Leah Thomas is an outdoorswoman and activist who loves learning about science and society. In 2020, Leah created an infographic that went viral on Instagram about “intersectional environmentalism”– a movement that calls for climate justice through the lens of social justice– gender, class and racial equity.
Leah Thomas, the blogger behind Green Girl Leah, is an outdoorswoman and activist who loves learning about science and society. In 2020, Leah posted an infographic on Instagram about “intersectional environmentalism” that went viral. The theory is an inclusive version of environmentalism that calls for climate justice through the lens of social justice– gender, class and racial equity.
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Shelby Stanger:
Leah Thomas is an outdoors woman and activist who loves learning about science and society. She calls herself an eco communicator, and she started her blog, Green Girl Leah six years ago. In 2020, Leah posted an infographic on Instagram about intersectional environmentalism that went viral. The theory is an inclusive version of environmentalism that advocates for both people and our planet.
Leah Thomas:
Because unfortunately, race and income are kind of the number one and number two determining factors of whether or not someone has something like clean air or how close they are to toxic waste sites and facilities.
Shelby Stanger:
Leah Thomas' goal is to educate people about how racial justice and fighting climate change go hand in hand. She's written about this subject in publications like Vogue, Harper's Bizarre, Elle Magazine, and even Playboy. After years of blogging on her site, Green Girl Leah, Leah, came up with a wild idea to teach the world about intersectional environmentalism in a new way.
I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studio's production.
Leah Thomas, Welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Leah Thomas:
Hi, thanks for having me.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you get the wild idea to advocate for intersectional environmentalism? When did this happen? What year? And how did it catch on so fast?
Leah Thomas:
I remember I had written about intersectional environmentalism about two years prior, and it didn't really make a splash. Then about two years later in 2020, there were just so many conversations about racial justice, racial awakening, the Black Lives Matter movement, the Stop Asian Hate Movement. There were so many social justice movements happening at once. So when I started talking about intersectional environmentalism again during 2020, I decided to just make an Instagram post that made it really, really clear. So I remember I woke up in bed and I was tucked under my covers and I was on my computer, and I just was like, okay, what can I say? I feel like the environmental community isn't speaking up enough for the Black Lives Matter movement. So I just wrote Environmentalists for Black Lives Matter in a Graphic. So it's kind of like a carousel post on Instagram, so you can swipe through multiple things.
So if you kept swiping, there was the definition that said, "What is intersectional environmentalism? This is what it is." And then the next one had the pledge of action steps that people could do to be an ally to both people and the planet. And I think what loops a lot of people in was there are a lot of people who deeply care for the earth, whether they're in the outdoor industry, the nonprofit space, whatever it might be, sustainable fashion that were looking for ways to get involved but didn't know that they had permission to care for people and racial justice at the same time. But I think maybe that graphic resonated with people and they started to remember that, okay, in my advocacy and care for the Earth, I should also deeply care about people. So I think people were mostly sharing the environment's list for Black Lives Matter graphic and then swiping to learn more about intersectional environmentalism and how those things were connected.
Shelby Stanger:
Leah's post went viral. She went from 10,000 to 100,000 Instagram followers in just a few days. The timing of this post was kismet. In the wake of George Floyd's murder. People were using social media as a tool to educate themselves about racial justice. These issues meant a lot to Leah. She had confronted them years ago and her hometown just outside of Ferguson, Missouri.
So the BLM movement hit home, really close to you. Can you talk about just where you grew up and why, especially during 2020, it affected you so much?
Leah Thomas:
Oh of course. Yeah. I didn't get it until I had to get it. So I grew up about 10 minutes away from Ferguson, Missouri in a suburb called Florissant, Missouri. So I remember I was at home in, I think it was 2014, and that's when the unrest of Ferguson began after the police involved shooting of Michael Brown. And before that, I think I was just living in... And maybe my parents just did a really good job of protecting me, but I think all of us were kind of... Not to get too political, kind of fooled in some ways because Obama was the president. So people thought we might be living in a post-racial society, and there was a lot of hope and momentum and people power. But then suddenly things just started to resurface. And then I saw what would happen when there was a lot of social injustice in one place.
So not only was there the shooting, the uprising started immediately and I watched my community, I watched gas stations burn to the ground. I watched reporters trying to cover the protests getting arrested. And for me wanting to be a writer, that was something that was so frightening to me because I think journalistic freedom is so important. So in getting accurate news, I watch people that I knew, the kindest people protesting being met with violence. So that was horrifying. And then about two weeks after witnessing that, I went to school to start my major as an environmental science and policy student. So I just felt so confused and I was learning in my classes like Intro to Environmental Science, this is the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. Meanwhile, my hometown is just... I don't know, just in flames. And I really couldn't focus. So that's why it really impacted me.
