Dr. Bette Holland, Founder of the North Georgia Conservation Coalition & Chair of the Dawson County Democratic Party

The North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble podcast covers democratic politics in North GA, the 9th Congressional District, and across the state of Georgia. The podcast is in Q&A/Interview format with various democratic politicos including county chairs, democratic operatives, politicians, and more. It is our mission to deliver crucial information to our listeners in a timely manner as we fight for community values and principles in the 3rd most Conservative district in the state. Our website is: https://www.fcdpga.com/podcasts

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Transcript

Meral Clarke: 0:17

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our guest, Dr. Bette Holland, founder of the North Georgia Conservation Coalition and chair of the Dawson County, Georgia Democratic Party. Welcome to the show, Dr. Holland. We're happy to have you here.

Bette Holland: 0:43

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.

Meral Clarke: 0:46

Oh, terrific. Well, we're actually happy to welcome you back. So thank you for being a friend of the show. Let's let our listeners know a little bit about you. Dr. Bette Holland served as a business education teacher at Clarkston High School for 34 years. After retiring she and her husband moved to Dawsonville and she became involved in the Democratic Party. She has served as chair of the Dawson County Democrats since 2010. After years of listening to what was happening with climate change and how it would affect our lives, Dr. Holland decided to form a coalition that would be centered on moving people to action. In 2018, she formed the North Georgia Conservation Coalition and received help from the Southface Energy Institute and John Knoll of the energy and environment group to initially work with local county government in Dawson County. Southface presented a program for the county planning board on earthcraft homes and communities and John performed a free energy audit and helped design a plan for county fire stations to upgrade their lighting and cut energy costs. In 2018, Dr. Holland became a trained Climate Reality member. And I do want to ask you what that means, and has since held several meetings using their materials. Although she doesn't have a degree in sustainability or climate science, her research and outreach has enabled her to help fellow Georgians join in the effort to save the planet. We tend to ask our governments to do it all. And they must do the biggest things if we are to succeed, but we can all make a positive impact through our daily lives. So welcome, Bette, we're so happy to have you here. And especially as we celebrate Earth Day in April, and we're just thrilled with all the work that you're doing, especially up here in North Georgia. So what is a trained Climate Reality member?

Bette Holland: 2:42

Okay, the Climate Reality Project was started by Al Gore, around 25 years ago, and he has traveled the world doing training programs for people that were interested in learning more about what's happening with our climate, and how it will affect our planet, and what we as individuals can do to teach other people about the issue and to try to mitigate some of the issues related to climate change. So twice a year, for this last 20 or 25 years, he has held conferences in different parts of the world, three day long conferences, eight in the morning till seven at night. This one was at the World Congress Center in Atlanta, but they're all over the world, in Spain, and England and India, you know, wherever they have been all over the world. And in those three days, we've heard all kinds of speakers talk about the issues, mostly in the United States. But we know it's happening all over the world, not just in America, and received our badge as a Climate Reality trainer. And there's several other people here in North Georgia that were there at that conference, and we were lucky to have it in Atlanta. It was an amazing conference.

Meral Clarke: 3:55

Terrific. Well, let's dive right in as to why you're doing this and why you are passionate about conservation and mitigating climate change. You've stated that your son Brian first became actively involved with efforts to mitigate climate change, sparking your interest and subsequent involvement in the fight to save our planet. Tell us more about your efforts, and specifically your group, the North Georgia conservation coalition, what are your group's objectives and goals?

Bette Holland: 4:25

So we started the North Georgia conservation coalition, just a group of friends got together and said we wanted to have something that people could actually do. I had been to multiple climate conferences. This is before I went to the one with Al Gore's group, which was amazing. But

Meral Clarke: 4:41

Well, let's hope so because climate change before that, we'd go to conferences or meetings and they go, oh, woe is me. The world is going to end the planets getting hotter. And this is going to happen and this is going to happen and this is going to happen. And then the meeting was oh, you And you left the meetings a little hopeless, and a little depressed and wondering what can I do. And so I thought that having an organization that focused mainly on what individuals can do, or small groups can do to mitigate the effects of climate change, and to teach other people about affects everyone and doesn't care if you're a Republican or a what's happening, and especially here in North Georgia, where, because of the political atmosphere, and I hate to get into politics with it, but because of the political atmosphere, a lot of people just don't believe it's real. And as Donald Trump, after all told him, it's all a hoax, right. So we wanted to try to have some way to talk with people and we kept it separate. It is a nonpartisan organization, that is not tied to the Democratic Party of Georgia or Dawson County, we wanted to be able to go to our county and city government into our local schools and talk to them about some things they could be doing without saying, by the way, the Democrats think this is what you should do. So that's why we kept it separate. And we've had some success with it so far. And I think we are making a difference. It's a small group. So it's taking a while. But we hope that maybe through things like this, and through the Earth Day event that we have, we'll have more people want to join and help to spread the word about what we can do. Democrat. So since you brought it up, what can individuals do on a daily basis to save our planet? Because without a sustainable environment, there's no life. So what does your group recommend?

