PCC, Sustain Me! is a higher education and environmental justice podcast brought to you from Portland Community College's Sustainability Department. The host is Joe Culhane and the program's goal is to explore the sustainability movement and it's relationship with social/environmental justice at both PCC and in higher education in general. The objective is to provide a narrative and storyline for the college and also to ideally illuminate best practices, redundancies, and ways to improve sustainability and social justice efforts at all levels of education across the nation. We see that there is a major need for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of sustainability and we hope to explore these issues and be a part of the solution moving forward with these extremely important topics.
So much goodness in here. Jacob Lebel, one of the 21 youth plaintiffs on the Juliana V U.S “Climate Trial of the Century” came and gave over 100 student leaders a great keynote presentation during our 3rd annual #EcoSocialJustice Event. We talked about a great many things and about the injunction case that is right around the corner, as in tomorrow! Right here in Portland, Oregon there will be a huge rally and Our Children’s Trust will be representing. You should come. I’ll see you there!
This was such a great conversation I had after a highly impactful two full days of training with Jamie Washington Ph.D., of Washington Consulting Group and Kathy Obear, Ed.D., from The Center for Transformation & Change. The training was called Creating Inclusive, Socially Just Campus Environments and I certainly was able to learn a lot over the course of the two days. You can learn more about both of their work by going to either www.washingtonconsultinggroup.net or www.drkathyobear.com
This was a fantastic conversation I had the good fortune to have with Kevin Wilhelm, CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting, author, public speaker, and so much more. We sat down near the conclusion of the Washington Oregon Higher Education Conference that was held this year at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The conversation went many places and if you’d like to find out where it went, you’re gonna have to go ahead and give it a listen.
As always, thanks for tuning in, folks!
What a fantastic conversation this was with Kiran Oommen. Not only that but this episode also happens to have a podcast debut of a fresh track from one of the bands Kiran is in called Geophagia. The track is called Werewolf. It’s sprinkled in the episode and if you stick around to the very end you’ll get to hear it in it’s entirety!
The conversation we had was at WOHESC 2019 at Washington University in Seattle, Washington. Kiran Oommen is one of the 21 plaintiff’s in the Julianna v US climate trial and part of the Youth V Gov and Our Children’s Trust.
Thanks for tuning in, folks!
Check it out! The 2019 GPSEN Sustainability Symposium is right around the corner, March 8th 2019. Hear more about the event and a bit of the story line of how GPSEN came to be. Oh, and while you’re at it, you’ll get a bit more of an intimate idea of how awesome the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal’s are, too!
I had such a great conversation with Venus Barnes, a member of the PCC community as the Learning Garden Coordinator at the Sylvania Campus and she is also a former student here as well. Venus started a Food Justice Cohort that I was really excited to share about and she also did an excellent job of addressing and looking at many of the intersections of the social just and sustainability movement.
On Tuesday, January 15th in Salem Oregon a rally and public hearing were held to stop the Jordan Cove LNG terminal and pipeline project. Hundreds of folks were in attendance and one of them happened to be me. I recorded much of the speakers that were at the rally and wanted to share some of that experience with you all. I also thought it would be good to share a bit more of just why this is project is such a terrible idea to support and why we must stop it from being built.
Thanks for tuning in, folks!
Two weeks have some how flown by already here in 2019. It took a bit to dust off the winter break hibernation like mentality I fell into but alas, here is the first episode of the new year! This episode is a combination of a reflection on this past year, a look ahead, and a friendly reminder to take deep breaths and work towards embracing the present.
It’s a bit of a rant, take it or leave it of course. Enjoy if you’d like, or not.
Either way, thanks as always for tuning in, folks!
The 11th Global RCE Conference held at the University of the Philippines, Cebu was held from December 7th-9th folks from many places around the world gathered to focus on pathways towards education for sustainable development. I was honored to be one of those folks gathered there and I can tell you right now it was a surreal experience. Besides the 24 plus hours of travel in order to get there and finding myself presenting just over 12 hours later, being on the other side of the planet for the first time, in a tropical climate filled with Christmas cheer everywhere, after a long layover in the futuristic airport of Seoul, Korea, well, let me just say this all still feels like it was something out of a dream.
There’s a whole lot I’ve still yet to unpack from these few days spent in Cebu. Thankfully, just before flying back from this incredible experience, I was able to sit down with Charles Hopkins to reflect on the conference and he was kind enough to share some general wisdom that I found encouraging and valuable. This episode is also filled with a handful of amazing songs from live performances we were treated to during our stay there.
Thanks for tuning in, folks!
I had the honor of interviewing one of the 21 plaintiffs of the Juliana v US climate trial and it just so happened to be Kelsey Juliana whose name is attached to the case. She did make it clear though that all 21 of the youth who are a part of this case when it began in 2015 are equally representatives and plaintiffs of the case and that it was mostly a strategic and logistical situation to attach her name to the case. You can hear more about that during the podcast. We also talked a bit about our government, a belief in democracy, social justice, and a bit of optimism about how things are starting to come together around the world for the sake of our climates and world.
Tune in to learn a bit more of where things stand currently with the trial, how Our Children’s Trust and Earth Guardians are connected to it all and also hear about what other awesome activism work Kelsey has been a part of lately!
Thanks for tuning, in folks!