(light music) (engine sputtering) - Climate change is solvable.

We just need to all push in the same direction.

(Charles groaning) (horn honking) Well, easier said than done.

Come on.

Here's the thing.

The climate movement can make some people, many people, feel alienated, excluded, even villainized.

This is the single largest mistake this movement has made.

If we can't fix this, we are finished.

So what do we do?

I'm Charles Loi.

I'm a filmmaker who began to see that the California we grew up in is disappearing.

Climate change demands new solutions and new stories.

My friends and I set out to find those narratives.

(rhythmic music) (screen hissing) - [Announcer] "Climate California" is brought to you in part by: Crankstart, a San Francisco-based family foundation that works with others on critical issues concerning economic mobility, education, democracy, housing security, the environment, and medical science and innovation, and by the Community Foundation of Sonoma County.

Additional support provided by donors to The Center for Environmental Reporting at NorCal Public Media.

A complete list is available.

And by the following.

(bright music) "Climate California" is made possible by contributions to your public television station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(rhythmic music) - In the 1990s, what percentage of Americans self-identified as environmentalists?

Any guesses?

- 15?

- 70?

- 70.

You're close.

79% of Americans in 1990 self-identified as environmentalists.

That number today is 38%.

- [Charles] This is Benji Backer, author of "The Conservative Environmentalist" and founder of a political group called Nature is Nonpartisan.

- As I've traveled around the country, I've been to almost every state multiple times.

The rational majority of Americans want the same things when it comes to the environment.

They want healthier and cleaner communities for their kids.

They want forests to be restored and wildlife habitat to be restored.

And they want to have the cheapest energy on the grid that is as clean as possible.

Starting at the local and the state level is the best way, the fastest way to get good policies done.

- Benji's approach to protecting nature is by trying to unite conservatives and liberals.

It's hard not to feel skeptical about that.

But we wanted to hear what he had to say.

To be honest, I was a little bit nervous to do this interview.

There's just so much going on in the world, and I think it would just be hilarious if at the end of this interview, like both of us get canceled.

- Probably for different reasons, but both sides like to cancel everybody these days.

I always think it's a good sign when during our launch week for Nature is Nonpartisan, we had Newsmax, Fox News, CBS, and "New York Times" and climate publications that were all reporting it.

And I was like, "That's exactly what I want."

(laughing) - That's a lot of people to bring onboard, also a lot of people to possibly disappoint.

- Yes, well.

Don't think that's not at the back of my mind as well.

This is something that we all want and that we all have a passionate connection to, no matter if we're poor, rich, Black, white, conservative or liberal.

Most of the climate denial thought process in this country does not come from hating the environment.

It comes from perceiving that every solution around climate change is going to hurt lower-income Americans in middle America.

And until we realize that, we're not going to get policies that serve anybody.

- How do we get past partisanship and like work with people who think differently than us without being naive?

- Yeah, your approach living in the West to help with air quality might revolve around forests and different transportation options than somebody in the Midwest, right?

Like, they don't have forest fires, and they don't have as interconnected of roads and charging stations and everything.

What if we worked on both of those lanes at once to get to the same end goal?

It's not compromising on your values.

It's compromising on the policies so that you actually include another group of people in the discussion that might just have different livelihoods that need to be addressed in a different way than yours might.

- I think that's a beautiful vision.

So I looked at your board.

You do have like a former head of the Department of the Interior who worked under the Trump administration, who pushed forward pretty pro-fossil fuel industry policies.

I didn't know what to make of that.

What is sort of the strategy behind that?

- First of all, I don't think anyone would question us if we had Biden or Obama's DOI secretaries, who also expanded fossil fuels during their times in office.

What I care about is intention and alignment.

David Bernhardt is a avid fisherman, avid hiker, avid lover of the outdoors.

The intention is aligned.

David Bernhardt is the reason why our national parks are not in massive debt like they could be, because he prioritized getting that policy done during the first Trump administration to do the biggest investment in national parks, dollars and cents wise, in US history.

He has good intentions and he's aligned with the end goal.