Bette Holland: 6:43

Well, we try to give individuals and groups and businesses, things that they can do themselves without expecting their government to do it for them. So for instance, when we started the organization, we created checklists, and they were checklists that individuals could use in their home and in their personal life, to do some of the things that will help to mitigate climate change. So on our website, ngacc.org. On the second page, there are links to the three checklists that we created, and we will create more, but for now, that's what we have is three. One of them is a list of things that you as an individual could do to cut carbon emissions and save energy in your home. And in your personal life. The other is a checklist on what you could do to cut the use of single use plastics, plastics were promoted by the oil companies, when they began to realize that eventually, people were probably not going to use gas powered cars. And so they wanted to have something to do with their petroleum. So they started creating plastics made of petroleum. And they actually created an organization called Keep America Beautiful to tell all of the people in the world, hey, you can use all these throwaway single use plastics, because all you have to do is recycle them. And then everything will be okay. But that's not the case. And that's not the case, our oceans are being destroyed by plastic, as are a lot of rivers and lakes, especially the oceans, though, where we're seeing drastic changes in the makeup of the oceans and losing a lot of the animals that live there, the fish and other animals that we depend on for food. And so we had that plastic checklist. And then we have another one on food waste, which is another big sin of humans,

Meral Clarke: 8:50

especially when there are so many hungry people out there. Yes,

Bette Holland: 8:53

yeah. I mean, many people in this world are starving. And we throw away almost half of the foods that has grown in the United States. So this is a checklist on how you can cut food waste in your home. And of course, that could be taken and expanded to restaurants. And all of these things could be expanded to small businesses, retail businesses, manufacturing companies. And so that's the way we started was trying to get these checklists out in our communities. And the exciting thing about these checklists is there is a book out called regeneration, ending the climate crisis in one generation by a very well known author Paul Hawken, who wrote another famous book drawdown beautiful book, and I will mention it again before we leave, but at the end of the book on the last few pages, there is one section and it's also on their website, what can you do to mitigate climate change and to save our planet? And he says, Make a checklist of the things that you can do and so I was thrilled here we are four years later, and this man has said he's thinks that's a good idea. And I'm, you know, I'm thrilled. And so that's been one of the big things that we've done. And then the other was start this Earth Day Program, which we started in 2019. But then we had to stop, we couldn't do it during COVID. And now we're doing it again. And I'll tell you about that later. And then the other thing that we've been focusing on is trying to go to our local government officials and educate them about the things that they could do. And I will say that we had to avoid the word climate change, I made the mistake during my very first meeting with our county chair of the commission, and said, you know, that we really need to address the effects of climate change. And he said, Well, you know, if Al Gore would just stop flying around, we wouldn't have a problem.

Meral Clarke: 10:51

Although we both know that cause does not equal correlation. Yes.

Bette Holland: 10:56

And so I went, Okay, well, don't use that word again. And so instead, we talk about saving money, clean air, talk about their children and grandchildren, and how cutting carbon emissions will mean clean air, about the oceans, in the lakes and fishing and you know, all the things that are happening with our dumps, and the lakes that are getting damaged because of things being thrown in the lakes. So it's gone pretty well. Now, it's been slow, we haven't got too much yet. But we do have some charging stations approved in Dawson County for the county courthouse. And a city is working on the same thing, some charging stations and cars, electric cars, and we had the school system ready to put in a grant for electric school buses. But the superintendent is retiring, and his board is not on board with it. So it's going to be going back again and trying to convince him that this is a good thing, that we want to stop driving these buses that spew out all the diesel fuel and caused problems for our children with asthma and drivers that have to breathe it all day and so forth. So so we'll keep working on those things.

Meral Clarke: 12:14

Okay, great. I'm happy to hear it. So since you brought it up, first of all, I wanted to mention that I recently, just the other day, as matter of fact, I read an article about microplastics being found in human bloodstream for the first time. So this isn't only the microplastics and plastics aren't only killing the oceans, they're going to eventually start hurting people if they haven't already. And I just wanted to throw that out there. And also, since you brought it up, what are your thoughts on George's new electric vehicle or EV plant alongside the new battery plant that we're in the process of building?

