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- [Narrator] Remember field trips and first dates? Generations have come to the Exploratorium to learn and play. Now we need your help. And every dollar you donate will be doubled. Sustain the wonder.

- Hello, and welcome to tonight's conversations about landscape for After Dark Online. My name is Kate O'Donnell, my pronouns are she/her. And I'm a climate educator and program developer. I am very excited to introduce our guests tonight but before I do, I would like to recognize that we are on occupied stolen land. The Exploratorium sits on occupied Ramaytush Ohlone land, and I am coming to you from occupied Chochenyo Ohlone land. On behalf of the Exploratorium, we would like to thank and honor the Ohlone people for their past, present and continued stewardship of this land. Now I'm very honored to be joined tonight by three amazing people whose work I greatly admire. Our panel includes Doria Robinson, Andres Soto and Isabella Zizi. We'll start by introducing Doria. Doria Robinson is a third generation resident of Richmond, California, and the executive director of Urban Tilth. A community-based organization rooted in Richmond, and dedicated to cultivating urban agriculture to help the community build a more sustainable, healthy and just food system. Urban Tilth hires and trains residents to work with schools, community-based organizations, government agencies, businesses and individuals to develop the capacity to provide, to produce 5% of its own food supply. Formally trained as a Watershed Restoration Ecologist, Doria has also worked on organic farms and is passionate about exploring her work from the perspective that physical, social and economic health is dependent upon ecological health. That the restoration of one depends on the restoration of the other. She's a certified Permaculture Designer, Certified Bay-Friendly Gardener, Certified Nutrition Educator, and a Certified Yoga Instructor. She was recognized as Environmental Advocate of the Year for Contra Costa County and as Woman of the Year for Contra Costa County in 2010, and in 2011 she was presented with a Community Resiliency Leadership Award from Bay Localize. Doria currently lives in the neighborhood she grew up in in Richmond with her wonderful twins. Welcome Doria.

- Thank you.

- Next I'm excited to introduce on Andres Soto. Who's also a legend in the Richmond environmental justice community. He is a lifelong resident of the Richmond area and has spent adult life as an advocate for progressive change on the local, state and national levels. He is the Richmond Community Organizer for Communities for a Better Environment or CBE. And it is one of the preeminent environmental justice organizations in the nation. The mission of CBE is to build people's power in California's community of color, and low income communities, to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution and building green, healthy and sustainable communities and environments. CBE provides residents in heavily polluted urban communities in California with organizing skills, leadership training, and legal, scientific and technical assistance, so that they can successfully confront threats to their health and wellbeing. Andres is a seasoned organizer and a co-founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance. He also sits on the boards of seven non-profits and he is currently a planning commissioner in the city of Richmond. He is also a working musician in the Bay Area and has played his saxophones around the world. Andres is also a proud father of two sons and is enjoying grandfatherhood with his four grandchildren. Welcome Andres.

- Thank you, although that's a little old, I'm no longer a planning commissioner.

- Also good to know. Is a former planning commissioner

- Thank you for the glowing introduction.

- Absolutely, I'm really excited to have you all here. And finally last, but by no means least Isabella Zizi is an environmental activist and a member of the Northern Cheyenne, Arikara and Muskogee Creek Nations. She is the youngest member of Idle No More SF Bay. And Idle No More SF Bay is a grassroots, all volunteer organization, composed of native and non-native allies dedicated to climate change activism. It is native women led and multi-generational. Idle No More's mission is to creatively do all it can to ensure the future of coming generations by addressing environmental harms. It stands for clean air, water and soil, safe jobs and a sustainable future for the generations beyond. Idle No More's beliefs and conduct are rooted in native tradition and bring an indigenous perspective to climate work. Members pray, conduct teach-ins, coordinate local nonviolent direct actions, encourage people to envision the future they want to help create, offer indigenous leadership and work with other groups who resist the fossil fuel industry. Isabella is a signatory on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty. She was born in Richmond, California and grew up near the refinery which exploded in 2012 and sent 15,000 people to hospitals with respiratory issues. This explosion motivated her to become involved in creating a better world and stopping climate chaos. Welcome Isabella.

- Thank you, Kate.

- So, before we get into our discussion together, I think it'd be great for our audience to get to know your work a little bit more than the short overview I just gave. Could each of you just tell me a little bit more about your organization and maybe one of your recent projects?

- Sure, I'll jump in first. So as you mentioned, Communities for a Better Environment is an organization focused on environmental justice. And so that can mean different things to different people but for us, it's identifying communities like Richmond, like East Oakland here in the Bay Area, where we do work directly in the community with allies, with members, and really fight for people to clean up the environment, to make the environment healthier. And in Richmond, we're particularly dedicated to the notion since that 2012 fire and explosion to the notion of a just transition for Richmond away from an extractive economy to a sustainable, renewable economy. And that has many components in a diverse community like Richmond. And over the last several years and most recently, we've been really working on a rule called Rule 6-5, with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District that could potentially reduce the toxic particulate emissions, which is the fallout from the refining process that has been poisoning our communities for generations. Could reduce it by 70%. And, we are just one meeting away from the board taking a vote on this. I'm feeling positive that we will prevail. We have science, we have justice, and we have the law on our side. Now that doesn't mean you always win even when you have that stacked in your favor, but, with our allies and our members we've been really able to move the ball forward on the discussion of this. And, at the same time within Richmond, we've been with allies, in an organization we call, Richmond Our Power Coalition, where, all these different aspects that the different allies work on, whether it's housing or food issues, or refinery issues, or transportation, and, land that all of us are working together through the Richmond Our Power Coalition to advance the cause of the just transition in Richmond. So I'll stop there.

