Isabella Zizi on Attending the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany

Interview with Isabella Zizi by Phil Bolsta

Watch Isabella Zizi’s interview:

Isabella Zizi (photo courtesy of Corrine Oestreich)

Welcome, Isabella. Thank you for joining us today.

Hi, thanks, Phil. Thanks for having me.
 

Oh, my pleasure. Allow me to introduce you. Isabella Zizi is 23 years old and a member of the Northern Cheyenne, Arikara and Muscogee Creek Nations. She is the youngest member of Idle No More SF Bay and signatory on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defenders of Mother Earth Treaty Compact. She was born in Richmond, California and grew up near the Chevron Refinery which exploded in 2012 and sent 15,000 people to hospitals with respiratory issues. This explosion motivated her to become involved in creating a better world and stopping climate chaos.

Isabella, you recently returned from the 12-day UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany (aka COP23). Why did you attend this conference?

I went really because I understood that what's been going on around the United States pulling out of the Paris Agreement and all the actions that I've really been part of through Idle No More SF Bay, it's really driven me to the point to understand what goes past direct actions, non-violent direct actions. What dives in deeper when it comes to actual decisions that are being made. Being a participant in this year's climate talks in Bonn, Germany pretty much weaved everything together in understanding little by little with what really does go down.
 

Well, what delegation were you a part of?

I came as an individual through Idle No More SF Bay along with a great partner in Daniel Ilario; he's also a part of Idle No More SF Bay, but we were representing through the It Takes Roots delegation. It Takes Roots is a national multi-racial alliance of alliances that brought together different organizations called Climate Justice Alliance, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network, and Right to the City Alliance, and we bring together 150 organizations in 30 state nationwide from the U.S. to Canada, and if people want to learn more about It Takes Roots, they can go on It Takes Roots.org.

Isabella Zizi participates on a panel with indigenous women from Kenya and Ecuador during a COP23 session in Bonn, Germany on Monday, November 13. (Photo courtesy of The Women's Earth & Climate Action Network.)

How did you become involved in It Takes Roots, and what was the significance of this particular delegation?

I was introduced through the Indigenous Environmental Network delegation. As an indigenous person, I felt pretty drawn to be surrounded by those who are part of this movement as well, and with them being underneath the It Takes Roots umbrella, it really uplifted the voices of indigenous brown, black, Asian, Pacific Island individuals, community members who are being directly impacted by climate change when it comes to living in the front lines. And in my bio, living in Richmond, California, that's in the shadows of the Chevron Refinery, what better way to be introduced, to be part of a delegation than through It Takes Roots, to be surrounded by all the others who have similar stories as mine.
 

During the climate talks in Bonn while you were there, the White House had a press conference. What were they presenting?

This one's pretty funny. The U.S. had only one presentation or one press conference at this year's COP23, and they were really promoting coal, fossil fuels, and nuclear plants. And they're saying that it was a way of clean energy, but in reality, all of these infrastructures are causing harm to the environment and to the people. This was all presented on Monday, November 13, I believe, and there was a number of delegations, a number of representatives from the U.S. and also other places around the globe who decided to actually disrupt that panel.

And so there's a group called SustainUS. They went inside that press conference, and they were able to sing a song that was really directed towards what they were promoting. There's a lot of videos out there where you can see the song that they were singing, but it was a collective of young people, and they really just showed, these are false solutions that the U.S. is presenting. With them having White House representative... his name was George David Banks. He was a White House advisor sitting alongside an executive from Peabody Energy, which is the largest coal mining company in the world.

Another executive from NuScale Power, which talks about nuclear... and them being on that panel, it really just shows that this is all a distraction, and with us disrupting that whole panel, it was really showing that we listen, we're aware that everything that's being brought to the table is false, and it's impacting us. It's important for us to share that message that we don't stand with them, that they don't represent us as individuals, us as United States civilians, and that we need to look more towards a just transition. That's what we really put that message across.

We need that just transition of 100 percent renewable energies to all cities, to all states. We're asking for all U.S. elected officials to step up in a meaningful way to ensure both climate action in the face of the current administration’s rollback on climate protections. We need to halt all new fossil fuel projects with the understanding that the fossil fuel industry continues to perpetuate climate crisis and some climate denial. And as we just heard within the last couple of days that the Keystone XL Pipeline had a spill of over 200,000 gallons in South Dakota, and that Nebraska just recently passed the expansion for the Keystone XL Pipeline.

