This week our hosts Erniko Brown from Dogwood Alliance and Elizabeth Lashay from SlayTheMic talk with Reverend Michael Malcom about addressing the hurt in our communities, getting free, and making the movement work sexy.
The Reverend Michael Malcom is the Founder and Executive Director of The People’s Justice Council and Alabama Interfaith Power and Light and a licensed and ordained United Church of Christ Minister. Rev Malcom is the former Senior Pastor of Rush Memorial Congregational UCC in Atlanta, GA. He is also the Environmental Justice Representative for the Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ. He is currently the co-chair of the Building Power from the Grassroots Task Force with Climate Action Network International, and the co-chair of the Environmental Justice working group for the Southeast Climate and Energy Network. He currently serves as the International Liaison for the US Climate Action Network and co-chair of the Faith Working Group for the Climate Strike Coalition.
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Check out the full transcript of our interview with Reverend Michael Malcom!
Elizabeth Lashay: All right. I’m Elizabeth Lashay with Slay The Mic and I’m here with my wonderful cohost for season two.
Erniko Brown: Erniko Brown here with you. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Elizabeth Lashay: Today we’re going to be sitting down with Reverend Malcom and I would love Erniko to introduce him just because you all have… You’ve known each other, so give us an overview.
Erniko Brown: I really can’t get into the weeds of who he is because words cannot define this man. He is everything that you need in all spaces and so much more. Me learning of him years ago, and him being available to me to be a soundboard, to be an idealist, to be a motivator, to be a co-creator has been the inevitable. When you look at spaces like this, you don’t see many black men leading the way, but this is one black man who is humble in his being, who is righteous in the movement, and who is just absolutely amazing. He has many awards, many accolades, but I am definitely, definitely humbled and grateful to call him my friend. So world, Reverend Michael Malcom.
Elizabeth Lashay: Brilliant.
Reverend Michael Malcom: Listen, I’m still waiting on Michael Malcom to show up, because I don’t know who she was talking about.
Erniko Brown: You!
Reverend Michael Malcom: When he coming in? He must be the next round, you got the wrong one. Thank you, thank you so much.
Elizabeth Lashay: I’m excited to dive in because I want to know what jump-started this journey for you, Reverend Malcolm, in terms of just feeling passionate about the environment. The very simplest form of your passion that sparked what you’re currently doing.
Reverend Michael Malcom: Well I always accredit my awakening and my rebirth, I would say, to Reverend Doctor Gerald Durley who is the president of Interfaith Power and Light. We were sitting in a conference and he was lecturing and he made this statement. He said, “How can I preach in my pulpit, shout them in my pews, but they can’t breathe in public?” And right then it did something to me, and I’d say it quickened me and it woke me up in that moment and I started really looking at what surrounded the congregation and what surrounded the house of worship that I pastored at the time. And when I started looking around, I started seeing the poverty and the pollution and I saw that my people were in peril. And I said how can I continue to have this utopian view of God when clearly my scriptures tells me that God is with us?And so it changed my focus and I started getting more involved and even more intrigued by the everyday life of the congregation that I served and the everyday life of the community that surrounded it. And I realized in getting involved that this is not a singular problem. This problem plagues many of our communities throughout our lands in the United States and abroad. And mainly the communities look like you and I. They’re Black, and they’re Brown, and they’re Indigenous. They’re poor white. They are the people that, in my Christian context, Christ stood up for. Christ took a side and it was for the least and the left out. If I am to be a follower of Christ, then I must take Christ’s example and do the same and speak up for the least and the left out. And so that’s what I’ve decided that I would do, and basically, that’s the hill that I’ll die on.
Erniko Brown: So I know that you’re in Alabama. What is the work like for you in Alabama and in the Gulf South?
Reverend Michael Malcom: Hard. And I’ll even say hard, full stop. But just for the sake of the podcast I’ll go a little further in explaining why it’s so hard here in Alabama and why it’s so hard in the South. As we were just speaking prior to starting the podcast, we have been so conditioned and saturated in fear and survival that we don’t have enough time to look up to see that the very things that hold us and make us have a life of convenience are the same things that are destroying our lives and our futures. And as I said before, we are okay with just being able to survive peacefully. If I can live my life comfortably, and I can die comfortable, then I’ve made it. I did well in this life. And it’s unfortunate because until we are all free, none of us are free. And it takes collective action for us to make change, but unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned to be individualistic. And our society even lends for us to be individualistic. So when we see a person like a George Floyd get choked out and die in front of us, we say, “Poor George Floyd,” instead of looking at George Floyd wasn’t the first. George Floyd was just the last that you saw on TV. When do we collectively see that until we are all free, none of us are free? So we all ought to fight and stop celebrating exceptionalism. Just because one or two made it, we think we all made it. Hell no, we ain’t all made it.
Elizabeth Lashay: With that being said, especially what I’ve been able to see within the pandemic is a change in mental health in many people. And I’m trying to look around and see what are the factors that can contribute to this? I’m also looking at our environment and so how do you think the pandemic is contributing to both the mental capacity and our environmental sustainability?
Reverend Michael Malcom: I wish I had the numbers, because I’ve heard… I haven’t researched it to verify, and maybe you all can do it before the podcast, but I’ve heard that the rate of suicides amongst Black teens have gone up dramatically since we’ve been in lockdown. And at first I wondered, you know, I understand we’re social creatures and so kids want to be around kids and this, that, and the other. But then I started really looking at it and thinking a little bit deeper. Niko, every now and then we’ve got to think a little bit deeper. And I started saying hold on, we in the EJ communities are having a fit behind pollution that’s in these communities. At least for six hours a day these kids get to escape that pollution, some of them, and go into a school and be away from that pollution for a little while. Parents get to leave and go to work and be away from that pollution for a little while. But what happens when you’re under that 24-hour lockdown and you constantly in that pollution? Now we understand that pollution changes our molecular system, and our neuro-system. And we know that pollution causes our mental capacity to decrease. Could it be that something biologically or neurologically is happening within our communities because our kids are sitting under this pollution 24/7? Has anybody bothered to look at impact and find out how environmental impacts and environmental stressors are really stressing our communities? I’m told, matter of fact I knew it for sure, that there is a bill out right now, two bills as a matter of fact. One addresses reparations which will look at the harm that has been done, historically, to our communities as well as currently to our communities. And this harm that’s being done, historically, to our communities that’ll report back and then come back and say what they need to do about it. We also have a mapping bill for EJ communities that has been introduced as well. And this bill will actually map out environmental justice communities and we can look at the environmental justice communities demographically and geographically throughout the United States. So both of these bills are bills that I really believe we should be pushing as a community and as EJ communities.
