Look, it’s been another long hard week. I’ve been grinding away trying to figure out how to do my small part to stave off the craziness—here’s a letter I wrote to the 100,000 folks on the Third Act mailing list about our plans (you’re allowed to read it even if you’re under 60, and there’s a bonus pic of me at our snowy local protest on Monday); here’s a piece I wrote for the New Yorker yesterday about the president declaring himself a monarch (shorter version: if there’s one idea at the base of America, it’s ‘no kings.’) But once in a while one has to refill the inspiration bank, and that’s what today is about. I want to introduce you to two women, very different in all the details but united in their spirited and effective dedication to the climate fight.
First up, Antonique Smith. Earlier today she released her latest single, a new and stripped-down version of “Love Song to the Earth,” with its composer Toby Gad playing behind her. The song came out in anthemic version in 2015, with Paul McCartney, Angelique Kidjo, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow and others joining in, “We Are the World” style. That was just before Paris, part of the successful effort of a climate movement at its apex to finally win a global climate accord; now, in this darker moment, it’s a perfect time for a reboot, and Smith is the perfect choice. I first met her in L.A. a decade ago, when she was recording a track for H.O.M.E—the Hip Hop Caucus climate change album that featured some serious talent (Common, Malik Yusef, and on and on). My dear friend Rev. Lennox Yearwood was the impresario behind the project, and so I was sitting in a church they were using for some of the recording when I first heard Smith, singing the greatest environmental song of all time: Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me.” Her voice was a revelation then (she already had a Grammy nomination), and it’s even better now—on the new song she’s more mature and resonant than ever. You can hear the church in her voice, and the planet too.
But those songs (and her version of Here Comes the Sun, which in one of my larger contributions to the climate movement I persuaded her to learn) are just the surface. She’s become a remarkable climate activist, teaming with Rev. Yearwood for The Coolest Show podcast, and in recent months launching Climate Revival, an effort to take the climate message into the Black church. We wrote back and forth this week and I hope you take the time to read it all and let it sink in:
1) Tell me about the new song–where it came from, what it means, what you hope it gets across to people?
It was first written in 2015 by my long time friend Toby Gad and Natasha Bedingfield when the UN asked Toby to create an anthem to support the Paris Climate Agreement. The beautiful song was sung by people like Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Natasha Bedingfield, Sean Paul and many others. A bunch of us sang it together on the National Mall that year at the Pope’s climate rally.
After co-founding Climate Revival last year, it felt like a perfect addition to the songs i was already singing. Toby and i had no idea at the time who would win the election and that we’d be taken out of the Paris agreement again among many other devastating climate related executive orders. We need this song now more than when he first wrote it.
My version is very different than the original. It’s just me singing over Toby’s beautiful piano playing. It’s very heartfelt. I cried when i heard the master version. I’m praying it can unify us at a time when the world is so divided. I’m praying it gives hope and touches hearts. I’m praying it inspires action. We are the world. We have to keep it safe.
2) You’ve been singing Mercy Me and Here Comes the Sun for some years now. They’re from about the same moment, but very different. What emotions go through you when you’re channeling Marvin Gaye? What feelings when you’re bringing George Harrison’s song to life?
Fun facts about singing both those songs is that i first met you in the spring of 2014 at the studio when i was recording Mercy Mercy Me. That’s the night I joined the climate movement. And a year later, you asked me to sing Here Comes The Sun. Both life-changing events.
You’re so right about how different the songs are. When i sing Mercy Mercy Me, I feel sad and frustrated that things are so much worse than when Marvin wrote the song. It’s appalling. And when i sing Here Comes The Sun, i feel a mix of hopeful because the sun is one of our beautiful solutions but when i get to the lyric “I feel the ice is slowing melting, it seems like years since it’s been clear”, it’s the brief moment in the song where I’m sad. I know George Harrison was talking about winter ending but in that moment i channel the sadness of the glaciers melting from climate change and when i sing “it seems like years since it’s been clear”, I’m channeling the devastating pollution in our air. And next I say “BUT, here comes the sun and it’s alright”. So there’s a moment to acknowledge the heartbreak of our current situation but there is hope!! I love that song so much and so grateful you asked me to sing it. It really does speak to how i feel. So heartbroken but so hopeful.
