A powerful new movement is gaining traction.

One built on environmental equity, justice and

inclusion, a leader of the movement and a young

changemaker will tell us how they're changing the

culture to move the planet forward.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Frank Sesno and welcome to Planet Forward

from the George Washington University, produced in

association with the Global Futures Laboratory

at Arizona State University.

In this season of reckoning, we've got to

change the culture around the way we consider

climate change, sustainability,

environmental equity and inclusion.

The Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. is in a

league all by himself in that regard.

He's founder of the Hip Hop Caucus, a minister, a

community activist, an Air Force vet.

He's got a quick wit, sharp eye and knows what's

happening down the street and around the world

because he's a climate change negotiator and a

storyteller.

And he's doing everything in his power to mobilize

young hip hop artists and anyone who will listen.

Hey Rev., thanks for joining us.

Man, great to be here.

The planet and our politics are on fire.

What do you make of this mess we got going now.

Our generation is not only fighting for equality,

we're fighting for existence.

And this is our lunch counter moment for the

21st century, which is tough because that's hard

for a lot of young people to kind of take that in.

In the 60s, young people, they saw that the lunch

counters throughout this country were segregated.

And they knew that was wrong.

They knew that the idea of white supremacy had to

end.

And so young students went to the Woolworths' counter

and they sat there and demanded that young people

of color get served.

And they they took it.

They were nonviolent.

And they took beatings.

They got coffee poured on them.

And literally the lunch counter became a

galvanizing tool to show this country at that time

that racism and segregation was wrong.

And you're saying that's what we got now, the

equivalent with the environmental movement,

that this is our lunch counter moment?

The climate crisis is our lunch counter moment for

the 21st century.

Climate justice is racial justice and racial justice

is climate justice.

Those who are first and worst impacted are

communities of color.

Black, and indigenous, and people of color are the

ones who are hit hardest by the climate crisis.

And there is also this real this kind of

extractive mentality, this kind of mentality, this

take, this greed, this putting forth profits

before people.

That that doesn't work for humanity.

And so they're realizing that to literally deal

with this, they are now breaking down the silos.

Our movement for many years has been a siloed

progressive movement in which you had women's

rights in this bucket.

Environmentalism in this bucket.

Gay rights in this bucket.

Whatever it was in their own bucket.

And they're saying that doesn't work because the

same entity that is causing us all problems,

that we need to come together and fight it.

And so now we're breaking down the silos, coming

together and now moving it forward.

So now when you hear about the movement for Black

lives, it also engages and includes queer lives,

you're about queer lives, you're about women's

rights, women's rights about climate change and

climate justice, because they're all connected.

I want to talk about trouble in the water.

What are you doing with this?

So trouble in the water, we realize that listen,

that the conversation around the Flint water

crisis and lead is something that even people

within Flint didn't quite understand.

And we were able to do a video that began to talk

about the water crisis, not just in Flint, but

also in this country and about what we can do to

solve it.

And again, connect the dots.

Let me ask you about another project you're

working on: it "Ain't Your Mama's Heat Wave." Oh,

that's actually a comedy special.

We actually have a number of comedians who go down

to Norfolk to study the climate crisis.

What's happening in Norfolk is it's actually

below sea level, it's sinking, it's very much

like New Orleans.

And so we went down there to use comedy.

"That water get too high.

All y'all hair, you're going to have to be

natural." We figured if they were laughing about

it, then they may want to be involved with it as

well.

And so "Ain't Your Mama's Heat Wave" is just that.

It's a funny comedy special that's coming out

soon.

You can check it out at Think 100 percent, Think

100 climate.com to get more information.

Tell me how you find humor in climate change.

"Kids get older, you buy them cars.

Now, I'm just trying to think about riding a kayak

down Church Street.

You know what I mean?"

Comedy is a great way of shedding a light on

somethings that are very hard to deal with.

Comedians like Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor

and Moms Mabley in the past, you know, they were

allowed to actually break down walls because

communities who heard them for the first time like,

"Wow.

I didn't think of it that way.

I never would have thought that was even funny." And

now we're doing the same thing with climate.

How do you, as a storyteller, make this

issue of climate resonate with young people of

color?

A lot of times the climate movement has been kind of

a Birkenstock movement.

Right?

And so they need to broaden and give it a

little bit of soul, a little bit of rhythm.

And so that's what I try to do because ultimately,

the only way we win this is by broadening this

movement.

Is it working?

You know, I think it is working.

I would say this, though.

One thing that I realized is that, you know, people

have asked me to bring culture to the climate

movement, but the climate movement has a culture

already.

And I think that they have to deal with that.

And they are comfortable seeing sometimes

predominantly men, but I mean white men.