Erniko Brown: That was a lot to take in, and being a person in this space, these are things I’m well aware of. However, you exposed some new knowledge. So just moving along into that, how do you think individuals in the community… How do you think we can raise awareness around those two bills in the community to raise awareness for everybody, honestly? Even if they can’t be a part of the action right now, how can we create some type of system that informs individuals about those bills?
Reverend Michael Malcom: Let me ask you something. If I said, “Say it loud,” what would you say?
Erniko Brown: I mean you know I’d say I’m Black and I’m proud.
Reverend Michael Malcom: But you know why you’d say that? You say it because it was made sexy. And I ain’t trying to… I’ve got to put it that way. I know it was made attractive, it was made… No, it was made sexy. But it was an anthem that raised the pride of a society. We’ve got to somehow make this sexy. And unfortunately, because we haven’t been managing the language for our communities, other folks been coming in our communities and trying to tell us what the problem is, it hadn’t been something that has been sexy for us. So we’ve got to take charge of the language on this thing and make it appealing for our communities. Instead of us talking about the greenhouse gasses, let’s talk about pollution and poison. Our communities understand that. Instead of us talking about deforestation, let’s talk about flooding and why your community’s always getting flooding all the time. Why you’ve got red mud all in your house all the time. Let’s talk about that. It’s the same thing, it’s just a different way of saying it. But we’ve got to take possession of that language. We’ve got to tell them, “Thank you, we appreciate your help, you can come alongside us and help us, but we’re going to lead this effort.”
Elizabeth Lashay: So what I’m hearing is that we are creating a song. Is that… Did I…
Reverend Michael Malcom: Look, if you want to create a song I know for a fact, Slay, that Niko is ready to bust a freestyle on you right now.
Erniko Brown: Aye.
Reverend Michael Malcom: I’m going to beat box.
Elizabeth Lashay: This sounds like a good commercial. We didn’t know that this was going to come out of this, but I can ask it.
Reverend Michael Malcom: What I’m really trying to say is we have, because of our expertise and speaking to our community, we have the perfect opportunity because we have the awareness to put this in language that is palatable for our communities to take and then move it beyond just us wondering what’s going on with us. We can now articulate what’s going on with us and force the issue for what’s going on with us.
Elizabeth Lashay: Thank you, and I’m looking forward to how we, or just myself as an individual, can create these spaces where we have these conversations with kids and really just break it down and then with adults and with all ages. So thank you for saying that. I’m eager to learn a little bit more about you and the People’s Justice Council and Alabama’s Interfaith in Power and Light. Could you share with us about your organization?
Reverend Michael Malcom: Yeah, so the People’s Justice Council, I’m the founder and executive director of the People’s Justice Council as well as Alabama Interfaith Power and Light. We started in 2018. Prior to that I was in South Carolina where I met Erniko, and I was the interim director of South Carolina Interfaith Power and Light as well as the outreach coordinator for Sustaining Way. We moved to Alabama after my mother-in-law got sick and we moved to Alabama to take care of her. And when I moved here, we didn’t have a functioning Alabama Interfaith Power and Light at the time. But I didn’t want to limit it to just Alabama so I came up with People’s Justice Council and made Alabama Interfaith Power and Light a program under the People’s Justice Council so that we could be able to move beyond just Alabama’s territory. And we have been able to do that. We do national as well as international work in the climate policy space. We are now embarking on our first official implementation project, which is We Rise where they’re rising every resident in the Southeast. Where we’re seeking congregations to implement weatherization as a ministry for their congregations to serve their communities and look at doing weatherization on the community’s homes to bring down their power bills or their utilities as well as help strengthen their houses to keep pollutants out, or seal up their homes to keep pollutants out, as well. Then in addition to we’re working with Dogwood Alliance. We’re actually getting ready to launch a webinar series we’ll call Let’s Talk with Rev, and our first season Erniko is going to be our co-host as well, and we’re going to be talking about biomass in the Southeast along the Gulf and along the east coast. And I’m excited about that. So we’ve got some big things coming up. We provide tools and access to communities to build power from the grassroots up, to fight for change at the policy-level. We’re looking to push a national weatherization policy. We have LIHEAP. It’s not as accessible to vulnerable communities as it should be. We believe that we now have an administration whose focus is on environmental justice communities, and if they name it we’ve got to hold them accountable to doing it. And so that’s what we want to push this administration to do. So yeah, that’s the People’s Justice Council and Alabama Interfaith Power and Light. We’re up to some big stuff and making it happen.
Erniko Brown: That is super dope. I’m super excited. Yeah, and with all of that, what I want to know is how do you build capacity in the space to create a transformation path to justice?
Reverend Michael Malcom: So for me, mine has been through collaboration. And through those collaborations, we’ve been able to have a great deal of impact and build a lot of capacity for the things that we want to do. Building those relationships, especially within community… Now, I can’t tell you that I have a whole lot of connection in the community here in Alabama just because of the work that I’ve been doing has been national and international, so it’s taken a lot of the focus from local. And I’m a transplant, I hadn’t been here but three years. And in that time, this is the longest I’ve spent in Alabama this past year, and most of that has been on lockdown.
