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SMNTY Classics: Women and Environmental Activism · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha stuff. I never told
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: you a protection of iHeartRadio. And we are in the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: month of April, which is the time of Earth Day.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: A lot of environmental conversation happening now on climate change,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: environmentalism and all that stuff. Yeah, and we have a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: couple of things coming out about that. You know that
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: we have a lot of thoughts about it, so we
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: thought we'd bring back this classic episode where we were
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: talking about kind of the gender gap in environmental activism
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and why it's important, and why it exists, to all
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of those things. So please enjoy this classic episode. Hey,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: this is Annie'smantha, I do come to stuff I've never
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: told you protection of iHeartRadio. My question for you today
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: is on this lovely earth Day, Happy earth Day. Yes
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: not as you're listening to this, it's a little late,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: but as for birthday.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: When you were growing up, was the.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Environment and kind of environmentalism important to you.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: So it's really sad to say.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: We definitely had Earth Day in my schools and we
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: talked about it. We planted trees, they gave out trees,
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: they gave up plants, all these things. I was really
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: excited about that. I actually came home and planted them.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: But as I've said on this show many at times
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: and to your face, I killed plants. Yes, I even
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: said on the Daily zeit guys, I think they're overrated
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: because I'm so bitter about the fact that I'm not
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: good with plants.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Oh so it's like a reflection back on to you.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: It really is, it really is.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: But I've never been big into any of that stuff.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: I think part of that is because growing up in
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: a very small town, you don't really have the opportunities
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: to practice these things. So recycling wasn't available. Our trash,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: we didn't have people come pick up trash. Not that
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: that's any better, but it was bad enough that we
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: burn trash in the back every week. We had a
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: burn trash pile. And I think back on now, I'm like, man,
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: this is really bad. This is really bad, like trying
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: to realize what we were doing, but you had to
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: do what you had to do, especially again in our area.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: And not only am I in a small town so
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: rural area, I'm outside of the town. Like I literally
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: say the words I'm going into town, because that was
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: something that we did.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: And then when I.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: Came into when I went to college and people were like,
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: you're going to town. You're in town, Like they didn't
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: understand what I was saying. They were making fun of me.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: But that's how far away and far I was growing up.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: So of course recycling was not in my purview at all.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Everything was about convenience. And you know, I think you
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: and I have talked about the fact we've had a
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: couple of ads for like paper plates, and somebody was
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: really upset, and I get that, But at the same time,
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: like you didn't grow up in a small town environment
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: for kids with additional other kids, where my mother was
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: trying not to lose her mind, trying to take care
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: of us, cooking us meals and making affordability so you
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: had access to whatever was the most convenient so.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: You could survive.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Essentially her for her own like mental health, she had
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: to get this done. And so as much as I
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: hate some of these things, And of course, now that
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: I live in Atlanta, live by myself and growing up
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: and understanding the cost to the environment and why, you know,
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: we need to be aware of that, it wasn't so
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: much that it was a priority to us. So and
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: even now I still have to go back and forth
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: and be like, Okay, I feel like it's made so
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: difficult because there are things that you think that you
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: can recycle that you don't have access to recycle and
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: not Leanna, you're the one who told us. You know
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: you can't recycle glass, right, I'm like what?
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Oh no?
