Speaker: Shantha Ready Alonso, Executive Director, America the Beautiful for All Coalition
Shantha Ready Alonso: us. Remembering that we are nature and we are part of nature is all what motivates me to keep going because saving our planet is saving ourselves.
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Shantha Ready Alonso: Hi, I'm Shantha Reti Alonso. I was honored to be named a grist 50 fixture in 2018. I am a mom of a first grader and toddler twins, and every day I wake up motivated to create a safe and bright future for them. And when I envision the world I want to live in and pass on to our children, it's one with clean water and fresh air and rich soil and communities of life, both human and other species that are healthy and in balance. And to make this vision a reality, we need to enact just public policies supported by organized communities and a robust, well functioning participatory democracy. That's what motivates me to serve as the first executive director of the America the Beautiful for All coalition. Our coalition is an intersectional community defending environmental justice, saving nature, and upholding public health. At the heart of our work is relationship with nature and with each other.
Describe a moment when you felt the real-world impact of your work in climate solutions.
Shantha Ready Alonso: So just last week, nearly 2500 people from the US territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean submitted a petition to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management formally opposing the imposition of deep seabed mining in American Samoa. This was organized by the Ocean Work Group of the America the Beautiful for All Coalition in partnership with a member organization called Right to Democracy. And together we generated about 5% of the total comments received by the federal agency considering allowing this invasive extractive industry to irreversibly harm sensitive parts of our ocean and our marine cultural heritage. Seeing the power of this coalition building is really energizing and it gives me a lot of hope for our democratic processes and being there for each other.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Shantha Ready Alonso: My former boss and mentor Deb Holland, uh, once said nature shows up for us every day, and we need to show up for nature every day. I resonate with that. I've come to believe that showing up for nature includes being really present and paying attention, and finding joy and meaning in our interdependence with nature everywhere, from noticing a startling blue of a wasp in my kitchen instead of reaching for the flyswatter, or feeling grateful for a glass of clean water and thinking about the watershed that brought it to my faucet in my cup. Uh, finding appreciation for all the different kinds of people and different kinds of species and diversity everywhere, uh, that nature has brought to us. Remembering that we are nature and we are part of nature is all what motivates me to keep going because saving our planet is saving ourselves.