3) You’re in a long tradition with those songs. Have you listened to Nina Simone’s version of Here Comes the Sun? Are there particular ways in which your experience as a black woman connects with that song?
I have. Nina’s version was very inspiring when i was creating my version. And yes, as a black woman, when she sings “Little darling”, it feels like she’s singing to me as a black woman to have hope and keep the faith. That hope that I’m trying to invoke in people about climate, it feels like she’s trying to invoke that in black women about the difficulty of our experience. Malcom X said “the black woman is the most disrespected person in America” and i felt that so deeply after the election that America would vote for a convicted criminal, a racist, anyone but a black woman. I must admit that broke me down for a minute. I took it very personally as if that’s how America feels about me. It still hurts but I’ve licked my wounds and i’m moving forward with that hope and faith that Nina invoked.
4) Tell me about Climate Revival–and about your own life growing up in the church–how hard or easy is it to get this message across? What things stand in the way?
Climate Revival is the nonprofit i co-founded with our mutual brother/friend, the amazing Rev Yearwood. How lucky am i that he would take the time to co-found an organization with me?
It came out of my frustration with how much worse the impacts from climate change were becoming and my desire to do more. We brainstormed on what was missing in the movement and we felt like people of faith and people of color were still not being reached the way they needed to be. MLK organized the civil rights movement in churches and we were inspired by that. We’re in a new civil rights movement, fighting for the right to clean air, clean water and existence. We’re informing and inspiring climate and environmental justice action using music and storytelling. Most of our events so far have been in black churches and i sing my favorite gospel songs.
I joined Bethlehem Baptist church in Newark, NJ when i was 7 and started singing in the choir. I actually prayed, asking God to give me a good singing voice as i was obsessed with sounding like Whitney Houston. Thank God for saying yes to that prayer. Singing in church became the foundation of not just me as a person but as a singing and performer. I try to connect with people when i sing, the same way i connected to God and my fellow choir members in church. It’s a beautiful thing.
The most difficult part of getting the climate and environment justice message across is the fact that because of how climate has already been framed and communicated, people don’t understand the direct impact on their lives. And people of color don’t see it as their issue. This makes it hard to get them to show up for the vital information. So we promote our events as concerts and church services so that folks think they’re only coming to be entertained or coming just to worship God. And they definitely get that but by the time they leave, they also understand that this movement is more than recycling and using solar panels and it’s more than about the harm being done to polar bears and ice glaciers. We inform them that biggest cause of climate change is pollution from big oil. They learn that the pollution from power plants and petrochemical factories is predominantly in communities of color and poor communities causing cancer and asthma. I talk about places like Cancer Alley in Louisiana and cancer clusters around the country like to one in NJ where I’m from.
And we connect the dots that that same pollution killing us in our communities is what is causing the climate to change leading to more crazy storms like Helene, heatwaves killing people in the street, wildfires like the heartbreaking devastation in my second home Los Angeles, droughts etc. People are hearing about climate change all the time during the weather report but haven’t been hearing what the cause is. And if you don’t understand the cause or the source, you don’t feel like there’s anything you can do about it. We share how lives are being lost, communities are being destroyed and big oil is making a trillion dollars a year and getting 20 billion dollars in tax breaks and subsidies. It’s all so crazy. People are struggling to pay their bills but billionaires are getting the tax breaks! We make it really hit home for people! Not to mention, Rev closes with a sermonette, which you already know knocks people out followed by a closing song like Here Comes The Sun. They leave feeling moved and inspired to act. There’s lots to fight and we can only win if we come together. That’s the mission of Climate Revival; to build a loving army to fight for our health and our existence.
5) Right now seems like a low point to a lot of people–Donald Trump has made every government agency stop working on climate change, and he’s amped up racist attacks like no president in a long time. How do you deal in this moment?
We’re living in the Twilight Zone!!! It’s still hard to believe everything that’s been happening. I’ve been spending more time with my family. They’ve always been my why. My parents celebrate 50 years of marriage this year. And my little sister, who is special needs, is my whole world. I’m so grateful for them. Their love keeps me going. I’m also praying more and making more time to do little fun things. This fight has just become even more challenging than the daunting fight it already was, so we all have to make sure we’re taking care of ourselves so that we have the energy to keep fighting. I keep my focus on love. Love of God, love of my family and friends, love of myself, love of humanity. Love is everything. Love you, Bill!!!