So I hadn’t really been able to get out and about and spend a whole lot of time, but I’ve tried to build relationships the best I can and just cultivate those relationships. In fact I’ve got one community organizing now that I don’t even talk to him about what he’s doing in his community, I just want to know how you doing. How you holding up? Everything all right? And it’s nothing about me trying to get anything, I just want to make sure you know you’ve got somebody that’s in your corner. So it’s just… I guess it’s about having those authentic relationships, and I guess that’s that grassroots. And my EJ pastor, Reverend Leo Woodberry, who is my GOAT in this movement, taught me that. It’s about having those relationships and building those relationships.
Elizabeth Lashay: So you’re in charge of a lot. What are you doing for yourself? Where do you find peace in the outdoors? Is there a space or a place that you love to go that has this healing ability?
Reverend Michael Malcom: I go in my backyard, every day. I’m either on my back porch or I’m out up under my pergola. But I’m in my backyard every day. In fact, there was snow out there and freezing cold but I was out there today. Just because one, for some reason I’m fascinated with seeing the sun come up. I don’t know what that’s about and where it came from, but it’s something just majestic about seeing the sun come up. So I, oftentimes, will sit out just to see the sun come up. And I am an extroverted introvert, and so I get my energy when I’m by myself and quiet and can spend time to myself. And so going out in the back and just being to myself daily is actually a necessity for me, especially after I’ve been on Zoom all day long.
Erniko Brown: That is good. I am one, I actually go out and I don’t go as far as the porch, but I do see the sun come up. I am one, and my grandmother used to say, “Getting that vitamin D in.” That is one, and then just being out there and seeing it come up is like there’s an opportunity for something new. Something new is on the rise. So I definitely get what you’re saying about that, which brings me to my next question. You have We Rise, the sun is rising, what are up and coming projects that if you just could have your way, you would want to connect with in this movement?
Reverend Michael Malcom: I think solar is our next best move, but that’s a fight here in Alabama because they are solar-adverse. And so I think that’s a longer battle, and it’s going to be a harder fight, but I believe is our natural progression. So yeah, that’s… I think if I had my rathers, that what I’d be fighting for next. I’d also, of course, want to do something on the national scene, domestically, as well as international. So of course we’re trying to influence policy, climate policy, on the international scene with strengthening the embassies as well as working with John Kerry and the Biden administration to ensure that our most vulnerable communities abroad aren’t left out. So our vulnerable nations aren’t left out of consideration and that the US is paying its fair share. On the domestic side, we want to make sure, again, I just gave you two bills, but we also have the Erv Justice bill that’s getting ready to come forward. We’ve got the Gulf South for the Green New Deal. We’ve got Southern Communities Green New Deal. So we’ve got a lot of policy work domestically, as well, on a regional and a national level that we want to start pushing. We’ve got the BEKA document with US CAN that we need to push. So there’s a lot that we have coming up on the horizons, policy-wise. However, programmatically, with the practical implementation, We Rise is more than enough. We want to take that global, as well, so we look to expand that aggressively.
Elizabeth Lashay: When I think of a movement and how many different movements there are in this world, and how it seems to be a trend, how do we turn a trend into something that’s actually embedded into our culture? And how do you also tell people the intersections of it? It’s not just a race thing over here, and then this is a climate thing over here, and then this is a gender thing… How do we put all of the pieces together?
Reverend Michael Malcom: So the first question, give me the first question again? I apologize. I got caught up on that second one because I got a good one for that. Give me the first one first, though. Let me see if I can-
Elizabeth Lashay: Okay. Well, I was talking about the movement and how there’s so many different movements.
Reverend Michael Malcom: Oh yeah. Yeah, we got so many different ones, how do we get them to all work together? I think… So actually, I think the answer is one and the same. In order for us to get out of our silos, we’ve got to connect the hurt. A person that is suffering from pollution has to understand that your house and your land decreasing in value also has to do with our pollution. So not only is it a health issue, it’s an economical issue. But when you look at it, and you look around, whose actually being hurt? So now it’s a social issue, as well. But meeting them where they hurt and then expanding it out… If I came and I told you you’ve got a social issue, you’ve got a racial issue, you’ve got an economical issue, you’ve got an environmental issue, hell let me die. You know? It’s overwhelming. But if I say, “Hey, man, you’ve got a cough. That cough could be coming from that fire plant, coal fire plant over there.” Or, “Hey man, I noticed that these houses keep flooding all the time. You know they just got rid of them trees?” Now we’re talking. Because now you’re connecting the issue. Why are they getting rid of the trees? Because people are selling these trees because they ain’t got no money. Because the state won’t take care of them. Mississippi… Louisiana, I’m sorry. One of the richest states industry-wise, richest states in the world, but one of the poorest states in the United States of America. Per-capita, socially, and one of the most unhealthy states. Because of all the pollution from the industry. The industry got all the money, the people poor. They only have the pollution. What’s really the problem? And when you look at it, it’s the policies that protect these polluters while putting people in peril. But our biggest thing is let’s go march in the street. And I’m all for marching, but if marching doesn’t accompany some policy negotiation, and some policy change, then you’re just going for a walk. That’s real. We can holler Black Lives Matter, but if we give up on Defunding the Police, if we give up on the Breathe Act, we just went for a walk. You’ve got to have policy to accommodate our action. Doctor King and them said, “First we go in and we negotiate. Then if negotiation don’t work, we demonstrate. If demonstration don’t work, we resist.” That was their three-palm strategy. We missed out on negotiation, we just go out and get in the streets and start marching. So by the time it’s time to negotiate, we done gave up everything. What else we got left? We did all the marching. We’ve got learn how to be more strategic.
Elizabeth Lashay: That’s some fire right there. Thank you.
Reverend Michael Malcom: You ain’t know you were going to get all this when you interviewed me.
Elizabeth Lashay: I did not, I did not. It was a lot.
Erniko Brown: So my question is what are the major intersectional ties that play a key role in bringing about justice?
Reverend Michael Malcom: Major intersectional ties?
Erniko Brown: Yes.