I just had so many thoughts about identity and the legal system and how systems could be improved. And I just felt so far away and I felt so lucky to be in Orange County, California, but I did have a feeling of kind of survivors remorse because I could go to the beach, I could go for a hike, I could process my trauma. And I realized that so many people in Ferguson and communities around the world could not. And I started thinking about how healing nature was for me and how everyone should have that. And I knew that I couldn't completely solve criminal justice reform, but maybe I could play a small piece in that of making sure everyone had access to at least maybe clean air or a healthy environment, or we could increase green spaces.
And I know that might sound like a lot of jumps from issue to issue, but in my head, in my state of mind at that time, I thought maybe things would be better if people had access to nature. So maybe that's something that I can try to figure out and play a small role, and maybe that will help fix this horrible big problem that we have.
Shelby Stanger:
There's a lot to unpack here. What was your relationship with nature growing up?
Leah Thomas:
Oh my gosh. I was a nerd. I wanted to be a veterinarian. I was just the Midwestern dream. I was catching toads in my backyard and just looking at them and letting them go of course. I would go out, not camping, but we would stay in a little cabin with my family sometimes. I was just always outside and I loved animals and that's something that my mom really nurtured in me. So she tried her best to let me go to science camp and different things like that. So it's been a really big part of my life.
Shelby Stanger:
So you basically wanted to save animals, and then you realized you could save people.
Leah Thomas:
Yes. So I-
Shelby Stanger:
That's great.
Leah Thomas:
Exactly.
Shelby Stanger:
That's really cool. But the fact that your mom sent you to science camp is also very cool.
Leah Thomas:
Yeah, she really tried her best and I am so thankful for her. And I would say any parent of kids, especially if your kids might be in a minority group or there's not a lot of representation, I just am so glad that my mom went out of her way to say, "Hey, here's an example of a black doctor. Here's an example of a black astronaut." So growing up, I didn't know really that there was a lack of representation of black folks in these spaces until I started working in the outdoor industry and was like, "This is not what I know." So I always felt very confident that I belonged in these spaces.
Shelby Stanger:
How did your relationship with nature change when you got to the beach?
Leah Thomas:
Water is just so healing in so many ways. Whether you're sitting next to it or just breathing in the ocean air, it does really good things to your psyche.
Shelby Stanger:
The ocean is really, really important to me, and not all people have access to that. I think you should talk a little bit about that because I don't think all of us totally understand access to clean air and clean water and beautiful spaces.
Leah Thomas:
So I work with REI sometimes on educational social media content about outdoor equity, and I always get comments from people, "What do you mean you can just go outside, there's no lack of access to the outdoors, just walk outside your house." And I'm like, "You all don't get it. That's not what I'm talking about. Dig deeper." Because of course people can walk outside, but that might look different to everyone. And I remember I was doing research in school on access to green spaces. So how much money you have is a really big determining factor of whether or not you're going to have trees, like lots of trees in your neighborhood, which also impacts the air quality. The amount of money you have and your race is also a really big indicator of whether you're going to have toxic waste in your neighborhood or whether you're going to be surrounded by highways and other pollution and the air quality.
71% of African Americans live in counties that frequently violate federal air quality standards. And guess what? About 40 to 50% of white people too. So a lot of us are breathing in really unclean air every day. So I could go on and on about some of these statistics, but at the end of the day, there isn't equal access to the outdoors and outdoor equity, it might be kind of a complicated topic, but a lot of it has to do with infrastructure. And the fact of the matter is wealthier neighborhoods, they do with city planning have more parks and green spaces and bike trails and trees and things like that. And I don't think that's fair.
Shelby Stanger:
Intersectional environmentalism is a complex topic and it could be hard to confront because it's just so multifaceted. But Leah has a way of making it approachable and engaging. After her post, she got so many requests for resources that she decided to make this wild idea into something bigger. Her nonprofit, Intersectional Environmentalist offers training and resources while deepening awareness about environmental justice. In addition, Leah speaks and consults all over the country. When we come back, Leah talks about writing a book, about incorporating joy into her activism, and the most effective approaches she's seen when it comes to environmental activism.
When activist Leah Thomas posted about intersectional environmentalism on Instagram in 2020, her life completely changed. She went from working for eco-conscious brands to paving her own career path. Since then, Leah has created a nonprofit. She speaks at events and conferences, and she recently wrote a book called The Intersectional Environmentalist. Why did you choose to write a book about this?