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: So that means the entire time that I've been sending
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: out things to be recycled, but just dumped off all
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: of our stuff because I put glass in there thinking
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: it could be recycled.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that conversation, the recycling conversation. I am
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: frequently a kill joy in that one because I've done
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: that to other friends. And that's actually one of my
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: favorite drunken stories I have is I was telling a
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: friend of mine and we were at a party at
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a cabin and I was saying, you know, you can't
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: recycle any of this because you didn't really wash it.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: It's not clean, right, and they're just gonna throw it out.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: And the next morning I opened the dishwasher and there's
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: all these like plastic like Pater's in there because she
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: put them in there. I was like, this is not
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: she was just a bad idea.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: You did it.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, But that's also the other part to that is
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: and ignorance is not an excuse, but we really don't
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: understand the levels of what we're doing. But of course
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: we've learned, hey, turn off the water, don't waste water,
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: do this, take a shorter shower, you know, all of
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: those things we've learned about the awfulness of plastic. We've
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: learned about the little rings off of the cokes and
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: soda that we've now like oh these kill fish.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: Okay, my bad, Yeah, stuff like that.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: You later to learn that this is not a good thing,
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: the single serving stuff not the best way to go.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: You gave us a soda stream, I love it, But
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: we were because we were throwing out so many illuminum cans,
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: and of course those are a little more recyclable, accessible
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: to recycling. But like realizing, oh, this probably is a
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: better option than doing this stuff like that. It's definitely
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: something that we need to be conscientious of. But again,
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: a lot of that is also privileged, even though it
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: shouldn't be. All these things that should be in practice,
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: I have a lot of privilege tied to it.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, So. My dad.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Was huge, like huge into the environment, very big environmentalist.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: That it's one of the things, like anytime I see
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: something about like conserving, this a conserving that I think
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: of him because that was like his one of his things.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And that's why we lived in Alaska for a while,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: because he wanted to be in the wilderness. And that's
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: actually why we ended up moving to Delonaga, because it
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: was a compromise between him and my mom about she
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: wanted to be closer to her family. He wanted somewhere
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that still felt like he was in nature and then
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: where you could see mountains, and so growing up.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: I had a very like those rules.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: If you can't leave the water on for this long,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: you can't leave the refrigerator open. All these things that
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: have sort of translated into my adult life that I
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: do any of my friends about. And it was a
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: huge part of growing up for me and something very
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: important and actually I recently I have this list of
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: terrifying children's movies that I occasionally watch over again. Most
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of those were introduced by my dad, who also loved movies,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And I tell you, most of them are about the environment.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Most of them are about environmental damage humans are causing
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: to animals.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: So wait is one of them. Bern Gully fern.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Gully was on there, but I rewatched it. It is
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: not scary. It did scare me as a child, but
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: now I'm.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Like, well, Tim Curry is singing and this is the best.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: But I'm not afraid. It's nineties. I don't know if
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: you've seen it recently.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: It didn't know.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: Oh no, I don't watch animated stuff much anyways, but yeah,
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: that was a long long time ago for me.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: So oh it's great.
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: I find it interesting because you and I have come
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: from a very different perspective of that, especially when it
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: comes to environment, and I'm like, man, you and I
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: may make the perfect person.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: I've often said, if we could transform, we would balance
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: each other out.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: It's true.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But it was important that I studied in college
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: sustainability and I went one of my first international trips
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: whereas I was learning about the environment in Australia, and
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: that was a very complicated thing. But it has been
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and is something that is very important to me, and
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I think increasingly as more and more intention and concern
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: around climate.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Change comes to the world, we are thinking about it.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: And yes, there are very much issues of accessibility and
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: privileged there. But all that being said, we did want
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to talk about women in the environment because there's a
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: lot of things we could talk about there, and a
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: lot of things are coming out right now because President
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Biden is the climate change summit that he is leading
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: is underway right now as we record. So right before
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: we came in, I was seeing notices of like they're
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: talking about this, and they're talking about this. So there's
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: that and then some of the So if we're going
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: to discuss in this episode, we talked about in our
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: episode it Ain't Easy Being Green, where we talked about
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: how toxic masculinity ruin's everything everything, even caring about the environments.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Or you can also check out the female first we
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: did on Wungari Mutsamatai, who was really big person and
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: an inspiring person when it comes to environmentalism.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: Right, definitely a good episode, So let's get into the
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: what of our conversation. Women have a long history of
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: being leaders when it comes to environmentalism, a history that
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: carries over to this day, from Rachel Carson to Wengari
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: Mutomtai to Marina Silva to Peggy Shepherd to AOC to
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: Greater Thunberg and so many more. And yes, we've seen
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: a lot of young activists coming out and love love that,
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: and this is a space where we see all kinds
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: of intersections class, race, gender, and since women and even
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: more so women of color are impacted by environmental issues,
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: think of things like the water in Flint, Michigan.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Yes we do have you know miss Flint, who is
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: still very.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: Active and actually if you go look at her Twitter
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: right now, she is trying to raise money to get
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: more filters, water filters, because that's still a problem, and
