Actions for Sustainable Change!!

Welcome to my first episode w/guest & yes, she's my daughter!  Faith Yorba has a Masters Degree in Environmental Studies & Policy.  She's here to discuss w/me 4 key actions we can practice that will most definitely create positive change for your future on this planet!  Listen & Learn what the most impactful things that you can do to help support climate action...:)

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Transcript

1:16

Hello and welcome everybody. Today we are going to be talking about four key daily habits that we can all practice to help support a healthy planet for our future generations and for yourselves. If you're aware of what's going on out there, we really all need to take action. There is some serious stuff happening out in the world, so we're going to talk about things that we can do today to make a change in the world. And I'm so very excited to have my daughter, my older daughter here with me, faith, and she is visiting for a few days and going to be leaving to South America, which she's super excited about because she's traveled all over the world, but she has yet to go to South America and she's leaving next week, and I have her here just until tomorrow. And she is excited to be here and do this podcast with me, and she knows a lot on the subject. So a little bit about Faith. Her name is Faith Yorba and she's an environmental professional, passionate about meaningful environmental policy, sustainable development, conservation efforts, and combating current environmental threats such as climate change and environmental injustice. She has worked with environmental nonprofits to help underserved and under presented populations, find climate and energy solutions that prioritize equity and resilience in her free time. Faith loves exploring, traveling, hiking, gardening, and reading. Faith earned her BA in environmental studies from UCSB and her master's in environmental natural resources and energy Law School in Portland, Oregon. So we are going to talk about being the change in the world and taking action. And I'm going to hand it over to Faith to give you a little introduction here. Yes, hello everybody. So happy to be joining my wonderful mother here to talk about climate action that we can take on the individual level. And I want to start by saying that I do think that the majority of the change needs to happen on the larger scale. We need to hold corporations and big businesses, governments accountable for the damage that they have done to our natural environments, to our water, our air, the things that sustain us. But I think that there's a lot of things that we can be doing as individuals as well. And so that is what we're going to be talking about today. And I think that at this point everybody is seeing the climate changing around us and it can feel overwhelming. What can we do when summers are becoming hotter and drier? Winters are increasingly, there's increasingly less rain and they're also warmer. We're seeing it. We're seeing less snowfall, we're seeing more intense storms. We're seeing wildfires. All of these changes are occurring because of our climate. And although the climate does naturally change as well, the changes that we're seeing and the warming that we're seeing around the world is happening at a rate that has never happened in not just recent history, but in the history of our planet. And so there are a lot of impacts of this planetary change, and a big part of it is changes to human life. We are all going to have to adapt to warmer drier world. As climate change becomes an ever pressing concern, it's hard to not feel overwhelmed by its increasing severity from hotter summers and drier winters to devastating natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes. It's clear that the environment around us is changing rapidly. While it may often feel like we as individuals are powerless in the face of these universal challenges, many of us still believe there's hope. I know I do. And in today's podcast we'll explore some tangible actions that each of us can take to create meaningful change in our lives and in the world around us for a more sustainable future. And if you hear a cat Puring in the background, that's our cat Mycelia. And she loves faith is one of her favorite people. So she had to be in her lap during this. It'd be cute if we were recording and video. So the first principle we're saying principles, but I don't know, some words kind of bug me. Sometimes daily change, we can say the daily change, let's just call it the daily change. So the first daily change is mindful consumerism, choosing wisely how we consume. Every product we purchase has a story, a lifecycle that begins with resource extraction and often ends in landfills or oceans at some point. So it's like how biodegradable is that product that you are buying? Where is it going to end up later on? Many everyday items are made with toxic chemicals that leach into the soil, air, and water causing long-term environmental harm over consumption. Exasperates this issue as products are frequently overused under recycled and discarded after minimal usage. So what can we do? And faith's going to go over some of these things. So I think that the first thing that we can do to be a more mindful consumer is to buy less. I think that our society loves to just buy more, more, especially in today's day and age where we can just buy things online and they show up at our doorstep the next day. So I think first and foremost, only buy things you need, and that is probably the biggest thing that you can do to have an impact in this consumerism, consumerism. And then additionally, I think we can