Season 2 Episode 10
Ben Binversie:
00:04
The Iowa caucuses are right around the corner, from incoming equality to health care, there are lots of issues on voters' minds, but former Iowa legislator, Ed Fallon is concerned with one above all, the climate crisis. (Singing) This is All Things Grinnell, I'm your host Ben Binversie. As hordes of democratic candidates contend for the nomination, climate change is just one of many issues on voters' minds, but for many, including Ed Fallon, it is the absolute number one priority. That's today's show coming up next after I remind you that the information and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent the views of Grinnell College.
Ben Binversie:
01:01
Fallon created an organization, Bold Iowa originally to fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and now he's dedicated to hounding candidates throughout the state about the climate crisis. He's logged many of mile following candidates around the campaign trail over the past year, but a few years ago he also marched across the country to raise awareness for climate justice. As the candidates have been doing the same march across Iowa courting votes, Fallon has been hot on their trail, hounding them with questions about their plans to combat climate change. Fallon first made his way to Des Moines as a student at Drake University, and he stuck around Des Moines working in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1993 to 2006. Given his current focus on climate change, I wanted to know how much it weighed on his mind back then.
Ed Fallon:
01:49
It didn't weigh on my mind as much, back then I was more focused on international security, nuclear weapons, military spending. Then when I became a legislator as a representative of my constituency, I was focused on a lot of the needs that they were concerned about. Healthcare, housing, prison sentencing, laws that were punitive and ineffective, campaign finance reform, water quality, a lot of local environmental issues. But I was aware of climate change, but it didn't really hit me as to how problematic climate change was until after I got out of state politics.
Ben Binversie:
02:30
Do you think state politics is a place where climate change is ignored because it is such a multifaceted global, international issue that it's like ... the impacts are seen on a local level but-
Ed Fallon:
02:43
Yeah. I think a lot of issues are ignored at the statehouse, not because they don't need to be addressed but because there's a lot of big money involved that wants to silence conversations about those issues. Because ... face it, if climate action takes hold, there are some powerful oil companies that are going to lose a lot of money. But on the flip side, we'll still have a planet. So it's probably a good trade from the average person's point of view. But now, I think the legislature definitely has to be doing a lot on climate change. I mean, it's become more and more clear, especially after the ... I mean, we had a 500 year flood in 1993 and then we had another 500 year flood 15 years later.
Ed Fallon:
03:27
So, at what point do we start realizing that, "Oh, something's going on here." I think people realize now that something's going on. One reason state senator Rob Hogg is probably one of the most proactive lawmakers in the country on climate change is because he's from a community that saw that devastation, that the increased rainfalls from climate change has caused. The legislature could be doing a lot on that front. We could be doing more to regulate development in floodplains, we could be doing more to require not just voluntary compliance with soil erosion control measures but some real ... put some teeth into it.
Ed Fallon:
04:08
We could be doing more to discourage ... I mean, for example, the legislature could have done something to prevent the Dakota Access Pipeline from happening and that's a huge problem from a carbon emissions point of view. So yeah, there's lots of legislatures could be doing, but the real impetus for change right now because we are in such a dire situation, the real impetus for change has to come at the federal level.
Ben Binversie:
04:34
Yeah. So you talked about a wake up moment for yourself in your personal life when you were, I believe, traveling in Germany and you felt called to public service. Was there a moment when you felt something click with you and you realized that you needed to do something on climate change when you realized it was more than just another issue?
Ed Fallon:
04:52
Yeah. Well, let me elaborate on the first revelation if I can call it that. I was really unhappy with where I was living at the time, I was what, 21? I developed a stomach problem and I was traveling as I often did back then on just a song and a prayer and I landed at a fasting clinic in Germany and they let me stay, and I was under the impression for what I'd studied that fasting might help me. Well, it did, I was right. After a week of fasting, my stomach problem was cured, but interestingly, during that fast, maybe partly because of the clarity of mind that comes with fasting, I had this revelation that I did not see coming that I have no capacity to describe or explain but it made it really clear that I had to commit myself to a life of public service.