- Thank you, and we're definitely gonna be talking about some of that legislation a little bit later.

- Yeah, I can kind of pick it up and kind of continue on with the our power kind of perspective. So Urban Tilth is the organization that I'm a part of and been a part of for over 14 years now. And, what we do is we, take the forgotten and dumped on blighted spaces that we kind of grew up with in our community and work together with other community residents to transform them into places that are gathering places, places that are alive with food and flowers and butterflies and hummingbirds and things that help you heal your soul and grow the kind of food that can help you heal your body. And I think the most important part of that is that we do it together, with each other, sharing knowledge, teaching each other how to do this healing and restoration of land. And it's directly within Richmond, right in the Iron Triangle, in North Richmond and some of these most impacted communities that have been dumped on for years and years and years and years, and kind of forgotten. And it's with the people who live right there in the community. So it gives people something tangible, that they can do with their, the precious hours of their life to make their lives a little bit better, to make their own lives better, to make the lives of their neighbors better. I think that we have been a real catalyst for young people in our community. A place where young people have gathered and learned together and grown up together in a lot of different ways and stepped into leadership roles and learned how to lead, while doing impactful things on the ground, not just having kind of cool, snappy slogans, but also literally growing the food that will nurture a family. I think that this a transformative experience. And Urban Tilth has really been just humbled, excited, happy, honored to be able to hold that space for people to go through something together and create something good together. I think that also, over the years especially, kind of punctuated by that fire, we've moved more and more intentionally towards incorporating environmental justice, climate justice, climate change training, teaching in all of the work that we do. So we work at both Richmond High School and Verde Elementary School, and have community programs at our farm. One of our big projects that we're doing now we're building a three acre urban farm. And just incorporating this kind of essential learning that you don't necessarily get in schools, especially public schools around the environmental dangers that face us, especially as a frontline community. And teach things like what is the sacrifice zone, FYI, did you know you lived in one? And I think incorporating that into what we do so that people who are directly in the line of fire understand what's happening. Or at least have an opportunity to engage, with that whole body of knowledge and possibly meet up with one of our partners in our power coalition and get activated. Become activists, get directly involved in making change. Not just through growing food and helping people actually heal their bodies, but also making policy change and standing, standing in the way of destruction. Climate chaos. So I'm gonna leave it there. Maybe I'll say one last thing and that is, our biggest projects definitely these days, over the last year it's been feeding more people, feeding families through our farm, through our connection to other BIPOC farmers who are regional. We've been reaching out and connecting with other farmers so that we could feed a lot of families through COVID. The work that we're doing sustained over 400 families each week for the last year. So they didn't have to go out, if they had pre-existing conditions or they're elders, we would bring food to their doorstep, healthy, whole, organic produce, produce grown without chemicals, every week. Some, for over 200 families, it was for free for a year and we're continuing to do that work. And I think the biggest project that we're doing now is trying to really make that, that effort an institution enrichment by establishing and actually owning the land and establishing for the longterm, for the duration that North Richmond farm as a center of health and organizing in Richmond. So, yeah, thank you.

- It's really so awesome to be able to be part of this line up. Andres and Doria have known me for quite some time now through my organizing with Idle No More SF Bay and Idle No More SF Bay has actually been going through such a beautiful transition of our inter-generational and multi-generational leadership. At first, it was led by indigenous grandmothers who started it late 2013 because of a prayer group that they were actually part of for over 10 years, where they were actually praying for clean air, clean water and clean soil and definitely finding ways of more sustainability and more structure and more balance for humanity. To live and be in a place where the next seven generations won't have to worry about the harms that we have currently lived in our lifetimes. And just last year, actually maybe two years now, that baton has been passed down to me and my other awesome members of Idle No More SF Bay, we're small, but we're very mighty. And they actually call me the baby grandmother because over the last seven years I've just been intaking all of their knowledge and wisdom and support and guidance to where, it's really important to have that intergenerational leaving of knowledge and support to happen, so that way, we can continue on continue that legacy of what they have been doing their whole lifetime and that we to, my generation too can pass that on to those who are even younger than myself. And I see, amazing young leaders now who are taking over the streets, who are, doing lots of different blockades and just being so fearless. And I'm totally for it, and I'm totally here to support it. And, you know, just over the years, Idle No More SF Bay has been really raising the awareness about the refineries more locally here in our own backyards and even connecting the dots between other communities that deal with, not just refineries, but also, mining of uranium, pipelines and the extractions of oil in other territories, indigenous territories from North, Central and South Americas and educating people and really showing people, just because it's not happening in our backyard, doesn't mean that it's not happening in other people's backyards and even in a much worse situation. And, more recently, we've actually been very supportive with the Anishinaabe who are up in Minnesota, who are stopping the Line three pipeline. We used to do, more in person actions but because of the pandemic we've really transitioned into doing more online work. Which I still think is very impactful. And now that more regulations are opening up for us to be out in public we've also been participating in awesome street mural. Non-violent direct actions in San Francisco or in Oakland where we share our support visually for people to see, across the world and be inspired by the arts that we draw, the images that we create and these images aren't, they don't come from a place of hate. They come in a place of love and envisioning what our world would and should look like with it being fossil free. That's one of the biggest things that we continue to ask and invite people to, touch into their imagination, touch into their inner childhood thoughts of, what would you, what kind of world would you want to live in if there were no fossil fuel harms or distractions or any harms to be done to our mother earth what kind of world would that look like? And what kind of work is there to would there to be, is needed to be done to make sure that we can continue to push for that and to actually live it. So there's lots of transition happening, and I think I'll probably stop from there.