Bette Holland: 12:50

Well, it's been a little bit of an issue, because these plants have to be built somewhere. And the places that have been chosen are not necessarily favored by a lot of the communities. The battery plant on us 85 ucommerce hasn't been an issue that was just built in, it was built in an area that was already pretty commercial. But the Rivian plant that has been proposed off of I 20, near Social Circle has caused a lot of issues. And I really don't think I can say yea or nay that I would approve of where it's chosen to be, I just believe that it has to be done somewhere. Because we need to have the places on board to manufacture these electric automobiles. Now, this is a new company with being that you know, doesn't already have some infrastructure in place like Ford, and Chevy and Tesla and all those companies that have been doing electric vehicles for so long. But I hope that they are able to work together on that to appease the people that live there. I understand their concerns about the environment, you know, where they live. But I also understand that this is something that Georgia will benefit from, with 7500 new jobs. And this is only the second plant in the country with Georgia being chosen. So, you know, there's good and bad to the Rivian plant, the battery plant we mentioned and you may not know that there's also a battery recycling plant being built in southwest Georgia, southwest of Atlanta. And of course, that's another concern with that people have about batteries. What are we going to do with all these car batteries and the batteries we put in people's homes to save energy when they're using solar and so I get that question a lot. Okay, well, this is a great idea. What are you gonna do with all the batteries? Well, this is one of the answers to that and that's to recycle them and so that's being built also. And then of course in Tennessee. as just a little way away from here, Ford is adding 6000 jobs to build new electric vehicles. And they'll also be building charging stations all over the country to charge those vehicles once they're built so that people will be able to drive them longer distances than just what the battery holds. So I think there's something that has to happen. I hope that we can make everyone satisfied with the way the land is chosen. I know it's difficult. But that's all I can say about it, because I really am not going to take sides on where it should be built.

Meral Clarke: 15:35

Right, right. But let's be cognizant of the environmental impacts as well. And we certainly do need to minimize those as much as possible. So speaking of environmental sustainability, and climate change mitigation, is it already too late? The media is highlighting the fact that climate refugees will present an enormous issue on a global scale, and they're talking about global climate wars and everything else. Is that a scare tactic? Or is that a reality?

Bette Holland: 16:07

I think all those things are reality, if we don't do what needs to be done to slow the effects of climate change. And at some point, I do feel a little hopeless, that we'll be able to do that. There are already areas and a lot of people don't realize it. And Syria, a lot of what happened there was because people were starving, their land was no longer a place where they could grow crops. So they had to move somewhere else to be able to get food. And that devastation of the land was because of climate change. And then when you go to coastal areas, you're going to see more and more people having to leave those coastal areas. And they will become climate refugees trying to find a place to live because they can no longer live on the island they lived on or in the coastal area already in Louisiana, the federal government has paid a group of people that lived on an island off the coast of Louisiana, to move because they can't stop the inundation of the Gulf in their land.

Meral Clarke: 17:12

And you're referring to rising sea levels,

Bette Holland: 17:15

Rising sea levels, and that, of course, is coastal islands, and so forth. And then the droughts, like I said, in Syria and other parts of the country are already starting to make a difference in our food supply. Out in California, there's been a drought there for 15 or 20 years, and they have managed to be able to get the water in from the Colorado River. But that's starting to dry up. And so there's going to be issues there. And they may be able to come up with a way to get around that, you know, they may be able to eventually take the ocean and change saltwater to freshwater. That's something that's in the works, but it's very expensive. So it's you know, there's a lot of things we might be able to do. But sometimes I feel hopeless. But right now, I feel very hopeful. And a lot of it is because of this book that I've read. And I'm using for a lot of my information that I mentioned earlier called regeneration. And it's a beautiful book. And it talks about all the different parts of the world and parts of our planet that can be regenerated in 20 or 30 years, if we take the steps to do it. So when he talks about the oceans, which I never realized, were such an important part of the health of this planet, he's talking about the plastic and trying to get that out of the ocean so that the fish can survive. But he's also talking about the way the heat has destroyed ocean forests, ocean, kelp areas, our coral reefs, and all of these things are part of what keeps our ocean healthy, and it's getting less and less healthy. And it's only a two page chapter in the book. But it's like, oh my gosh, I had no idea how interrelated all that was. And then the mangroves along the coast of Georgia, the wetlands, they're all important parts of our environment, and they're being destroyed. And a lot of it's because of corporate greed, not necessarily corporate, individual people that have that land and want to sell it and have it develop because they can make money that way. So the hopelessness, is it the end? Is it too late? I don't believe it is. But the idea of stopping it is not possible now.

