Can you rap if you can’t breathe? Or if you’re trying to survive a Category 5 hurricane?

Nope.

In fact, you can’t do much if the air stinks, or if you’re battling catastrophic floods and winds.

Reverend Lennox Yearwood, the President and CEO of the non-profit Hip Hop Caucus, gets it. That’s why he’s mobilizing the social justice organization he founded to help stop climate change.

Rev. Yearwood, 47, is the father of two teenage boys, his “biggest inspiration for making the world a better place,” he says. A graduate of Howard University’s School of Divinity and a retired U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer who became a vocal opponent of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rev. Yearwood is also the force behind a nationwide effort to get hip hop-oriented Millennials to register and vote.

On behalf of Moms Clean Air Force, I caught up with Rev. Yearwood just after he’d attended both political party conventions and was on his way to Baltimore for a rally in the wake of the latest judicial decision not to prosecute police officers for the death of Freddie Gray. With all of the work he does to promote racial equality, why did he want to make climate change part of the conversation, I wondered? And what could moms learn from a guy who chats about carbon dioxide emissions with hip-hop icons like Academy-Award winner Common, Sean “P Diddy” Combs, and Jay-Z (yeah, Beyonce’s husband).

I had to know, so I got him on the phone. And truth be told, he knocked my virtual socks off.

Your organization is dedicated to advancing justice, equality and opportunity. How did you realize that climate change fit into that equation?

Rev. Yearwood: Climate change really hit home for me after Hurricane Katrina. I was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and I still have a lot of family and friends there. They were devastated when the hurricane struck. I went down and started organizing the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign, a coalition of national and grassroots organizations to advocate for the rights of Hurricane Katrina survivors. It didn’t take me long to connect the dots between climate change and environmental justice because so many people who’d suffered during Katrina were the disadvantaged and poor.

I’d been active in the Middle East-focused anti-war movements of the 2000s, which were very “siloed.” In other words, there were a lot of factions protesting the wars but they weren’t working together. I realized that in Louisiana as well as other parts of the country, we needed to be broad-based to actually have an impact politically. So while I worked in the black community, I also reached out to the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, and other environmental groups and we began working together.

How’d that turn out?

We grasped that even if Katrina hadn’t happened, Louisiana is still called “cancer alley” because people living there are exposed to so much pollution and so many toxic chemicals. While recovering from Katrina was important, we decided we needed to focus on not just the environment, but the “environs,” the actual places where people live. We started campaigns to link communities together and to raise awareness about the whole picture, not only the floods and hurricane damage.

It dawned on us that climate change is a civil rights issue, not just in Louisiana but in a lot of places,  cities like Chicago and Detroit, where people are breathing really dirty air. Pollution is giving kids asthma. It’s making a lot of people sick. The more we connect the dots, the more we see that we need to organize, because one thing we have learned is: the power of the people makes a difference.

How are you using Hip Hop artists to do that?

Last year, we organized the Act on Climate tour and sent artists around the country talking about the importance of solar. This year, because we believe in 100% renewables, we’ve unveiled a limited edition branded “THINK 100%” fitted cap to “support the movement to get 100% clean energy for all”. We’re organizing a diverse group of artists to create music and culture we hope will inspire all of us to solve climate change. We started a project called “People’s Climate Music,” headlined by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa, that is registering people to vote all summer long. We’ve also put out an album called HOME, an acronym for Heal Our Mother Earth.

Is the Hip Hop community taking advantage of the renewable energy revolution? 

Yes! Lots of people are excited about being part of the solution. (Tweet this) They don’t want just to work for companies like Solar City. They want to become entrepreneurs and compete with Solar City. They want to be the catalysts for the green economy, be self-sufficient, create jobs, put solar panels on their own homes as well as on others in their community.

I think of “hip hop” as being focused on younger, primarily single people, maybe even predominately male. Are there moms in Hip Hop Caucus? “What is the Caucus doing to reach out to women, and moms in particular?

In everything the Hip Hop Caucus does, and the reason we fight so hard for justice, is because we know the impact of injustice on our communities, especially on the mothers and children in those communities.

Our work defending and protecting the most vulnerable in our community (especially mothers) is the foundation of our work, and at every level of the Hip Hop Caucus, mothers have key positions.

“I’m a believer in people. If we come together, and love one another, we’ll succeed.”

NOTE: This article originally appeared on MomsCleanAirForce.org. Thanks.

The post Hip Hop Caucus Makes Climate Change Reason to Vote appeared first on Big Green Purse.

I asked Maggie Fox, the Executive Director of the Climate Reality Project, an old friend, and a colleague from my days when we both worked for the Sierra Club, to explain why we all need to make climate change a personal and public policy priority.