- Okay, thank you all so much. And I just wanna say how honored I am to be sharing this space with you tonight. So thank you all very much for being here. So, we're obviously focusing tonight on environmental justice in the area of Richmond and for any of our audience who maybe isn't quite as familiar with that, as you all know due to environmental racism, our ZIP code as one of the top determinants of our lifespan. Can you please sort of help us understand why this is, what it means and how it directly applies to Richmond, what's going on in Richmond that affects this?

- Well, I think this notion of your ZIP code being a determinant is something that emerged out of the public health field. And public health looks at mortality, morbidity within a community. And so when you start applying the different layers of risks that exist within different ZIP codes, what you see is this differentiation in life expectancy. And what it's really tied into is economic and social and racial segregation. That is, not just history of the United States, but it's living history of the United States, it continues to exist today. So in a community like Richmond, first came the railroad, then came the refinery, then they built the town. And, so when we look at that kind of history and then later on, the Ford Motor plant and the Kaiser Shipyards, these major industrial developments that impacted the community. And up until really the World War II era, Richmond was predominantly a white working class. Now it had its own ethnic divisions. There were Italians, there were Portuguese, there were Mexicans. There was, Croatians, Serbians, Japanese Americans, there were a few African-Americans, and native people have always been here. And so you had that kind of situation, but in the 1920s with industrial expansion, then the war years, most of the people came here from the Midwest with a significant population from the South. And they brought their culture with them. And what we saw in the 1960s was, just like many other urban areas, white flight, as the GI Bill opened up the suburbs for development, the interstate highway system was built to get them back and forth, and an abandonment of communities like Richmond. And so it was really in the 1960s, after the urban uprisings in '66 and '68 that exacerbated that white flight and created the Richmond we know today as a community that's predominantly people of color. It's continued to go through its own demographic shifts. But the one thing that has stayed the same is the persistence of poverty, in those ZIP codes closest to the industrial facilities. Why? Because they have the lowest land values, the lowest housing values. So that means that's one of the few places where people with limited educations or other social barriers can actually find a place to live. And so that's, and then we have to take into account the whole redlining history, that has been very active in communities like Richmond. And we've seen the legacy of that all around the community. And so that has had a disproportionate impact on a whole variety of things, because, it's property taxes that help pay for public education so that the education system has always been a challenge in terms of providing a quality education for the community. And how do people move on to academia if they're barely getting out of high school. And so we've seen all these challenges, that's also led to disproportionate rates of violence and gun violence, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. And so, all these social challenges are the risk factors that create this differentiation in life expectancy over time between different ZIP codes.

- Even with that, you can add to it. That talks to causation, like what color, all the causes that were at work to make this happen. But then the lived experience of that is if you're living day to day in a neighborhood where people are shooting each other, you probably aren't gonna go out for a regular evening walk. 'Cause it's dangerous. And then if live in a community where a grocery store isn't gonna come because you don't hit the markers of income level, high school education, all the things they actually use to determine whether or not they're gonna have, fresh fruits and vegetables offered, in an easy way within walking distance of your house, you're not gonna have that. And what you are gonna have is super easy access to all these kinds of foods that'll kill you. Kinds of fast food and convenience store and whatnot. And you're not gonna really wanna go and hang out outside of your house, after you get out of work. And so you're gonna get, habits like living habits, where it just leads you towards disease. And then on top of it, you've got environmental pollution and, multiple highways, a port, and then you've got a whole bunch of people who are ripe to be sick in various ways. Not really from their own choosing, but really from the system, and how all of these causes have created the circumstances of illness.

- A story that I, I share quite often now is, when I was in elementary school, we were taught the Shelter-in-place. They did like a rehearsal of Shelter-in-place, and think in California, it's a Shelter-in-place because, an earthquake might happen. So of course they tell us to go underneath the tables or go inbetween doorways. And then they, I remember my teachers shifting it to if you start to see any kind of smoke in the air, or even if you start to breathe something in that doesn't really smell right, make sure you go indoors, make sure you have like a bag or a bucket full of old towels or old clothes that you don't want to use, and cover any sort of cracked windows, or if there's any open spaces in between your doors. Just make sure that they're covered with a towel. So that way none of that comes into your house. And little did I know, that was because we live next to a refinery and all of these ports. And I also want to uplift the recent spill at the Chevron, excuse me, the recent spill at our beautiful Keller beach, which is one of the last natural beaches left in the Bay Area. And it was, what was it? Over 6,000 gallons of oil. I think my number's a little off right now but.

- It was about 750 gallons.

- Thank you. And, that is a beach that is, that almost everybody in Richmond goes to. Has been going, I've been going there ever since I was a little kid. That is the closest beach that we're able to spend family time and quality time and just be out in the sun. And now, even before, it has been heavily contaminated, and people are still going to this beach. And, there was no real solution as to how, or even any say if they fully cleaned up that oil in the water. And so that's impacting the people who go in the water, it's impacting the sea life that's in the water, people still fish for the crabs, for the fish that's in the area. And it's not a safe thing to consume or to do.