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: that's still a thing which is absurd, which disproportionately impacted
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: families of color, as in fact, they got like a
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: little bit of a window of all the protests and
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: how bad it was going and then disappeared and it's
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: still a problem there. Or the fact that women around
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: the world are largely responsible for the collection of water,
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: which cuts into time and education, and it's also frequently unsafe.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: And we've definitely had discussions about the war and the
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: battles that happen over claiming over water, as in fact,
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: it is even an issue that is a back and
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: forth argument between Florida and Georgia, like we've seen that happen,
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: of course, not to the level that is really really
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: dangerous out into the other areas of the world. Companies
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: and society at large don't care about impoverished areas usually
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: populated by women and children, and yes, particularly women and
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: children of color. And the pandemic has not helped at
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: all in this issue either, and that leads to unhealthy
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: and often unsafe environments that have a greater impact on women.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: At the same time, they're often excluded. And we've talked
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: about this before from high level policy discussions and decisions.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so, according to the UN, women hold only twelve
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: percent of top positions in environment related sectors. On top
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: of that, women account for only about fourteen percent of
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: land ownership worldwide, and some estimates put it way lower,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: like single digit lower. And that excuses them from decisions
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: around land management in some areas, working the land or
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: selling timber or one of the few ways women can
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: make a living. Indigenous women often have more knowledge about
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the uses of plants and how best to make them
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: stretch and what to turn to during times of scarcity.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: So it's sort of this knowledge of the land, but
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: they are not being allowed to own it or make
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: decisions around it, all right, And though we have made
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of strides. Women still shoulder more responsibility when
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: it comes to domestic city, the home, and child care,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: the environment you're in touches all of that. Also, caring
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: about something in general has been feminized, something we've also
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: talked about a lot. The planet itself is called Mother Earth,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and we have painted caring for it as women's work.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: In fact, I did not know this, but President Theodore Roosevelt,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: famous American conservationist, was ridiculed for being feminine over his
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: environmentalist policies.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: It was like cartoons of him, like wearing an apron
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: self search very very much.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: So anecdotally, I will say, do you have a lot
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: of younger male friends that care about the environment A lot?
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I can't necessarily speak to the actions behind the words,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: but they seem to.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Care about a lot. My younger brother wow, And.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I feel in older generations though again in my experience,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: most of the men who cared about it, they cared
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: about it in the sense of hunting, of being able
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: to hunt, or quote like being left alone on their land,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: you know, very much.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Not my dad, though.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: He he cared, He legit cared about the environment. But
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I just have a lot of like other references of
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: men sort of being like I just want to be
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: able to hunt and be left alone.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: On the right, they want to sustain their own land,
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: but none necessarily caring about the environment exactly.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Younger folks are more likely to be environmentally conscious and
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: to rate climate change as a priority issue.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, and organizations have started officially recognizing the importance of
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: women when it comes to the environment.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: Hey may help also that we actually have a Secretary,
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: Deb Holland who is an Indigenous woman coming into talking
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: about some of these issues and bring it to the front.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Yay.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: And.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: At the nineteen ninety five Fourth World Conference on Women,
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: Women in the Environment was pinpointed as one of the
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: twelve key areas in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: This platform made three recommendations towards the end quote involving
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: women actively in an environmental decision making at all levels,
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: integrating their concerns and perspectives and policies and programs, and
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: establishing ways to access the impact of development and environmental
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: policies on women.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: In the twenty eighteen fourteenth meeting of the Conference of
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the Parties to the CBD, it was agreed that gender
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: responsiveness should be involved in the development of biodiversity frameworks.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: To achieve this, you and women and UNEPWCMC identified three
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: main objectives. Equal opportunities for leadership, decision making and effective
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: engagement at all levels. Equal access ownership and control over
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: biological resources. And equal access to benefits from biodiversity conservation
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: and sustainable use and from the utilization of genetic resources.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: If you're interested in any of this, because I know
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: it can sound pretty dense, you can find the statements
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: that the UN has released about it, and it is
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: interesting how they unpack some things that you might not
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: expect to show up in a paper about environmentalism, like
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: reproductive rates.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Right, so I recommend it.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: And we've talked a lot about the fact that environmental
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: issues is a feminist issue, but that's a whole different conversation.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: But yeah, so let's discuss consumerism for a second.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Okay, here we go.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: There are, of course, specific consumer habits and choices that
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: are specific to women.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: We've talked about these a lot.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: We've spoken about how women are more likely to recycle
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: and use reusable bags and the added workload of that.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: But on the other side of that, there are considerations
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: to make around products like cosmetics or menstral items when
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: it comes to environmental impact. And on top of that,
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: in heteronormative households, women do more than domestic work, and
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: part of that is shopping and cleaning and choices that
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: carry on environmental weight as well.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Yes, and as being environmentally friendly becomes increasingly important to consumers,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: companies have adapt to that, offering options like reusable pads
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: or menstal cups. It's easier to find eco friendly cosmetics,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: and I have a couple of friends that that's very
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: important to them when they're choosing their cosmetics, and eco
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: friendly branding is being targeted.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Largely towards women.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: This is what we talked about in our it Ain't