be opting for more sustainable materials. So looking for things that are biodegradable, making sure things we are buying at the grocery store or things that are in containers are recyclable, recyclable packaging. A lot of things we think might be recycled aren't actually recycled. A lot of plastics aren't recycled. It really just depends on where you live. And so there's a lot of information and a lot of research we can be doing to ensure that we know what can be recycled in our communities. So it's really different. I have been living in Portland, Oregon the last three and a half years, and Portland recycles a lot more than what was recycled when I was living in Santa Barbara, California. So it's really just important to do your research and know what can actually be recycled and then try to only purchase things that aren't going to go straight to the landfill or wind up in our oceans. And so that is a really important one. Yeah, I mean, it's just sad. This really should all be all over mainstream media. Things really are ending up in the ocean because there's too much waste and there's not enough land and there's way more ocean water than there is land right on the planet. And so there's a lot of waste that's ending up in the oceans now. And so that's why it's kind of gotten out of control. And then another thing I think that we should all be doing is buying secondhand. If there is something you need, it most likely already exists and you can buy it secondhand, you can find it secondhand. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer to thrift something that you're looking for, but I think you normally can find it. And I think that's really important. And then the thing that I would say right after that would be specifically supporting ethical brands. So before I even go support ethical brands that is buying new things, I think it's important to buy secondhand. But after that, I think that you can do research and you can find companies that prioritize eco-friendly practices and transparency in their supply chain so that they're not destroying the environment or paying extremely low wages or there's horrible labor practices at the factories. There are brands that are actually ethical, and we as consumers should be doing the research to ensure that we're buying from those companies and giving them our money. And I'll put a link, there's two or three I can think in my mind of really good organizations that have great platforms that you can find these ethical brands. They're out there. They're out there. So it's good. News. And then the last thing I want to touch on because I already touched a little bit on recycling though, is reusing and repurposing. There are so many things that we buy that can be used in another way instead of thrown into the landfill, thrown into the trash, and that goes to textiles, like clothing waste, it goes to jars and containers that things that we purchase come in. And I think that there's a lot of things that we can repurpose or just use over and over and over again. I think that something too that I would love to see more of is when something breaks, fixing it, trying to find ways to ensure that the life of our products, the life of our electronics and clothing and everything, we can repair those things. Our grandparents, our great-grandparents, that's what used to be the thing. They didn't just throw things away and buy something new. It was always repairing what you have. And. Giving it a longer life. Yeah, I think big corporations have made that harder to do from what I've seen, but there are people that are fed up and that are trying to make change so that we can actually keep repairing things like our electronics, because I saw something on the, I'll bring up the Buy Now movie again a couple weeks ago that with electronics was really frustrating. There was this guy that repairs stuff like that, but he was saying that he literally could not, it was like they made it impossible for him to be able to take apart the product. Say if it's a phone or the device, they literally glue it together so that you cannot open it up to repair it. So it's made to just throw away and that needs to stop. So I think there's some stuff that's happening around that right now it sounded like, and that's good. News with all of this. I think just the main takeaway is that we need to be intentional about what we buy and how we use it. And with this, we can significantly reduce our environmental healthier planet. Yes, for sure. Thank you. Faith. Yeah, so if you have any questions about this, for sure reach out. I just really want to be supportive in getting this information out there and help anybody that I can to be able to do these things. So that's kind of like my mission with the business conscious choices for all that I'm starting. And we're going to go into the second choice, daily change, daily change that we can make and make choices of, which is eco-friendly transportation and reducing our emissions. Take it away, faith. Alright, so I think this daily change might be easier for some and harder for others, but in general, our daily transportation choices significantly impact the environment. As a transportation sector is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Not only around the world, but significantly. I think it's either the second or the biggest contributor in the US and a big part of it is personal vehicles. Specifically in the US we have a society that is really reliant on cars and you don't see that in every other country, but you really see that here. And so we need to be conscious of the emissions that are coming from our personal vehicles. And every decision we can make, even if it's