Host Douglas Haynes regularly features ecology and environment stories on this program, stories that you may not hear often in other media. Today we continue that theme, highlighting grassroots climate leaders and the work of independent media organizations like Grist. Our guests are Jess Stahl, the Project Director of the Grist 50 and Deneine Christa Powell, one of the leaders featured on the list working toward community-based climate solutions. 

Grist is a nonprofit independent media company covering the climate. Their work focuses on climate impacts and solutions. The Grist 50 is a reader-nominated list of leaders who are making change in their communities across the US.

Powell says that as words like equity, sustainability, and climate are under attack from the federal government, we have to change how we approach advocating for climate solutions. She likes to remind people what life would look like without sustainability. Our communities would lose not only recycling and composting, but local food systems and green infrastructure. She says that sustainability isn’t a luxury, it’s the quiet infrastructure that makes life possible, sustainable, and equitable. 

They discuss the importance of independent media, the need to keep showing up for city council meetings and talking to your sustainability officers, and how messaging about clean air and clean water resonates with folks in urban and rural areas. 

Note: This pledge drive interview was edited to remove parts of the show dedicated to station fundraising. We thank our listeners for their generous support.

Deneine Christa Powell is the CEO of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, or USDN — a community of professionals working on sustainability at the municipal level across the U.S. and Canada. She also served as the leader of the grassroots nonprofit, Groundwork Milwaukee.

Jessica Stahl is the Executive Editor of Strategic Initiatives at Grist. She is also the Project Director of the Grist 50. 

Featured image of a bioswale for stormwater management in Milwaukee via Aaron Volkening on Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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