Ep 208 | Xiye Bastida
The New Generation of Environmental Leadership: Stubborn Optimism, Tending Your Inner Fire, and Why Hope Is Not Enough
Description
For many people reading this, the crises we discuss on this podcast – from ecological instability to financial collapse – often feel like a distant problem in the future. But for the youth of today, managing the impact of these situations will define most of their lives, and many have already dedicated their careers to mitigating the worst outcomes. What do the leading young voices envision for the future, and what are they doing today to make that a reality?
In this episode, Nate is joined by Indigenous environmental justice activist and Planetary Guardian, Xiye Bastida, to discuss how her Indigenous heritage and leadership in the youth climate movement have helped guide her to continue her work toward a more ecologically attuned world. Together, they discuss the importance of intergenerational collaboration rooted in love, rather than simply rage or blind hope. Importantly, Xiye emphasizes what could become possible if we change our definition of what success looks like, live closer to the Earth, and start to view our planet as a sacred teacher, rather than a well of resources from which to extract.
What are the hopes and fears of younger generations during these increasingly tumultuous times? How might Indigenous wisdom inform our aspirations and strategy as we attempt to navigate the increasingly challenging world ahead? And how could a closer connection to the land help us cultivate a more sustained inner fire in order to continue moving in the direction of better futures – even if we don’t yet know the exact destination?
About Xiye Bastida
Xiye Bastida is a 23-year-old activist and member of the Planetary Guardians, an independent collective elevating the science to make the Planetary Boundaries a measurement framework for the world and spark a global movement by inviting everyone to become guardians of our shared home. Xiye is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Re-Earth Initiative, a global youth-led organization that has raised and allocated millions of dollars to help fund effective, small-scale projects across frontline communities in the Global South. Additionally, she has become a leading voice in the climate movement, organizing climate strikes, speaking on global stages like the United Nations, and redefining storytelling through her upcoming film, The Way of the Whale.
Additionally, Xiye has been recognized as a TIME 100 Next honoree, recipient of the UN Spirit Award, a Forbes Changemaker, and is currently a 776 Fellow, continuing to scale youth-led climate leadership globally. Most recently, she was named on Forbes’ 30 under 30 Social Impact List.
Show Notes & Links to Learn More
Download transcriptThe TGS team puts together these brief references and show notes for the learning and convenience of our listeners. However, most of the points made in episodes hold more nuance than one link can address, and we encourage you to dig deeper into any of these topics and come to your own informed conclusions.
00:00 – Xiye Bastida, Re-Earth Initiative, Fridays for the Future, Xiye UN talk, Xiye WEF talk
04:53 – NYC March for Our Lives
10:25 – Climate predictions to 2100
10:37 – 100 fossil fuel companies are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988, Carbon Majors Database
11:39 – Earth Summit 1992, Failed commitments to Global South
11:53 – Ethnoecology
13:24 – Planetary boundary framework
13:51 – Bill McKibben + TGS Episode, Kevin Anderson + TGS Episode, Johan Rockström + TGS Episode
16:50 – COP28 (Dubai) campaign
19:10 – COP30 (Brazil)
19:56 – Planetary Guardians, First Planetary Science Pavilion at COP30, Carlos Nobre + TGS Episode
20:25 – Columbia hosting first ever fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty conference in April 2026
22:15 – U.S. GDP starting to decouple from carbon emissions
22:51 – Gross Domestic Product, Gross Domestic Happiness
24:37 – Otomi community (More info)
25:32 – UN Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues
26:09 – Temazcal ceremony
26:26 – Chicabal Volcano and Lagoon
28:23 – Flooding crisis in San Pedro due to the severe contamination of the Lerma River
29:40 – Flooding of the Lerma River resulted in severe health issues
31:28 – Xochimilco chinampas and biodiversity
31:43 – Chinampa
31:53 – Toluca Valley – featuring ajolotes, acociles, and long grass called tule
32:14 – Tule weaving
32:40 – La Tlanchana, The Return of the Mermaid: Revitalizing the Lerma Wetlands
34:16 – Indigenous youth in urban centers often feel disconnected from their identities (Study)
35:17 – Tonga
39:43 – Examples of mass mobilizations at COP meetings in Bonn and Glasgow
38:00 – Gen Z mobilizations against corrupt governments
41:24 – Nationally Determined Contributions, ICJ win for countries regarding responsibility on climate impacts
42:00 – Debt for Climate
43:39 – U.S. is the most polarized country in terms of climate denialism followed by Australia
44:40 – Mexico has high climate consensus
47:34 – The Way of the Whale feature documentary
48:38 – Re-Earth Initiative grantees
49:20 – Youth organizations receive 0.76% of all climate philanthropy, which is 2% of global philanthropy
52:05 – Participatory grantmaking
52:36 – Re-Earth success stories: Building a school in Haiti to train youth on agroecology, Coral restoration in Tanzania, Organization in Argentina that passed several laws for climate education
54:48 – Julia Carabias Lillo led a successful collaborative effort to protect a whale birthing site
56:45 – Reality Blind Vol. 1 by Nate Hagens and DJ White (TGS Ep, Reality Roundtable) (Whales and dolphins as indigenous peoples)
57:58 – Humans use 30-40% of Net Primary Productivity
58:31 – Human connection to nature has decreased by 60% from the 1800s
59:56 – ~19 Terawatts of yearly global energy production
1:01:53 – Xiye’s TED talk in 2020, 2025 (Tools of Hope)
1:12:38 – Creation of term ‘carbon footprint’ by BP
1:13:27 – Katherine Hayhoe – “The climate crisis is a communication crisis.”
1:15:40 – Sylvia Earle, Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku
1:17:32 – Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), Chatbots
1:17:51 – Greenpeace Report: Tracking AI Giants’ Decarbonization Progress