We have different ways of getting there probably in certain ways.

But if I put together a board that I agreed with on everything, I wouldn't have a board.

(laughing) There's not a single person who would be on my board.

Not even my dog Mindy would be on the board, okay?

- Are there any like red lines?

Are there things that you think that we should be doing to hold policymakers accountable in addition to trying to work with them?

- Look, I mean, absolutely there should be groups out there fighting the good fight and pushing back against bad policy.

What I'm trying to create, it's not defense, it's playing offense.

It's trying to show politicians that we want things rather than that we don't want things.

And so if people expect me to fight every single battle, I will lose every single battle.

I really want to stay focused on building a durable environmental movement for the future.

And what that looks like is finding commonalities in a time right now where that doesn't seem possible at all, which makes it ever more important.

- I was having a hard time squaring Benji's strategy with the stories of the people we'd met on this journey, the ones fighting for environmental justice, choosing more confrontational approaches, demanding more radical changes.

(dramatic classical music) I mean Benji has a point, but I'm not sure I agree with him on everything.

But maybe that's okay.

Disagreement doesn't necessarily mean dysfunction.

Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe suggests open disagreement should be the point of democracy.

She calls this approach agonistic pluralism.

We don't all hold the same values or even want the same future, and we should be honest about that.

Democracy's job isn't to erase those conflicting visions.

It's to give them a legitimate arena to compete in.

If we don't allow conflict to play out inside democracy, it'll happen outside democracy, (fire hissing) which is not great.

At heart, the tension over climate change is about fear of what people have to lose when we question everything.

Who wins?

Who loses?

Who gets left behind?

That's politics.

The good news is, we need allies.

The bad news is, we need allies.

So instead of fighting against human nature, how do we enlist that passion?

Faith and climate action haven't always gone hand in hand, but for William Morris, they're one and the same.

- Numbers and graphs don't touch peoples' hearts.

It's stories and relationships and connections that do.

And so I think getting away from facts and figures and getting into peoples' individual stories is much more effective.

- Yeah, and it just makes me think like, what if like the Bible had like scatterplots and like graphs, like?

(William laughing) Like Noah's Ark, okay, number of animals died and.

- Yeah, and this much rainfall and this many days.

Yeah, I think it's a much less compelling story.

I think the point of those stories isn't how true they are word for word what it says, but I think the point is, what is this trying to teach?

How can we read these stories about being up against a giant and know we still can win?

In the fossil fuel industry, it feels like this giant system that is impossible to go up against, but I think that's where the faith and spirit part really comes in, is that there is this sense of spirit within us and the Earth that we're on that pushes us to do more, to be able to go further.

We have this belief that there's hope no matter what.

- Is there a type of parable or story from the Bible that you tend to use, that you like to use?

- The easiest one is just the creation story in Genesis, because they've heard that story so many times, right?

You've heard Adam and Eve in the garden.

(birds chirping) Then the focus is on the fall, but really, the premise of that was for us to take care of the Earth, to be in relationship with it, and to help it flourish.

- But didn't we get kicked out of Eden?

- (laughing) Yeah, yeah, for not listening.

A lot of people of faith, especially Christians, they have this train of thought and it's called tonic dualism, where there is, on one hand, the physical world, and on the other hand, the spiritual world.

And the spiritual is all that matters.

The physical world has fallen, it's sinful, it's bad.

We don't want anything to do with the world.

We want, you know, this ethereal other place.

And oftentimes, it's used as an excuse to not take action and it's often used as an excuse to not help people.

The founder of my faith was, you know, a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew who was born into a place where it was colonized.

Our faith came out of that.

It's pushing back against these people who are treating others badly, who have set up these systems that harm.

And I think that the more people see people of faith actually living by their beliefs, the more they will appreciate the message behind it.

- We work with so many different faith traditions.

We even had an atheist group called Atheists United join us.

So now the invitation is, you know, people of all faiths or no faiths.

(group laughing) Like you are welcome.

- That's the exciting thing about it to me is that really breaking down the barriers for collective action.