Ed Fallon:
05:44
Then I was at joyful moment and then after the joy subsided, it was a fearful moment, I didn't want to do that, I wanted to farm, I wanted to play music, I wanted to travel, and so for the next six years I ignored the calling and went on with ... what I experienced instead was six years of back agony, I couldn't even walk, I could barely sit. I finally started to do what I felt I was called to do and interestingly my back got better. Funny how that works.
Ed Fallon:
06:17
But, with climate change, it was more of a rational awakening, I was having supper with Bill McKibben and some students at Iowa State University, I was talking about issues I campaigned on, I mentioned climate change as an issue and McKibben corrected me and said, "No, it's not an issue, it's a crisis." He was right, I had to think about that. Yeah, it's a different animal than anything else we deal with and we all care about lots of different issues, but this is something ... to me it's like coming home and you open the back door and you notice that a painting has fallen off the wall and there's glass everywhere, and then you notice that your faucet is running, how the heck did that happen? Then you notice that your wastebasket is on fire. Two of those are issues, one of those is a crisis. You better address the crisis first and deal with the broken glass and the dripping faucet later.
Ben Binversie:
07:11
Yeah, that's a good way to put it. So, in 2013 you spearheaded the great march for climate action, and in 2014 along with 35 other climate activists joined on a 3,100 mile trek from LA to D.C. Why did you choose to walk across the country? Obviously there was a purpose behind it, climate change and calling attention to it, but why did you and many others decided to walk across the country?
Ed Fallon:
07:37
Well, walking and marching are part of our DNA. I mean, we walked to escape the ... well, we run maybe to escape the volcano that's erupting, the Huns are coming to burn our village, let's get out of here. There's a food shortage, let's migrate. We're wired to walk physically and psychologically, we do it when there's a crisis and this crisis is less visible, the climate crisis, but it's every bit as real and in fact more significant than a volcano, the Huns or food shortage, it's an existential threat, one like we've never had to deal with. I think that's one reason so hard for humanities rapids arms around the necessary action that we need to take. But, to me walking and marching ... and again I've done both walks and marches, this was the march across the country.
Ed Fallon:
08:36
When I wanted to learn about what land owners and farmers were experiencing with the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline, that was a walk. I took my time, I went only about ... well, there was one day when it was really cold where I went 18 miles, I regret that. But usually I was walking about 10, 11 miles a day, so I had plenty of time to stop and talk with people. But walking and marching are tools that you can use to help create a better world to get a message out. If I were to drive across the country, if there are 35 of us were to hop in a car, well, a couple of cars and drive across the country, the great car ride for climate action, that's not going to arouse a lot of interest.
Ben Binversie:
09:18
Doesn't have the same ring.
Ed Fallon:
09:19
No, because it's an easy thing to do. Part of the reason the Great March for Climate Action was valuable was because it was a sacrifice. I mean, we gave up a lot to do that, we give up a lot of time, I gave up 24 pounds. There were some marches that lost as much as 40 pounds. I gave a five pair of shoes, we went through an awful lot to do that, and people respected that. Even when we landed in coal country. I remember there was one place where it was hard to get people to talk with us. But I remember having one conversation with a woman at the Coal Miners Cafe, in fact, where she said, "People have known you're coming and they really don't like your message but they respect what you're doing because they know it's difficult and it's a challenge."
Ed Fallon:
10:02
Walking and marching are tools in the tool chest of social change, and along with them, there's education. I mean, you've got to have educational opportunities, there's workshops, there's political campaigns, there's lobbying, there's letter writing, the civil disobedience. There's a whole range of options for things that one can do in order to try to move change forward, walking and marching happen to be ... that's one that I'm, I guess, I'm good at. Even though for years, for 15 years I couldn't walk and I couldn't walk a half mile. So there's something satisfying guess about knowing that the human body can recover to the point where you can do something that wasn't even conceivable at one point in your life.
Ben Binversie:
10:50
Yeah.
Ed Fallon:
10:51
I mean, when I was maybe between age 20 and 35 I was a mess, but I feel ... I'm 61 now. Ben, when I feel really crappy, I say, "Oh man, I feel young again."
Ben Binversie:
11:03
That's an interesting way to put it. So, what came of the walk beyond just the personal significance and the symbolism of the act? Are there any tangible results that you could point to?
