In 2023, after receiving a transformational gift from the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice was finally able to begin working on an issue they’d been feeling called to for a long time: climate justice.
That gift came to fruition a few months ago with the hiring of a full-time climate lobbyist: Drake Starling, a Cuban-American Miami native with a background in international environmental law. Having worked in a global context, Starling is clear on the urgency of transitioning away from fossil fuels. “If your bathtub is overflowing, you’re not going to get a mop,” he says. “Transitioning away from fossil fuels is turning off the bathroom spigot.”
Drake joins his colleagues on this episode of Just Politics to share more about his own story and Catholic social justice commitments, the biggest challenges and possibilities he sees in climate advocacy, and what gives him hope in the work to save the planet.
For starters, he says, we should “try to start making everyone aware that climate change legislation equals good jobs.”
NETWORK Advocates is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing the principles of Catholic social justice and does not endorse or oppose any candidate or party in the upcoming election.
Learn more on this week’s episode of Just Politics.
Additional resources:
- NETWORK’s Equally Sacred Issues: Freedom to Live on a Healthy Planet
- Learn more about the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate provisions
- Read about FSPA’s gift to NETWORK for Climate Justice Work
- Learn more about “Cancer Alley”
Transcript:
Eilis McCulloh, HM: There’s no shortage of critical issues in our world today and NETWORK has never been shy about taking them on.
Joan Neal: That’s right, Eilis. In the 52 years of NETWORK’s history, we have advocated on issues that are often neglected in other Catholic spaces. The Sisters who founded the organization were intentional about that, and went to work lobbying for fair housing, access to health care, and other human dignity issues.
Colin Martinez Longmore: So when NETWORK adds another issue to our policy agenda, it’s a big deal, to quote President Biden. And that’s exactly what happened last year, when we branched into climate advocacy.
Eilis: Climate change is perhaps the definitive moral issue of our time, as it involves the future well-being and survival of the entire planet – and also drives other issues such as migration and poverty. Recognizing the intersectionality of climate justice with our current policy platform, we decided that it was time for NETWORK to start lobbying on federal policy regarding this issue. And thanks to a major gift from the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse, Wisconsin, we were able to add a full-time climate advocate to our Government Relations team.
Colin: Joan spoke to the newest member of our NETWORK community, Drake Starling, whose passion for environmental justice is deeply rooted in his Catholic faith. From advocating for sustainable practices to addressing systemic inequalities, he brings a deep background and unique perspective on how spirituality can inspire action for a greener, fairer world.
Eilis: Join us as we delve into his journey, insights, and vision for a future where environmental stewardship and social equity go hand-in-hand. Welcome, Drake Starling, our new Senior Government Relations Advocate for Climate Justice!
Joan: All right, well, it’s our pleasure to be with Drake Starling, our—NETWORK’s —Government Relations Advocate for Climate Justice, this morning. Drake, how are you?
Drake Starling: I’m doing super well and I’m very happy to be here, Joan. How are you?
Joan: I’m doing well, thanks! So Drake, can you tell us just a little bit about yourself so that our listeners know more about who you are?
Drake: I am Drake Starling, as you mentioned, Joan. I was born and raised in Miami to a Cuban-American family. My parents are Cuban refugees, which informed a lot of my thinking and my worldview as a child. And of course, then later on into adulthood.
I left Miami when I was a teenager to move to Jacksonville, Florida, where I eventually applied to do a rotary exchange year. And I did an exchange year in Budapest, Hungary, which was really phenomenal. And I think it just sort of started creating this very international background of sorts for me.
I was always very interested in languages and in international relations, politics overall. And I decided that I was going to go to college for that. So, I came to DC. I went to the Catholic University of America. I have a Catholic background and I had a wonderful time at the university. I studied world politics and I got a minor in French and European studies. And I spent, I think it was two or three semesters studying abroad in college, which again, just sort of expanded my worldview a bit, which I was very fortunate to have had the ability to do and the means of course.
