Operation Climate

Gender equality and women’s empowerment have a lot of ties to climate change. In addition to being leaders of the climate movement, women and girls are often more vulnerable to climate effects.

Ilinca Drondoe is a student at Wellesley college who is passionate about the intersection of climate justice and women’s empowerment. Ilinca works with the organization Girl Up and the UN Foundation on projects related to the intersection of gender and climate. In this episode, we talk to her about the importance of gender equality in the movement, her role as a young person in climate advocacy, and tips to advance gender equality in the environmental space.

Check out the Women and Climate Change Act of 2021 here!

Season 6 takes the creative liberty to explore topics our podcasters are passionate about. From individuals to communities impacting the climate landscape, take a listen to the episodes that speak to you!

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Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Host: Katherine Li

Guest: Ilinca Drondoe

Audio Editor: Katherine Li

Intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, talks about the interconnectedness of different identities, and how the overlapping of them can create disadvantages in society. For example, a white woman can experience gender discrimination, but her experience is entirely different than that of a black woman’s, who also experiences racial discrimination on top of gender discrimination.

The same thing applies to the climate movement. Someone who is affluent has a much different experience navigating the climate crisis than someone who is of a lower socioeconomic status. BIPOC folks and those living in the Global South experience environmental discrimination in ways that white people or those living in richer countries don’t. When we acknowledge the different ways that people experience the climate crisis and work towards creating a radically inclusive and better future for all, that is called intersectional environmentalism. Intersectional environmentalism. The term was coined by Leah Thomas, a young environmental activist who you may also know as greengirlleah and the founder of the non-profit organization Intersectional Environmentalist. She also happens to be our guest on today’s episode of Operation Climate, and we are so excited to have her!!

Learn about Intersectional Environmentalist here! Follow Leah on Instagram here and here.

Read Leah's book, The Intersectional Environmentalist! You can find it here.

Season 6 takes the creative liberty to explore topics our podcasters are passionate about. From individuals to communities impacting the climate landscape, take a listen to the episodes that speak to you!

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Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Host: Katherine Li

Writer: Katherine Li

Reporters: Chloe Fey, Cameron Cho, Rowena Wong

Guest: Leah Thomas

Audio Editor: Katherine Li

The climate world is full of new, exciting technologies. The space is booming. Over the past 6 years, venture capital funding in climate tech has increased by more than 500%, reaching $56 billion in the US. One of these technologies, which has the potential to revolutionize both the climate space and many other industries, is quantum computing.

Quantum computing – even the term seems difficult to understand – but we at Operation Climate, a team of nerds, and our guest for this episode, Tanisha Bassan, are here to break it down for you. What is quantum computing, how can it revolutionize the climate space and help us fight global warming, and what will it take for us to get there?

Our guest for this episode is Tanisha Bassan. Tanisha is a physics student at University of Toronto, where she is passionate about solving complex problems with quantum computing. Young Innovator's to Watch Award 2019 from CES for her work in quantum machine learning. At 18 years old, she won this award for using IBM’s Qiskit software to classify a large dataset of breast cancer images to determine if cells were cancerous.

Here are some more resources to learn about quantum computing: 1, 2, 3

Season 6 takes the creative liberty to explore topics our podcasters are passionate about. From individuals to communities impacting the climate landscape, take a listen to the episodes that speak to you!

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Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Host: Katherine Li

Writer: Katherine Li

Reporters: Shrinarayanee Rengarajan, Sonia Joshi

Guest: Tanisha Bassan

Audio Editor: Katherine Li

These days, the kids are stressed. I mean, how can we not be? We spent some of our most formative years navigating a pandemic, keeping up with controversial supreme court decisions, and literally worrying about world peace. And on top of that, there’s the climate crisis. It’s no wonder why eco-anxiety is a phenomenon affecting people all over the world.

With climate effects becoming more intense and frequent, many young people are struggling with mental health effects having to do with worries about ecological destruction.

Circularity is looking to do something about that. 

Kiana Kazemi and Sarah Naameh are the founders of Circularity Community, a media platform that aims to support young people in overcoming their eco-anxiety. Go to @circularitycommunity on Instagram and you’ll see a variety of eco-anxiety resources, from educational guides on the relationship between mental health and the climate crisis, to eco-anxiety stories submitted by community members.

Learn more about Circularity Community here!

Season 6 takes the creative liberty to explore topics our podcasters are passionate about. From individuals to communities impacting the climate landscape, take a listen to the episodes that speak to you!

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Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Host: Katherine Li

Writer: Katherine Li

Guests: Kiana Kazemi, Sarah Naameh

Audio Editor: Katherine Li

According to the EPA “Although E-waste represents 2% of America's trash in landfills, it equals 70% of overall toxic waste”.According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, it takes roughly 500 lbs of fossil fuels, 50 lbs of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water to manufacture one computer and monitor. We have an E-waste problem. But, scientists and engineers are making strides to create more environmentally friendly electronics, including our guest, Dr. Aaron Franklin of Duke University.

Dr. Franklin and his lab caused a lot of hype recently, because they developed the world’s first fully recyclable printed electronics. Electronics are very difficult to recycle, because the silicon chips they use can’t be recycled. But Dr. Franklin’s work developed a recyclable electronic component using this material called nanocellulose, which can be recovered and reused without losing much of their performance variability. We’ll hear from Dr. Franklin about this work, the implications that it has on solving the e-waste problem, and next steps we need to take to make electronics more eco-friendly.

Learn more about Dr. Franklin's work here!

Season 6 takes the creative liberty to explore topics our podcasters are passionate about. From individuals to communities impacting the climate landscape, take a listen to the episodes that speak to you!