Reverend Michael Malcom: That play a key role?
Erniko Brown: Yes. In bringing about justice. So like you’re talking about strategy. Strategy can be intersectional from bringing strategy from communities affected by the wood pellet plants… Strategies can come from the areas that are… You’re talking about the weatherization. How do you see those intersectionalities bringing about justice in the communities? How do you see them connecting to bring about justice?
Reverend Michael Malcom: Well again, I go back to give the example of We Rise and bringing down utility bills. Let’s just put it in layman’s terms. Some people pay between 18 to 35, 18… Excuse me. Some people pay between 10 to 18% of their income goes towards utilities. They’re paying over 35% over the national average for excessive energy burden. Now you imagine a family that’s a struggling family, that’s vulnerable already, that’s living minimum wage or maybe a little bit more than minimum wage, but it’s nothing near the poverty line. Their homes, or they’re living in a multi-family house, or a single-family house, maybe a multi-family unit such as an apartment or a trailer park or something like that. Or they live in a rental house that hadn’t been well-kept. They’re paying to keep the outside cool, and the outside heated. And so where does this money… What could they do with the 18% of their income? What could they do with 10% of their income that they’re losing? If they already don’t have money? Live. That’s what they can do. That’s what they can do. How is that not an intersectional issue? It gets to everything. And so for me, it’s really not about addressing it as an environmental justice issue. It’s not about addressing it as a climate issue. It’s not about addressing it as a social… It’s about addressing the hurt. This is where these people are hurting, and this is what will help them to thrive in life. What can we do to meet that? Now in doing that, we cleared up some social, and some economical, and some environmental, and some racial ills. But what we were really trying to do is meet where they were hurting. I hope I answered that question the way you needed me to.
Elizabeth Lashay: I think so. I know Woods and Wilds, since we are combined with Dogwood Alliance and Slay the Mic, which is a hip-hop and R&B radio show, I find that the healing powers of music and being outdoors, something that helps me through difficult times. Is there a song that really stands out in your head that helps you get through tough times?
Reverend Michael Malcom: There is an album that I’ve been listening to lately that’s had my old bones just moving. 2 Chainz, So Help Me God. I’m talking about man, that junk is funky. Oh, that’s funky. Every time. I ain’t lying. I get down on it, I throw that 2 Chainz in and next thing you know I’m bopping. Yeah. So yeah, so yeah. There you go. 2 Chainz.
Elizabeth Lashay: Love it. Love it.
Reverend Michael Malcom: I know that threw you off, didn’t it? You thought I was going to say Smokey… What’s one of them gospel singers? The quartet singers? I can’t think of them, but you thought I was coming off with something like that, huh? I’ve got a page of bible verses. I was like nope. 2 Chainz. Get it, boy.
Elizabeth Lashay: Multi-faceted right there.
Reverend Michael Malcom: A balance. I’m balanced.
Erniko Brown: So now I was kind of expecting but not expecting, but when you was like 2 Chainz, I understand that one. Yeah, so knowing that you’re as busy as you are, how do you maintain the capacity to do all this work spread over these different sectors?
Reverend Michael Malcom: Yeah, I got a great team and great community. I’m not in this thing by myself. I never enter a room alone. My team, Kyle, Abigail, Maraisa, Malachi, Micah, are excellent. But also my mentors and colleagues. People like you, Niko. Danna. Folks like Reverend Woodberry. Reverend Kate Mosley. Cousin Jacky, Jacky Patterson. I mean just, I can go on and on. Katherine Egland, Momma Kathy. You know? Doctor Adrienne Hollis. I just… I have so many people that speak into my life and help me along this journey and mentor me along this journey that I’d be remiss if I tried to sit here and name them all. But understand, I am in no way, shape, form, or fashion a self-made person. The words even that I speak come from somebody else’s mind.
Erniko Brown: I was doing a listening session and this person was doing a run-through of their leadership development stuff, and what I found… What he said to me stuck with me. He said that 57% of houses in the nation were built before the first energy codes. With that, and knowing that you want to… The We Rise is weatherization across the South, weatherizing these homes, you were talking about pushing policy. Outside of getting the faith community involved in this, how can we push this at a state level, at a local level, at a national level?
Reverend Michael Malcom: So one of the things is one, really starting to look at your public service commission or utility commission or whatever. However they’re named, there’s a body, a governing body, that is over your energy rates. They regulate your utility companies and how they deal with you. They regulate the various projects that they do that causes your bills to increase as well as where they plant those projects, as well. So you need to really look at those at your local level and hyper-local level to start influencing that. And understand that as a private citizen, you can run for those offices. So if they ain’t doing what they supposed to do, then understand that you can replace them. For some of them. Now, some of them are appointed, but still, it’s appointed by a governor that you can still do the same thing. You can petition and influence that person to be gone. So that’s one. But then, as you grow it out, really this is, again, another way of looking at industry. And if you look at it, there are already some states and some utilities that have weatherization. It’s just a matter of connecting with them and making sure it gets in those communities. So it may not be anything, necessarily, that you have to do outside of making a phone call. But if we aren’t participating in the process, then we lose. I say it all the time because I heard it before and it sounded good, but it make a whole lot of sense, too. If you ain’t at the table, you on the menu. Get to the table. Get to the table. We’ve got to get involved. We’ve got to start paying attention to this stuff. It’s time out from just living for the sake of living. Question everything.
Erniko Brown: Cool beans. My last question, then I’m going to hand it to my amazing co-host. Everybody has an organization pushing some way or another these issues, right? And you’re saying if you don’t have a seat at the table, then you’re on the menu. What would you say to people who are, I guess, stagnant in their organizations, but want to have those continued circulating conversations? Is it more important to continue to have that conversation or should they move directly into policy having those seats at the table? Which would be the better route for somebody to go?