just riding your bike or walking, every decision we can make can either exacerbate or help mitigate climate change. So we need to be conscious of our daily choices around our transportation. That is a huge way to reduce our carbon emissions and our personal. Footprint. And so ways that we can do that or by walking or biking whenever possible. And there's lots of e-bike. Well, I'll let you chime in on that because Faith knows about the e-bikes and that's getting more popular and they're way more sustainable forms of transportation. And that also offer health benefits when we do this. Embracing public transit, if you're somewhere in a city using buses, trains, and subways will reduce individual vehicles on the road leading to fewer emissions per passenger carpool or ride share sharing rides with others, reduces the number of vehicles on the road and cuts down on emissions. Consider the electric or hybrid vehicles that's obviously reducing fewer emissions. Then traditional gasoline powered cars working remotely helps this adopting flexible schedules and reducing the number of commuters on the road advocating for better infrastructure. So supporting policies and initiatives that support bike lanes, pedestrian friendly streets, and expanded public transit systems. This is an ongoing policy within our government that you'll see that you can vote for and advocate for. So by making thoughtful transportation choices, we can reduce our carbon footprints and move toward a future of cleaner air and healthier communities. And I just wanted to say a few things on that and that there are right now more than ever, a lot of incentives that exist at the local and state, maybe even federal levels around not only electric vehicles but electric bikes as well. And I think it's important to do research around that because it does differ depending on where you live. But you can get a rebate for one third to half the cost of an electric bike. And those are amazing. They can get you anywhere. It's fun, you're outside, you're biking, it's great. But as you mentioned mom, there is definitely a lot that is also going on to improve bike lanes and increase bike lanes, increase those areas where bikers feel safe and can commute to work. And then there's also a lot of incentives out there for electric vehicles and who knows if it's going to continue being like this with the change of administration administration happening. But the Biden administration created a federal, I dunno if they created it or if they just continued a program that existed, but I know that as of now, there is a federal program that exists for electric vehicle incentives for both new and used electric vehicles. And then there's also state programs that exist and you can stack those programs together and oftentimes get up to 50% off of a electric vehicle. And those same incentives do not exist for regular traditional gasoline powered vehicles. So it definitely can make your vehicle more affordable than buying a gasoline car. And on the bright side, on top of that, you are not paying for gasoline after that. And in many places, electricity is way more cost of, is way more cost effective than gasoline. So you save money way after you purchase your vehicle as well. So I just recommend people do a little research around there because you would be pleasantly surprised to see that there are a lot of programs out there to support people in transitioning to more sustainable transportation methods. Yeah, I look forward to getting an electric bike someday soon. I love riding a bike and I think the electric bikes are really awesome. So let's talk about the third daily change, daily change, which is sustainable food choices. I love this one, eating for a healthy planet. So we're eating for the planet and I'm a foodie. I love food and this is a huge part of my life. And so what we eat and how our food is produced has a profound impact on the environment. Industrial agriculture contributes to deforestation, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil degradation. It actually, it contributes to a lot more than that, but we'll just say those things right now and I won't go off on a tangent. By making conscious food choices, we can promote sustainability and reduce our ecological footprint. So what can we do? I'm going to have faith talk about these points and then I might chime in. There are a few things we can do to make more sustainable food choices. And at the top of my list is to eat a plant-based diet or at least more plant-based meals. I have been a, I'll say flexitarian because I will eat fish occasionally, but I have been primarily a vegetarian for the last almost eight years. And I also grew up a vegetarian until I was about 10. But I chose to be a vegetarian again when I was older as I started learning about how harmful the meat industry is on the environment. And I think that at least limiting your meat consumption, you don't have to cut it out completely, but limiting your meat consumption is the number one thing you can do to have a lower impact on the environment through your diet. And plant-based diets generally require fewer resources and produce fewer emissions than diet centered around meat and dairy, and they're better for you in many ways. Meat and dairy can be really hard to digest on our bodies. This isn't a health, this specific podcast isn't super centered around health, but we could have an entire podcast just about how the health impacts of cutting out specifically red meat so bad for you. And the carbon emissions that it causes, right? Yeah. So the animal cruelty is one thing, but it really does raise carbon emissions. The CO2 that has released the methane gases from the mass