- I think that living here in Richmond, one of the ways that just reminds you of the reality that we're living in, in terms of the potential impact of toxic, industrial, accidents is Wednesday at 11 o'clock. Every Wednesday at 11 o'clock, there's an alarm that goes off everywhere in Richmond. And it's always funny when somebody's visiting, and those alarms go off and everyone who lives here is just like normal, we're just going about our business and whoever's visiting is totally freaked out. 'Cause it's like, And we're like, "Oh, that actually means everything is normal." It's working. And, it's just a different reality.

- Yeah. And, I mean, and this goes back generations and generations. The first high school in Richmond was Richmond High School. And to this day, the mascot is the Oilers. So people that have lions and tigers and bears and broncos we had a guy in an oil can on the side of the football field. That's so that's how pervasive, that's just one example of how pervasive the mindset of industry is inculcated into the culture of the community.

- Thank you all for helping understand that and helping our audience understand that. And Doria you'd mentioned sacrifice zones in the Iron Triangle, and just to make sure that everyone sort of understands what that is in the neighborhood. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

- Yeah, so, it's something that actually I've been trying to learn more about because even though I grew up here I don't really know. No one ever taught me all of these things, and I've been really learning about it as an adult. So basically, especially, in terms of now carbon markets and carbon credits, there are in the carbon market scheme, you allow certain industries who buy into this carbon market to pollute, to continue to pollute, and maybe even pollute at increased levels in certain areas because they are, in theory, buying credits and in theory, improving something somewhere else in the world, that will reduce carbon imprint so that it can continue polluting in the place in some place where their factories are, where their refineries are, where they're extracting and whatnot. So, unfortunately for us in Richmond, we are one of those places where it's allowed under the carbon market scheme for pollution to continue and even increase, under that paradigm. We're a sacrifice zone, where our ourselves, our bodies, our kids, our health is sacrificed under that market scheme to in theory, reduce carbon emissions. I think that there are a lot of sacrifice zones. You could look at Cancer Alley in Louisiana, you can look at places in Kentucky along the coal fields. You can look at, places around the globe, that industry and the powers that be have decided are worth sacrificing. That the people that live there are just not, they don't matter as much as whatever goals of kind of industry and fossil fuel burning, profit making is. And I think that one of the kind of take homes is that not only does that just, it just, it makes me so angry, that we're not human enough to put people to care. But, after talking to people who actually come from the places that these schemes are supposedly helping, like indigenous people in South America and Central America where supposedly forests are being, protected or planted, you find that on the other end of these schemes is another sacrifice zone but it's a different kind of sacrifice zone. Where they're planting a whole plantations of non-indigenous trees that's completely wrecking, the natural flora and fauna of an area that a whole community, survived on with for a millennia. And they call that an improvement. They call that, kind of carbon trade and it's actually hurting people, oftentimes in both places or the math just doesn't actually work or nobody ever followed through to see if the improvement ever actually got made. It's really a scam. But we're taught that that's gonna help us in the climate crisis. We're gonna do this carbon trading market and that's a solution. And so for me, when I talk about us, Richmond, places like Richmond being a sacrifice zone, it's also connected in my mind to the need for more education, the need or identifying false solutions and being really clear on what futures do we really need. What is it that we're asking or demanding when we talk about reversing, stopping, slowing climate change? I think it's really, really important for us to be clear on that. So we don't actually reproduce what's happening in climate change in any of the new solutions that we're proposing.

- Yeah, and maybe, jump in, you mentioned specifically the Iron Triangle, and that is what used to be the downtown. Now it's kind of called Central Richmond but it was called Iron Triangle because going back to the industrial legacy of railroads, it was defined by railroads on three sides of it. On the Western side and the Southern side, it was a Santa Fe railroad or BNSF now. And on the Eastern side, was the Southern Pacific railroad. So the Southern Pacific railroad now became Amtrak, and the BART station and the BART line. So that's one side, the BNSF yard is now still there on the Western side, but actually the Southern side is one of the stories of resilience in Richmond. The railroad tracks got taken out and slowly over time it's been converted to the Richmond Greenway. And so, it's a bicycle path, it's a walking path. Doria and Urban Tilth put gardens and parks and orchards out there along with other community groups. And so, , Rich City Rides does bicycle repair down at Unity Park, which was a broad community effort to create that park, it was a community vision, taking into consideration in the design of that. So, just defining the Iron Triangle really also helps give a window into that history and that legacy. Of both the challenge and the resilience of the people.

- Yeah, we were having a conversation with the activists Youth Vs. Apocalypse for Earth Day, and the way that they sort of very succinctly put it was that the climate crisis was based on the notion that some people are disposable. Especially black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Pacific Islander and other people of color. And I think, yeah, that term sacrifice zone I think really sort of succinctly encompasses that. So, thank you for sharing that. But you mentioned some of the, amazing, I mean, one of the reasons we're all here together is you have all resisted that. You've all pushed back and done really amazing things for the community. So I'd love to transition to talking a little bit about that and what are some of the tangible changes in the community that you've seen and what are some of the things you're still working to change?

- You wanna go first Izzy?

