this year right before the rd democratic primary debate in houston twenty two greenpeace usa activists climbed up the nearby fred hartman bridge for the blockade and briefly shut down the large the largest fossil fuel shipping channel in the country their action temporarily cut off access to the baytown refinery the valero houston refinery the shell dear park refinery the lawndale basil houston refinery and the chevron pasadena refinery which together have a combined capacity of nearly one million five hundred thousand barrels of oil per day and industry expansion plans talk of increasing that amount to two million dollars barrels in a matter of a few years the activists now face felony charges for obstructing a highway and obstructing critical infrastructure under a new texas critical infrastructure law in effect since september st of this year the greenpeace activists are the st to be charged with the statute but texas is not the st state to enact an anti protest law for critical infrastructure model bills these bills serve as templates for legislatures across the country on a variety of issues and have been crafted by the conservative american legislative exchange council alec with the backing from the koch family alec promotes state level legislation to defend the interests of corporations and big businesses including of course the fossil fuel industry these laws and similar statues are controversial and as yet largely untested promoters contend they are necessary to protect key economic infrastructure from disruption of bam it activist groups argue that they are overly vague duplicating existing statues and are an infringement on legitimate freedom of expression as greenpeace u s executive director amie leonard puts it we're in a climate emergency created by fossil fuel c e o s and made worse by trump we can either take bold action to combat the climate crisis today or suffer the consequences for years to come more floods more mega storms more intense hurricanes see rising rapidly longer droughts food shortages more fires heat records being broken as the world gets hotter faster she argues that when we finally choose renewable energy over fossil fuels we can create millions of high paying union jobs we can keep our air and water clean and safe and we can safeguard our climate against catastrophe we can't afford to screw this up he says and we won't let oil executives do that for us sixteen year old swedish climate activists whether thunderbird put it this way at the united nations this week as he addressed world leaders as core she ating them for their business as usual approach the eyes of all future generations are upon you her voice quavering was rage if you choose to fail us i say we will never forgive you previously she said i'm doing this because you adults are shitting on my future maybe or you are simply not mature enough to tell it like it is because even that burden you leave to us children we become the bad guy who have to tell people these uncomfortable things because no one else wants to  dares to i'm a realist as for hope that is something you need to deserve that you have actually done something people are suffering people are dying we're in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth how dare you we are honored to have in the back imagination today two of the greenpeace activists now facing charges for their actions on september th we should also point out that these kinds of laws and statutes and the cycle of disenfranchisement and abuse they perpetuate disproportionately affects black brown indigenous queer people and other communities who are on the front lines of the climate crisis there have been also disturbing reports of detention officers abuse these peaceful and nonviolent activists while they were in custody this group of activists is primarily of black brown indigenous queer and trans young people and their treatment in the harris county jail it's argued was directly related to their identities as black and chant gender gender non binary people if the allegations are true the racist and transphobia abuse of anyone in custody or otherwise is simply unacceptable and unlawful the prose us actions of the greenpeace activists are a bold call to leaders and all of us to imagine a world beyond fossil fuels and embrace i just transition to renewable energy as mike herbert one of the activists put it we are here because we believe in imagine a world beyond oil is possible we just have to fight for it will you champion a green new deal and ensure a just transition away from fossil fuels or will you side with corrupt billionaires trying to wreck the planet for their profit hundreds of millions of americans and billions around the world wait for your answer we welcome briana gibson and rico says me to the radical imagination bianna is a black queer lesbian who over the years has been a trainer an organizer with greenpeace usa and the program coordinator for the blackout collective an all black direct action training and service organization she serves as the national organizing co chair for b y p one hundred the black youth project one hundred an organization established in two thousand and thirteen in response to the trayvon martin murder rico season he is a green pace u s activists and organizer educator and recording artist he'd been involved with greenpeace usa since two thousand and eleven in chicago as  protest and campaigned against two of the nation's dirtiest coal plants he's e m c for the hip hop and soul jazz band sidewalk chalk and vocalist keyboardist for the alternative hip hop group house of wales that's spelled h a l e s wales he uses his musical skill and creativity to imagine affect and address social change and transformation welcome bree and rico to the radical measures and we're really thrilled and so on and to have you on thank you again for for being here and perhaps there you are great and i thank you again so much tell us so as you mentioned i did get involved in chicago i guess about nine years ago at this point and greenpeace was working on a campaign against two of the dirtiest coal part in the country that i happen to live  near and it was a campaign that i mean going on for a number of years a lot of local grassroots organizations were doing that work two and once greenpeace and sierra club joined it was able to be elevated to an international platform both have said and collaboration with other groups and obviously you are young and vigorous and by your opening statements here it's indication that you've sort of lost a lot of faith perhaps or organizing pushing from the outside using tactics to effect change you know what i want to do before we go on the conversation in this and to all the other questions i have want to play a very short excerpt of greenpeace a history of it it's only about two and a half minutes of so so here we go we're going to put that in to the show and give us the audience a little bit of an idea of greenpeace as an organization as well greenpeace and people like you stop commercial wh so your your interest in greenpeace and what they are to be accomplice tell us again specifically why this organization so appealed to  absolutely