Season 3 of the Podcast!

It's season three of the Sustainable Brown Girl podcast and I'm so excited to be here.! Thank you to all of the people who've been here since the beginning when the podcast launched last year in June of 2020. Your support is so greatly appreciated. Also welcome to the new people who may just be joining us today.

Last season we left off with Alejandra Duenas who is a holistic life coach and my former life coach. She talked to us about eco anxiety, which I thought was a great note to leave off the season. After that episode, I did take a little bit of a social media break, particularly from the sustainable brown girl podcast and the Instagram.

I took that time off to reassess my role in the environmental community and to reassess how I want it to show up for sustainable brown girl and where I wanted this community to go. And I'm happy to say that I felt like it was time well spent. Well rested. Well thought through.

I'm excited to introduce a few new things over the next few months, such as an e-book and some merch and just sharing more tips and giving you all more information about how you can be sustainable in your everyday lives.

The idea of environmental sustainability is not going anywhere. I have seen so many commercials and brands touting the word sustainable or eco or green, and maybe it's greenwashing, but that's a topic for another day, but it's really gaining traction and it's getting more people to start being more curious about sustainability.

I think that it's important to have easily digestible and relatable content for people who may be new to sustainability or even people who've been in it for a long time and just kind of want to introduce themselves to something new.

Aside from companies using these buzz words in their marketing, it's also becoming very apparent that climate change is real and immediate.

Summer has just started, but there have already been record breaking heat waves and droughts in the western part of the US. Montana, for example, has reached temperatures in the 100s, while normally this time of year, they're looking at 70 to 80 degrees.

California governor Newsome has issued a drought emergency in parts of California and are encouraging people to use less water by taking shorter showers and turning off the water when they're brushing their teeth or washing dishes. California isn't new to these types of restrictions, especially in the summer, but it's going to be more likely that these restrictions will be introduced in other places like Colorado which is also experiencing drought.

We're starting to see more and more effects of climate change.

Another indicator of climate change has been the hurricane season, which just started in the beginning of June, but already by June 20th, we've seen three named storms. One of which, tropical storm Claudette just passed through the Southeastern part of the United States and caused flooding and a tornado and Alabama. These things are just starting to occur more frequently. So for example, normally we wouldn't see a third named storm in hurricane season until August. So we are way ahead of schedule.

At this point, there's no doubt that climate change is real and immediate. As the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rises, the temperature of the earth also rises. Of course, the temperature of the earth has always fluctuated, but the rate at which it has risen in the last 200 years is significantly higher.

Witnessing climate change before our very eyes is at the very least, concerning.

The state of the world, isn't completely on our shoulders, but as we see from the drought emergency that California has issued, making small changes, like reducing how much water you're using can make a difference as a collective, it can most definitely make a difference.

Another important factor to consider about climate change is that of course it's going to affect communities of color first. I just shared a post to the blog and Instagram for Juneteenth about how climate change affects black communities.

Metaphorically speaking, in the climate change horror film, the black friend dies first.

There are a few reasons behind that. First of all, poor air quality. 68% of black Americans live within 30 miles of a coal plant, which is one of the biggest sources of carbon pollution. Black children are 10 times more likely to die as a result of asthma complications compared to white children.

Lower income communities also have limited access to green space. Green spaces like parks and trees help clean the air of pollution and they lower temperatures in cities. Housing segregation has trapped black families and neighborhoods with very little shade and often limited access to cars and air conditioning. Studies suggest that Black Americans living in cities are 50% more likely to die during a heat wave compared to their white peers.

Then there's natural disasters. Low income Americans are more likely to suffer from the consequences of hurricanes or tropical storms due to inadequate infrastructure and lack of proper insurance. Since minority populations are more likely to live near industrial facilities, they are therefore at a higher risk for chemical spills and toxic leaks resulting from tropical storm.

As we are starting to see more and more side effects of climate change, we can unfortunately expect that to trickle down and to our communities of color, which means that it's even more important for us to vote and for us to do what we can and our own ways to help mitigate the effects of climate change. So that's of course making sustainable swaps and just trying to spread the word to other people so that we can all collectively come together and do our part.

The choices we make matter. While we can't single-handedly stop climate change by drinking from a reusable bottle, by using that bottle you're creating less demand for plastic products, which not only prevents one more piece of plastic from entering the landfill or ocean, but since plastic is derived from oil, it also creates less demand for oil production. This can also decrease the level of carbon dioxide that's being released into the environment.

Maybe we have no choice but to commute to work by car. We can consider buying any electric car next. The huge demand and success that Tesla has created has encouraged other automakers to also develop electric cars.

Speaking of electric cars, next week's podcast is going to be all about electric cars so be sure to tune in to that.

So look girls, at the end of the day, even if we feel like our vote doesn't matter because politicians will do what ever the hell they want to do, our dollars do matter. The individual choices that we make do matter. Capitalism runs on supply and demand.

In the sustainable community we talk a lot about making sustainable swaps and like using your reusable water bottles and using your tote bags and just making these small changes to reduce your impact on the planet and reduce how much waste you're producing. Really it's a win-win in the end.

So many sustainable swaps are money savers, they're better for your health or your home, and they add a unique or personal touch to your routines. When you're more sustainable, you're moving away from the throw away culture. Your reusable items that you use every single day, have a story and a history, and I think it's so much fun.

So that brings me to what to expect on this season of the podcast. We are chatting with more sustainable business owners. We're going to be widening our knowledge on the effects of climate change and getting some ideas on how we can make a difference in our communities. And also, of course, we're just going to be gaining tips on how to be sustainable in all areas of our lives.

I hope you all enjoy the season of the podcast and as always be sure to follow over on Instagram. We're always sharing little tidbits of knowledge to make your sustainable journey easier. We share sustainable brown girl content creators that you should be following. And we share sustainable brands that you can support to help shift that demand.

We also have a Facebook group where you can connect with other sustainable brown girls and have that community to bounce ideas and tips off of each other.

Podcast episodes are released every other Monday. So you definitely want to be following on Instagram and be in the Facebook group so that you can stay connected in between those times.

As always thank you so much or listening and being a part of the sustainable brown girl community, and continue to make better choices for the health of your body and for the health of our planet.

Much love,

Ariel