- Yeah. So, thank you. This is a really good question. I would definitely like to say that I know that my time of so-called activism has been very short, but I have also noticed a very big shift in, really the part, like people participating. There's a lot more people participating and normally or in the past, when you talk about climate issues, most of the time you only see white faces. We'll see white male faces at that. And now, you're seeing amazing women of color who are taking lead, who are taking back the leadership that was once happening before and people are starting to follow that lead again. And it's honestly remarkable to witness this, in my lifetime. And also, as I was mentioning, more younger people are stepping up and more younger people are becoming more aware and understand the concern that's happening with our climate and knowing that, unfortunately, we're kind of at this dead-end where it's gonna be very hard for us to really transition away from fossil fuels, which should have happened years ago. I think about, I think about back in 1980, when ExxonMobil knew. They knew, they had scientists that had told them if you continue to pollute, if you continue to refine oil, then you will definitely play a huge role in drastically dropping our climate. And, what did they do? They decided to hide that information and continue to make this profit. And thanks to amazing people who had pulled those statements out, who had pulled that information out, who had made it public. And it's just a continuous thing. When success that, I could think of that Andreas has also been part of, we're part of this coalition called Protect the Bay Coalition where for instance, the Army Corps of Engineer here in the San Francisco Bay was actually planning on a dredging proposal, to dredge our beautiful San Francisco Bay between like a 13 to 15 mile radius from Martinez all the way through the Carquinez Strait, where it's actually home to four of the refineries in the East Bay. And the dredging proposal was to actually deepen that canal. So that way more tankers could come through our bay to drop off more barrels of oil to these refineries. And this oil would have, been coming from our relatives up north in Canada. The first nations relatives who are dealing with the extraction of the tar sands and tar sand itself is one of the most dirties oils that is even being extracted from our mother earth. And it's very harmful to everybody's health and wellness, and is very cancerous, can cause lots of sicknesses and illnesses, not only to people but also to the plants as well, and even the sea life. And there's no solution as I was mentioning earlier of properly and successfully cleaning it out the water because it's so dense, it just sinks straight to the bottom. And so the people, going back, the people back in 2019, had really risen up in the most successful way possible who have submitted over 500 public comments to the Army Corps of Engineer after having a public meeting with their representative. Where they were like, no way, we're not gonna let you dredge our beautiful bay in favor for the fossil fuel industry. And because of that, and also because there was no, there was no entity that was actually trying to really put in any money and buy, what is it called? They didn't wanna offer any of their money to make this project continue. And they actually needed, Andres--

- They needed a co-sponsor to help pay for the environmental impact process

- And that didn't happen. And so that was a huge victory for us. We were able to save our bay, and not let these refineries continue to, burn more oil or even transport more oil through our bay.

- Yeah, I'll pick up on Izzy's point about transformation of the community. Because this has been a long evolving process. Back in the '60s, nobody was really even thinking about this, certainly not articulated in any important or let me say, in any significant policy impact process in a community like Richmond. The industry completely dominated the politics, and the economic landscape of the community. And it was really with the turn of the century into the 21st century, and the rise of a broader, progressive movement with some roots in Richmond certainly bringing together environmental justice advocates, and police accountability advocates and people who just wanted to see a more humanistic way of running our community, started pushing back. And started running candidates for city council. And notoriously, Chevron leading the way was having to spend more and more money. They used to just get away with $250,000. Then it went to 500,000, 750,000, a million. And by 2014, they notoriously spent three and a half million dollars in the local mayoral and city council race, and all of their candidates lost. And so, what's happened now is they have taken a much more subtle type of community, psychological approach. They've co-opted people once again by spreading cash around town and buying loyalty. They've created an online news service presence. Richmond Standard, which is a fake news service, but it hearkens back to the standard oil days for the old timers, to reminisce about that. And then now in the most recent election, the usual cabal of forces, political forces in Richmond, like Chevron, the Council of Industries, the Richmond Police Officers Association, the Richmond Firefighters Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and now because of the coal terminal, 11 coal terminal and others, Sims Metals have all thrown down money and Chevron didn't throw any money down 'cause they know their name is now poison, politically. If you say, "Oh, that's the Chevron candidate." That's political poison. And so they had to take a more settled, redistributed kinda way of influencing the elections. And so this is a change in consciousness in the people of Richmond, about how they perceive their community and their governance. So I think, that's really the result of, 20 years of people doing this day in day out, like Izzy was saying, demonstrations are nothing new to Richmond anymore. When we had the demonstration after the Chevron explosion in 2012, in 2013 on the anniversary, we had a march. And we had 3,000 people gather at the Richmond BART station, march up McDonald avenue, down the Parkway and around through Point Richmond to the gates of Chevron. And so, that really has been a turning point. And so the landscape of politics has changed but they haven't rolled over and played dead. They just had to get a little bit slicker about the way they do their business.

- I also feel like we still have a lot of work to do. Growing up here in the Iron Triangle, no one ever came knocking at my door to talk to me about Chevron and the impact of Chevron, for all the years that I've lived here. Even still today, I live right here in the Richmond Greenway and, no one has ever knocked on my door to talk about these things. Even though I'm involved in the movement, I feel like we have a lot more work to do. And I feel like one of the ways that we can engage people who have a lot on their plate already, they're trying to make ends meet, they're trying to raise families and whatnot is to actually be in the community creating things that help make their lives better. And talk to people. Not just when it's time for voting, but every day when they're walking their kid to school when they're walking home from school, when they're out trying to take care of their health. And, you know, fight off diabetes. I hear that so many times people out walking through the gardens and talking about how they're struggling with a health problem. It's like working with the land and actually transforming the spaces where people live, creates an opportunity to honestly connect with people. And then you can build and then there's something you can talk about. And then there's something you can, get and introduce people to, share knowledge that you have, listen to people's ideas. Sometimes we assume that the community, wants something, is interested in something. But we haven't actually listened to them. Not in a long time. And so, I feel like land is a place where that kind of magic can happen. Not just connecting people but oftentimes the land itself, it has a lot to teach us. There are so many metaphors on a daily basis just engaging with land. And the best way I think to, encourage people to become activists to become active is actually to get them to care. Honestly, deeply care about the land. About all of the different types of animal, people about the bird people about, like when people actually start to care about all the living things and themselves, their bodies, then it does matter what's in the air and it does matter what's in the water. And it isn't just, oh, that's Chevron. They just always do that. And we can't do anything about it. When you actually care, you can be ready to fight. So I feel like the work that, some of the work that we're doing especially at Urban Tilth to create those spaces, to hold that kind of space, is actually the essential work you need to have an honest grassroots movement that comes from the most effected people and not just people who have that kind of access to education and resources.