That's what people have gotten used to seeing.

And I think that we have to change that culture.

So they've got to begin to see different voices

discussing this.

And I think that's where our success and where we

are beginning to see success.

It's a process.

It's really to have more faith in young people in

that regard.

I think that they realize the crisis.

I mean, they see it.

And I think that what we've seen is that we

could just kind of get out the way and let young

people tell their story that it has a huge impact.

And so we've seen that as well.

I think that we saw this throughout history in the

Civil Rights movement when we had like a young

Dr. King who would get up there and talk these

things.

But then while he was speaking, you also had

Fannie Lou Hamer, who would say that I'm sick

and tired of being sick and tired.

And so I think that's the power of storytelling.

In your your Hip-Hop Caucus 20/20 report, you

say think one hundred percent is about justice,

solutions and realness, and it isn't depressing.

What's not to be depressed about?

So this is for me as a Black man in this country,

you know, I can look back at times and wonder how in

the world the people were taken from Africa, put on

boats, came to this country 401 years ago,

beaten, raped, forced into labor.

How could those people have any semblance of

hope?

You've got to have a mentality that despite all

that is coming at you, that we shall prevail.

We shall overcome.

We shall make it.

We will weep.

We will cry.

And we even, we may even succumb.

But we can't ever give up hope.

And I think that's the mentality this climate

movement must have, that we have wildfires, we have

droughts, we have floods, we have devastation.

Man, it looks that we can't handle it no more.

But I believe this, where we have organized people,

you can make it happen.

I want to just thank you so much for everything you

do for the fight, that you fight, for the

inspiration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Changing the culture means changing the narrative and

Planet Forward correspondent Francesca

Edralin is trying to do just that.

A student at George Washington University

majoring in international relations and minoring in

journalism and sustainability.

She grew up in New Jersey, but her family's roots are

in the Philippines.

And that gives her what she calls a global lens to

try to understand how climate change

disproportionately impacts the poorest countries.

Hey, Francesca, welcome.

Hi, Frank.

Thanks for having me.

Well, glad you're here.

Hey, listen, on your Planet Forward bio, your

profile page, you write that your Filipino

background gives you a global lens and helps you

really understand and want to focus on the

disproportionate impact that climate change has on

poor countries around the world.

Where do you see that impact playing out?

And why do you think it's so important that you tell

these stories so that people know what's going

on there?

Yeah, so I see these impacts in my home

country, in the Philippines, which is an

archipelago that is severely at risk from sea

level rise and increasing cyclones.

And just by doing my own research, I see countries

around the world struggling from drought,

flooding, natural disasters, especially

countries in the global south.

And these are countries that produce far less

emissions than wealthier countries, but

unfortunately are impacted the hardest by the climate

crisis.

As a Planet Forward correspondent, I want to

tell underreported environmental stories from

around the world about places that are

experiencing severe environmental conflicts.

So during my internship this summer as a reporter

for Mongabay- Mongabay is an awesome news site that

focuses on environmental stories from around the

world.

And I got the chance to interview an indigenous

environmental leader from Costa Rica.

He talked to me about how his people are handling

COVID-19 and how they predicted a pandemic like

COVID-19 would occur in our lifetime because of

all the global environmental destruction

that's happening recently.

The article that I wrote about the Peccary species

decline actually made it to Mongabay's list of most

read articles in July.

It amassed over forty thousand views.

And I'd like to think that my Philippine's article

made an impact, too.

As one of the community activists who I

interviewed for my article was very excited to use my

article for his border protection campaign.

After my article was published, he even emailed

me saying that he sent my piece to the Philippine

Senate on the Environment, hoping that my work will

help sway the committee's decisions in his favor.

And hearing that was so amazing to me.

What do you want to do, change or accomplish in

your life?

There's so much that I want to do to contribute

to the environmental movement.

I want to visit as many countries as I can to

document and produce stories on the impacts of

climate change firsthand.

I also want to help increase global awareness

and media attention on the environmental stories and

conflicts of the world that are currently

underreported, such as on environmental equity, the

intersections of gender equality and climate

justice, the importance of including indigenous

voices in the climate movement.

And the list really goes on.

There's just so much to learn, so much to write

about, so much to advocate for.

And it's these stories that I want to tell and I

want to make that impact.

So that's why I'll be an environmental storyteller

for life.

Francesca, thank you so much.

Good luck.

We'll be watching and reading.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me, Frank.

Unless we change the culture and think and

act differently, climate change is only going to

make global inequalities worse.

That's why we need people like the Rev and Francesca

to tell the stories and open our eyes and open our

minds.

I'm Frank Sesno for the George Washington

University, the Global Futures Lab and Planet

Forward.

Thanks for watching.