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Easy Being Green episode and how men don't always do
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: their part because they're afraid of being perceived as a
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: feminine or gay. Other researchers found that misogyny plays a
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: role in climate change denial and that men in general
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: are more likely to listen to arguments about the environment
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: that didn't include quote feminine attributes like caring.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I like caring.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: I wonder if this also includes like are these same
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: people on the same line as the flat Barthers.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know, it.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Just seems like it would go handed in with climate
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: change denials.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: That article was interesting just to hear scientists kind of
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: break down how they have to talk to men about it.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: But according to the pretty short blurb, but I remember
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: they were saying, if you're talking to a group of men,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: it's better to not include anything about like responsibility or
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: caring and much more science based. Right now, this is
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the impact.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: Teaching them in the language of like, well, actually yeah,
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: with science course that said.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, Well it gets worse, Samantha, because some research
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: suggests there's a relationship between gender inequality and high levels
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: of environmental degradation. Other studies have found that governments with
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: more women in them are more likely to enact environmental policies,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and that strengthening are allowing for women's ownership of land
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: increases soil management, tree planting, and other sustainable efforts. Links
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: have also been found between gender based violence and the
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: environment when it comes to things like control of US
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: scarce resources or just land and child marriages in exchange
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: for these resources and one less mouth to feed, for example,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: or women being coerced in two sex in exchange for
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: scarce resources. These studies have driven home the importance of
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the environment when it comes to creating safe public spaces
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: for women.
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: And all these together creates what experts called an eco
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: gender gap that places that responsibility of sustainability on women.
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: Recent research into this suggests that in general, women are
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: more future of focus than men, and they also typically
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: display higher levels of altruism, empathy, caring, and socialization towards
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: being responsible, all of which influences thoughts and feelings towards
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: our environment and taking care of it.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, and obviously you know this research is broad strokes
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: and pretty binary, but this, I mean, that's what it
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: found in general, is that and we've talked we talked
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: about that in the McGary's a tie episode of being
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: like thinking about future generations and that being important to
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: women involved in environmentalism, which does mean thinking outside of
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: yourself and something that creating something you might not necessarily
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: get to enjoy or be around for.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: But let's not forget at the end of the day,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: as important as these individual choices are and having these
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: conversations are, we need to be pressuring companies and governments
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: to change. It is not our responsibility alone to protect
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the environment when especially big companies are the ones that
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: are having the greatest impact. So definitely, these individual choices
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: taking care of the environment fantastic, but it's one of
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: those instances where companies especially have largely been like, it's
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: on you, you need to recycle this bottle. And then
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: right also.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: When we talk about, you know, holding our representatives and
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: people responsible in these decisions that we get with all
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: these big contracts, especially when it comes to land ownership
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: and what they're doing on these lands and what they're
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: doing to our resources, and how they are really damaging
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: a lot of things for our present time as well
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: as for the future. And that again with capitalism, the
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: whole basis of does this make us money versus does
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: this hurt the world? It does seem to combat with
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: one another and people are picking size and we have
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: to be careful and watch to see who picks what side.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes, yes, we did want to highlight some
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: women doing amazing work for the environment or who have
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: done amazing work for the environment. But first we're going
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: to pause for a crypt break for word from a sponsor,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: and we're back, Thank you sponsor, and.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: We're back with a fun disclaimer.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Oh y, yes, So we're just doing short bios on
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: these women that could be expounded into whole episodes and
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: as always, if you're interested in that, listeners, please let
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: us know that. Being said, we're highlighting their environmental achievements,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: but their records aren't perfect, you know, no one's is,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and we don't agree with every stance they've taken, and
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: some of the things we could unpack, and I'm specifically
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: thinking of non GMO movement would be really interesting about.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: I think it's too complex for what we're doing right now,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: but just to put that out there.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Right right, So let's talk about Vandana Shiva. From a
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: young age of Vandana Shiva was raised to care about
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: her environment and she funneled that passion into our studies.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: So she earned a PhD in philosophy and physics. Wow,
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: those are two very broad subjects, and went to study
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: environmental policies among other things, and her areas of specialty
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: included agricultural biodiversity, food technology, and the intersection of human rights,
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: which yeah, they go ahead in hand honestly. In nineteen
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: ninety one, she launched a movement called Nadaania to quote
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: protect diversity, integrity of living resources, especially native seed, the
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: promotion of organic farming, and fair trade. A part of
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: this has been providing resources and education to people throughout India.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: Shiva has also written a lot about the link between
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: environmental issues and women's rights, including a paper called most
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: farmers in India are women? And she has helped and
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: supported grassroots organizations and indigenous people around the world.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I thought, especially in light of the farmers
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: protests in India, that's really interesting. And she's also right
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: about not even most farmers in India are women. She's
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: also been pretty vocal about how she thinks most farmers
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: in the world are women, right in terms of like,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: if you take away the kind of capitalism aspects, who
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: is doing the growing and making sure or the nourishment
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: of people of families?