- Dario, that ties in so well with my next question. But first, since we're specifically mentioning Chevron by name, I do wanna acknowledge that the Exploratorium does receive funding from Chevron, for free science educator workshops. And I think it is important to acknowledge that before we continue this conversation. So, one of the threads that I think that is just so beautiful between the three of your work is this connection to land that you were just talking about. Between earth and farming, the toxic tours that CBE does. The Moors walks that you've done sort of between the refineries and really guiding people between those pollution points. In each of your work, there is this tie between kind of activism and connection with the land and Doria maybe you just gave your answer on this but I'd love to hear from the other two as well, why is it important to connect with the landscape as a path to advocate for environmental justice?

- Wanna go, Izzy?

- Sure, thanks Andres. What really came to mind for me. Okay, I guess this story wants to be shared. On one of the Refinery Corridor Healing Walks that we had organized between 2014 and 2017, it was a four year commitment to walk from one refinery town to the next. From Pittsburgh to Martinez, Martinez to Benicia, Benicia to Rodeo and Rodeo to Richmond. So it was a four-month process where we would walk. One walk for each month, over the course of four years. And there were over 1,000 people that had showed up and participated and were involved and supported us in many ways that where we all came together in alignment and agreement that, we do this because we all stand for clean air, clean water and clean soil. And wanna make sure that everybody, is able to live and also work in a sufficient way that is not going to cause harms to anybody. That's our human relatives and our non human relatives. And, when we would walk, we would walk in prayer and contemplation or in silent conversations about the works that we're doing in our own, in our own lives or with different organizations or even trying to figure out ways with how we can continue to move forward in a good way. And this one particular time, we were actually walking through the city of Rodeo which is home to Phillips 66 Refinery. And, in that area and even other places too depending on people's sensitivity to smell, it is very rancid. It smells like rotten egg, which is usually the smell of sulfur, which you should not consume at all. And it can cause you lots of headaches and lots of even, long-term health issues. But during this time for me, it actually brought me to tears and I had no idea why. Why I was crying so much, why, it was so heartbreaking to me. And then I started to really, be in that prayer, continued to walk with everybody else and I started to realize, it was the oil that was actually being pushed through these pipes that was telling us, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry this is happening and that I'm being forced to work for this industry that is harming you. And, not everybody's able to have that understanding or have that connection to, what I had experienced and that really opened up my eyes. Just because we cannot talk to the oil, just because we can't really have full conversations with the trees or with the beavers or with the hummingbirds doesn't mean that they're not paying attention. And, we have to all, we have to really rebuild that relationship with mother earth, with the land and connect ourselves in a way where we're reintroducing ourselves like this is who I am. I'm opening up myself to you to be in service for you. You have brought in so much life and for years and years and years, so many different evolutions of life. And here we are as a human race, one of the youngest forms of life on mother earth, we are even younger than the blades of grass that we see. And, we have to learn how to be good allies to them, be good allies to our non-human relatives and also, know that, to even not have like any form of, like a human enemy, that's one of the biggest things that I was also learning, not to have a human enemy, just because these people are CEOs of these terrible industries, doesn't mean that we have to hate them as a person, because at some point in their life, they wanted to be something, that was more balanced with mother earth and it's really up to us as much as we can to use our voice, to come as community, to remind them, that they are human, we are human and we have to do our job and be in service of our mother earth, as best as we can. So we can continue to live in a good way. That's my spill. Thank you

