The key is, and you know this, how can we communicate this information on climate change in a way that's going to attract them, it's got to be long term thinking as opposed to short term. You know what I mean? If I'm thinking, I'm sitting and I'm thinking, how can I attract people to come with regards to climate change, and I'm thinking how does this adversity affect you when it don't affect other people, you know what I mean? Is it fair, you know what I mean? Is it fair? With the income that you receive as opposed to somebody making $100,000. You're paying the same utility bills, the gas, electric and the water. Is it fair that we should pay as much as folks who are making that much, or is it fair that they're paying less than what we're paying or as much as we're paying, et cetera, et cetera? You can't come in there talking about the hemisphere, the stratosphere and all these things that our energy consumption is affecting, if I've got a shut off notice...
Kenner, A. "Interview with Bobbie Freeman." Climate Ready Philly. August 2019.
Ali Kenner, 13 March 2021, "On fairness and climate change advocacy", contributed by Alison Kenner, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 13 March 2021, accessed 30 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/fairness-and-climate-change-advocacy
Critical Commentary
This excerpt is taken from an interview conducted with Bobbie Freeman, a Black man who had lived in Philadelphia his whole life, 65 years. Mr. Freeman attended one of the Climate Ready Philly workshops in summer 2019; he was interviewed two weeks after attending the workshop.
The interview focused on social and environmental justice, racism, and gentrification, as well as strategies for political change.