And after I graduated in 2014, I started working at the World Bank and a few other firms. I worked at USAID and I started seeing a lot of international environmental law. I was a paralegal. And I started noticing that there was this huge connection between international law and the environment. And I started becoming acutely aware of the problems that not just environmental activists face, but countries around the world, when it comes to financing their climate commitments, protecting their environments, protecting their own citizens from harmful chemicals, from pollution, and other issues.
And I most recently worked at a consulting firm working on projects with the federal government, the EPA, the DOI, and the DOE. And, it was a lot of environmentally heavy stuff. So I’m happy that I eventually made my way here!
Joan: Wonderful. You’re a professional background. I mean, there’s so much more and it spans from renewable energy advocacy to environmental arbitration. How have these experiences influenced your approach to climate justice advocacy?
Drake: Oh, gosh. Well, I guess I’ll start quickly with the latter. International environmental arbitration, in particular in Latin America and even in Africa, that really showed me that there is this dichotomy between the economies of the global north and the global south. And climate change is not just a domestic issue that we should focus on here in the United States. Climate change does not respect borders. And when it comes to creating sound legislation that actually does something to mitigate climate change, we need to do something on not just the domestic level, but on the international scale as well. So that really got me thinking in a more global context about it.
And I did do renewable energy advocacy. I was very fortunate to do a research fellowship at the Piedmont Environmental Council. It’s a small environmental NGO in Virginia where they focus on educating the next generation of conservation leaders. And well, I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I think it worked, because here I am working in the climate justice space! And I think they gave me a lot of really, really great tools to be able to advocate for the energy transition.
Joan: That’s wonderful. And you know, when you talk about your background and your experience, you speak about a journey guided by the principles of Catholic Social Justice and Catholic Social Teaching. Can you elaborate a little bit on how you integrate the principles of solidarity and compassion and stewardship into your advocacy efforts?
Drake: Yeah, definitely. That’s a good question. So, I think because Catholic Social Teaching emphasizes interconnectedness of all creation and the inherent dignity of every human being… I remember studying and learning, even through my work and even through the daily things that I do, that if I’m going to sort of advocate or endorse a policy, I would do so if that policy met that criteria —that very basic criteria—of [upholding] the inherent dignity of every human being, and emphasize the interconnectedness of creation. So that we don’t just have this throwaway culture, as Pope Francis puts it. I believe that in order to combat the climate crisis, Catholic Social Teaching teaches us that it must be rooted in solidarity, compassion, and stewardship. So I’m trying very hard to bring that to this position and this work.
Joan: That’s really important. Certainly, the world could use a lot of solidarity right now, and our country in particular!
Drake: Yes, I agree!
Joan: Well, you know, this whole issue of climate is such a big issue and trying to get your arms around the issue of climate change can be so overwhelming due to the multitude of issues related to it, from funding for renewable energy initiatives to promoting just transition policies.
Which of these proposals do you consider most urgent and why?
Drake: That’s a great question and I think hopefully the proper answer that every climate justice advocate would give is transitioning away from fossil fuels. We can protect our forests, conserve them, we can have clean water and clean air, we can have 50% renewable energy if we want. But if we’re still using fossil fuels, it is… well, it’s not good. It is the death knell.
It is the poison that continually… it’s sort of like if your bathtub is overflowing, you’re not going to get a mop. You’re going to turn off the faucet. The mop is conservation, is good policy to mitigate, to prevent this devastation and pollution. But transitioning away from fossil fuels is turning off the bathroom spigot. Without that, it’s just going to continue to overflow and we’ll drown in it.
Joan: Yeah, it’s like addressing the root cause as opposed to addressing a symptom.
Drake: Yes, correct.
Joan: And you talked earlier about the impact of climate change on certain communities and people, not only in this country, but around the world. Could you discuss the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities and how your advocacy addresses these disparities?
