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On this "best of" episode of Solutions News (recorded Sept 20, 2019), we take a look at the role the media can play in informing the general public, and how this is an essential part of American Democracy. We also address the false dichotomy that’s now a firmly held cultural belief that we have to choose EITHER cheap goods made with extractive procedures OR pay more for “Green” products produced sustainably. This is a false dichotomy, and in fact, it pays off “BIGLY” to invest in renewable, power and sustainable procedures that support the environment and worker paychecks.
Our guest on this show is Brent Goodlet, a post-doc in materials science, who is also a community activist and organizer of a local Climate Strike. We will be talking with Brent about the concept of the strike, and how the youth-led large scale civil disobedience movements like the climate strike and walking out of class are designed to provoke substantive action by government, business and other halls of power in our society. Finally, we highlight some of the reasons we support the climate strike, and why we are taking this episode AND next week’s to give voice to this movement. (Produced by Kristy Jansen)
Brent Goodlet
Brent Goodlet has been living in Santa Barbara for the past seven years while working on his Ph.D. in Materials from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Before coming to California, Brent grew up in Colorado where he graduated high school and joined the US Army Reserves at the age of 17 to help pay for college. As the first person in his family to go to college, Brent graduated with a B.S. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 2012, given two overseas deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan during his studies.
Now a postdoctoral scholar and community organizer focused on grassroots campaigns, Brent took charge in the organizing effort for the September 27th General Climate Strike event in Santa Barbara after coming to terms with the dire warnings of the scientific community about the climate crisis that we all now face.
His advocacy and organizing efforts focused on disrupting the "business as usual" mindset that has led to decades of inaction on an issue with the potential to create over a billion climate refugees by the end of the century, and unconscionable amounts of human suffering for generation after generation into the future. Therefore, Brent and the Climate Strike SB Team are embracing the powerful and disruptive potential of a global general strike, as it is now being called for by numerous national and international groups, including 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and her global Fridays For Future movement.
