Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers

Eugene Kirpichov co-founded Work on Climate, an online community for people passionate about solving the climate crisis, in 2020. Prior to WoC, Kirpichov spent more than seven years as a software engineer with Google. But learning how severe the climate crisis was, he felt he could no longer stay in his job. The resignation letter he shared on LinkedIn went viral.

Read the transcript of this episode

Resources from this episode:

• Join Eugene Kirpichov’s Work on Climate community.
• Join other climate-specific communities:
  • Terra Do
  • Women in Climate
  • Climatebase
  • Climate Draft
  • MCJ Collective
  • Greenbiz Sustainability Conference
• Read Kirpichov’s goodbye-to-Google letter.
• Check out the Climate Change and AI report that helped Kirpichov understand which of his skills were transferable.
• Browse other climate-related job boards:
  • GreenBiz Sustainability Jobs
  • Green Jobs Network
  • Climate People
• To find people to follow on LinkedIn, visit LinkedIn’s Top Voices in the Green Economy list.
• Search the hashtag #OpenDoorClimate on LinkedIn to find climate professionals who are willing to chat with you. (This is the movement founded by Daniel Hill. Year of the Climate Job host and director of Environmental Defense Fund’s Innovation Fund.)
• Sign up for the Degrees newsletter.
• Here are some articles we love::
  • Fast Company: He quit Google to work on climate change. Now, he’s helping others do the same thing
  • USA Today: Hiring boom: A two-year degree lands a green energy job that pays ‘a pretty penny’
  • ‘Recession Resilent’ Climate Start-Ups Shine in Tech Downturn

Related episodes:

• How to network for a green job with purpose-driven LinkedIn expert Nick@Noon
• Browngirl Green’s Kristy Drutman: Taking the mystery out of finding a green job

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app.

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and mor...

Brooklyn-based Lake Street Dive is Yesh’s favorite band ever! She was so excited to talk to them about her most passionate subject, climate change, and to find out that they care about saving the world (especially for future generations) as much as she does.

Most people don’t think about how their favorite bands contribute to healing our planet. According to a study published in the academic journal Popular Music in 2019, five Scottish touring bands collectively created 19,314 kg (approx. 21 tons) of carbon emissions between the months of April and September. The average yearly carbon emissions per person globally, according to The Nature Conservancy, is four tons.

Lake Street Dive strives to make a difference. Drummer Mike Calabrese, a passionate environmentalist, has taken the lead in educating his fellow band members about climate change and inspiring them to take action. At their shows, they’ve created a culture of environmentalism by allowing only reusable water bottles and utensils—and of course by recycling. They have also partnered with Cool Effect, a carbon offsetting non-profit, to support environmental efforts that help underserved communities around the world. One beneficiary is the Los Santos Wind Power Project, which intends to provide clean energy to 50,000 people in the Los Santos region of Costa Rica. Their latest album, Obviously, includes the song “Making Do” about the effects of global warming on the lives of young people.

Calabrese and lead singer Rachael Price discuss their experiences as an eco-conscious touring band, including their politics in their art, and how people can overcome their fears about our changing world in order to make it better for everyone.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• IPCC: AR6 Climate Change 2021

Additional Resources:

• Cambridge: Do music festivals communities address environmental sustainability and how? A Scottish case study
• The Nature Conservancy: Calculate Your Carbon Footprint
• Cool Effect: Lake Street Dive (Info about Lake Street Dive’s collaboration with carbon offset nonprofit Cool Effect)
• Ladygunn: Lake Street Dive is "Obviously" Making Do (Rachael Price talks with Ladygunn.com about the album Obviously)
• Spotify: Mother Earth Podcast (Mike Calabrese discusses his environmentalism)
• FDA: Food loss and waste in the U.S. (In the U.S., food waste is approx. 30-40% of the food supply)

Follow Lake Street Dive:

• Facebook: Official Lake Street Dive Facebook
• Twitter: Lake Street Dive (@lakestreetdive)
• Instagram: @lakestreetdive
• Website: Lake Street Dive Official

Follow EDF:

• Sign up for the new Degrees newsletter!
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn: Environmental Defense Fund

BJ Johnson is in a hurry—and for good reason. He’s frustrated by the slow pace of change to address the climate crisis. And he’s angry about how air particle pollution endangers everyone, but especially marginalized groups.

Black, brown, and poor communities are especially plagued by harmful health outcomes—like asthma, COPD and other lung diseases—from environmental pollutants. Regardless of their state or income, Black residents are exposed to 26% higher levels of soot from heavy-duty diesel trucks than the national average. Once exposed, they are then at a three times higher risk of dying.

BJ won’t settle for it taking another two decades to solve the problem. As he tells host Yesh Pavlik Slenk, “This notion of, oh, well it's okay, that five-year-olds in L.A. today have asthma because we'll have electric school buses in 2040—we need to reject that type of thinking and start asking, no—why can't we start making this better today?”

Which is exactly what he’s trying to do. BJ talks with Yesh about how he and ClearFlame cofounder Julie Blumreiter are working to transform the dirty fossil-fuel-based trucking industry into a clean one, affordably. Now.

But that’s not all—the two founders are also fighting for more diversity, inclusion and equity in academia and in the world of high-tech startups. Johnson is one of a small handful of Black academics who have earned doctorates in engineering.

Sadly, that’s not surprising: women and Black people (both men and women) remain underrepresented in STEM degrees and careers, according to the Pew Research Center. Black people are especially underrepresented in engineering, where they make up only 5% of all groups in that field, despite being 11% of the workforce.

Blumreiter and Johnson, who is half-Black, call for an end to this inequity. Writing in an open letter on their website, they reference their own experiences as being “consistently underestimated” because of their identities. In their letter, they call for acknowledgment that solving the world’s problems must come from “a diverse range of thought-leaders.”

Additional Information:

• Grist: Grist 50 2021 ClearFlame was named one of Grist’s top 50 “fixers” of issues surrounding climate change in 2021.
• Techcrunch: ClearFlame Engine Technologies takes aim at cleaning up diesel engines
• OEM Off-Highway: ClearFlame Receives DOE Grant to Support R&D of Clean Engine Technology
• New York Times: Biden Tightens Emissions Rules
• Pew Research Center: STEM Jobs See Uneven Progress in Increasing Gender, Racial and Ethnic Diversity
• American Lung Association: https://www.lung.org/clean-air/outdoors/who-is-at-risk/disparities

Follow BJ Johnson and ClearFlame Engine Technologies:

• Twitter: Clear Flame Engine Technologies (@ClearFlameEng)
• LinkedIn: BJ Johnson
• Company website: ClearFlame Engine Technologies

Follow EDF:

• Not yet receiving the Degrees newsletter? Join us here!
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn:
  

  1 Listener