ramifications, the consequences that can happen from drilling into wherever
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  we're going to drill into and we'll just be able to do that. A good consulting firm
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  is like, no, we're just going to look at everything and we're going to see and we're going to
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  make the proper assessment so that we can cover all of our basis
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  because the good consulting companies out there, environmental
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  consulting companies out there that work with organizations and companies like oil
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  companies, have to stay in the middle. At some part, they're
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  part government. At some part, they're representing their clients. But they have to
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  stay true to the science. They have to stay true to the conservation, not
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  conversation, conservation. But that doesn't always happen. And in
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  this case, it wasn't enough. And so the environmental lawyers
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  were like, hey, let's go to the courts and let's get it. This is what Kamala
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  Harris did when she was a prosecutor. She held the
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  oil companies, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, you
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  know, to a higher standard. They held it to account for their
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  mistakes and their, you know, not handling hazardous
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  materials properly. Biden is a lot more moderate in
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  terms of a policy approach, whereas Kamala is,
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  isn't afraid to tackle environmental and climate policy
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  in a way that really gets at the root, especially with polluters. This
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  is said, Iris Zan, 20, 20 year
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  old a youth advisory board member at the global youth storytelling
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  and research lab which engages youth leaders in climate environmental justice
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  research So Harris has brought up that early career work in
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  some of her initial campaign appearances was great She even said
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  as district attorney to go after polluters. I created one
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  of the first environmental just environmental justice units in
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  our nation. She said on July 22nd in Wilmington, Delaware, referring
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  to her time as district attorney in San Francisco, Donald Trump stood in
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  Mar-a-Lago and told big oil lobbyists he
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  would do their bidding for a $1 billion campaign
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  contribution. This is why we got to take money out of politics. And
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  this is, you know, what continues to happen you
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  know, in this race is you start to see
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  that one side is very much pro-environment, the other side
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  is very much pro-revenue and pro-business and
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  pro-privatization of the environment. And,
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  you know, allowing people to make hand over fist in terms of money
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  and not pay the consequences for the consequences that they
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  cause the rest of the people, not only in the U.S., but around
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  the world. And so we're starting, you know, this article that I'm reading
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  here and I'm going over as you can, as you can probably hear and tell or see
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  if you're watching the video. It's a
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  truth telling tale of how the environmental movement
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  and the young movement is seeing this new candidate in
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  Kamala Harris. this is something that
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  is going to like you know motivate people to go out
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  and vote for the environment which i think is
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  is wonderful there's lots of reasons to vote on either side
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  i'm not trying to pick a side here i have my side i'm
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  not even american so i can't choose i can't vote But
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  one tells me that, you know, the Democratic side is just more
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  for protecting the environment, more for thinking straight when
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  it comes to the environment, not rushing into things and paying the price after.
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  And I think that's really important. So I think that's
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  what's really good. However, something to realize is
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  that although Harris said in 2019 that
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  she would be against fracking if elected president, she no
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  longer supports a ban. And Dana Fisher says she
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  doesn't want to turn off people from the fossil fuel extracting
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  states. She's not going to end up as
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  a progressive platform as she had when she was in California,
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  However, she is going to be more progressive than Biden. Is
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  she going to be more progressive than Biden? I expect she will be.
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  This is a quote from Dana Fisher. So look, we're starting
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  to see. this start
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  to turn more towards people versus
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  like people about policy. That's what people want. It's back
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  towards policy. It's not choosing which is the worst
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  of evil. It's choose who's putting up the best policy.
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  And if you look at the speeches, you're gonna
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  start to notice a lot more policy being put into place to say, hey, look,
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  Kamala Harris represents this. Governor Watts
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  represents this. Sorry, I don't remember Watts' first name. This is
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  all about policy, and that's what the election should
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  be about. It's about policy, not about personal name-calling, not
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  about what they've done in the past. It's all about who
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  would represent you best as a leader for the U.S., and
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  that's what you should go on. Look at the policy. And if you're listening
• 15:31
  to this podcast and you want something for the environment, you
• 15:35
  kind of know which way you should be leaning. I'm not trying to tell you which
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  way you should be leaning or which way you should vote. But if you're for the
• 15:41
  environment, there's clearly one party that's ahead of the other. In fact, like
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  they're even criticizing their own president that's a Democrat to
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  say that president didn't do enough and people want
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  holding him accountable by not. You know, not saying he's going to
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  be the nominee for the next year, but it's going to be Kamala Harris, who's
• 15:59
  got a track record going up against big oil. She's not afraid. She's
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  brave in this kind of way. She stands straight up to them and says, no,
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  absolutely not. You're not going to get away with breaking the law. And that's final.
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  And I think that's going to be a huge thing. to
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  see in the future. So that's it for today's episode.
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  I just wanted to let you know, when it comes to Kamala
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  Harris as a presidential candidate for
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  the Democratic Party, we're starting to see more
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  and more environmental policy pop up. And that's great
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  to hear. And we'll see, time will be tested,
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  and time will tell whether we are going to see more
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  fossil fuel projects approved, no matter who gets
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  in. right? That's dangerous. We can't have
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  that anymore. We can't have any new, you know, projects. And
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  the reason why, well, there's a number of reasons why, but the
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  main reason why is all that production is not going to go into production for another like 30 to
• 16:57
  50 years. So what are we doing here? What are we really thinking about?
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  and how much more oil do we have, and where's
• 17:04
  all that gonna go? How's that all gonna be used? We're gonna be talking about a lot of that in
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  the future as it comes up, but this I wanted to just kinda let
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  you know, people are talking about the election. I try
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  and stay away, but obviously I'm a little biased towards the environment, towards
• 17:18
  parties that support the environment, and that's what
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  we're seeing here. And I think it's really nice to have that
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  extra energy coming into a campaign. I think it's great to
• 17:29
  have that environmental energy coming to a campaign and really stirring
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  up the environmental community to be like, hey, this is really good.
• 17:37
  We have an option here to have better environmental policy
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  on the already great policy that we have now.
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  It can be improved. Let's improve it and let's go. So
• 17:48
  that's it for today's episode. If you want to hear more news and
• 17:52
  you can't get it all from this podcast, you can sign up for our newsletter. If you go
• 17:55
  to speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter, I send an
• 17:59
  email every Monday to Friday. You're going to get an
• 18:02
  email in your inbox in the morning. You get three stories that I
• 18:05
  found that I think is interesting you should be talking about in terms of marine science and conservation, as
• 18:09
  well as you get some job opportunities that I found online
• 18:13
  and on LinkedIn. And yeah, and you get all the latest
• 18:16
  podcasts that we produce here on the Speak Up for Blue Network. So it's
• 18:20
  a lot of fun, a lot of stuff going on. But I want to thank you so much for
• 18:23
  joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Oh,
• 18:27
  I almost forgot. If you want to get a hold of me, you can go on Spotify, leave
• 18:30
  a comment. You can go on YouTube, leave a comment. I answer as
• 18:34
  many as I can. And of course, you can
• 18:37
  go to Instagram at How to Protect the Ocean and send
• 18:40
  me a DM. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect
• 18:44
  the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time,