Corporate greenwashing has hijacked Earth Day, but the ideas behind the holiday are more urgent than ever. There are environmental issues all around us — even within recent new stories like the Baltimore bridge collapse and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Will the media be talking about the environmental impacts of mass military onslaught this year or the corporate polluters that will dodge taxes this season? In this installment of Meet the BIPOC Press, our monthly media roundtable featuring journalists of color, hear how the idea of the environment has been siloed and why it’s up to the media to undo that. Our guests are Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University; Francesca Fiorentini, host of The Bitchuation Room podcast and Maximilian Alvarez, Editor in Chief of The Real News Network. With Laura Flanders, they unpack whether Earth Day is still relevant and how the media can help make Earth Day intersectional.

“We are all the victims of unregulated runaway corporate capitalism. The chickens are coming home to roost after 40 years of deregulation, disinvestment, corporate consolidation, and Wall Street takeover of every vital industry.” - Maximilian Alvarez

“We've seen what happens when you report on climate stories. People don't click it. Why? Because it's a bummer. And as a comedian, we have to un-bummer this topic in any way we can.” - Francesca Fiorentini

“If you look at Flint, people got together and to a great degree did it themselves. It wasn't the state of Michigan that was blaring the alarm bells about the water. It was the people who lived in Flint . . . It's going to be that kind of ground-up people power that is going to be the stuff of solutions if we're going to find them at all.” - Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Guests:

Maximillian Alvarez: Editor-in-Chief, The Real News Network; Author, The Work of Living

Francesca Fiorentini: Host, The Bitchuation Room Podcast

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò: Associate Professor Philosophy, Georgetown University; Author, Reconsidering Reparations