Reverend Michael Malcom: I can’t honestly answer that. My path was different in that I didn’t have… I never worked for an organization to a certain extent. Even when I was with Sustaining Way I was contracted. So it wasn’t a thing of where I was regulated by anybody or had to watch my persona or watch… I didn’t have any of those oversights. So I just, I don’t know. Anywhere I wanted to go, again, I’ve had mentors and colleagues and networks that have come alongside me and undergirded me. US CAN has gotten me everywhere I’ve wanted to go. Literally. And so I just… And I hadn’t had to answer to anybody on where I wanted to go or what I wanted to say, and that’s evident because I say a whole lot and sometimes it ain’t always good. So yeah, Niko, I can’t answer that one. I wish I could tell you something different, but I just can’t. I can tell you my path, but I’m thinking my path will probably get folks fired, to be honest with you. I’m serious. I’ve done some things that would probably, if I worked for somebody else, would embarrass my employer. But it was, for me, the right thing to do. And I didn’t get in trouble behind me because I am my employer. Well, my board is my employer, but you know, I am the employer because I’m the Executive Director. I’ve wanted to write myself up, but I just can’t bring myself to it.
Elizabeth Lashay: I have really gained a lot of knowledge through this podcast today and what I can simmer it all into is that we’ve got to work together as a collective.
Reverend Michael Malcom: Got to.
Elizabeth Lashay: We’ve got to keep building this awareness, and we’ve got to come up with something that is sexy so 2 Chainz can promote it. And then we’re going to change the world, change the Earth.
Reverend Michael Malcom: That’s it. Just imagine if we had a verses battle and they were talking about environmental justice and climate change. Wouldn’t that be crazy?
Elizabeth Lashay: We’re going to have to set this up. I think this… Look, what did you say about connections and authentic connections? We’re going to have to call somebody that calls somebody that knows [inaudible 00:44:03].
Reverend Michael Malcom: There you go, there you go.
Elizabeth Lashay: Oh my goodness. Well where can people find more information about you and your organization and support and just continue to uplift through the journey and how we can continue to move as a collective?
Reverend Michael Malcom: So you can go to our website, which is www.theepoeoplesjusticecouncil.org or you can go to www.alipl.org which is Alabama Interfaith Power and Lights organization. As well as we are on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Yeah. And everywhere else you’ll see me around, I’m pretty sure, hopefully. Yeah. Oh, and we do have a YouTube channel, excuse me, for the People’s Justice Council YouTube channel. And that is where we will be housing our series for Let’s Talk with Rev where Sister Erniko, or Commissioner, sorry, Commissioner Erniko Brown will be co-hosting.
Elizabeth Lashay: Thank you for all that you do, and you’re making a huge difference. And I know that I just met you today, but I mean you’ve made an impact from this interview.
Reverend Michael Malcom: I appreciate it, thank you. Thank you. And thank you for the opportunity, seriously.
Elizabeth Lashay: Any time.
Erniko Brown: Well, Reverend Malcolm, we have enjoyed you. Definitely appreciate you and look forward to connecting and collaborating on more things to come in 2021.
Reverend Michael Malcom: All right, talk to you later.
Erniko Brown: All right.
Reverend Michael Malcom: All right.
Just yesterday, the Dutch government came together to reject future subsidies for biomass.
This is nothing short of historic in the Netherlands. It sets an important precedent that will send shockwaves through the biomass industry.
In the Netherlands, public and political debate over biomass has been simmering for almost a decade. This quick turn in political events shows that it has boiled over.
But, as we know, biomass and “sustainable” are oxymorons, and the Dutch public has been calling out the industry’s false claims.
Politicians have ignored public outcry. In 2019, the Dutch government reserved an additional 11.4 billion euros to subsidize biomass. All this fueled the public outcry that has been growing.
Dutch political cartoon lampooning biomass
Dutch activists and campaigners pushed their government to choose better sources of renewable energy and to leave our Southern forests alone.
A couple of years ago, insiders, experts, and even other NGO allies wrote us off. They claimed the Netherlands needed biomass in their clean energy plans to achieve their climate commitments. Together, Southerners, Dutch activists, and everyday people pushed back. We reminded the world that this was all industry greenwashing. We know that we can dispel greenwashing through organizing and dogged determination.
Everywhere you look, people are:
Enviva is the largest wood pellet manufacturer in the world and a major supplier to the Netherlands. The pressure is on for Enviva and the house-of-cards economy they built through forest destruction and community degradation.
This decision affirms the power of our social movement to create positive change. This movement continually brings us toward a safe, just, and thriving world. We must build on this victory. If it’s wrong to grant subsidies for future projects without a phaseout plan, then it’s wrong for any biomass subsidies. Period.
The powerful coalition of people and organizations in the Southern US and Netherlands are better positioned than ever before. Together we can make real renewable energy a top priority for the Netherlands government. Then we can all achieve meaningful progress on climate targets. We won’t rest until incentives shift away from dirty biomass and instead support standing forests and truly clean renewable energy.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – February, 18, 2021
Joint Statement from NAACP, EEECHO, Environmental Integrity Project, Southern Echo, Mississippi State Conference NAACP, Dogwood Alliance, and Cut Carbon Not Forests Coalition
Mississippi regulators have fined the Amite wood pellet production facility, owned by Drax, $2,500,000 for breaking environmental rules, the largest known penalty against such a facility in an industry rife with environmental violations. According to the final order from the Mississippi Department on Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Drax Amite has been exceeding volatile organic compound (VOC) limits for years. VOCs are precursors to ground level ozone and smog, which can impair lung function, trigger asthma attacks, and aggravate conditions of people with bronchitis and emphysema. Children, the elderly, and people with existing respiratory conditions are the most at risk from ozone pollution.
Drax Amite converts trees into wood pellets in order to ship them to the United Kingdom to be burned for electricity, subsidized under the mistaken notion that this is carbon neutral and good for the climate. This settlement highlights that Drax is a bad actor that not only harms forests, but also communities most vulnerable to industrial pollution and the impacts of a changing climate, according to environmental justice advocates.