- Izzy, thank you so much for that story. And I would pivot to say that, when I got hired by Communities for Better Environment, I found out toxic tours were part of their service to the community. I frankly had never gone on one of the tours. I found a a binder that had a bunch of different toxic locations. But what I did was I decided to do a combination not just showing, these toxic hotspots and these polluting industrial sites, but also to weave in the social and historical realities of our community. The uprisings of the 60s, the history of police violence in our community, shifting demographics and neighborhoods and why are some neighborhoods more densely packed than other neighborhoods relating to the history of housing in our community, but also to show the resilience of the community 'cause it's not all a bummer. The people of Richmond for generations, even when I was growing up, and before I was growing up people from Richmond had a reputation of being tough within the Bay Area. And so, it could be a curse or it could be a badge of honor depending on how you decide to wear it. And I think that, it's important to tell all those stories because those battles continue. It's not just Chevron. It's not just the coal terminal. It's not just Sims Metals and CEMEX cement plant, but, one of the last, open spaces along the bay, the Point Molate complex is been released from the Navy and then given back to the people of Richmond. And there was close to it, well, the battle is still going on with the developer who wanted to put a casino out there. And now he wants to put, close to over 2,000 housing units out there. AstraZeneca in the south east shoreline, the old Seaport neighborhood is a Superfund site. And there had been a vote by the city council to clean it up to the highest standard. And the Department of Toxic Substance Control agreed with that, but then a new developer and a new city council on board, dangled some money in front of this new city council, with a bunch of corrupt people on it. And they voted to weaken the cleanup standards so they could build 4,000 housing units on it. And in fact, children would not be able to be there more than eight hours a day. People could not can or would not be able to plant trees and anything that they would want to eat in the ground because the ground would still be so contaminated, because the developer's too cheap to clean it up. So this is real time battles we're having about protecting, cleaning up the land. Using land that is available to regenerate for the community park space with historic recognition of, for example Yokuts Ohlone people who are not recognized. There's one elementary school in the school district called Ohlone Elementary School, and the Ohlone Greenway. And that's about it. And so, and there used to be Chinese shrimping villages out there which are legacy of the post railroad discrimination against Chinese workers. Over in Marin County, they have a state park, China Camp. Over in Point Molate, they want to build housing. So it's this sort of unequal development, and abuse of the land where Richmond gets targeted because historically there have been political people willing to sell us out really cheaply, just so that they can get paid and the developers can walk away with millions of dollars in their pocket. So it's that legacy that I've tried to talk about in these toxics tours that it's not just the industrial pollution, it's really the abuse of the land and the abuse of the people who live on their land, that is structural, that we, that is our challenges fighting that. And so, more recently, we've been trying to, instead of just fight the bad, talk about building the good, and one of those is about decommissioning, the Chevron refinery. What are the steps that it's gonna take? Because when the refinery closes down, who's gonna clean up that site? It's gotta be Chevron. They need to pay now for that eventuality. What about the workers who are gonna be displaced? They need to get retrained. Chevron needs to pay for that now for that eventuality. What about the fact that the city of Richmond's, general fund is dependent anywhere from 10 to 25% in any given year on the property taxes that come from just Chevron, not the other industries, but just Chevron. And so, how are we going to, rearrange the economy so that, we can continue to move forward as a community instead of just pulling the plug all of a sudden like Marathon did out there in Martinez, and, where nobody was given notice, County was not given notice workers were not given notice. They just said, "Hey, we're shutting down. Sorry you're out of luck." So those are some of the land use and abuse issues that our community is facing that we are struggling with in order to, make sure that we have a more positive future particularly the AstraZeneca site, with sea level rise because of the chemicals that were produced there originally. So, these are serious issues moving forward that can economically destroy the city or can help the city pivot into the new economy.

- Thank you all so much for sharing all of that and Isabella for being vulnerable with us this evening. And I wanna be respectful of all of your time but before we start to wrap up, Andres, earlier you had mentioned the legislation that is currently up for vote by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board. And we were hoping to have the results by now to be able to discuss but unfortunately the vote was postponed. I should note to our audience that we are pre-recording this program and the vote may occur between now and when it's aired on the 17th. So for those watching live, please check the comments to see the results, if there has been a vote before then. But in the meantime, can you help us understand sort of what is at stake here and what the results would mean?

- Sure, yeah and Doria was alluding to essentially the Cap and trade scheme where, we commodify pollution. And so Jerry Brown wanted to get that done. That was AB-398. And one of the things that happened was there was a companion bill designed to mitigate some of the damage. And that was called AB-617. One provision of that legislation requires local air districts to take refineries and require them to impose what is technically called the Best Available Retrofit Control Technology or BARCT. And in this case in refineries, targeting what is known as the catalytic cracker unit. So this is really the heart of an oil refinery. This is where they take the superheated oil, infuse it with the powerful chemicals, like sulfuric acid, and hydrogen different things, to crack the molecules of the oil that then become, the different gases that get siphoned off and become gasoline, jet fuel, aviation fuel, lubricants, diesel. This one single unit is responsible for most of the particulate matter pollution. That is the fallout, the physical fallout from this process that disproportionately impacts people who live near the refineries. For the first time, the air district actually mapped the dispersion of this particulate matter. And it shows a pattern from Chevron that goes straight up through, the Iron Triangle, North Richmond, San Pablo up the west coast of Contra Costa and directly into South Vallejo is as the most concentrated area but it's the broader impact, goes from Tiburon to Suisun, and all the way down to Emeryville. And that's just the Chevron refinery. And then PBF over in Martinez, their polluting goes east directly to places like Bay Point, Pittsburgh, Antioch. And what do these communities all have in common? Well, they're predominantly low income, predominantly people of color. That is not a mistake. So this rule, if they impose it would require them to reduce their emissions down to the level of 0.01 microns. Now, the industry and their allies, the building trades unions have fought against us every step of the way. A couple of weeks ago, after the last board meeting, this was to be the big hearing and hopefully the vote on it. And there's 24 board members. They are all elected representatives, either mayors or members of the board of supervisors of the nine Bay Area counties. So anybody who's got, who lives in the Bay Area has skin in this game. And, what they did was there were over 360 people on this Zoom meeting and over 180 people signed up to speak. And that's why the meeting started at 9:30 a.m and went to 4:40 p.m. Nobody can remember an Air District board meeting lasting that long. Needless to say, at the end of all the public testimony, the board was losing this quorum, there was not gonna be time for a discussion and a vote. So they have postponed that. It may happen on July 17th, they have not set a date certainly as this show is recorded. So, we are hopeful because we've been doing our homework that because this is a racial justice issue, this is an environmental justice issue, this is a climate justice issue, and an economic justice issue that a majority of the board will support this new rule. One of the things that was very critical was a majority of the people, the Stationary Source Committee, the committee that feeds into the board, as a whole overwhelmingly supported this stronger standard. And, the refineries and their allies are trying to support now, they were against the rule altogether. Now they support a weaker standard. So, that's where we're at. It was a tremendous organizing effort on the part of people who supported the stronger standard. There was ethnic, gender, and geographic and occupational diversity, that was really quite impressive at this board meeting. And, on the other side, not so. So, that's where we're at. And if people wanna help out, they won't see this until the 17th, but, one of the big things is contacting the board members directly and telling them what they want. So there's online petitions they can sign. And, sign on to letters that others had done, or they can email the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board themselves and submit comments saying they support the strongest standard for reducing emissions. What it would require is for them to impose, to install a piece of equipment called the wet gas scrubber. This is the most effective way of removing this particulate matter, from the catalytic cracker units or cat crackers. And it is used in a majority of refineries throughout the United States, even in Texas. So why should Richmond and Martinez not have the same kinda air quality standards that people in Texas have? And that's where we're at.