Drake: Yeah, definitely. I think a lot of people have difficulty conceptualizing this—in particular those in positions of power and privilege—that climate change is, as a lot of us say, this great equalizer because it will affect all of us. But it will not affect all of us equally. Some people will be able to escape the devastating changes. The communities that won’t be able to are the ones that have been disproportionately impacted by terrible pollution, by rising sea levels, because they’re so marginalized, they’re either poor, they’re unable to move away, or they don’t have the education or the means or the skills to deal with it. And their local governments or state or even national governments aren’t addressing the issue in the way that they need them to.
So a lot of these communities tend to be Black and Brown, in particular in the United States and in the global south. And I think that is a terrible stain on our legacy of colonialism that needs to be rectified. And if you are Catholic and believe in Catholic Social Teaching, it is something that you should be striving for.
Joan: Yeah. Could you tell us maybe a specific example of this?
Drake: Yeah, definitely. So in Louisiana along the Mississippi River, there’s this area known as “Cancer Alley.” And this is an area that is heavily Black and Brown. And it has been that way for, I believe, a few centuries. And since time immemorial, it has been sort of this area where large corporations have just dumped their refuse. And that has been sort of the de facto practice for a lot of chemical companies and fossil fuel companies as well.
The reason it’s called Cancer Alley is because in that — it’s about a 90 mile stretch of land along the Mississippi — the cancer rate is 44% higher than the national rate, which is incredibly high.
Joan: Oh my gosh.
Drake: And this comes often from… well, I mean, it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. But it is because these chemical companies are essentially under-regulated and the refuse from their chemical production plants then don’t really get stored in a proper way. They just seep into the groundwater or into the Mississippi River Delta or into the environment at large. And this, of course, then affects people living off the land there and it’s quite a tragedy. But most people haven’t heard of Cancer Alley and I believe that it’s something that we should become acutely aware of because there are many Cancer Alleys throughout the country in different forms.
Joan: Yeah, that’s a good point. And it’s so tragic, especially for communities who have fewer resources to protect themselves.
So Drake, your work is on the Hill, Capitol Hill, and that in itself is a challenge. But can you talk to us a little bit about what the major challenges are that you foresee in advancing climate justice policies and how your work is trying to address those challenges.
Drake: Wow, that’s a loaded question! I think the biggest challenge is getting the political will to actually make significant investment in climate change policy. We have the money. We always have the money. There’s always money for defense. There’s always money for the military. There’s always money to bail out the biggest polluters, the most egregious offenders. There’s always money to bail out Wall Street.
And yet somehow when we talk about climate change, so many politicians will try to nickel and dime us and say, well, you know, ‘That’s too expensive. What about inflation?’ Those questions magically disappear when we’re talking about other priorities of theirs. And that to me is the obstacle. Showing them that, not only is climate change something worth investing in, it’s actually economically and financially feasible. It’s the smart thing to do. A good businessman would say, yeah, if I have to pay, you know, $1 million now, as opposed to $10 million down the road because of an action, well, the smarter thing to do is pay the $1 million now. So I think political will is the biggest obstacle. And I’m sorry, what was the second part of your question?
Joan: How does your work address those challenges? And you might say a little bit about those people who don’t even actually believe that climate change exists.
Drake: Yes, there are plenty of those people as well. And actually, that’s a good starting point for me to answer your second question.
It’s true that there are plenty of politicians that have been duped into thinking that climate change is not real. And that is due to massive disinformation and misinformation that the fossil fuel industry has been putting out since the 70s.
If you frame climate change legislation and climate change policy in a way that actually helps them understand it in their own mind, it’s a lot better. Debbie Dooley is not someone who I would quote often. She is a co-founder of the Atlanta Tea Party, and she is a very big environmental activist. For years she has been telling environmental and climate activists, the best way to talk about climate change with politicians who don’t believe in it is to talk about energy choice, energy freedom. And I think this is something NETWORK has very much tapped into — using the freedoms language to show people that actually, climate change legislation is freedom. When you have the ability to choose between the utility company that pollutes and one that doesn’t, this gives you more options and more power as an individual. I think that once we start framing things in more freedom language, that’s going to bring a lot of people to our side.