“We are grateful for the state taking steps to penalize Drax for operating illegally, but it’s clear that no matter what, wood pellet production releases dangerous air pollutants that cause chronic respiratory and other health problems associated with higher covid-19 death rates. We deserve the right to breathe clean air,” says Kathy Egland of the NAACP. “MDEQ and state policymakers must immediately review its current permitting and enforcement procedures and end any state permits for pollution, starting with wood pellet producers like Drax.”
After attorneys from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) first identified these illegal emissions in 2017, Drax eventually conceded the facility emits three to four times the level of VOCs authorized. But not before attempting to hide their true emission levels. According to Patrick Anderson, an attorney for EIP, “Drax first tried to hide their unlawful emissions by submitting extremely dubious emissions test results that were more than 25 times below the true emissions rate.”
In recent years, the wood pellet industry has grown across the south, specifically targeting Alabama and Mississippi for expansion. In July of 2019, the largest wood pellet facility ever was permitted in Lucedale, MS, despite on-the-ground organizing efforts led by justice groups including the NAACP, Southern Echo, EEECHO (Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate, and Health Organization), and the MS Sierra Club. The expansion has gone unchecked while the negative impacts of wood pellets, such as this fine is illustrating, are well documented and shocking.
The Drax Amite wood pellet facility, located near lower-income communities, contributes to pollution both around the production facility and near the power-generating facility in the U.K., where the wood pellets eventually end up. Drax is western Europe’s biggest power station and is the world’s largest consumer of wood pellets– making it the single largest emitter of CO2 in the UK.
“It’s a relief to see Drax being held accountable for polluting the air in Mississippi, but these fines are a drop in the bucket compared to the 2 million per day the UK government hands the company in the form of biomass subsidies,” says Sasha Stashwick, from the Cut Carbon Not Forests Campaign, a coalition of US and UK NGOs. “Drax’s pollution violation makes it clear that dirty biomass subsidies going to the company in the UK must end now.”
In addition to the $2.5 million fine, MDEQ’s final order requires Drax Amite to install a new regenerative catalytic oxidizer to reduce emissions with a stipulated penalty of $80,000 for each month of continued operation as well as a production limit of 40,000 tons per month until the new control is installed.
Ruth Story from EEECHO, finds temporary relief in this settlement: “The biomass industry is nothing like the clean, sustainable answer to climate change it paints itself to be. In fact, it is a major source of air pollution.”
# # #
For further information, please reach out to:
Katherine Egland, +1 228-617-0891, NAACP
Ari Phillips, +1 505-629-6148, Environmental Integrity Project
Ruth Story, +1, 228-223-6885, EEECHO
Rachel Mayes, +1 601-214-3601, Southern Echo
Erniko Brown, +1 864-321-5150, Dogwood Alliance
Daniela Arellano, +1 424-268-6677, Cut Carbon Not Forests
Before the 1950s and 60s, we built the majority of products we produced and consumed to last. People returned glass milk bottles for sterilization and re-use. Restaurants offered ceramic plates and stainless-steel cutlery, and the plastic bag didn’t exist yet.
But since then, as technology progressed we have developed an ability to produce low-cost products en masse. This, alongside a growing culture of disposability, has given us mountains of waste, devastated landscapes, and a culture of “single-use”.
It may not be surprising that one of the main culprits is plastic. It litters our land and chokes our oceans. It can be found in quite literally every corner (and stomach) on this planet, even on Antarctica. Plastic is produced using fossil fuels and is responsible for 5% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Its toxic nature causes harm to millions of living creatures, including humans. We’ve all seen the devastating images of entangled turtles and suffocated seabirds.
Whilst the plastics industry would like consumers to think that many plastic products are recyclable, less than 10% of all the plastics produced since the 1950s has actually been recycled with the rest incinerated, dumped in landfills, or left to pollute the environment.
There is now a growing awareness of the long-term destructive impacts of plastic and our need to “turn off the tap” on the production of plastic. As a result, several corporations and even governments have announced commitments to switch to alternatives, mainly paper.
That’s roughly an area the size of the United Kingdom. Many of these trees come from the world’s most endangered forests, which are home to Indigenous communities that depend on forests for their livelihood as well as countless threatened and endangered species. These forests are important carbon storehouses and vibrant, unique eco-systems that once displaced can never be replaced.
To do so, it’s imperative that we limit the number of trees that are used to make single use products and packaging.
It’s ironic that in 1959, Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin invented the plastic bag as an alternative to paper bags, which were considered bad for the environment because of their contribution to forest loss.
We shouldn’t have to choose between paper or plastic at all, especially when we have readily available alternatives. It’s time to halt our reliance on single-use products altogether.
Dogwood Alliance, along with these organizations, is calling on governments, businesses, investors, non-profits, and civil society to reject single-use products in favor of reusable, recyclable, and compostable ones made with the lowest possible environmental and social footprint.
Most importantly, we must work collaboratively to enable transformative action on single-use items. To do so will reap far-reaching benefits for both ourselves and our natural world.
For Immediate Release: February 17, 2021 – As government representatives from 193 member states prepare to discuss “Strengthening Actions for Nature”[1], 188 environmental groups from around the world are calling on them to change the systems that support production of polluting single use products.
The environmental groups today issued a joint position paper “From Single Use to Systems Change”, to highlight the massive impact that disposable products are having on the natural environment, wildlife, human health, and vulnerable communities.
Single use products, from packaging to food containers, to disposable cups and cutlery, are a key contributor to the 2 billion tonnes of waste that humans produce every year. That number is projected to increase 70% by 2050.
“We’re depleting the very life support systems that we all need to survive, simply for the supposed convenience of single-use products,” said Tamara Stark, Campaigns Director of Canopy, one of the authoring organizations of the joint position paper. “Doing away with disposables will not only reduce waste but help address climate change, protect forests, and stop microplastics from poisoning marine life.”
The paper points to specific actions to be taken by governments, business leaders, financial institutions and investors, in order to transform production systems, reduce the overall use of raw materials and consumption, and spur innovation. Whilst actions by individuals also play a part, the NGOs say that more responsibility resides with decision-makers and those designing and approving the systems themselves.