- Thank you. We will eagerly await that vote. And that sort of way people get involved is actually a perfect transition into my last question for you all tonight. Which is just that, tackling issues this big can seem really kind of insurmountable to folks. But, I mean, one of the reasons that the three of you, I'm so excited to have you all here, is that you're all just really powerful examples of how residents can take environmental action into their own hands. So I think my final question to you this evening is what are some of the ways our audience could get involved in your work? And if you had kind of one takeaway for people this evening, what would it be?

- Well, I'll jump in first. CBE is a member of several different coalitions. If there's people in Richmond, who want to get directly involved with CBE, they can get in touch with me, Andres@cbecal.org. Or any number of our ally organizations of the Richmond Our Power coalition, which Urban Tilth is clearly one of the core members, because there's many facets and different areas where people may want to direct their energy. When you're taking on, like in CBEs case fossil fuel industries, you're talking about global transnational organizations with tremendous power that have been responsible for death and destruction all around the planet. Whether it's in Ecuador or Nigeria or what's going on in Myanmar right now, or in Richmond, California. So, we're fighting the good fight on behalf of the people and, you know, they can get , I'm sure you guys can post something that would have multiple organizations people can get in touch with. But, I would say the real thing is, this is not something that you jump into for a hobby. This is a lifestyle commitment. This is years of dedication, of work, of refusing to take no for an answer. And that you have to stand up to very powerful interests and they will come at you. They will spend money at you. They will try to destroy your reputation. But if you know you're on the side of the righteous, then you've got nothing to fear.

- Just jump in really quick. So, Urban Tilth, the best way to connect with us is to come to our garden, come to our farm. You know we have most of our sites, it's been a little weird during COVID but most of our sites are open, have open hours where you can just drop by. We all have volunteer days where you can come and volunteer and, the first step is to coming hang out and then we'll see what happens from there. Oftentimes the people that are with us for the long run started off just dropping by on an afternoon, they wanted to see what we were up to. And, eight years later. They're there doing all kinds of amazing stuff. So, drop by, come check out our website. Join our CSA. If you wanna shorten supply chains and actually live the alternative, you can join the Farm to Table CSA, get some locally produced, organic produce that, employs local people, and doesn't depend on international trade. And yeah, that's it. So, I look forward to meeting new people.

- And as I mentioned earlier, I'm a signatory on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty. And actually, earlier today at 03:00 p.m, there was a really awesome webinar of indigenous women. Including myself that were, it's a call to action between now and the summer solstice, the day after the summer solstice. So as a signatory, we have two obligations. One is to conduct new moon prayers on every new moon of every month. And then the other obligation is to conduct nonviolent direct actions in any way, on every solstice and Equinox of the year. And since the summer solstice is coming up, we had decided to take a letter action to President Biden. And we have a goal, between now and June 21st to deliver 1000 letters to President Biden, really demanding him to stop the Line Three and Dakota access pipeline. You know he had, did a great job by finally defeating the Keystone XL Pipeline, which is over a decade. And lived multiple zombie lives and is now officially defeated. And we are really asking and putting, water protectors, they're literally putting their bodies on the line to ensure the safety and the protection of their waters, of the Anishinaabe wild rice of their territory, of their culture, to make sure that this oil pipeline does not go through and, having community and having the people's voices write a letter to the president is, I think one of the most powerful things that we can do to support and to stand in solidarity with the water protectors who are there. And people can go on Facebook on Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty to find talking points, to see the sample letters that we have for people to follow along. There's actually three letters that were created. So, Indigenous women who have signed onto the treaty, there's a letter for you, for Indigenous and First Nations peoples, there's a letter for you. And for our allies who are brilliant support and want to try and find ways to support indigenous peoples and support our actions, there is a letter for you. And there's also like a follow-up action on the summer, excuse me, on June 21st to actually tweet the president on Twitter, do a whole Twitter storm. And also if you don't have Twitter, you can also message and tag The White House and, you know, really asking more on his part and his administration to do its part to stop these pipelines. Thank you.

- Thanks. Well, Doria, Andres, Isabella, thank you so much for your time and your thoughtful discussion tonight. Thank you to the Exploratorium for supporting this important program and thank you to our audience for joining us. You can check out the comments for links to each of our panelists' amazing organizations. So thank you very much and goodnight.