production of the S factory farms is disgusting. And literally you can't even breathe. If you go near those areas, you literally cannot breathe. That's how bad the air is and it is causing so much CO2 concentration in one area. The greenhouse gas emissions that are released, I mean from cars as well, but from factory farms and any kind of animal agriculture contribute significant amounts of methane CO2 emissions. And that in turn raises the temperature of our planet. So I mean, it's all connected, but specifically animal agriculture is so bad because oftentimes forests are cut down to raise cattle on, right? To raise. Yeah, that's really bad. To raise cows. And so when you cut down trees, you're releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. And then when you replace those trees that used to be carbon sinks, they used to be absorbing carbon. So you cut those down and you replace them with something that is literally emitting, emitting, farting out to be blunt methane gases. And so it is a vicious cycle there. And I think that if as conscious people on this planet, if we can make choices to limit the amount of meat we're consuming, then there will be less meat production in the world. And I think that that is a huge change that we can make. On some level. It really has to do with the demand. So it's like if we as consumers, we can vote a lot with our dollar and if we stop purchasing certain things as much at some point it has to slow down the production, right? Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it also creates demand for new products. So with less people eating meat and more people wanting alternatives to that, you see a lot of meat alternatives. And I'm not trying to preach that those are the answer to all your problems. Not necessarily all super healthy either, but you just see way more of that now. You see way more restaurants offering vegetarian burgers and veggie options, veggie meat alternatives because consumers are choosing that. They want that, right? There's demand for that. And so I think that that is creating a lot of change and I love to see it, but there's so much more that we can be doing there and there's so many people that can, you don't have to become a vegan or become a vegetarian, but you can reduce the amount of meat that you're consuming. And I think that is really important. And then to kind of go into the next thing that connects to this a little bit for our food choices is choosing local and seasonal foods. And so I think on the meat side of things, consuming local meat is, I mean, in sustainably farmed meat is really important too. It has, I think that oftentimes regenerative agriculture is used or regenerative ranching or whatever. There's many terms, but there's ways to farm animals and farm produce in a way that doesn't have the same amount of emissions. It. Has no emissions. It is better for our planet and for our environment. And then on the produce side, and just for food in general, when we're buying local and seasonal foods, we're also supporting local farmers. And our food doesn't have to travel as far. So transporting food long distances has a large carbon footprint, and often local food is fresher and more nutrient rich as well. So there's lots of benefits to buying local and go support your local farmers. And make sure that they're using sustainable agriculture practices too, like organic, regenerative, sustainably certified labels to really be environmentally friendly in their production methods. And that is such a huge, huge thing that we can do. So I could go on and on about that subject, but we're trying not to go on and on about anything here, but there were a couple other things that Faith was going to mention. Yeah, two more quick things. I think reducing food waste, so planning your meals accordingly. I think buying only what you need when you're at the grocery store, not letting things go bad. I know that we can't all go to the grocery store every day and get the freshest thing, but just making sure that we are being mindful and not just purchasing a bunch of food and letting it go to waste. And also I think hand in hand with that is if you do have food waste, do your best to compost. It's a great way to divert organic waste from landfills where the emissions just go straight into the atmosphere as well. And then the. Packaging. And the last thing is limiting single use packaging opt for fresh bulk or minimally packaged foods to reduce plastic waste as well. I mean, plastic production is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. And then also every piece of plastic that you have ever purchased in your entire life is still with us here on the planet. So just being conscious of that, I think. And by aligning our food choices with sustainability principles, we can nourish ourselves while also nurturing the planet, and that's what we want. We want to continue to be able to feed a growing population, but to keep people healthy and to not have to worry about our food choices being negative and negatively impacting the planet. