maria and vivi podcast

Vivi and Maria discuss climate change and the need for action. They express their concern about the lack of follow-through on social media and the potential misuse of funds raised for climate change causes. They also highlight the importance of collective action and the need for organized efforts to address climate change. They then discuss an interview with Vivi's dad, who believes that Seattle has not done enough to address climate change and that elders' experiences and knowledge can contribute to understanding climate issues. Vivi and Maria reflect on their disagreement with their dad's opinion about the climate always being chaotic in Seattle. They recall the extreme events they have witnessed, such as wildfires, and discuss the need for more action from the community. They also suggest ways individuals can make a difference, such as using public transportation, picking up trash, and reducing pollution. Hi, I'm Vivi, and I'm Maria, and this is Climate Conversations. We've seen a lot lately on social media that climate change is happening in Seattle. Yeah. And as much as people can post about it and be like, I'm doing this to cause, or to cause, to help climate change, and they repost and whatnot, it's kind of more of like initiative to react on what you're saying, instead of just being able to say it and then not do anything about it. It's unfaithful and untruthful, especially if you're putting that online, that can give you a false assumption of that person, and it's just, that's not what the world's about. Yeah. I think it can be very misleading sometimes when people are posting GoFundMes and such about save this thing and save this thing, save the forest and save the coral reef, but you don't actually know if that money is going to that organization, and then they don't have any other sources to back up where it's actually going. Yeah. Along with GoFundMes and reposts about climate change and what's happening in our world right now, I really think that... I like the GoFundMes, because I noticed that a lot of people put them in their bio, and they're like, for someone, this person has cancer, this person is dying, so they could totally go to something else. So it's like, I agree with you on that, I'm just noticing. Yeah. I think very easily it could be going somewhere we don't know. I think that the issue of climate change is also pushed in our faces, and I think it causes a lot of stress and worry, especially about our future generations. I know I've definitely had conversations with friends where they've been like, oh, is the planet going to be alive for me to have a family, and it's going to be alive, it's going to be around. But I think that having it pushed in our faces so much has made us kind of believe that there's nothing we can do, and I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true either, because I remember in middle school, they would make us for Earth Day or whatnot, they would make us go and pick up trash. And I mean, as much as 30 kids can help the planet, I think that you could do stuff every day to help your society and community, and as much as you don't think it makes a difference, I'm sure if you combine all the people that are trying to do the same thing, it would be a drastic difference. Yeah, on the topic of people in Seattle trying to address climate change and come up with solutions, we interviewed my dad, and this is what he had to say. Has there been a major difference in the environment due to the climate change resolution you've noticed in the past 20 years in Seattle? No. The climate's always been chaotic here, from year to year. And what has Seattle done that has benefited our community even more? Very little. They've crammed more people into less space, created more emissions, at the expense of taxpayers, and the benefit of property developers. And how do you think the experiences and knowledge of elders in Seattle can contribute to understanding climate issues in our region? Well, they understand the complexities of society and climate, because they've seen a change over time. And they understand the difference between a bureaucratic disposition towards control versus what people actually need to live in society and make society work in a climate change era. All right. Thank you so much. Listening to that interview and thinking about those questions more in depth, we have some thoughts about each of them and what my dad had to say. So, he said that the climate has really been chaotic here, and it's kind of always been like that in Super Shifty, but the both of us kind of disagree with that. We don't think it's necessarily more of a normal thing for the climate to be, like, insane here. Yeah. I know that the only really crazy climate event that I can think of is when we had those wildfires in 2022, and then we had a super hot fall, and the sky was super gray, the sun was pink. Like, it was really bad. But I wouldn't say that that's, like, a normal thing. I would say that's definitely out of the ordinary. Especially not for West Seattle, no. The West Coast, it's not. Because, well, we've never had that, so that's a huge change. I mean, well, I'm sure the heat stroke or, like, whatever happened to, like, young kids and other people. I mean, it was scary to, like, go outside, I remember, because it's—although I think all the wildfires are coming from California or something, and it came here, and it just hit the air all, like, orange and red and