Parentology is proud to introduce Our Future Now, A National Children’s Campaign podcast produced by Goal 17 Media. This week’s episode features Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate and community revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation.
Mustafa Santiago Ali: On a Mission to Save Lives
“There is a criminality aspect when you know you’re intentionally doing something that is going to shorten people’s lives,” Ali says.
He points to detrimental changes, such as the Trump administration rolling back clean air rules on the fossil fuel and power plant industries, as well as strictures around methane. Then there was exiting the Paris Climate Accord. All these moves bring with them more exposure to air pollution.
“EPA has said that more people are going to get sick and unfortunately more people are going to die,” Ali says of these changes. The problem? “No one is paying attention.”
Ali knows of what he speaks. He’s devoted his life– yes, he actually started on this path at age 16 — to working on social justice issues with an eye on securing environmental, health and economic justice. For 24 years, he worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), becoming a founding member of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) and serving as senior advisor for environmental justice and community revitalization.
Another leadership role saw Ali as senior vice president for the Hip Hop Caucus, where he led the fight for climate change, environmental justice and community revitalization. Now he’s continuing his mission through the National Wildlife Federation.
In this Our Future Now! podcast, Ali, Gottlieb and Mebane talk about how COVID-19 compounds problems resulting from climate change and discuss ways to enact positive change.
Resources for This Episode With Mustafa Santiago Ali
Read about the Resources for Workforce Investment Act — the ReWind Act — mentioned in this episode here. These companion bills can prevent the Trump administration from bailing out the fossil fuel industry, one of the main culprits in climate change, through the use of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act funds.
For more information about this episode, check out this National Children’s Campaign blog post.
To learn about deaths resulting from air pollution, check out these articles from the Journal of American Medical Association and Newsweek.
To see what the National Wildlife Federation and Mustafa Santiago Ali are working on visit https://www.nwf.org.
More Our Future Now Podcasts
PODCAST: Teens Fight For Family Members on Frontlines #YourWorkersMyFamily
PODCAST: How COVID-19 Is Harming College Students
The Our Future Now Collaboration
Our Future Now, a National Children’s Campaign Podcast is co-hosted by Jonah Gottlieb and Natalie Mebane. Gottlieb and Mebane are also co-founders of NCC. Gottlieb, a high school senior from Petaluma, California, is also the captain of One Planet Living and the co-founder and president of Global Awareness. Mebane is the Associate Director of US Policy for 350, an international movement looking to end the use of fossil fuels while promoting renewable energy.
Our Future Now is a collaboration between Parentology, the National Children’s Campaign and Goal 17 Media.
The National Children’s Campaign (NCC) is a national nonprofit organization that amplifies the voices of America’s 74 million children and youth, making sure our nation’s political leaders prioritize issues –health, education, climate and environment, child welfare, gun violence, child immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, and youth civic engagement — that matter to those who are too young to vote.
Goal 17 Media is a media network producing podcasts, videos and documentaries that inspire individuals and contribute to the common good.