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well said. Faith. Thank you. Do you want to go into our last change, number four? Yeah. That we can do? Definitely. I love this one. I think that this could have been the first one we mentioned because I do think it is the one that can have the biggest impact. But for our fourth daily change is to be an engaged citizen, an voter, and making informed political choices. Policy and legislation play a crucial role in addressing climate change and environmental degradation as individuals. One of the most impactful ways to advocate for sustainability is through political engagement. However, there are some people who feel disillusioned by the political system. I totally get that. And you may question whether voting even makes a difference, whether you choose to vote or not. There are ways to influence the political landscape around you and drive meaningful change. And we're going to jump into a few of those. Yes, you could talk about the voting if you want to go over that. And then I'm going to talk a little bit about if you're not. Voting, so for those of you who do vote, I think that it's really important when an election's coming up, and not just a week before the election, but try to do your research early, research both the candidates and the ballot measures and the policies that are at play for a given election. And look beyond party lines focus on candidates stances on climate action, clean energy, environmental justice, sustainability, what do they support? I think that it's often that people forget that who you elect has a lot of say in a lot of these choices around climate change and what they're going to prioritize. Right? And it's really important too. You can oftentimes find information and background on candidates that relates to who is funding their campaigns and are they in the pockets of big oil and big gas and all these fossil fuel companies, are they in the pockets of giant corporations like, I don't know, Amazon or whoever. So doing your research is very important. And then try to vote in more than just the big presidential elections, right? There are local, state and national elections that all shape environmental policy and local elections in particular often have a direct impact on community level sustainability initiatives. And so we see these changes in our community, and those are connected to local policy, and you have the opportunity to impact those local policies. So definitely make sure that you're voting in all elections, stay informed and also support ballot measures that tied to environmental initiatives. So do your research on those. Sometimes they're worded tricky and it's, there's a lot of jargon there, but make sure that you understand what you're voting for and the impact that it might have on the local environment. I'm going to go over some grassroots activism that we can all do instead of voting or even on top of voting, we can join or support organizations advocating for climate action, environmental justice, or sustainable policies. Grassroot movements often influence policymakers from the ground up and there's many out there to choose from. So this is a great way to do it. However you want to support them by donating, by volunteering, by signing petitions that they send you. There's many different ways that you can get involved that are very easy to do. And another thing is participating in public comment periods. This happens when many government agencies solicit public input or proposed, submit public input on proposed regulations. Your voice can shape policy by supporting or opposing specific actions, organize or attend protests and rallies. I love this one, and I can tell you that there's going to be a whole lot of this happening this next year. So get ready. And this is a big thing that has been part of our democracy for a very long time and has created a lot of change. So participating in these protests and even organizing protests and rallies to happen in your communities, peaceful demonstrations, raise awareness and show policymakers that public comments on environmental issues matter. Petition for change. Organize or assign petitions that advocate for specific environmental policies or practices, educate and inspire your community. Host discussions, workshops or informational events to raise awareness about climate issues and inspire collective action support eco-conscious businesses, this is another one that I love. We can support eco-conscious businesses in our own areas or online. There are hundreds and thousands of them and where we put our dollar matters. So use your purchasing power to back these companies up advocating for sustainable practices and holding those accountable that do not. By engaging in political action, whether through voting or other forms of advocacy, we can help drive the systemic changes needed to combat climate change and protect our planet for future generations. This has been such a fun topic to talk about. So thanks so much for inviting me. To join. It's a topic we about to love, and it was perfect timing that Faith was here, and I'm so glad that she did this with me. I'm going to miss, so do you want to just say a little bit about what you're going to be doing in South America? Sure. So I am setting out on a at least. Six months trip in South America where I am going to be primarily traveling, backpacking and hiking around Patagonia and the Andes Mountains in Peru, and really honing in on my Spanish skills. I think that's something that's really important to me because I'm hoping in the future to work in the environmental advocacy and protection space, but where I am working in helping Spanish speaking communities. So yeah, that is kind of my next chapter. And I am setting out next week. So thank you so much. Everybody, for being here, anyone that's listening, and I would really appreciate if you could give me a quick five star review, a little written review, anything you want to say that's greatly appreciated that keeps everything going here. And I would love to keep doing this every week. I'm very passionate about it. It feels really good. There's a lot of purpose behind it, very purpose driven, and there's lots to discuss. And so let's be a community and make change happen. Thank you so much and have a beautiful day. Bye.