Meral Clarke: 19:32

No, it's not. And are we doing anything at the federal level to ensure that climate change is mitigated?

Bette Holland: 19:40

We are trying.

Meral Clarke: 19:42

I know we're not doing anything at the state level. Right.

Bette Holland: 19:45

You know, at the federal level. Of course, President Biden wanted to do a lot of things. And so there was a lot in the infrastructure bill and in the build back better bill and a good deal of that has been cut. In infrastructure, there still was a lot about electric vehicle charging stations, and a few other things, but build back better hasn't even been able to, they haven't done anything with it because it can't

Meral Clarke: 20:09

pass because of Manchion and Sinema, right, unfortunately.

Bette Holland: 20:14

And so that's slowing down. But it can still happen in the United States probably has a harder time because we're a democracy. Whereas in other countries like in Europe, they are democracies, too. But they seem to have a little bit better hold on what the issues are. And they've been able to do a little bit more there. But all the countries are really not doing as much as needs to be done. And that's why it's so important that we as individuals really start doing a lot of this work on

Meral Clarke: 20:45

Sure, because it adds up, right? It does, and everybody needs to do their fair share, since we're observing Earth Day, or more specifically, Earth day, month, as I like to call it. What is the significance of Earth Day to you? And all of us, really, and we should celebrate our planet every day? Don't you think?

Bette Holland: 21:04

Oh, absolutely. In fact, I don't know if you all saw the movie don't look up. Yes, it was excellent. Yeah. And you know, a lot of people didn't get the connections with climate change. But that was why the movie was published. And you know, at the end, they just decided that, you know, well, let's wait and see, let's wait and see. And they waited so long that the asteroid hit the Earth. And that's basically what's happening in a lot of cases with climate change. Well, let's just wait, maybe this isn't going to happen. Or maybe we need to let this person do this. And we have so much political stuff going on with it, that it takes a long time to get anything done. And so we have to find a way around that which I think we can with some other actions. But the other issue is, and that movie pointed out, well, the rich people can just get on a rocket and fly to another planet to live on.

Meral Clarke: 21:54

Right? That's Elon Musk's plan, right?

Bette Holland: 21:56

Right, we'll just go to another one. We won't save this one. And that obviously didn't work, which was kind of a funny ending to see Meryl Streep getting eaten by a dinosaur. But there's still a lot of things that we can do. And I think one of the greatest things is to help our families and our children, everyone understand the beauty of this planet. That's the goal of our organization is to preserve and conserve the beauty of North Georgia, people move here because it's gorgeous, beautiful mountains, lovely forest, gorgeous rivers and lakes. And so they move here for that, but we have to preserve it. And there's certain things we have to do. So we celebrate our planet, like you said, we should celebrate it every day. But with Earth Day, we can point out, at least in this one day to everyone. And actually it goes on all month, like you said to everyone how beautiful this place is. And we need to save it and preserve it for our children and ourselves.

Meral Clarke: 22:56

Absolutely. Our kids and grandkids are going to have a tough time moving forward without anything being done to alleviate the current situation. So your group, the North Georgia conservation coalition has an event coming up to promote Earth Day and associated activities. Would you please share more about these events?

