Leah Thomas

Leah Thomas is building a platform to support intersectional environmentalism and dismantle systems of oppression in the environmental movement. The platform is led by a council of exceptional environmental activists and sustainability advocates. In this conversation we talk about what intersectional environmentalism means, the years of work behind going viral, and why we can’t talk about environmentalism without the context of race and culture.

You have been working in the environmental space for a long time, what is your environmental origin story?

I've been interested in ecosystems and ecology since I was a kid. I took environmental science in high school and went on to study Biology at college in Orange County, California. At the time though, something about it just didn’t fully click.

I changed my major to Environmental Science and Policy, which was one of the best decisions of my life. I got to study the science part of ecology and ecosystems while also learning how to advocate for environmental policy. It was powerful for me to be able to link the science and the human-made environmental decisions that determined who was being impacted by climate change and pollution.

During this time, a police shooting of an African American man happened not far from my house in Ferguson. I started studying environmental racism and gravitating toward environmental justice. This is when I began to develop the concept of intersectional environmentalism.

For people who aren’t familiar with intersectional environmentalism, it might be hard to connect Environmental Science to the Black Lives Movement today. Can you share how you connect the two?

For me as a black environmentalist, and my fellow people of color environmentalists, we just get it because our identity is such a big part of our existence. It's obviously something that we think about. If someone is white, able-bodied, CIS gender, they might not see the link, but for a lot of other people, their race and culture are completely embedded into their environmentalism.

When I was studying, it felt strange because textbooks briefly mention people of color are disproportionately impacted by almost all of the environmental injustices: lack of access to clean water; clean air; green spaces; and proximity to toxic waste. None of my former classmates were black. When they would read those statistics, they'd be like, “Oh, okay, interesting,” And then flip the page. It's like they couldn’t connect that real people being impacted by environmental racism, not just statistics in a book.

We have to talk about race and culture in the context of environmentalism because unfortunately, the progressive environmentalism that we have today has led to some serious environmental injustices along racial lines. So by not talking about race in the context of environmentalism, environmentalists unintentionally have created a very racist environmental system that impacts people of color.

“For a lot of people, their race and culture are completely embedded into their environmentalism.”

What led to the launch of the Intersectional Environmentalist platform?

I wrote about intersectional environmentalism about a year ago but it didn’t pick up. The timing just so happened to be right with the events recently that when I posted my definition of intersectional environmentalism to Instagram it blew up. It was just a moment where people were ready to listen.

I coined the term ‘Intersectional Environmentalist’. It is pretty cool as a communications person to have a definition or framework or philosophy become widely accepted in environmental and academic circles.

I think when people see something going viral they think it happens out of nowhere, but it's really the result of many years of doing the work.

Precisely. I wrote about the exact same thing on a public website a year ago. This idea didn’t come out of thin air. Sometimes I don’t know where all my ideas come from but the Head of Environmental Science at the school I went reminds me, “Well you worked at the national park service for two internships at historically black sites, you've been trying to do this for the last six years”. And I have to remind myself that’s right.

Sometimes I do feel a tremendous sense of guilt because people tell me that I explain environmental racism in a way that is very nice and articulate. That’s tone policing. It’s like white people saying, “oh, you're a black person that grew up around a lot of white people so you know how to talk to us in a way that doesn't make us feel guilty.” That's how it should be. You should be listening to all the people who are saying the same thing, even if they sound angry. I don't care that I do yoga. I'm still mad. I'm still upset. I'm still very black!

On the other hand, if people are listening to me then I need to do my best to amplify the voices of people that they aren't listening to. That’s why I created the intersectional environmentalist platform. It's about all of the people who have been fighting for this for a very, very long time.

Where you hope it goes? Looking ahead five years from now, what's the dream?

My biggest hope is to provide metrics and accountability for organizations to be better to both people and the planet. We are working on a business accountability program that will help businesses, universities, and nonprofits become accountable and intersectional as an organization.

I've worked at prominent environmental organizations and corporations. They were B-Corp certified, trade certified, all these different certifications, but there weren’t many black people at their company. That’s a serious issue if these organizations are preaching about sustainability and ethical manufacturing across the supply chain, but they are not fostering a healthy and safe work environment for people of color, and for people in the LGBTQ+ community.

A lot of internal changes need to happen within organizations to be accountable and truly committed to intersectionality before you beautifully package the sustainability message. 

“My biggest hope is to provide metrics and accountability for organizations to be better to both people and the planet.”

Do you have advice for people who want to be a voice for their community, for any part of the environmental or climate movement?

Learn to distinguish between feedback that is valid and constructive and feedback that isn't because when you are an activist, people will say some very positive and supportive things and others will say a lot of negative things.

I've had people say, “I don't like the way you communicate this to me”. My initial reaction was well, they just don't want to hear the truth. But then I had to sit back and ask, I am shaming people? Am I coming from a place of ego where I’m trying to push my idea on them? Am I communicating in a way that is compassionate, but also firm and direct? 

Listen to feedback and also know that some people won't like what you're doing as an activist, just because they don't like what you're doing. It has nothing to do with the approach that you're taking, it's because it makes them uncomfortable and they don't want change. And when that's the case, you just have to keep going and keep fighting for what you believe is right.