“Too often, it is the most vulnerable people in our societies that bear the brunt of these polluting products – which contaminate local food supplies, clog landfills, and poison water and soil with toxic chemicals,” said Von Hernandez, Global Coordinator of the global Break Free From Plastic movement. “It’s high time that we make corporations and industries that are driving global pollution and the climate crisis accountable for their actions. We need to see radical change in how products are delivered to people, without the use of harmful and polluting packaging.”
“Paper versus plastic has always been a false choice. From the perspective of paper it means more forests logged, destruction of our best defense against climate change, and more pollution for the frontline communities where paper mills are sited,” said Scot Quaranda, Communications Director for Dogwood Alliance. “After watching our environmental safeguards decimated over the last several years in the U.S., it is high time we and other industrialized nations take the lead on shifting to more sustainable production methods and products.”
The Environmental Paper Network is another key advocate for a shift away from single use products and systems, and have this week launched the new website SolvingPackaging.org to help companies, lawmakers, advocates, and individuals ditch disposables and embrace sustainable packaging solutions.
The joint paper From Single Use to Systems Change can be found here www.canopyplanet.org/single-use-to-systems-changeFor more information please contact:
Laura Repas, Communications and Marketing Specialist, Canopy, [email protected] +1 416 729 7484
Estelle Eonnet, Communications Officer Europe, Break Free From Plastic, [email protected] +33 6 13136527
Scot Quaranda, Communications Director, Dogwood Alliance, [email protected], +1.828.242.3596
Canopy is a solutions-driven not-for-profit environmental organization dedicated to protecting forests, species and climate. Canopy has worked with over 750 companies to guide them to more sustainable practices. Canopy’s partners include H&M, Sprint, Target, Amazon, Penguin Random House, Zara, TC Transcontinental, and Scholastic. www.canopyplanet.orgBreak Free From Plastic is a global movement envisioning a future free from plastic pollution. Since its launch in September 2016, over 11,000 non-governmental organizations and individuals from across the world have joined the movement to demand massive reductions in single use plastics and to push for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. www.breakfreefromplastic.orgDogwood Alliance advances environmental justice and climate action by mobilizing diverse voices to protect Southern forests and communities from industrial logging. This year they are celebrating their 25th anniversary. Learn more at www.dogwoodalliance.org or on Twitter – @DogwoodAlliance[1] The United Nations Environment Assembly 5 has adopted the theme of “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. According to the United Nations own report Global Biodiversity Outlook 5. None of the signatories to the Aichi Biodiversity targets have achieved even one of the 20 goals they committed to, two decades ago.
This is a guest post by Jason Williams of stormsafety.org, a website dedicated to providing information to help people be prepared for storms. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not imply endorsement by Dogwood Alliance.
Image via Pexels
Nature-deficit disorder (NDD) is a term created by journalist and Audubon Medal recipient Richard Louv and was first introduced in his best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. It describes the issue of children not spending enough time in the natural world and being disconnected from nature, which leads to issues including stunted emotional development, being more prone to illness, and a host of other problems. It’s important to note that while NDD is not a medical condition, it’s a recognized problem that’s been discussed in countless outlets, including the New York Times, the University of California at Berkeley’s Greater Good Magazine, and National Geographic.
NDD is a problem that affects children and adults alike, especially as we spend more time on our mobile devices and less time in nature. By spending more time outdoors and less of our lives on tech devices, however, we can reverse the negative effects of NDD or prevent it from becoming a problem in the first place. To help families combat NDD, Dogwood Alliance invites you to consider the following resources!
The best way to encourage outdoor activity is to come up with ways to spend time outside together.
Take a Family RV TripGo Mountain BikingFind a Local Hiking TrailEnjoy a Night of StargazingStart or Participate in an Urban or Community GardenGo GeocachingSnowshoe Through a Park or TrailVisit a Botanical GardenVisit an Archery Range
When the family is home-bound, consider different ways to explore the great outdoors if you have a backyard.
Make Your Own Backyard ZiplineCreate an Outdoor Reading Nook Your Kids will LoveBuild a Sunflower House as a FamilyCreate a Backyard Dragonfly GardenSet Up a Few Lawn GamesCamp Out in Your BackyardLearn How to Observe WildlifeEncourage Outdoor Play in the Winter
By enhancing your backyard or setting off on a family-friendly adventure, you’ll help your children to develop an appreciation for the outdoors—while also protecting them from nature-deficit disorder. It’s never too late to overcome NDD, but it’s best to teach your kids to appreciate nature as early in their lives as possible.
On January 27th President Biden signed a series of Executive Orders on Climate Change. One was an Executive Order to protect 30% of US lands by 2030. Another was on Environmental Justice, directing all federal agencies to invest in “low income and communities of color”. This includes Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities that have borne the brunt of pollution impacts.
Standing forests are vital to solving the climate crisis, providing natural flood control, and ensuring fresh, clean drinking water. Yet, the South is at the forefront of global wood production. Low income, communities of color across the rural Southern Black Belt are at the epicenter of our region’s industrial logging and wood production. They are also on the frontlines of climate change, having suffered devastating impacts from the extreme flooding of the past five years.
Reverend Leo Woodberry and I wrote a piece taking a deep dive on what the Biden administration can do to protect forests and address environmental injustice in the Southern US.
(Be sure to follow me on Medium while you’re there.)
Our key recommendations to ensure the Biden Administration acts to protect land and address these long-standing inequities are to commit to the following:
Dogwood Alliance works at the intersection of forest protection, climate change, and environmental justice. We believe that now is the time to address these long-standing crises. We’ll continue to work at the Federal level to ensure that our standing forests, local communities, and climate gain the protection and wins that they deserve.
