Excellent interview!! ― Molly
By
On the mid-October afternoon I spoke with Patti Smith about her involvement with Pathway to Paris, the collective organization of activists and artists working to amplify solutions to the crisis of climate change, it was a humid 87 degrees in New York City. It felt like August—in Miami. Beyond that, the news was filled with stories of the horrific wildfires devastating California and the hurricane-ravaged conditions in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Texas. So it felt beyond appropriate to be talking with Smith, who will be one of many notable musicians participating in a Pathway to Paris concert at Carnegie Hall on November 5 (along with Joan Baez, Michael Stipe, Talib Kweli, Cat Power, and more), about the perils of ignoring our changing environment, what we can all do to help, and how the younger generation must—and will—be the one to enact radical change. Smith feels this last thing deeply as her daughter, Jesse Paris Smith, is one of the co-founders, along with Rebecca Foon, of Pathway to Paris. Read our interview below to find out Smith’s thoughts on what’s going on in the world and why she maintains hope for change in 2020.
We’re speaking at a time when wildfires are blanketing California, and New Yorkers still need air conditioners. I guess my first question is, what do you say at this point to people who are climate change-deniers?
I think that this is a subject that has concerned many of us for a long time. You go beyond America... as a traveler, everywhere I go people talk about this. They are concerned about the extreme change. It’s not like, “Oh, it’s warmer than usual,” it’s, like, so hot that you don’t have the facilities to cool anything down. There’s nothing in one’s recent history to prepare oneself for these changes.
I think that this is a subject that has concerned many of us for a long time. You go beyond America... as a traveler, everywhere I go people talk about this. They are concerned about the extreme change. It’s not like, “Oh, it’s warmer than usual,” it’s, like, so hot that you don’t have the facilities to cool anything down. There’s nothing in one’s recent history to prepare oneself for these changes.
So I guess the simplest—or the saddest—answer is we can’t do anything until more and more people are personally affected. I mean, we can do everything that we can do, but it seems that people are going to be in denial until they are so affected, that they become concerned. It’s just like the war in Vietnam; we couldn’t get people involved against the war that was so long and so terrible until so many people lost sons, so many people lost brothers. So many young men or so many young women realized they were going off to some war they didn’t understand, and might never come back. This became so widespread, it was touching everyone, and then the people rose up and protested.
But I don’t want to hope for that because, in hoping for that, we are hoping that things will get worse and worse, but they’re already worse. They’re already so bad everywhere you look. The air right now in San Francisco is the most toxic it’s ever been in San Francisco’s history because of all the fires in Santa Rosa. So, I don’t know how much worse it can get except all these dots start connecting, and it takes a toll on human life, on human health, on human resources.
That’s why for me this event is so inspiring. It’s not really an event that’s going to raise a lot of money or anything like that. It’s not that kind of event; it’s an awareness event. It’s to do something high-profile and to really have good people gather together to raise some awareness about the situation.
This is something done by two young girls, and that is the other thing I find so extraordinary. Of course, one happens to be my daughter, but still, I’m in awe when I think about myself at her age. Yeah, I was speaking against radio censorship and I was concerned about the war in Vietnam at the time and, of course, Civil Rights, but the amount of activism that she’s engaged in far surpasses anything I ever did as a young person.
So, for me, there are two things that make me want to be a part of it. One, is the support, the activism of our youth, and the other is because it’s a necessity. Even though my daughter’s concerns are my concerns, she has become the more articulate one. She has been the most active politically. She is the one going out there on the forefront, and so I’m not leading this charge, I’m following.
I think it’s important that young people lead these charges. So that’s why I’ll be there. Because we’re doing two things by supporting this concert: It’s a learning experience, it’s also entertainment. But we’re not only supporting an idea, we’re supporting the young who have taken an initiative. This initiative is far more reaching than the concert. The concert is one milestone or one stepping stone. I want people to come and know they’re doing. They’re learning, and they’re also responding to this crisis, but also supporting the youthful initiative.
Something that stood out to me about Pathway to Paris is how it’s really youth-led, which is really inspiring and also emblematic of the activism that I see in people who are in their 20s or in their 30s right now. But also it’s great because it’s drawing on different generations of people who have all been activists and people who can bring together the kind of audience that needs to be paying attention to this issue. It’s fascinating to think of using activism techniques from the last 50 to 60 years, in order to try and effect change now for the environmental disasters.
Well, look at the people... I mean [Jesse] got in touch with Joan Baez, and Joan Baez responded. Fifty years ago, Joan Baez was walking with Martin Luther King. Joan Baez has been working on behalf of the people, the environment, against war, against racism, in support of immigration. Here she is again coming to help a young girl who she’s never met. I’ve met Joan Baez, and she’s a wonderful person and I’m a big fan of hers. But she’s coming from California to give support to this, and she believes in the same thing because that’s what she did as a young girl.
Well, look at the people... I mean [Jesse] got in touch with Joan Baez, and Joan Baez responded. Fifty years ago, Joan Baez was walking with Martin Luther King. Joan Baez has been working on behalf of the people, the environment, against war, against racism, in support of immigration. Here she is again coming to help a young girl who she’s never met. I’ve met Joan Baez, and she’s a wonderful person and I’m a big fan of hers. But she’s coming from California to give support to this, and she believes in the same thing because that’s what she did as a young girl.
This environmental crisis essentially is a human rights issue, and it’s just going to affect everybody, but it’s going to affect everybody in the world incredibly unequally. It’s really easy if you live in a first world country and you’re semi-protected by the infrastructure to think, Oh I’ll just have to use my air conditioner an extra couple months of the year, or, That’s why flood insurance exists, and not actually change your behaviors and your habits.
Mother Nature knows no race, she knows no good or evil, she just exists. How we abuse our planet and abuse Mother Nature, and how she erupts because of it, is on us all. About 20 years ago, I think, a group of us were working with the Dalai Lama. We were sitting around, and Adam Yauch, who was in the Beastie Boys, asked His Holiness, “What is the number one thing that young people can do for Tibet?” The Dalai Lama looked at him and said, “The number one thing that young people can do is be concerned and vigilant about the environment.” He said, “Not Tibet, not any place,” he said, “we have to go beyond personal concerns.”
Mother Nature knows no race, she knows no good or evil, she just exists. How we abuse our planet and abuse Mother Nature, and how she erupts because of it, is on us all. About 20 years ago, I think, a group of us were working with the Dalai Lama. We were sitting around, and Adam Yauch, who was in the Beastie Boys, asked His Holiness, “What is the number one thing that young people can do for Tibet?” The Dalai Lama looked at him and said, “The number one thing that young people can do is be concerned and vigilant about the environment.” He said, “Not Tibet, not any place,” he said, “we have to go beyond personal concerns.”
We have to choose, if you’re going to be an activist or if you’re going to be active or aware; choose the thing that affects all mankind, not just the people of Tibet or any particular region. He said that close to 20 years ago, that’s why you have to be attentive, because everything that we do, every atrocity that we perform upon the Earth environmentally to pollute our water, the dirt, fracking, hazardous waste, all of these things that are poisoning our water and our Earth, are going to eventually seep into the greater water system. It’s going to seep into the drinking water. It’s going to seep into the Earth. You’re gonna have animals and bees and flowers filled with pesticides. Everything he said has come to pass. In terms of activism, the most beneficial to all mankind is the one that benefits and will protect and help all of mankind, and that’s environmental awareness and what we can do to move from antiquated energy sources and going off of fossil fuel and developing renewable energy and transforming our cities. That’s what we have to do, in city after city after city after city.
No comments:
Post a Comment