And one last note, the Pentagon for years now has been stating that the greatest national security threat does not come from ISIS or from Russia, but in fact comes from climate change. And that is something that we need to tap into. I’d be hard pressed to find someone who has actually brought those Pentagon reports, those actual indications that climate change is the national security threat that we know it to be, to those politicians who don’t believe in it. If you brought that to, you know, I don’t want to name names, but a politician who doesn’t believe in climate change, they might be more inclined to say, ‘wow, you know, actually the Pentagon is saying that this is a national security threat. It’s a national security issue. Maybe climate change is something worth investing in.’ And I think framing it in those ways can help bring certain people to your side. And that’s very important in this fight.
Joan: Well that actually brings me to my next question which is, you just mentioned an opportunity to educate Congress people who are having difficulty recognizing and accepting climate change. Are there other opportunities to bring information that would help policymakers to be informed and then therefore ready and able and maybe even eager to address the issue of climate change?
Drake: I think, yes, there are several ways. I think perhaps the most salient way to help bring them into the fold would be to show them that it’s not just a national security threat, but it’s also very good for business. Renewable energies used to be incredibly expensive in the 80s, 90s, and even the early aughts during the George W. Bush administration. You would be hard pressed to find an investor who was going to invest in solar energy or in hydro or in wind power — certainly not in wind power, it was prohibitively expensive, even solar.
The Obama administration had begun providing subsidies to the renewable energy sector and this brought the price of solar, hydro, and wind down to parity with coal and fossil fuels. And then it started becoming economically viable for a lot of investors. And then businesses started springing up that were providing these services of becoming a renewable energy utility.
And then something else happened. They started becoming cheaper than traditional fossil fuel enterprises. So today, if you were a billionaire, your best bet would be to invest in renewable energies over coal. Coal plants, they’re shutting down — not at an alarming rate, but they are starting to close their doors across the country and across the world. Yes, there’s been an uptick in some places of opening coal plants and fossil fuel plants, but overall, the trend is starting to completely switch. And the renewable energy transition is starting to take off, which is also why we’re talking a lot these days about critical minerals. Minerals are very much needed in order for production of solar panels and wind turbines to take off. And critical minerals are here in the U.S. and elsewhere. And mining the land for them is very carbon intensive.
So, I wouldn’t want to say it’s a trade-off, because I think that ultimately we can mine the land in a safe and environmentally-responsible way, while using renewable energies to do so. But we don’t yet have that capacity. So we need to get there. And it’s remarkable to me that within my lifetime, this has become something that was so fringe and now it is really starting to take off.
Joan: Well, that’s really good news. I mean, it’s a positive step in the process of moving forward on this issue of climate, and to mitigate some — before they happen, actually — some potentially really bad results.
So, Drake, your Catholic faith is very evident in the way that you analyze this issue of climate justice and the way that you approach it. Can you tell us what you think Catholics can do? What role can Catholics play in climate justice both on and off the Hill?
Drake: Okay, on the hill I have a really good answer, I guess. I think Catholics should be made intimately aware because they are called to action — not just by Pope Francis and his encyclicals on climate change, of which he’s written two — but because we are called to action by God in order to protect our common home, care for our common earth. And if something threatens that common earth, then action must be taken. So I think that individual Catholics, from a Hill perspective, can advocate for or against certain bills that would either positively or negatively impact them.
And I believe that there should be sort of a repository of informed Catholics around the country saying, ‘Okay, everyone, this new climate bill is going to pass. We want you all to write letters to your local representatives in the House in order to tell them to vote in favor.’ And politicians, you know — we can talk about whether or not they’re cynical or power hungry — but really they want to stay in office, ultimately. And the way they stay in office is with constituent support. Constituents can make or break a politician’s career and climate change needs to become one of those central issues.
So that’s on the Hill. Off the Hill, I think one way that we can all start doing this in our communities — thanks to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was the largest climate bill in US history, as well as the recently-announced American Climate Corps, which will train, I believe it’s right now 2,000 individuals a year into climate-related jobs. In the coming years, the plan is for it to reach 50,000, then 100,000 and climb subsequently after that.