And now to Jessie Diggins, who on the surface couldn’t be more different: blond, midwestern, an athlete. She’s at the absolute peak of her profession—as a nordic skier she’s won Olympic gold, bronze and silver, and she’s on a glide path to taking her third World Cup overall title this season. She’s—no question—the greatest winter endurance athlete North America has ever produced, and there’s no sportsperson I’ve ever rooted harder for—her signature style is pure grit, a willingness to go deeper than anyone into the pain cave. I’ve gotten to chronicle her career on occasion for the New Yorker (here, here, and here, for instance).
But she’s also a a committed activist, on two issues. The first is eating disorders, something that’s almost derailed her career twice. (Her fine book Brave Enough details both the struggles and the triumphs). And the second is climate change—a cause dear to cross country skiers, who now often find themselves competing on narrow ribbons of manmade white winding through brown European fields. She’s been an outspoken advocate ever since her growing fame gave her a platform—she’s mostly worked with the remarkably effective group Protect Our Winters. And this month she’ll take it to a different level. The nordic world championships are about to take place in Trondheim, Norway where a hundred thousand screaming fans are expected for the races. She and her teammates (including fellow activist Gus Schumacher) will be debuting new race suits that show a melting glacier. This is a brave thing to be doing, mixing science and sport—particularly at this cursed moment, where every effort to help us out of our travails is dismissed as “woke.” But it will matter.
Diggins sent me an audio tape answering some of my questions yesterday, and I’m including the transcript here.
“I am really, really proud to get to wear these suits. I think they are visually very interesting. You definitely get the message with the melting ice caps, they will stand out quite well, I think, on the race track. And so hopefully we were able to race in a suit that tells a bigger story than just trying to win a ski race. And I think for me at this point in my career, it’s about so much more than just trying to win a ski race. So it’s about standing up for something that I believe is right, which is focusing on how to protect our planet for everyone for years to come.”
I’d also asked her about what it felt like to be representing the United States right now:
“Yeah. So to be honest, what’s really interesting is that we do not receive government funding for sport in the United States. So I don’t feel like I am representing the government. I am representing fans of U.S. skiing. I’m representing people who are supporting us and cheering for us, people who just want to go out there and try their best every day, I represent Protect Our Winters, because I sit on their board, as well as some other awesome nonprofits that I work for, so I don’t feel like I’m representing the things that the government is representing, necessarily, and that gives me the freedom to race with a full heart, knowing that, you know, I don’t have fear that officials are going to come down on me for wearing a suit that says, hey, we need to protect our planet. If anything, I hope that they pay enough attention to cross country skiing to see the suits and go, ‘Wow, that’s really cool. These athletes are concerned about the future of our planet,’ and hopefully it helps spark some conversations that would be the ultimate awesome goal is to be able to have some conversations around what we’re doing when it comes to climate change. But I think, yeah, I think it’s important that we are able to still race in a suit that represents things that matter to us, things that we care about and not let current politics take away our ability to say, hey, we care about this.
I asked her one more thing: ‘if you could talk privately and honestly to CEOs and politicians, how would you get across what you feel?”
“I guess I would say I don’t want climate change to be political. We’re all on the same team here. We have one planet that we all get to live on, and we want to pass it on to the next generation, knowing that we did what we could with the time we had to make it a healthy, livable planet. And so I think it makes me sad sometimes that we have incredible technology and amazing innovation, and we’re not pushing as hard as we could to use it in large scale operations where this could really swing the needle for us. So I guess I would say, yes, we are all part of the solution. Individual actions absolutely matter, but large scale policy changes and massive, massive companies that control a larger percentage of carbon footprint can make a huge, huge change. So I guess I would say, I would ask people to do what they can, where they can, with an eye, not just for profits here and now, but for our future planet and what it’s going to be like to live on this earth in the future.”
I feel better now for having listened to these two remarkable humans, and I hope you do too. We need scientists and economists and policy experts, but we also need soul and body in this fight.