This just goes to show that Big Oil really runs through the system, through the administrative system and that we as people need to stand up when it comes to that and come together, because this is the time and place now that we're living in where it's really crucial when it comes to climate issues.
 

Well, on a similar note, Governor Jerry Brown was speaking at the America's Pledge Presentation on Saturday, November 11, and I know you had some thoughts on that.

I did. I wasn't able to be there physically at that presentation, but Daniel Ilario from Idle No More SF Bay was, along with the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network, and others that were part of the It Takes Roots delegation or SustainUS delegations, and they were also able to disrupt that panel.

What was being promoted as well was the American Pledge. It's an initiative to mobilize states, cities, and companies to comply with the U.S. commitment to cut carbon dioxide emissions in the Paris Agreement, and what Jerry Brown was promoting or was really talking about was talking about offsets or carbon trading, and as we understand here in California that the Cap-and-Trade bill that was recently passed in this summer, 2017, is really for the fossil fuel industry to continue to let out greenhouse gas emissions. And with them doing that, it's directly impacting individuals, community members of low income, people of color, and so we had representatives there shouting, "Keep it in the ground! No more fossil fuels! The Cap-and-Trade is a false solution!" There were also representatives from Brazil who are also being heavily impacted by these offsets, by these carbon trades, carbon market schemes, and Jerry Brown actually pointed to Daniel, and he said, "Let's put you in the ground and let's get this show started here."

With him stating that… he might have said that as a joke, but that's really happening to us. With these decisions that are being made, with the fossil fuel industry continuing to put more pressure when it comes to extracting more fossil fuels, it's heavily impacting us. All the emissions that are set out are causing cancers, birth defects, autoimmune diseases, and it's really killing us. In reality, he is putting us in the ground. And it's not just us in California. It's also our relatives down in the global south and Ecuador and Brazil, the Amazon, and it's also affecting those up in Canada, our first nation's relatives where the tar sands comes from. And each side has crude oil or tar sands oil that's being extracted from our relatives, those who are original to those territories. That's just coming straight to California, so that was also another false solution that Jerry Brown was promoting. We just had enough of that.
 

Well, it sounds like it was a phenomenal opportunity for you to attend the UN Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany. Ultimately… you just got back a couple days ago… what did you learn from that trip and how has it inspired you going forward?

I learned a lot by just being there for one week. I learned that we're able to put our message across within a 30-minute time frame when it comes to directly impacted communities, uplifting our voices, uplifting our actions in a nonviolent way. I've been down that path, thanks to Idle No More SF Bay, to really put a positive intention within my heart and have that connection that we should all walk in love, we should walk in peace.

And no matter what role people have on this earth right now, it's important to understand that we are all human beings on this earth, and that eventually we will transition together to be on the same side, to understand the values of our own lives and our own opportunities here on the earth, and then in a respectful way to find that equal balance. To just walk hand in hand, side by side to make that just transition so that our nonhuman relatives — like the four-legged, the winged, the plants, the waters, the air — can be in alignment with us as humans. And that the next seven generations after us will be able to thank us and be grateful for all the great things that we have done to stop climate chaos as it just keeps on rolling down, and to know that we as people are able to make these great decisions in a good way.

Another thing is really just educating and wanting to learn more about this carbon-trading, carbon-pricing scheme that's going on because it is heavily impacting our Indigenous communities in lands that have no consent from their leaders. It's just important to just stay more involved and stay in the loop with all that's going on, especially again with the Keystone XL Pipeline that was just recently passed in Nebraska.

There's lots of different organizations like Indigenous Environmental Network, It Takes Roots, and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance... groups like that who I really tend to gravitate to because they have tons of information. So I just look forward to next year, I guess, to attend COP24.
 

Well, thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience with us today, Isabella. It's so encouraging to know that there are young people like you who are so active and knowledgeable and committed to positive change in the world.

Thank you, Phil. Thank you so much.
 

Many blessings to you.

You as well.