Joan: Wow!
Drake: Yes, yes, it’s not discussed very much, I think, because there’s just so much noise in the news right now. But it is something that will hopefully transform the face of climate change in this country. Because for far too long, we’ve talked about climate change in this very esoteric, scientific way. But if we talk about climate change, and we pair that with jobs, then people start seeing, ‘Oh, this is a livelihood. I need to get paid to install solar panels. I will get paid to become a forest ranger or a park ranger.’ These things are intimately important to the well-being of our society and our common home, Earth. Without them, we’re not going to make it. But the point is that we should try to start making everyone aware that climate change legislation equals good jobs.
So when we start discussing that and when we start seeing those opportunities, we need to make sure that everyone’s aware of it. So increased awareness that there is a lot of money to be found and a lot of livelihood to be found in these types of jobs.
I’ve seen a lot of unions actually — I’ve been in talks with unions recently —that are really trying to thread that needle, trying to make the public intimately aware that a good union job also means a clean energy job. A clean energy job also means a good paying union job. And I think it’s a winning message.
Joan: Well, that sounds like a really positive way to move forward. And I think, you know, if it takes off, it’s certainly a hopeful vision for the future. And that is so important for us as we think about our younger generation.
Drake: Absolutely. Yeah, we can’t resign ourselves to nihilism and just become despondent. We need to not only take action, but encourage others to do so as well.
Joan: Drake, you’ve given us a lot of good information about this critical issue of climate justice and climate change. Would you like to leave our listeners with a message regarding the importance of collective action and advocacy, and some of the ways in which we can address this issue?
Drake: Yes. First of all I would say, don’t despair. Take action. And I don’t say “dont despair” in this sort of empty, pithy way. I’m trying to say that because things are changing. I know that a lot of the news is focused on fatalistic issues and it seems like we’ll never actually conquer climate change. But there are very, very good reasons to hope.
Here is just a quick example, or a few, actually: In 2023, the state of Michigan included new legislation in the state budget that requires the state to generate all of its electricity from wind, solar, and other carbon-free sources by 2040. And then Minnesota, taking a cue from Michigan, did the same thing with its 2024 climate and energy budget and policy bill. And so that sets a 100 percent clean energy goal by 2040 again. And, it’s leveraging federal funding in climate change mitigation from the Inflation Reduction Act. This is going to spiral. This is only going to increase. You’re going to see a slew of states doing this, namely blue states. But you’re also going to see a lot of red states taking advantage of this because they don’t want to leave free money on the table.
So the clean energy transition isn’t coming, it is happening actively right now. And it’s something that we need to become a little bit more aware of —in particular, to make ourselves feel better and a little bit more hopeful about the state of things. So I think those are very good reasons not to get despondent, not to despair, because the actions are already being taken. The question is, are you going to be a part of it? And what role are you going to play in it? That’s also why I’m here, to do this work!
Joan: Well, we are so glad that you are here with us on staff at NETWORK and so grateful that you made the time to come and visit with us today. Drake, thank you so much.
Drake: Thank you very much, Joan.
Eilis: You know, in the past couple of years we have seen so many concerning climate catastrophes – red skies from forest fires and thick smoke that made it unsafe to be outdoors, summer temperatures in the winter, freak tornados, melting glaciers… Just thinking about climate change can feel so big that it’s a hopeless situation. But what struck me most about Drake was his determination and optimism in the face of all of that.
Colin: Right. I mean, knowing that the Biden administration signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August 2022, which happened to be which was the most comprehensive climate legislation the U.S. has even seen, is reason enough to have some hope.
Eilis: I mean yeah, the IRA invested hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy, electric vehicles… it created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and paved the way for environmental justice. It was the largest investment in these issues ever!
Colin: Which is good news for sure, and that’s good news that needs to be shared. So we want to hear from you! Let us know how you’re engaging in the work of climate justice. Leave us a review, reach out to us on social media, or send us an email at info@networklobby.org. Let’s keep this important conversation going.
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