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Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Hosts: Raphael Mukondiwa, Avani Reddy, Katherine Li

Writer: Raphael Mukondiwa

Reporters: Raphael Mukondiwa, Avani Reddy, Maleeha Mahbub

Guest: Dr. Aaron Franklin

Audio Editor: Katherine Li

Producing waste is convenient. Many of the systems that produce the resources we consume use materials that eventually become landfilled. Grocery stores and their plastic bags. Restaurants and their styrofoam takeout containers. Fast fashion clothing stores and their garments that only last for a few months. It’s convenient for these places to use disposable materials. They can get it in bulk and they can get it for cheap. So we use them because they are what is offered to us.

But what if the systems that we participated in made being zero-waste the default? This is what we’re talking about on today’s episode of Operation Climate. More specifically, we’re talking about zero-waste grocery shopping and how the first zero-waste grocery store in San Diego came to fruition.

Our guest today is Isabelle Demillan, the founder of The Mighty Bin, the first zero-waste store in San Diego.

To learn more about The Mighty Bin, check out their website here!

Season 6 takes the creative liberty to explore topics our podcasters are passionate about. From individuals to communities impacting the climate landscape, take a listen to the episodes that speak to you!

___________

Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Host: Katherine Li

Writer/Producer: Katherine Li

Reporters: Chloe Fey, Cameron Cho, Rowena Wong

Guest: Isabelle Demillan

Audio Editor: Katherine Li

As part of Duke University's Climate Commitment Weekend, OC hosted our first LIVE podcast recording! Tune in as we talk to Claire Wang - Senior Policy Advisor to US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Rhodes Scholar, and Duke Alum - about her journey in the climate movement, how she stays motivated, and exciting things that are currently happening in the world of climate policy!

Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Host: Matthew Brune

Guest: Claire Wang

Audio Editor: Clare Sparling 

Music: Cali by Wataboi, what you thinkin by Wataboi

Global south countries, like countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, etc. experience the worst effects of climate change. Flooding devastating cities’ infrastructure, sweltering heat destroying crop yields that the local community relies on – in these countries, resources for dealing with these climate disasters are more limited than in the Global North.

Even though most people in the Global North that are involved in the climate movement know this, it’s difficult to actually understand and empathize with the communities that are being hit the hardest. Oftentimes because we don’t hear their stories. We don’t hear how their lives are turned upside down after a flood hits their town. We don’t hear about the impacts that rising temperatures are having on their local agriculture. And we also don’t hear about how people in these communities, especially youth, are leading movements within their towns, states, and countries to fight the climate crisis.

This series is meant to uplift the voices of youth that are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Today, we’re hearing the story of Yazid Mikail, a youth activist from Nigeria. He believes in the power of storytelling and policy advocacy to generate change, especially at the community/local level. We’ll hear from him about the power of local environmental action, the role youth play in local/state policy, and the projects he’s been engaging in in his home state of Kaduna, Nigeria.

Season 6 takes the creative liberty to explore topics our podcasters are passionate about. From individuals to communities impacting the climate landscape, take a listen to the episodes that speak to you!

____________

Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Host: Katherine Li

Writer/Producer: Katherine Li

Guest: Yazid Mikail

Audio Editor: Raphael Mukondiwa, Katherine Li

In this episode of In Conversation, In Community, we explore the concept of food deserts, inadequate access to healthy food, and community gardening as it relates to environmental justice with members of Black Millennials 4 Flint. Schanaque Watson, Aramis Jones, and Terrence Brown, organizers from the BM4F Memphis chapter, share their personal environmental justice journeys and what BM4F is doing to bring healthy food access and environmental justice education to the Memphis area.

To learn more about the Duke University Environmental Justice Oral Histories project, click here!

Season 6 takes the creative liberty to explore topics our podcasters are passionate about. From individuals to communities impacting the climate landscape, take a listen to the episodes that speak to you!

____________

Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Host: Katherine Li

Writer/Producers: Katherine Li, Erin Blanding

Guests: Schanaque Watson, Aramis Jones, Terrence Brown

Audio Editor: Katherine Li

We have a media problem. Not just in the echo-chamber of social media but in the mainstream media world as well. So how do we fix it?

As our guest for this episode, Elson Bankoff, puts it, “Imagine a world where there aren’t simply IPCC reports, but after each clause, a demand. Imagine a world where after each local broadcast, there are four events to attend to address the issue.”-- wow, imagine that world! This is what she defines as “Proactive media”. Educational media that is coupled with direct opportunities for action. Proactive media is needed to forward all kinds of social movements, including the climate movement because too often we’re failed by mainstream media that doesn’t connect the dots between world events and the climate crisis. And social media “activism” that begins and ends on a screen.

That’s what we’re discussing on our episode today with Elson Bankoff, a young climate activist from Washington DC. She runs a biweekly environmental justice magazine called Ecosystemic. She has seen the power of organizing and sees this publication as a means to change the course of the movement. Ecosystemic not only provides moving art and narratives but is gradually becoming a political force through their goal of creating Proactive Media.

Read Elson's manifesto on proactive media here.

Season 6 takes the creative liberty to explore topics our podcasters are passionate about. From individuals to communities impacting the climate landscape, take a listen to the episodes that speak to you!

____________

Visit our website to keep up with the OC team and for a full transcript of this episode! https://operationclimatepo.wixsite.com/operationclimate

Follow us on Instagram at @operationclimate!

Follow us on Twitter at @opclimate!

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

To contact us, DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

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Host: Katherine Li

Writer/Producer: Katherine Li

Guest: Elson Bankoff

Audio Editor: Katherine Li