Making a Difference | Meet a Youth Climate Organizer

Hey, friends. I’m Dr. Universe. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.
   
 In this episode, we meet Adah Crandall. She’s an organizer with the Sunrise Movement. That's a youth-led organization working on solutions for climate change. She started organizing as a middle schooler when she took on the Oregon Department of Transportation. 

If you want to learn more, check out Sunrise on Instagram or the Green New Deal for Public Schools. 

As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Transcript

Dr. Universe

Hey, friends. I'm Dr. Universe. If you're anything like me, you've got lots of big questions about our world. I get lots of questions about climate change. Right now, I'm working on a big project to help answer those questions. That's how I met Adah Crandall. She's a 17-year-old climate organizer. She told me about how she got started in middle school. I can't wait for you to hear all about it. Let's get started.

What is activism to you?

 Adah Crandall

I think the definition really depends. A lot of the people I work with really identify with the word organizer, because it's like people who are coordinating the power of other people collectively to make a really big impact. The idea essentially is that the people in power only have power because we gave it to them. And because there are a lot of unorganized people that could have a lot of power. They're like potential energy, but it's not being used. But organizers or activists go and talk to their communities, and they get those people to all collectively use their power together. That, to me, is the biggest part of an organizers job.

 Dr. Universe

Can we talk about how you got involved with organizing and middle school?

 Adah Crandall

In seventh and eighth grade, I went to Harriet Tubman Middle School in North Portland, Oregon. And the school is right next to one of the most polluting parts of the interstate five freeway. There are tens of thousands of diesel trucks that pass the building every single day, and my classmates and I started learning about the health impacts of diesel pollution and the fact that these emissions have been linked to asthma and lung cancer, and all these really scary things. And that was terrifying to learn as a 13-year-old, that we were being exposed to that, especially in Portland, a city that has this reputation of being very green and sustainable. That narrative really started to crumble. 

 I ended up forming an environmental justice group at my school with a bunch of other students, and we started going to all of these government committee meetings and giving testimony and lobbying our legislators at the state capitol to regulate diesel emissions. But, over time, we built up a lot of support against the expansion of this freeway and really started a movement in Portland.

Dr. Universe

If I remember right, you would go every other week to the ODOT headquarters?

Adah Crandall

In middle school we had a student group at the school that would meet in a classroom once a week and go and lobby. But then, like a year later, when I started high school, I joined Sunrise Movement, specifically the Portland hub, and I founded a campaign called Youth v. ODOT where students went and protested outside the Department of Transportation headquarters every other week for over a year.

Dr. Universe

And then that started gaining more momentum when journalists and politicians started paying attention?

Adah Crandall

Yeah, so Youth v. ODOT started with literally five kids outside the Department of Transportation headquarters with a megaphone and some cardboard protest signs. And we kept showing up. We were so persistent, and eventually it really started to catch on because suddenly elected officials were showing up and attending the rallies. Suddenly it was getting picked up by first local media and then national media. And suddenly, we were in the New York Times and then Vice News because nobody had ever questioned ODOT in this way before.  Nobody had expected it to be a group of teenagers that are finally going to call out the fact that our state's Department of Transportation is a major leading contributor to the climate crisis. 

And so, because we got so many people talking about it, it suddenly became this really hot button political issue where candidates for governor in the last gubernatorial race in Oregon were being asked on live TV, "What's your stance on highway expansion because these climate protesters are saying that you shouldn't support this?" It never would have happened three years ago without the organizing that we did. 

And I think that that really goes to show the power that young people have organizing, right? Because there's all this unorganized public, but when those people come together and are consistently showing up, we have a lot of power. And that ends up trickling out to affect entire political systems. 

The I-5 expansion project as well as several others are currently indefinitely postponed by ODOT, largely because of the organizing that we did, the continued community push back on projects, and also because that pressure led them to finally admit that they do not have the budget to actually do these projects, which advocates have been saying for years and years and years. But because it was suddenly so much in the political spotlight, the new governor of Oregon, Tina Kotek, finally was like, "Hey, this is not possible. It's not possible because of climate. It's not possible because of budget."

Dr. Universe

That's awesome. So, during that whole time that you were doing that every other week, what kept you going? How did you not burn out or give up?

Adah Crandall

It was definitely hard, and I definitely had a lot of moments of wanting to give up and feeling really burnt out. And that's definitely something that I've learned from. But I think, ultimately, the thing that kept me going was the people that I was organizing with and knowing that I had this incredible team of other organizers that were there to support me, that were there to carry the work when I needed to take a break. And just coming back week after week and still seeing other people around me showing up and still seeing people be willing to be there and stand outside a building and sing and chant, it felt really hopeful. And I tend to not be a very hopeful person, but Youth v. ODOT rallies were really a thing every two weeks that helps me feel a lot more connected to what I'm fighting for and the people that I'm fighting with. 

And I'll also say it's pretty crazy that a group of high schoolers with cardboard protest signs went up against a multimillion-dollar state transportation agency and won. They have literally millions of dollars to pour into advertising and PR to make these projects look good. But they don't have the same stake in this that we do. And they don't have the same sense of urgency and drive and also that really deep community and camaraderie that organizers do. And I really believe that the community that we built through the campaign is why we won.