Ed Fallon:
11:15
No. That is the way social movements work, that should not be discouraging. But the bottom line is you don't know, you just take action and you move forward, knowing that what you're doing is right, knowing what you're doing is needed, knowing what you're doing is difficult and important. I will say, I can look back and I know there were folks in Indiana who were really inspired by an action we did as we walked by the BP Refinery, that are still engaged because they were inspired by what we did. I know there were people on the march who are still active because they were inspired by what they did.
Ed Fallon:
11:53
So, how it all plays out, nobody knows, and that often happens. I mean, look at the whole battle over marriage equality. The people who came in on the tail end and helped push it over the finish line, those tend to be the ones who get recognition for having, "Hey, thanks for accomplishing marriage equality." But it was the folks back in ACT UP and Harvey Milk and the other folks in San Francisco and here in Iowa, people like John Schmuck, Jonathan Wilson who were talking about equality when it was unsafe to do so, when they had to wear bulletproof vests, who took chances with their lives. Those folks did everything as much as ... they did more than people who came in later to set it up.
Ed Fallon:
12:43
Who will eventually get credit for ending climate change? Maybe it'll be Al Gore, I don't know but I know that there are lots and lots of people who have made every bit as much of a difference as anyone else. That's one thing that's very empowering about this, every person who cares about this should be doing everything they can and knowing that whatever they're doing is really important and is as much a factor in contributing to potential success as what anyone else is doing.
Ben Binversie:
13:15
Yeah. So, climate change is a crisis that is your message, and with any crisis and with a problem this large, it's easy to slip into feelings of anxiety, depression, despair when confronted with the grand problem, how do you encourage panic as an appropriate response while not falling into despair?
Ed Fallon:
13:41
Well, I think the answer is that you avoid despair by embracing action. There's nothing more empowering than taking action. I mean, if you're depressed about something, and again, there are things that are depressing and we should be disturbed about them, but the absolute wrong thing to do is just sit home and worry about them. Especially if you're alone, you need to be with people, you need to be engaged. I can attest to that from experience, and I think most people have probably had that experience. If you sit around and worry and just feel bad about stuff, it's not going to get any better, you're not going to feel any better.
Ben Binversie:
14:26
No. So you now have an organization that you've formed since you left the legislature, Bold Iowa, which was formed in 2016?
Ed Fallon:
14:38
Yes.
Ben Binversie:
14:38
To fight climate change and other related issues, building urban rural coalitions, and you're also doing something called bird-dogging?
Ed Fallon:
14:47
Right.
Ben Binversie:
14:47
So, how are you getting reengaged with politics via bird-dogging in your Bold Iowa?
Ed Fallon:
14:55
Yeah, Bold Iowa came about as a response to the Dakota Access Pipeline, and we realized that what was needed was a strong coalition and we had farmers and landowners upset about it because of the abuse of eminent domain to take their land. They were concerned about their tiles being destroyed, their topsoil being mixed in with the sub soil, with concerns about whether if the pipeline were to break, what would it do to the water, the Des Moines River and some of the other rivers that the pipeline crosses, lots of concerns there. Then concerns that were raised by Native Americans who had ... historically, some of this pipeline is going through lands that were very important to the Meskwaki community, and a lot of the other native communities that have lived here. There are actually 26 native communities that have at one time or another called Iowa home.
Ed Fallon:
15:54
And obviously then, there are a lot of environmental super concern, not just about water quality but about climate change. So the Bold Iowa was a way to bring people together to call us around this fight. Again, there were a lot of other organizations that did some really good work to try to stop this and we didn't stop it, we slowed it down by over a year and we built alliances that are still active and that's what's really important. You move on from one fight and you find that there is another one waiting for you right around the corner. That in itself I suppose can get depressing but struggle is the nature of our existence. We need to pace ourselves, you can't go all out at a 100 miles an hour constantly.
Ben Binversie:
16:48
So, presidential election is coming up in 2020, and here in Iowa, the caucuses are coming up quickly. So how can Iowans influence the prioritization of climate change as an issue at the top of these candidate's minds?
Ed Fallon:
17:05
Well, again, candidates are running based on what they care about personally, what their previous experience has taught them, and also what the polls say voters want to hear. That's the least intelligent reason to run for office. I mean, there are some people who are so vacuous, they have no background at all, they just know they want power. So they go to a poll and then they run on that poll. Honestly, I think we have a pretty good few of candidates that aren't doing that, I think they all have some passion, some history, but they need to recognize that climate change is an existential threat. It's different than all the things they've worked on unless they've worked on climate change.