- Yeah.

- I mean, that's where you can really make a difference.

- Gracious and loving creator, we offer you thanks for all the people who care about your creation today.

And as we gather together, may you bring us closer in appreciation of what we have in this world.

We offer you this prayer in your holy name, amen.

- Amen.

- Amen.

- We depend on the Earth.

We are all interconnected and we all take care of one another.

- My faith calls me to create a world that works for all creation, not just humans, but in this case, whales.

- Narrowleaf milkweed is also what the monarch butterfly lays its eggs on.

The monarch butterflies are a symbol of immigrants.

It's a good reminder that many of the most vulnerable people bear the biggest effects of climate change.

- If everyone wants to gather up closer to the altar, we can say a silent prayer.

We look over the altar that has water in the chalice, fire if it was less windy, (people laughing) pieces of the Earth here, and all of our collective blessings.

Be grounded in the space we're in and the many spaces we'll be going to after and taking all of this with us.

Here in Los Angeles, there's so many different front line communities and coalitions coming together to get oil drilling phased out and trying to fight against that.

It can seem like that David and Goliath fight, but we know the outcome of that and I know we'll see the same with this.

When I'm out in the streets as well, when we're protesting, that is church to me, (laughing) like being out there.

It's so exciting and hopeful for me that this is the way the momentum is going.

Like this change is not just possible, it's inevitable.

- But people can be resistant to change, and for good reason.

Especially when it comes to something as important as their livelihoods.

(dramatic music) For years, the environmental movement has ignored the voices of fossil fuel workers.

And today, they're some of the fiercest opponents to climate action.

Norman Rogers is trying to change that.

- In September of 2020, the Marathon Martinez Refinery made the switch to becoming a renewable facility.

With that, 350 people lost their jobs.

As we phase in renewables, we also need to phase in supports and safeguards for ourselves as employees, and at a larger sense as well, for the community.

We either get in front of it or we get run over by it.

- That's a way to say that if you're not at the table, you're on the menu.

(laughing) - Yeah, exactly, exactly.

- Are you good at making direct asks?

- Hopefully they've been so overwhelmed by my genius.

- They're ready to offer it.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Norman's a union leader and refinery worker who's elbowed his way into conversations that have shut out people like him.

(dramatic music continues) What does just transition mean to you?

- Well, it's been a hell of a party for oil refining in the United States over the last 150 years.

And everyone's benefited, from tennis shoes, to aspirin, to polyester.

Workers in these areas have been doing the right thing for over 100 years now.

And the right thing had been going to work, earning money to keep a roof over your head and food on the table.

These jobs have become multigenerational.

With that 100 years, the collective bargaining, we're well-paid, good pay, good benefits.

Now, we're being told the right thing is for you to lose your job out of necessity for the issues that are taking place in the environment.

So where do we go?

What do we do?

Until we have that full discussion about everything that needs to be looked at, we're not going to have a fully fledged solution.

Because we're only addressing part of the bigger issue.

- You guys want assistance to transition workers, right?

- So there was a $40 million displaced oil and gas worker fund, and that got knocked down to $30 million.

- Do you think that's enough?

- No.

It's a pilot fund.

All of this boils down to getting people into high-paying jobs with what they've had.

Parity in pay and benefits, we saw when the auto industry contracted, and hopefully we're clear-headed enough, we can avoid some of the pitfalls that happened there.

- Do you have any advice for people who are worried about their jobs?

- Marry money.

(Charles laughing) That's my first (laughing) piece of advice.

- That's good, okay.

I'm writing this down.

- The other is learn as much as you can about as many different things as you can.

I think of stem cells, the cells that can differentiate into anything else.

We need to train with enough base information so that whatever comes up next, we can go that direction.

- How did you go from a worker to somebody who organizes the workers?

- Having a big mouth, I guess.

You lose the patience to just sit by and let things slide.

And there's leaks, there's fires, there's explosions, more than folks would realize.

There's a question that's always at the top of my mind, and that's, what are we willing to do to other peoples' children?