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: Right? I mean I could go hand in hand with
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: the old idea of the hunter and the gatherer and
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: what was given to whom?
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, So next let's talk about the ocean.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Ocean, yes, and the quote Sturgeon General or her deepness,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the quote living legend.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: I love all of that, ye. Sylvia Earle.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Earl earned her PhD in the study of algae in
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six. She spent a lot of time underwater.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty six, she tied the record for a
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: solo deep dive, the first woman to accomplish that feat,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: and she's logged over seven thousand hours underwater. On top
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: of that, she founded a business dedicated to improving tech
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: around underseas robotics and piloting, called Deep Ocean Engineering. In
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, she received Time magazine's first ever Hero
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: for the Planet designation, and in twenty fourteen, she was
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: named the United Nations Champion of the Earth.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: She's won a bunch of awards, those are two that
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: stood out.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: She was the first woman to serve as the Chief
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association or INAA,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and she was the chair of Google Earth's Advisory Council
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: for the Ocean. As an expert on oil spills, she's
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: provided counsel in some of the most high profile cases
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of that. She's also been instrumental in oceanic and marine preservation.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Most recently, she has worked as the president and chairwoman
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: of Mission Blue, where she has been developing a biodiverse
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: network of protected marine areas called hope spots. Oh, it's
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: really cool, Like there's pictures of it, like chloral and stuff.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Her story is really cool and we could have Yeah,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: definitely a whole episode's worth there, But I recommend checking
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: her out for sure.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: I'm guessing she's kind of like one of those that
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: people like, see I want to be that when they're
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: talking about marine biologists.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: Yes, because she seems to live that life.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So let's talk about Rosalie Edge. Rosalie Edge grew
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: up wealthy in New York City and as a young
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: woman was a fierce suffragist. With the passage of the
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: Nineteenth Amendment, she set her sights on gender and justices
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: taking place at the National Audubon Society, a society for
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: birds if you're unclear. Edge managed to oust the corrupt
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: directors of the organization, and this was a big deal.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: She'd become fed up with the mainstream, male dominated environmentalism,
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: influenced by timber corporations and trophy hunters and rangers and
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: pesticide developers and things like that, and yet they would
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: be the big bad of.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: The audubonn Society.
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: I would think, who knows her work really changed the
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: landscape of environmentalism in this country. She created the Emergency
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: Conservation Committee, which she used to preserve eight thousand acres
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: of sugar pines in Yosemite, Thank You, and made way
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: for the founding of two national parks, Olympic National Parks
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: and Kings Canyon. She stepped in after the Autobund Society
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: declined to back a hawk sanctuary that she was pushing for,
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: using her own funds to create herself Hawk Mountain Sanctuary,
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: the first preserve for the birds of prey in the world,
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: and she ran the sanctuary for the rest of her
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: life and changed who an activist looked like in what
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: they could do. She spoke out about the dangers of
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: DDT fourteen years before Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. A nineteen
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: forty eight magazine called her the most honest, unselfish, indomitable
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: hellcat in the history of conservation.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I want that title.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: I want to be the indomitable hellcat.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: That's an awesome title.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: So she with this Audubon Society.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: She heard that, like, among other things, they were allowing
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: people to hunt and trap birds. Yeah, on this, and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: she showed up and used the things she learned being
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: a suffragist and like asked these really tough questions and
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: then managed to get her hands on the mailing list
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: of all the members and sent out these flyers like
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: you know what they're doing up there?