Bette Holland: 23:17

Right? It's Saturday, April 23, from 10am to 2pm, at the Baldwin Art Center on Highway nine in Dawsonville. And like I said, we did it in 2019. And it was such a success. We had so many people come that it was at the public library, it was too crowded. So we moved it to the bone Art Center where we can fit a whole lot more people. We also expanded it to be even more than it was that first time we did it the other two times we just had a poster contest because of COVID. We didn't get together as a group. But one of the main events is the poster contest. And just to explain how that works, and how it's evolved, it started out just contacting the school and say Earth Day's coming up, have some of your classes do posters. And they did but now we have a wonderful art teacher Haley Fowler, who teaches at Kyla Elementary School in Dawson County. And she is very much into climate change and mitigation of climate change and to teaching the young children at her elementary school about it. And so when she did the poster contest last year, she invited the whole school to make posters, not just her art classes. And then this year, what she's done is she's worked with all the art teachers and given them a lesson plan so that they can spend a week talking about climate change and about our Earth and what we need to do to save it and the kids especially love to talk about the endangered species, because of course they all love the giraffe and the lion and the tiger and all those that are in danger. So now it's turned into a lesson in the schools and two of the schools now we're doing it school wide. I'd the poster contest, but seven of the schools in Dawson county are participating. And we'll collect those posters judged the top five from each school. And those will be on exhibition at the Bowen Art Center. And the winners of the different grade levels will be announced on that day. That's a good thing. Because what it does is it draws all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and brothers and sisters in to come and see if their family member has won the award for their school. And by bringing them in, then we want something for the parents to do and something for the little children that come to do also. So for the parents, we also have tables set up around the Art Center for them to visit to learn about the things that they can do in their home and in their lives to mitigate it, and in some cases, adapt to some of the things that are happening. So for instance, Better Tomorrow Solar's coming and they'll have a table set up and how they can help you to install solar on your homes, which by the way, we think about big giant solar arrays as the way that you produce solar, but really on individual homes, that's the best way and also the way that produces or creates more jobs. So they'll be there. And then Citizens Climate Lobby will be there to talk about a carbon tax, which many countries have already done. And what they're doing is requiring the organizations that are causing the most pollution to have to pay for the damage they're doing. So CCL does that. And then there's a lot of others UGA Extension services coming to talk about one of the things that's talked about in this regeneration book, and that's regenerative agriculture, a new way to grow our food and to feed the animals that we need for our food supply. There's Georgia Conservation Voters coming and they work on the political side of it trying to work with the Georgia Legislature to get them to pass the bills. We need Georgia interfaith Power and Light which talks to churches to help them revamp their churches so they're more energy efficient. Mountain honey is going to be here to talk about honey bees and pollination, Climate Reality Project forces, the group I've told you about the upper Edo River Alliance to all those people will have tables with information and little gifts to give to all the children that come to the table. And then we'll also have a raffle. We've got Appalachian Outfitters, it's given us a prize to raffle and foot hike in which I don't know if you're aware of this, but in the Amicalola, Falls Park, lands to Hike Inn is a totally off the grid in that you hike to and then you stay there overnight. Everything is powered by solar, there's a composting toilets, all their food is cooked, so that it is not wasted, and so forth. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. So they've given us a couple of free nights. And blue bicycle has given us a free meal. And Leilani is bakery that does some beautiful bakery things. So we've got eight or nine different groups that have given us things to auction. And the reason we're doing that is so that next year, when we have this again, we'll have enough money to give all those kids their prizes, because they all get cash prizes for the poster.

Meral Clarke: 28:18

Wow. That's fantastic. Can you give us the date again?

Bette Holland: 28:22

Yeah, April 23, from 10 to 2 at the Bowen Art Center. And of course, one of the big things is we are now working with an organization called Clean Cities, America. And the Clean Cities Georgia group is helping us put together an electric vehicle car show. So we also had that that day. How exciting.

Meral Clarke: 28:44

more if people wish to attend if they just want to be more climate conscious? Can you give us your website one more time?

Bette Holland: 28:58

Yes, it's www ngacc.org. And they can go to the different pages. There's a page there for Earth Day. And also, if anybody wants to contact me, they can email us at NGCC2035@gmail.com.

Meral Clarke: 29:15

Terrific. Well, we appreciate that. And finally, and I ask all my guests this question I think I asked you before when you were on, but it's been a while. Tell us a fun fact about yourself something not having to do with your work or climate change or politics for that matter. Tell us something fun just about Bette.

Bette Holland: 29:33

Well, I'm beginning to think that it's time for me to find some fun thing. I'm getting a little tired.

Meral Clarke: 29:41

I'm sure you are.

Bette Holland: 29:44

And so I hope to be getting back to traveling and golf. And those are the two things that I enjoy doing with my husband. We've been married for 46 years and he's getting tired of me.

Meral Clarke: 29:55

Oh no, I doubt that.

Bette Holland: 29:57

It's doing all this climate and demo Got a party thing? Because it kind of gets to you sometimes with that feeling of doesn't seem like anything I do makes any difference,

Meral Clarke: 30:07

but it does. We know it does. And we know it's important, but

Bette Holland: 30:11

I'm doing much better now that I've found this wonderful group of volunteers that work with me with NGCC that have helped me plan this Earth Day Program. And it's planned and they're on it. And I'm just sitting back and watching. They're wonderful. Fantastic.

Meral Clarke: 30:27

I'm happy to hear it. Well, thank you, Dr. Holland for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to support Georgians and maintain our climate and environment. I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. Join us next time when we interview Rafael Baker running to be Georgia's next insurance commissioner. To learn more about us and the work that we're doing, visit us online at Fannin County, Georgia democrats.com Share the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family be sure to subscribe and follow and if you enjoy our podcasts be a founding patron and friend of the show at North Georgia blue podcast.com/patron Now with three different giving levels to choose from offering cool swag recognition on the show and website and valuable gift cards to help us continue getting into more good trouble.