* Maggie, when you and I met, you were working to
protect public lands in the Western U.S. for the Sierra Club. Why did you shift
your focus to climate change?

In my mind, the two are
one and the same: protecting our planet from climate change also means
protecting some of our most precious natural wonders. I have spent a happy
portion of my lifetime in the outdoors: mountaineering, leading expeditions,
and exploring some of the most beautiful and wildest places in the world. A few
years ago, I flew over Glacier National Park, a place where I have hiked and
climbed, and I could not believe the change I had seen. Where once there had
been deep, vast glaciers, the glaciers are now largely gone with only a few
small snowfields left. And this is both incomprehensible and frightening to me.
Despite all our technological advances, we are still deeply connected to the
natural world. Climate change affects our natural landscape, the ecosystems
around us, and ultimately all of humanity in profound ways. That makes it one
of the most pressing crises we face as a species and a planet. It is the
challenge that brings us all together to solve.

* I’m fascinated by the description of this
project as the Climate REALITY Project. What is that about? Do you think people
don’t take climate change seriously, or don’t consider it a real threat?

 Unfortunately, while the
science has long been settled on the fact that climate change is real,
happening now, and caused by human activities, there is still a loud and too powerful
denier industry out there. The Dirty Energy industry has spent hundreds of
millions to foment denial and doubt about whether climate change is even
happening. It’s the same playbook the tobacco industry used for years to hide
the health impacts of cigarettes. Our goal is to break through the fog and
shine a light on the reality of climate change and the available solutions.

In fact, these are
exactly our goals for 24 Hours of
Reality: The Dirty Weather Report, a worldwide, online live event on
November 14 and 15. We’re convening many of the world’s most powerful voices from
science, government, business, foreign policy, and culture, in a timely
dialogue about how climate change impacts all of us. You can learn more about
the event on our website, climaterealityproject.org.

* You and I both, along with many other
scientists, environmentalists, and citizens, have been trying to raise
awareness about climate change for decades. At this point, what are the biggest
obstacles that still prevent the public from embracing solutions to our climate
problems?

Climate change has been
a big, slow-moving problem. Its impacts at first seemed diffuse, far away in
time and place, and hard to pin down. But we’re seeing greater and greater
evidence of our warming planet and changing climate on a day to day basis, as
Dirty Weather — extreme heat, floods, storms, droughts, and fires — become more
intense, more destructive, and more local. In New York City, where I am this
week for 24 Hours of Reality, Superstorm
Sandy brought climate change into reality in particularly devastating ways —
affecting people’s lives, homes, and incomes.

This new reality requires
our communities and elected leaders to step up to take action on climate
change. That’s why during our event, we are inviting all our viewers to take the
Climate Reality pledge:

 “I pledge my name in support of a better
tomorrow, one powered by clean energy. I demand action from our leaders to work
on solutions to the climate crisis. I pledge to get involved. I pledge to share
this global promise. By uniting my voice with a million others, we have the
power to change the world.”

* What specific solutions does The Climate
Reality Project support for reducing climate disruptions? A carbon tax? More
investments in renewable energy? A more vegetarian diet?

There is no silver
bullet for solving the climate crisis. Instead, there are a broad array of
solutions, from individual choices we make every day that reduce energy
consumption, to broad, sweeping legislative changes that require serious action
at the state, national, and international levels. Every action at every level
that combats climate change is one we support. During 24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report, we will be
dedicating a portion of nearly every hour to discussing the solutions people
all over the world are implementing right now, from the comprehensive climate
legislation passed in Australia and South Korea, to the groundbreaking program
to limit carbon pollution in California. These are some of the places that are
showing us the way forward.

* Do you have a particular message on climate
change that will resonate with women, who are the primary readers of my blog?

 Unfortunately, and
unfairly, women are particularly hit hard by the impacts of climate change. Not
everyone may realize this, but women make up a majority of the world’s poor. In
developing countries, they are most often the ones responsible for growing and
cooking food. And they depend on the farmland, forests, and sources of water
that are easily damaged by extreme weather and sea level rise.

But women are not just
impacted by climate change; they are critical agents of change. To quote
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change: “We are 50% of the population around the world and we
represent more than 50% of the solution.”

Around the world and across the
United States, women are standing up for their livelihoods, their communities
and their families. We are using our voices to call on the leaders of the world
to confront and solve this crisis. And we will be heard.”

RELATED POSTS

Why Climate Change  Matters to Women

Top Ten Reasons to Take Climate Change Seriously

As Climate Change Heats Up, Poison Ivy Gets Worse

The post Tune in to the Climate Reality Project’s “Dirty Weather Report” appeared first on Big Green Purse.