yellow. And not pretty, like, sunset. Like, just, like, how foggy. And it was gross. It looked like if you were by the bus side, you would have, like, a stroke or something. Yeah. Like, it wouldn't—like, you can't, like, breathe in and whatnot. It was awful. No, it was horrible. I wouldn't—I remember my mom had to work in the summer, because she's a preschool teacher, so she'd come home, and all of us would come home and go, like, can you turn the—the walking in the door was horrible for preschoolers. Yeah. Sure. For the second question, he said that our community hasn't done anything to really help improve the state of our climate, and I really agree with that, especially with, like, what our generation is doing, because so much of the time I see people posting about, like, we need to do this, guys, but there's never any organized action. Yeah. I agree. It'd be cool if, like, the high school or the college would, like, make it, like, almost like a club or, like, an organization, and then just, like, get together all the people that are, like, passionate about it and can go do something about it or, like— Yeah. Not protest, because that's a huge thing, and that could still turn out, like, bad, but, like, just, like, muffle it down and stand for what's good, you know what I mean? Like, what's right. Yeah, definitely. I feel like it would be beneficial to get everyone in a group so they know each other, because I feel like so much of the time today, there's—people are trying to be activists— Yeah. —and fight for equality and fight for a better world, but nobody knows each other anymore. I know. Like, there's—it's not personal. It doesn't feel like a community anymore. It's just, like, a bunch of random people that are angry about the same thing. I think it'd be awesome. Yeah. I think that's what's going to be left. Yes. But I agree. We could be taking more action, but I don't think we as a collective community are doing that enough. And then concerning the last question, I do agree. I agree. I think that it's super important to get the insight of elders and people that have lived here for their whole lives that are now, you know, old and tired, and they don't want to see the planet die. Yeah. No, no, no. That's good. Yeah. Well, I mean, I know that there's probably still, like, 34 old living rooms. I know there's eight that's living by on Alki, and one on 35th. I can't quite remember what it's called. But yeah, I think it'd be awesome to get, like, a separate set of, like, ears and eyes on it. Yeah. But it could totally backfire, because, you know, like, their memory, and, like, some people haven't lived here for all that long. So I think it'd be cool to compare the people that have lived here their whole life and, like, seen changes in their life that they know what it's about, and then people that necessarily, like, haven't lived here that long. Compare and contrast. Yeah. I think it would be great. I think what you said is important. Like, I think it would be great to get opinions from people that are knowledgeable about the area, but it can also be tricky, because sometimes there might be misinformation. Yeah. If they don't have, like, I don't know, pictures or something, it would be helpful. It would be helpful. You know, because they're... I know. They could show us pictures of, like, falls from when they were young. Yeah. And we can compare them to, like, what does October look like now? What does September look like now? What does September look like now? What did it look like in 1983? You know? Yeah. Yeah. And get some real first-hand evidence, some real primary sources. Goats and the goats. Oh, yeah. Circling back to Vivian's dad's second question about how... What has he all done to benefit our community in the past 20, 30 years? Well, what Vivian said was about her mom being a preschool teacher and all the little preschool kids that couldn't go outside without coughing and hacking because of the air. And what I said about what you can do to help your community and whatnot, I think that we wrapping all of this up, that you could take a minute and, like, see what's inside your phone. And... What? Well, here's some things that you can do to help the environment. You can use public transportation instead of your car because gas is not good and it's pricing. No one wants that. Pricing. Biking is great. Scooters. Not electric scooters. Rotor skates. Rotor skates are awesome. You could pick up trash around your neighborhood, like I told you about what I did in elementary school around for Earth Day and whatnot. You could carpool. That's another thing with public transportation. That can all go together. And... Stop smoking. Because it's not good. Because the air is polluted. Yeah. And it's nasty. And you throw your cigarettes on the ground. I'm looking around now. I see a ton. Well, there's, like, ten right there. Cut it out. I think it's important to also remember to keep your space clean, like your campus. Like, if you are a college student or if you're in your neighborhood and you notice some trash on the ground, maybe just pick it up instead of not doing anything. Like, obviously, if it's a bunch of cigarette butts, if you don't have gloves, there's only so much you can do because that's so gross. But, I don't know. Be an activist by taking care of your community. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I did. I'm Vivi. And I'm Maria. And this is Climate Conversations. Thank you so much for listening.