You'll put up with a certain amount of crap and then you'll see somebody else being mistreated, and you go, "Oh, no, no, no.

No, that's not going to fly."

- Yeah.

- You see something's not right, do you say something?

- So is this a private fight or can anybody join?

- Anybody can join, anybody should join.

Because for the longest time, there's been a divide.

Folks didn't always see themselves as workers.

Whoever's cutting the check, you're a worker.

A large majority of what works would work for everybody.

It would be a rising tide that lifted all boats.

- But how do we make sure there are enough boats for everyone?

Humans are tribal.

This never really changed.

Even when our societies got bigger and more advanced.

We've still needed stories of who was in the tribe and who wasn't.

In his book "Imagined Communities," Benedict Anderson talks about how new stories like nationalism allowed people who'd never even met each other to feel like they were all part of the same tribe, to speak a common language, to cherish a shared history, to die under the same flag.

But the problem with creating imagined communities is that you also create imagined enemies.

What would it mean if we began to see our enemies as part of our tribe?

(explosion hissing) What if their worries became our worries?

And what if we could bring climate action back down to the immediate community?

Down to human size.

(light music) This is what Lisa Gautier is working on.

- We have an urban edible garden, gray water systems for the laundry, chickens, honeybees.

When you flush the toilet, the water comes from the wall, not from the toilet.

All of this water goes back into the tank for the next flush.

- [Charles] Lisa founded Matter of Trust, a nonprofit creating neighborhood eco solutions that play to our commonalities.

One of those commonalities: hair.

Turns out, there are tons of uses for it.

Like soaking up oil or composting.

You get involved, very involved.

Could I try it?

(machine whirring) - You're felting.

(machine thumping) Look at what you did.

- [Charles] Oh.

- So we get a lot of hair that's blonde from Los Angeles.

And then, after Burning Man, we get a lot of crazy colored hair.

- These hair mats are donation-based.

So Lisa invited me to donate.

Thank you.

One of the things that, on a personal level, I'm quite afraid of is that climate change is going to tear us apart.

Do you see what you're doing as sort of like stitching people together a bit?

- The community is a huge part of everything that we do, because we're very boots on the ground up.

We're just out there working with kids and working with, you know, neighborhoods.

One thing I will say is that linguistics is a big thing.

So in San Francisco, we'll talk about clean air, clean water, clean energy.

But if we're in, you know, Florida, we might talk about blue skies and fresh water.

The reason we talk about things differently is because, in some places, like an industrial place, they might hear something that has to be clean and it'll be expensive for them.

It means that there's going to be penalties, that there's going to be legislation that'll come down and make them change a lot of stuff in their industry and it panics them.

And because everybody has hair, we're (laughing) not dealing with the same problems.

- Not everyone has hair.

(Lisa laughing) It felt like we were at a neighborhood barbershop, even with a bit of trash talk thrown in.

- All that white hair.

(people laughing) - [Charles] So what am I wearing?

- [Lisa] You're not trashy.

You compost and recycle.

- I guess I do.

(Lisa laughing) Yeah, thank you for the shirt.

- Of course.

- I appreciate it.

I have to wear this?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

(Lisa laughing) - It's in a little window, window envelope.

(laughing) - It's beautiful.

- (laughing) It is good.

- Yeah, like you said, there's too many white hairs.

- Yeah, you made a good, though, donation.

The news, you know, everybody says that it silos you.

When you actually get into the conversations, it's very different from the news.

- You mentioned that you were a waiter.

I actually was a waiter right after college.

I worked so hard that year, 'cause I was interning on the Hill, always having to serve people with a smile on my face, even if I just like got chewed out by my manager and like the food is late, and people are hungry.

I remember like never forget how hard you worked.

Everything else after this is like a privilege.

I guess my question is, what did you learn from being a waiter?

- Yeah.

Well, I was a waiter at the really elitist institution of the Texas Roadhouse.

(laughing) It was a great, great job.

Yeah, you have to show up with a smile every day.

The hardest things in life bring you the best outcomes if you can get through them, right?