Dogwood Alliance Statement on Michael Regan EPA confirmation hearings
This afternoon, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold confirmation hearings for North Carolina Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Michael Regan, to lead the Biden Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Regan has headed the NC DEQ since 2017. On the bright side, Regan played a lead role in the development of the state’s Clean Energy Plan pursuant to Governor Roy Cooper’s Executive Order on Climate Change. This work led to the state rejecting biomass energy as a false solution to climate change.
The plan states,
“Currently, the wood pellet industry does not contribute to NC’s energy generation portfolio and does not advance NC’s clean energy economy. The wood pellets harvested from NC increase the state’s carbon output during logging, processing, and transportation and are burned for fuel elsewhere, mostly Europe. There are currently no known plans for the industry to become a contributor to NC’s energy sector in the coming years.”
Regan also created the Environmental Justice and Equity Board. In Regan’s own words,
“Together we will protect our natural resources, our economic interests, and our communities so that ALL North Carolinians will have clean air and clean water for today, tomorrow, and future generations to come.”
Unfortunately, sufficient agency action did not back up these statements. Against a backdrop of strong local community and state-wide opposition, two new wood pellet facilities permitted and three more permits for expansions were issued during his tenure, with irreversible climate, forest, and human health impacts, all of which disproportionately affect low income, rural communities of color.
Under Regan’s leadership, the wood pellet industry has rapidly expanded in our state. Over 60,000 acres are clearcut every year in the state for wood pellets. The resulting loss of forested wetlands and the increase in monoculture pine plantations pose a serious threat to our state’s resiliency to climate change. The forest products industry, including wood pellet production, is the third largest carbon emitter in the state, barely behind electricity and transportation. And every single wood pellet facility built in the state were sited in environmental justice-designated communities, increasing air pollution risks to local residents.
We hope that if he is confirmed, he will say no to biomass as part of federal renewable criteria, put frontline communities at the forefront of regulatory decision-making, and stand up to industrial polluters that hope to continue destroying our forests to boost shareholder value.
We believe there are four pathways that Regan should aggressively follow in order to achieve this:
Dogwood Alliance, BREDL, and Concerned Citizens of Richmond County meet with Secretary Regan to discuss the negative impact of wood pellet mills on communities, forests, and climate.
This World Wetlands Day we’re celebrating and bringing attention to wetlands as a source of freshwater. We’re also encouraging actions to restore, protect, and stop their loss.
The contribution of wetlands to the quantity and quality of freshwater on our planet is more important than ever. 180 million people in over 68,000 communities rely on forested lands and wetland forests to capture and filter their drinking water. Major US cities that may seem distant from forests actually rely on water from forest agency lands. For example, Atlanta receives a significant portion of its water supply from national forests/wetland forests.
Wetlands support our social and economic development through multiple services:
Wetland and wetland forests are homes to rare, endemic species. Wetlands removes pollutants from water. Wetlands will play an ever-increasing role in the recreation and tourism industries, which brings jobs and economic prosperity to communities around this vital ecosystem.
Furthermore, wetlands are a key player in helping us regulate our climate and the impacts of climate change by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.
Wetlands keep us safe, protecting us from floods and storms. Each acre of wetland absorbs up to 1.5 million gallons of floodwater.
We use more freshwater than nature can replenish, and we are destroying wetlands, precious ecosystems that water and all life depend on.
Only 2.5% of water on Earth is freshwater, and less than 1% is usable. We must protect rivers, lakes, and swamps as essential surface water sources and key elements to our survival.
Tell your leaders about how much you care and urge them to preserve wetlands and wetland forests.
Urge your Congress members to protect wetland forests and the communities that depend on them!
The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, is one of the nation’s most important wetlands. Last year, Dogwood supporters joined over 60,000 concerned citizens to take action, calling on the Army Corps of Engineers to deny Twin Pines a permit to mine deep into the ridge that retains the waters of the refuge. After changes the previous presidential administration made to the rules governing the waters of the US, the company has even less oversight now, offers NO assurances that their mining operations will protect the swamp from permanent damage, and makes no claims to protect the interests of the people who depend on it for recreation and economic opportunity. Take action: Tell Georgia’s governor to protect the Okefenokee Swamp.
Do you want to learn more and raise awareness about the vital role of wetlands, clean water, people, and the planet?
The biomass debate in the Netherlands continues to burn hot. For over two years, people have organized and protested against the country’s largest proposed biomass combustion plant slated to be built in Diemen, a small town just north of Amsterdam. Vattenfall, the Swedish energy company behind the project, is feverishly trying to show their business practices are “sustainable.” However, it’s fairly obvious that the public is not fooled: two major political parties do not support biomass, 800 scientists sent a letter to the EU commission, and even hundreds of children marched against Vattenfall Diemen last year.
The solution to replacing coal is not to burn forests. The solution is to replace fossil fuels with low carbon sources, such as solar and wind. However, the Netherlands sets aside 14 billion Euros in subsidies for biomass plants and these incentives continue to fund the business practices of wood pellet producers like Enviva in the Southern United States. Enviva is reliant on “renewable energy” subsidies, even though there’s nothing clean nor green about burning wood pellets. Companies like Enviva and Vattenfall harm communities, forests, and the climate.
A five day “Stop Vattenfall” tour against biomass will starts this February in the Netherlands. A moving billboard bus will make its way throughout the Netherlands. The tour will culminate in a court hearing against Vattenfall. Bringing forth this case are Clean Air Committee, Mobilization on the Environment, and Dutch Society for Nature Conservation. The hearing will occur along with a national demonstration against biomass power plants in Haarlem.
Vattenfall could be the first energy company to turn against the combustion of biomass. They could request the province of Noord-Holland immediately withdraw granted permits. If not, Vattenfall could face a customer boycott in favor of one of the five clean-energy suppliers. Vattenfall needs 200,000 tons of imported pellets needed every year. That demand threatens over 3,600 football-field’s-worth-of-forests every year.
We need your help. Dogwood Alliance unites with Netherlands organizations to pressure Dutch parliament because our forests are cut down to fuel biomass energy in the Netherlands.
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