Through the Eyes of the Future
How Leah Thomas is redefining the environmental movement
Written by Olivia Seltzer | Photographs by Mark Griffin Champion
If you’ve been on Instagram any time in the past six months, chances are you’ve seen countless graphics educating and informing on the Black Lives Matter movement, racism, and racial justice—to name a few. Twenty-five-year-old Ventura local Leah Thomas—or @greengirlleah, as her nearly 160,000 Instagram followers know her—is the creator of one such viral post. But hers was a little different from the other infographics that might have come across your feed. Instead of focusing on racial or environmental justice, it combined the two, addressing what Thomas calls “intersectional environmentalism.” The pioneering activist, who has written on the subject for publications such as Vogue and The Good Trade, is certainly more than qualified to inform on this topic, having studied environmental science and policy at Chapman University and worked on the PR and communications team for Patagonia—a leading “one-percent for the planet” corporation globally renowned for its passion for the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. I spoke with Thomas over Zoom to learn more about this relatively new term and how we can all be intersectional environmentalists.
How would you define intersectional environmentalism? Why is it important for people to become intersectional environmentalists? Intersectional environmentalism is a type of environmentalism that advocates for the protection of both people and the planet. It amplifies the voices and efforts of diverse individuals and marginalized communities and gives them a place in the environmental movement. I had worked at a lot of environmental organizations, and I had been in a lot of environmental spaces—I studied environmental science and policy at Chapman University—but I wasn’t seeing a lot of acknowledgment for environmental justice.
Where did you first hear the term intersectional environmentalism? Was there a moment that really made you think, “I need to get involved”? I first heard the term when I wrote it. I Googled [the term] and didn’t see it anywhere. When it started to kind of go viral was after I made a graphic—Environmentalists for Black Lives Matter—in May, and when you swiped through it, it had my definition of intersectional environmentalism.
There have clearly been a lot of conversations surrounding race in the United States over the past few months. How do environmentalism and climate change come into play? Environmentalists often talk about confined animal feeding lots or endangered species, but they won’t talk about the communities that are impacted by those environmental injustices. One way to start is to really make those connections, and for environmentalists to ask, “Who?” And if the “who” ends up being people of color or low-income communities time and time again, I think it’s time to acknowledge that maybe the environmentalism that we have now and the environmental policies that we have now might need some reworking to include people of color.
What drew you to work for Patagonia out of college? Can you tell us about your experience at the company? I was in a corporate sustainability class, and I learned about the triple p’s: people, profit, and planet. We had a case study about Patagonia, and I remember just thinking, “Huh, that makes sense. I’m going to work there one day, because it seems like they’re doing things right.” I ended up as an assistant on the PR team and to [Vice President of Environmental Initiatives and Special Media Projects] Rick Ridgeway. I learned a lot about how to flip capitalism on its head and help fund activism through a corporation, which really inspired the work I’m doing now. It was great to work in an environment with so many people passionate about activism and environmentalism.
How do you think people can live a more sustainable, environmentally friendly life? I don’t think there’s one way to be an environmentalist or to save the planet. I think it takes all of us doing different actions. That might be someone being super passionate about food justice, and maybe that means eating a plant-based diet or reducing their meat intake. If someone’s really passionate about environmental justice, maybe that means signing petitions and amplifying things on social media.
What does your ideal world look like, and how do you think we can get there? The future should be intersectional, and I think to get there it really just means acknowledging our differences and the beautiful things in our differences, and also some of the hard conversations surrounding our differences.
Who are your role models? Kimberlé Crenshaw [civil rights advocate who developed the theory of intersectionality]. Rick Ridgeway, who was my boss at Patagonia and a famous rock climber. And then my grandmother, Janice.
Do you have any exciting projects coming up that you can tell us about? [Intersectional Environmentalists] is launching a business accountability program to teach businesses how to incorporate intersectionality into their business framework, so they can be more similar to Patagonia and do things that are better for people and the planet. Also, I’m working on a book proposal currently, so that’s really exciting.
Final question — if there’s one question you could ask yourself, what would it be, and could you please answer it? I would ask, “Why am I such a perfectionist, and how can I relax?” I would remind myself that it’s okay to not always live in survival mode, and to take a step back. It’s okay to make mistakes.