It teaches you the most.

It gets you the furthest.

It pushes you to boundaries that you never thought were possible.

- I think there are places and there are people where you could spend a lot of energy, but it feels like you're hitting your head against the wall.

I really try to decide, is there openness here?

And if they're not, that's okay.

There are more places who do want to do stuff, and I don't want to miss out on them because I tried to spend too much time with folks whose hearts are really hardened.

- I think for people who are trying to change the world in whatever respective ways that is, whether that's make someone's day at a table at Texas Roadhouse or try to depolarize the environmental conversation nationally, not every day is going to be great.

Most days might not be even be great.

And every day you have to show up and still have optimism that that won't be the case forever.

It's so much bigger than my ego being hurt by somebody commenting something.

- One of the verses in the Bible talks about like, if you're not wanted somewhere, you can shake the dust off your feet and keep going.

And it's going to be really hard for someone to come from the outside and try and affect change.

It really has to come from within.

We take care of the Earth, not in spite of our faith, but because of it.

- We're made out of atoms, right?

The same atoms that make up these trees and, you know, stardust far, far away.

I guess we don't really talk about this too much, but the cross is a tree.

It was a, you know, method of execution, so it symbols brutality, but at the same time, a couple days later, it becomes a symbol of hope.

And so when Christ returned and it was not only a symbol of, you know, humanity's return, but a symbol of creation's return.

(ethereal music) - Go forth, care for the Earth, care for one another, and let hope, love, and gratitude be your fuel.

- Amen.

- Go in peace.

- Oh yes, go in peace.

(group laughing) - Yay.

(group applauding) Yay Earth.

- Yay Earth.

- [Participant] Go Earth.

- [Charles] We can't cut out identity and soul from the climate movement, but then, how can we walk alongside each other?

What do we have in common?

(gentle music) When I was growing up, I remember asking my grandma about God.

We were visiting a temple, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.

A friend had told me that because I didn't believe in Jesus, I was going to hell, which did not sound fun.

But my grandma told me that all these gods are actually different interpretations of the same truth.

Each of them is a different Buddha, a different source of wisdom and wonder.

(gentle music continues) Humans create meaning.

Our visions will clash.

They have to.

(birds chirping) No story has integrity without its boundaries and structure.

(birds chirping) It's like a forest.

Each species has its own unique way of perceiving the world and its own interests.

You can see the wild diversity as something to be tamed and simplified, or you can see it as an ecosystem of competition and cooperation, a site of struggle for power, and yet, beauty and balance.

(birds chirping) - When you find yourself in a naturally beautiful place, you get this sense of awe and reverence.

- The peacefulness, the groundedness, all those things about nature are why I'm doing this.

This thing is so much bigger than me, right?

- You can feel this upwelling of spirit.

What are you doing with that belief?

How are you taking action once you leave here?

- [Lisa] When everybody, you know, has the ability to contribute, everybody feels very empowered.

- Sometimes we're able to join in and we're standing shoulder to shoulder, and we're eight people wide and moving forward.

Sometimes we're able to join in, but we're heel to toe, because that's the one thing we're able to agree on.

- [Charles] Maybe the only thing to unite us all is the continuation of the forest itself.

Without the conditions for life, we all lose.

It's either life with conflict (animals sounding) or no life at all.

And if there's anything we can all agree on, it's life.

(birds chirping) Let's agree to continue disagreeing.

(birds continue chirping) (gentle music intensifies) - [Announcer] You can visit our website for more information, related educational materials, and additional resources.

(tense electronic music) It's all at ClimateCalifornia.org.

(bright music) "Climate California" is brought to you in part by: Crankstart, a San Francisco-based family foundation that works with others on critical issues concerning economic mobility, education, democracy, housing security, the environment, and medical science and innovation, and by the Community Foundation of Sonoma County.

Additional support provided by donors to The Center for Environmental Reporting at NorCal Public Media.

A complete list is available.

And by the following.

(bright music continues) "Climate California" is made possible by contributions to your public television station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(light music)