Leah Thomas:
I decided to write a book... It's actually funny, so about two weeks after my Instagram post went up... And again, at this time I was furloughed and Patagonia, shout out to them, they had asked me to come back and I had to make a tough decision. And I said, "You know what? No, I'm just going to leave it behind and I'm going to try to start an org. I really want to write a book. I don't know if it's going to happen, but I'm going to try."
And I reached out to a literary agent who I had spoken to a couple years prior about a different project, and I said, "Look, I don't know what is happening, but I'm talking about intersectional environmentalism, I think I'm the first person to define it. And there are now hundreds of thousands of people around the country and world who want to learn about it. I really want to be the first to write the book because I know that there will be more people, I'm excited for that, who are going to expand on this and talk about what it means to them. But if I could be the first believe in me." So she did, even though... And I had written other articles and things like that, but never a book, but she believed in the project. But yeah, it's really just an introduction, a 101 to what intersectional environmentalism is, the history of the environmental justice movement, some case studies and applications and toolkit just to help people get started on their journey.
Shelby Stanger:
That's a wild idea that you made happen. Good on you. What was the process of writing a book like?
Leah Thomas:
So the first process was my literary agent. She did really a good job. She was like, "You're going to have to put a lot of work in if you want to write this book. And a lot of proof of concept, because you've never written a book before." So I had to write two sample chapters. One of those sample chapters is in the book almost as is. It's the chapter on privilege. So there's just a lot of research going into that. My favorite part of the book and why it came together and why it was so fun is just because there's about 30 contributors in different ways. So they have quotes throughout everyone from Jose Gonzalez, the founder of Latino Outdoors, to my dear friend Wyn Wiley/Pattie Gonia, to just so many people I met along the way that put together a really cool toolkit. So you'll just flip through and kind of hear their voices throughout.
And yeah, it was just such a fun process and it was really difficult knowing what exactly to include and whatnot to include, especially because it's a 101 level and I wanted it to be really accessible. And at this point it's been read, the youngest it's been read is in a middle school classroom, which is interesting, but then there's also an older audience that's reading it. I think it's good for anyone who's kind of starting out, but it was a little tricky trying to understand, okay, I don't want it to be too theory heavy, but it's kind of academic, but I want it to be fun. But I tried my best to merge all those things together.
Shelby Stanger:
I love that Leah's book was read by a class of middle schoolers. How cool to be influencing the next generation of advocates. Leah wrote her book so that it would be accessible to a larger audience. Of course it's educational, but there are also parts that are touching and funny. I know that when I read the news, there's a lot of doom and gloom and it's easy to feel hopeless. In many ways focusing on what's going wrong can discourage activism. That's why Leah takes a different approach. I read or listened to an interview you did, and you said, "I like to meet people where they're at." So even if they might have a completely different religion or belief than you, you still talk to them, which I think is really important today.
Leah Thomas:
Absolutely. And I think I really learned that when I was a park ranger intern in the middle of rural Kansas at Nicodemus National Historic Site. It was really tiny, a very small farming agricultural community. And I was there during the wheat harvest and hopping on a combine tractor with white middle America farmers and just listening to them, people aren't listening to them. I remember I told them I wanted to work for the EPA one day, which I don't anymore, sorry, EP. But they were saying, "I just wish they would listen to us. They always want us to change our pesticides and we want to take care of the land, but they don't get, that costs so much money." And I started to realize it's not like people are out there trying to poison the land just because, they need help. They need support, they need resources in order to make certain transitions that are good for the environment. And I just started thinking it's so important to meet people where they're at and you can honestly find common ground with all sorts of people.
Shelby Stanger:
Is that something your mom taught you or is that something you picked up on your own?
Leah Thomas:
I don't know. I think it's just something I picked up on my own as I navigated through life and just met so many different types of people. And I think most of college, I think I was trying so hard to just change people. That's when I got into environmental and social justice advocacy. I was like peak social justice warrior, yelling at people, all that kind of stuff.
Shelby Stanger:
Sorry, that just seems funny. I could just imagine little Leah, the sign.
Leah Thomas:
I was like, "Yeah, dismantle the systems." And then I started realizing there's so much that I don't know and that I can't go into a conversation not wanting to learn from someone else because it's not preaching at people. And once I started to learn, it's an equal exchange at times and I can learn from other people and they can learn from me and I will never know everything, just made me more open. And that doesn't mean that I'm tolerant of bigoted opinions or things like that, but I'm open to listening to people and figuring out where their heart is and finding common ground.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, you have a really beautiful approach to your activist work that I really like. One of the things I've read is that you choose to approach your activism, especially when it comes to the environment with joy versus do and gloom.