Ed Fallon:
17:53
They need to embrace this as the existential threat that it is, they need to talk about it because if they start talking about it, the media will start reporting it and if the media starts reporting it, people will start paying more attention to it. As people are paying more attention to it, it will rise higher in the polls, and then when politicians go to consult the polls to find out what they should talk about, it will be climate change.
Ben Binversie:
18:12
Right. Yeah, it's a circle for sure. So you're not a scientist, but you don't need to be to understand the science and act I think is part of your message. I recently talked with someone for the podcast who is a climate scientist, but he's also working on actions and solutions and he encouraged me and all of us to get angry about climate change, and to do something. Do you see your job as kind of lighting a fire under other people?
Ed Fallon:
18:43
Yeah, I guess you could encourage people to get angry, I encourage them to be concerned, fearful, maybe even, maybe panic a little bit and whatever it takes right now to inspire you to get involved and to take action, let that happen because we really are at a critical juncture here. There's no scenario where we can see the current situation continuing without an absolute catastrophe that's beyond imagination. The last species to really face the kind of crisis we're facing right now are the dinosaurs, and we know what happened to them. And really I don't think I'm overstating that. Again, if you look at the scientific evidence and the scientific consensus, we should be dropping everything and doing everything we can to stop this. Again, more and more people are getting that, and those of us who get that need to be repeating that as often as possible, as loudly as possible.
Ed Fallon:
19:56
Again, for those of us in Iowa, we have an amazing opportunity, and I would say not just an opportunity but an obligation because there are folks all over the country who wish they had the access to candidates that we have. I mean, I was talking to the governor of Colorado the other day and when I reported on the conversation, Kathy and I did an interview with him and we shared that with people in Colorado and some of them were jealous. I mean, we don't get to talk to our governor like that. I mean, we're sitting next to Marianne Williamson and talking to her. I mean, she's got a huge fan club around the country, I'm sure people would love to have a chance to talk with her. Well, we have that chance, we should do that.
Ed Fallon:
20:37
So, I think no matter where you are, there's an opportunity and there's an action or a series of actions or set of actions you can be taking to make a difference. In Iowa, I really think that we should put all of our eggs in this basket because it's a huge opportunity. There are national and even international media interest in what's going on here right now. It will not be possible to avoid presidential candidates. There are so many of them, they're everywhere. Again, it's a huge opportunity to influence the debate. I'll give you an example for way back in 1987, there was about 12 of us with three different organizations working on trying to get the candidates to oppose the Trident missile. We were asking questions of candidates in Des Moines and Dubuque and a few other places.
Ed Fallon:
21:33
And here's Bruce Babbitt, he was the governor, former governor of Arizona, and he's caught in the New York Times about his experience in Iowa. He said, "I'm surprised at just how knowledgeable Iowans are about foreign policy. I get asked about the Trident missile everywhere I go." There were 12 of us, and that's the kind of influence we had. 12 of us got him thinking about the Trident and got him quoted referencing it in the New York Times. We could change the debate on climate change. Iowans could change the debate on climate, let me rephrase it. Iowans, New Hampshirite and South Carolinians could change the debate on climate change because we get to go first.
Ben Binversie:
22:17
Right.
Ed Fallon:
22:17
Which is great and also a huge burden, but let's take that burden and make an opportunity out of it.
Ben Binversie:
22:23
Yeah, let's do it. Thank you Ed for coming on and talking on the podcast and keep walking.
Ed Fallon:
22:31
All right, thanks Ben.
Ben Binversie:
22:34
Ed Fallon is a former Iowa legislator, host of the radio show and podcast Fallon Forum and the founder of Bold Iowa. You can find links to his organization and interviews he's done with candidates as well as his memoir of the great climate march, Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim on our website, and that'll do it for this week's episode. On the next episode, you'll find out what the next episode is about, and so will I, so mysterious. Until then, I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep. Music for today's show comes from Brett Newski and Podington Bear. If you want to contact the show, email me at podcast@grinnell.edu or check out our website, grinnell.edu/podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm your host Ben Binversie, stay weird Grinnellians.