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah. If there was a movie, yeah, based on this,
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: they would be the big bad and she would be
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: the superhero.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I love it. I love it so much.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: We do have a couple more women we want to
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: talk about, but first we have one more brick forward
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, And
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: we're back with Marina Silva, who was born on a
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: rubber plantation in the Amazon in Brazil. She was illiterate
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: until the age of sixteen, but then she went on
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: to get a history degree. This was after she had
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: a pretty severe about a couple of severe bouts of
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: illness and a lot of tragedy in her family. In
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty she helped found Brazil's independent trade union
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: movement and participated in peaceful demonstrations with other forest dwellers
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: against deforestation, not only for the harm it did the environment,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: but also two indigenous communities that lived in those forests.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: She became the country's youngest senator after her election in
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four. From two thousand and three to two
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: thousand and eight, she acted as Brazil's environmental minister and
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: ran for president a handful of times, once as a
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: representative of the Green Party, and.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: She didn't win, but she got close.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Like she was in the top three, she was and
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: is very active in anti deforestation efforts and in preserving
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: the Amazon. As of now, she is the acting spokesperson
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: and leader of the Sustainability Party. For her work with
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the environment, she has been nominated and won several awards,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: including the United Nations Environmental Program naming her one of
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: the Champions of the Earth. The topic of deforestation in
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Brazil is a hot topic to this day. In twenty nineteen,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: those were those devastating fires in the Amazon, and Silva
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: continues to speak out against government policies and actions that
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: are bad for the environment, and as we say at
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: the top, with the President Biden's climate some happening right now.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: I got a news item right before I came in
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: about her talking about this and about what the Brazilian
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: government has been doing or not doing in terms of
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the environment.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: All right, So Peggy Shepherd who has been active in
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: environmental justice since the nineteen eighties. As part of this,
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: she co founded and serves as the executive director for
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: we Act for Environmental Justice, a nonprofit based in New York.
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: She started out as a journalist, writing for Black Enterprise
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: magazine and writing speeches for politicians, and Shepherd was very
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: involved in politics, particularly involving the intersection of environmental issues
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: and communities of people of color. She was once arrested
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: for protesting the leakage of a SEWIS system in a
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: nearby river, and just last year in twenty twenty, she
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: was appointed to New York's Environmental Justice Advisory Board, and
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: in twenty twenty one, she was appointed to the White
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: And not only that, she.
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: Also acts as a trustee for the Environmental Defense Fund
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: and holds a position on the executive committee of the
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: National Black Environmental Justice Network.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, she's doing a lot. I know everyone on here.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I think we do a whole episodes
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: on everybody on here. They're all doing amazing stuff. Let's
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: finish out this list with Joannetal. She's a member of
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the Oglala Lakota in South Dakota, and beginning in the seventies,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: she became really active in preserving the land there. She
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: protested uranium mining in the area and the potential of
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: nuclear testing in the Black Hills. For her work, she
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: has won awards and recognition, and she went on to
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: co found a think tank focused on public health and
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: land issues called Native Resource Coalition. Over the years, she
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: has continued to be outspoken about environmental issues and fight
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: for environmental justice, especially for her indigenous community. So these
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: are some amazing women that show that, yes, women have
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: been and are doing this work around environmentalism and also
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: these intersections of that, because I do think that when
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: it comes to sort of the corporate mainstream green earth packaging,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: you can forget all of the things that the environment
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: touches and all the intersections there. And so I love,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I'm so inspired by what these women are.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: Doing right and yeah, and just to be able to celebrate.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: At the same time, I'm sure they're exhausted.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: No work never ends, that's for sure.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Ever, Well, listeners, if there's anyone we missed, or if
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: you would like us to expand any of these bios
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: out into a full episode, let us know. You can
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: email us at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: You can find us on Instagram at stuff I've Never
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Told You or on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Thanks as always to our super producer Christina.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: Thank you Christina, and thanks to.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: You for listening. Stuff I Never Told You is production
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, I Heard Radio app,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or where you listen to your favorite shows.