Leah Thomas:
So yeah, I remember when I... Just in the last two years, I had a bully and it's okay, but I remember they were tweeting about me and they were like, "Leah, she's just so happy, so joyful. All she talks about is climate optimism and joy." And it makes me laugh a lot because I realized I was like, I guess I do talk about joy and happiness and optimism a lot, and maybe I should explain why, it's not empty joy. It's not toxic positivity and good vibes that's just ignoring the realities of the future and the present.
I think joy is actually really radical act of activism and a way to stick it to the man that despite everything that's happening in the world that you decide to find community, fall in love, experience, joy, think about the possibilities of the future. I think that's such a radical thing to do, and that's something that I feel like I've learned from my family, my family throughout the Civil Rights movement, the fact that they have been able to, despite everything that's gone on, still find joy, have beautiful parties and gatherings and dance and all those things. I feel like joy is kind of an act of resistance in its own way. So that's why joy is a part of my theory of change. I also think that there's just too much fatigue right now in the world, and I don't think that the doom is going to motivate people to act.
Shelby Stanger:
What's working really well? I mean, you're at the forefront of environmentalism. What do you think in the movement is actually working well and is getting people, companies to enact change?
Leah Thomas:
I think coalition building is working really well. I've even seen organizations like the Sierra Club understand, hey, we have some growth to do to be a fully intersectional organization, but in the meantime, we've got a lot of money, resources that we could allocate to smaller climate justice organizations and be partners and coalition build with them, so then hopefully they can get larger. So I've seen things like that happen with historic organizations that are forming alliances with new organizations and learning from them. I feel like that's something that's working really well. Another thing, I think there is more funding and just general awareness of what environmental justice is. I know Netflix is coming out with a documentary this fall about environmental justice.
There's an Office of Environmental justice now. The White House has a department, they have budgets, the head of the EPA is an environmental justice advocate who's also black named Michael S. Regan. So I feel like things are changing. Change is slow, but it's happening. And I think even representation is increasing. So I feel like that's what's working. People are supporting these smaller groups that are emerging, that are diverse, that are fun, and that's something that feels good, that is working.
Shelby Stanger:
Any advice to people who want to be bigger activists and aren't sure where to start?
Leah Thomas:
I would say use your special skills. Don't be someone that you're not. I've tried to do that sometimes. I tried to hold the megaphone. I can't hold the megaphone when I could do the podcast mic, but I'm shy. Like I said, don't be someone that you're not. Just think about what you're really good at. And for me, that's writing. It's something that I really enjoy and I was able to apply that to the movement that I care about. If you're an artist, so many orgs need logos and climate art and things like that. If you're an accountant, every movement needs an accountant. So many of us don't know how to keep the books. We don't know how to do those things. So yeah, apply what you care about to the movements you care about.
Shelby Stanger:
Making the world a more just, equitable place can be a joyful act. It's easier to contribute when we focus on what we can do for both other people and for our planet. To find more ideas on how to get involved in the movement, check out Catchafire. It's a website that helps connect non-profits to skilled volunteers. Leah also suggests checking out the toolkits on the Intersectional Environmentalist website at IntersectionalEnvironmentalist.com. REI also has a network they created to take action and make change. You can find more at REI.com/action/network.
Leah Thomas, I love talking to you about our planet and your work. I'm excited to see what's next for you and your organization in the coming years. You can follow Leah Instagram at Green Girl Leah. That's Leah spelled L-E-A-H. You can also get a copy of her book, The Intersectional Environmentalist at your favorite bookstore or wherever you like to buy books.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI podcast network. It's hosted by me Shelby Stanger, and I've been spending my summer glued to my computer working on my book, but I'm still sneaking in some fun surf sessions without my wetsuit, which is so exciting because the water's warm down here. The show is written and edited by Annie Fassler and Sylvia Thomas of Puddle Creative. Annie just took her toddler camping for the very first time, which he absolutely loved, and Sylvia just tried her first e-scooter to zoom around her city of Minneapolis. She was scared, but she said it worked out.
Our senior producer is Chelsea Davis, who recently joined the rest of the REI Co-op Studios team on a trail maintenance field trip at Mount Rainier National Park. Trail work is no joke. Our associate producer is Jenny Barber. Jenny is taking to the California beaches this summer, savoring every bit of sunshine she can get her hands on. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. Paolo can be found exploring the South Puget Sound by kayak. And Joe has recently taken up surfing, he rips. As always, we appreciate when you follow this show, when you rate it, and when you take the time to write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.