absolutely absolutely this is happening a couple weeks ago what's been the reaction to what you've done the protests that you both were arrested for this you spent time in detention is that true how was that what did you experience there what has been the reaction of the community to your to your actions yeah i  growing how do you engage with the people who are in such opposition who who fear the sort of change you're trying to bring about how do you deal reason with these sorts of people or can you are so so did you know so i suppose d i'll give you as much information as i can suppose you no longer also write it is more devoted to the people that need to be protected and the people who need to be active at the there's a great way of putting it and it's also it's it is appealing to reason and logic and science as greg sunbird puts it listen to the scientists listen to the evidence listen to the data and hopefully will again reach the great majority of people on this and there are people that as you say i think are going to be reached and they're too far gone at this point and then that's the way it is so again the idea you mentioned the larger movement what did you mean about that this is a component of a larger movement is it and and what is that larger movement hearing her introduce this like intersectional perspective to the conversation in a way that i hadn't really heard her in issues talking about the relationship between what we're facing with this critical infrastructure charges  larger movement to dismantle systems of oppression that the climate justice movement is a very central part to it but it's not the entire picture and so this is organizations lengthy working one hundred organizations that work movement for black eyes different sectors human rights and wearing a feel you have right now i think that we have to be tackling these issues from as many angles as possible because it's so pervasive and it touches zero movement our movement we've also had extension rebellion people on so these are the sorts of groups you're talking about correct that you're trying to collaborate  we've also had a number of shows with represents the poor people's campaign nick braun has been on with his attempt to build a people's party  so these are all attempts at grassroots level to relate the struggle in a variety of different ways civil rights environmental sexual oppression human liberation freedom is the general and e direct action part really interests me about a lot of things interest me on this but is it is it how do you prepare people to put their bodies on the line you're you're you're nonviolent right this is not these actions are attempting to bring about some sort of violent confrontation correct so how do you get people prepared to do this very much so on a micro level i mean human beings are transformed by the experience of crossing that line getting arrested having the courage to stand up and face the the free speech movement among other things occurred berkeley and there was a very famous speech at that time by mario savio of that in many ways i don't know if you're familiar with that feat but it again same thought putting our bodies on the line to stop the machine by any means necessary in that sense as well so you're movements are are are very much part of today and yet they have a rich rich and rico through your music also you in a very creative way tried to transform tell us a little about your efforts there much of the work that we're doing is trying to rethink what's possible and we have to remind ourselves that we're d living in a world that with other people's imagination at play and if we're able to tap into our own she said the struggle has to involve and does and should involve pleasure and joy and liberation and when she a question asked of one of the sacrifices you made and so on and so on she said yeah the were sacrifices but those sacrifices were central to bringing even greater joy and pleasure to my life so that's really really important i think that something that certainly back in the sixt the last great sort of movement period when we were there was extensive social movement has to be addressed as well today because i think that that's so central i know rico you mentioned that you were a we did play moral techniques in our opening clip it's a rich man's world so you had an experience with the moral technique you can relate to his music yeah i'm a veteran of the yes so we is if you will right and wrong and as you've said we've we as a country we as a culture and individuals are often you know where they had to viewpoints that hurt others and are afraid of that change because of the possible humiliation and hurt that they may experience so it gets more and more complicated but again spiritual moral transformation h people to in a sense do the right thing at this point i i think i think of it in a different way that i think that most people know intuitively that what is happening right now is wrong and people know that corporations should have more control over what we call it democracy and people in that democracy and people know that we those very good motives to concretize themselves in other words you're spokesman you're enabling what people already know is the right thing to do and and again the direct confrontation the pressure being put is what you believe will be the the organizing tool that can bring this about help bring about the change the narrative which changes people's imagination which then transfer from place into more positive humane policies and so on you want to add anything to that in terms of this legal struggle and the the accusations of abuse that we mentioned in the opening i can speak to that  and just to just to frame that i think that as a large group as a group of organizers and a group that had media attention behind it even as we entered we were protected from some of the abuses that you have been there on a daily basis and so i denied medicine that she was asking for for many hours from the time she arrived until the following night medicine and by the time she was finally given that medicine which are given opportunity to  when running presumably for the democrats here the lect whole process that you might be able to work with at some level not necessarily officially support but that you see  work your policies your attempt to change would resonate more than any other one or maybe as a couple the feel that there is any possibility now or in the near  exuded such positive wonderful energy what are some of the things you're doing you're going through in your own personal growth and struggles and survival what are your struggle too by the way that's a it's a pleasant struggle but it's my wife is a psycho therapist so she deals with this all the time and we're extremely happily married but it's always could be a little struggle but anyway we wish you the best and i'm sorry go ahead just how to put it's so beautiful i just respect and love you so much this is what the show has been about the raw imagination thank you so very very much there's going to be by the way about a max new movie coming out  week on the radical imagination thank you so much again