Dr. Universe

I love that so much. And now you graduated early so that you can organize full time. Can you tell me a little bit about what Sunrise is?

Adah Crandall

Yeah, Sunrise is an organization of young people all across the United States who are fighting to stop the climate crisis and create millions of good jobs in the process. That's been around for a few years now. We have hubs and chapters all over the country. I originally joined the hub in Portland, Oregon, and I'm now working for the national organization on the Green New Deal for Schools campaign where we have a few hundred students around the country petitioning their school boards for a Green New Deal for Schools, which is a piece of national legislation that can also be passed in resolutions at a district level. 

The Green New Deal for Schools at a top level is a plan to transform our schools to face the climate crisis and invest in Black and Brown communities that have been historically really neglected by the school system. And our specific campaign demands are free and healthy lunches for all students. Safe and clean buildings. So getting rid of things like lead and asbestos. Having pathways to green jobs -- like connecting people out of high school with opportunities for really good paying jobs that are part of changing our economy to face the climate crisis. Climate curriculums and making sure that we're being actually taught the truth about what's happening in the world. Because there's a lot of effort right now to really erase history and erase actual science from our curriculum, and we want to make sure that people are learning the truth in schools. And then the last demand is climate disaster plans. So, making sure that when climate disasters do strike, our schools are prepared to be a place that supports communities and is able to distribute supplies and act like warming or cooling shelters for people.

Dr. Universe

What you're doing is training and supporting groups of students who are organizing in their own schools and districts?

Adah Crandall

Yes, so over the summer, we ran a two-week summer camp with 150 students from all around the country who came together in southern Illinois to learn about the Green New Deal for Schools, about Sunrise, about how to organize. And now all of those students are back in their own school districts, about 50 schools right now across the country, and starting their own Sunrise hub to petition their school boards, visiting every single school board meeting and asking for a Green New Deal for Schools, and my job is essentially to coach and train and support those students.

Dr. Universe

Do you have any advice for students who might be interested in getting started in something like that?

Adah Crandall

On September 28, Representative Jamaal Bowman is reintroducing the Green New Deal for Public Schools acts to Congress. He's hosting a big press conference in DC, and so Sunrise is bringing hundreds of young people to DC to be there and rally and support the Green New Deal for Schools. So, if you live in the DC area, definitely check that out. 

We're also going to be hosting a mass call right after that. So, if you follow Sunrise Movement, SunriseMVMT on Instagram, all of the information about calls and trainings and stuff will be there. We're going to have a lot of different opportunities to plug into the campaign, especially after the event on September 28. We're going to host an online training series and a big mass call. 

And then, I guess more broadly, for people to get involved in organizing. I think my biggest piece of advice to anyone is to first look around and see what work is already happening. I think a lot of the time people tend to want to get involved and start their own thing. And, you know, if there's nothing already happening that you want to get involved in, by all means, start your own thing. But a lot of the time, there are people around who care about the same things that you do that probably could use some help. So, looking into what climate organizations already exist at your school or in your neighborhood or in your city and just reaching out and saying, "Here are the skills that I have. Here's what I'm interested in. How can I help?" 

And I really want to emphasize that the climate movement needs everyone. We need people who can do art and paint banners. We need the people who can yell really loud into a megaphone at the front of a march. We also need the people who can cook food to bring it to people and knit sweaters and anything that you can imagine. Even if you don't consider yourself an activist or an organizer, this movement needs you, and you have a place.

Dr. Universe

How do you manage your anxiety and your grief and your anger about climate change without letting it get you stuck?

Adah Crandall

It's really hard. I feel like I struggle a lot with climate anxiety. It's really hard and really scary to be a young person in the world right now. And I think a lot of the time in organizing spaces, there's this tendency to say like, "Oh, you have to just be hopeful. We can do it. We're going to do it." And I think that there's a place for that. And I really do believe so deeply that we can and will win this fight. But there are also a lot of times when I really just don't feel it. And I think it's really important to be able to sit with that fear and that loss and that grief because the reality is there's so much that the climate crisis has already taken that we aren't going to get back and already so much has been lost. And I think it's important to take space to grieve that. And then also be able to lean on community and figure out the best way to take action forward. Because I really do feel like organizing is an outlet to deal with climate anxiety, to know that you are part of the movement that is going to transform our society to stop this crisis. 

I think people tend to get scared to get involved in organizing because they think that they don't know enough, that they don't understand all of the technicalities or all of the policy. And that is just not the case. These systems are intentionally set up to make us think that we don't deserve to have a voice and that we don't deserve to get involved and that we're not qualified enough or don't know enough. And that's a really intentional decision to prevent us from being able to make an impact. And so, it's important that you believe in yourself, that your lived experience is more than enough. So, you do not need to know the ins and outs of every policy to know that you deserve a seat and livable climate. You are so worthy of being in this fight, and we need everyone regardless of what skill set you have or how much you know or how old you are.

Dr. Universe

That's all for this episode, friends. Big thanks to Adah Crandall for giving us a window into organizing. As always, if you've got a question for me, you can submit it at https://askdruniverse.wsu.edu/. That's A S K D R U N I V E R S E at W S U dot E D U. 

Who knows where your questions will take us next.