Small, but mighty

Aug 15, 2022
Sejal Choksi-Chugh
by Sejal Choksi-Chugh

I typically cringe when I hear someone calling Baykeeper a small organization. While our budget and our staff size are modest, our dedicated supporters love us because they know we punch above our weight. Just earlier this year, in Fighting Giants Around the Bay, I celebrated victories against outsized adversaries like Chevron, Cargill, and the federal government. 

But it’s true that even though we kick disproportionately larger butts, we’re actually a small shop of passionate legal and science experts. That's why we often strategically partner with other groups to help defend the Bay. 

And never have we ever had such an exciting partnership! This year we're working to amplify our impact by partnering with one of Oakland’s up-and-coming hip hop artists, Grammy-nominated RyanNicole. She joined me on a boat patrol recently, where we saw firsthand how industrial polluters and toxic sites in Richmond, Oakland, and San Francisco are poisoning the Bay and local communities. The collaboration, funded by a grant from the Creative Work Fund, aims to bring new audiences to Baykeeper’s work and to educate and encourage everyday residents to get active against the environmental injustices that we fight around the Bay. 

The patrol inspired Ryan to create a new work of art. It’s a song about polluters and government corruption and how every person needs to get active to make our Bay – and our planet – better. There’s even a shout out to Baykeeper’s boat and pollution hotline because everyone around the Bay can serve as eyes and ears to watchdog polluters. 

"If not you then who, if not now then when, there’s no one coming to save you. We can't afford to lose, there is no time to wait, tomorrow needs you, be a hero. We k-e-e-p the b-a-y you see us. Pull up on whoever we ride for the people."

The lyrics and beats are intricate and complex but the message is simple: We’re individually smallbut together we’re a mighty force for change.  

And it's a tune we’ve been singing over and over again during my years at Baykeeper. 

Working closely with local community groups like No Coal in Richmond, Fresh Air Vallejo, and West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, the small have been victorious over Big Coal in Richmond, Vallejo, and Oakland.  We’ve partnered with Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge, Save the Bay, and Committee for Green Foothills to stand up to the Trump administration and corporate giant Cargill to protect the South Bay Salt Ponds. We’ve empowered local grassroots colleagues like Restore the Delta to use drones to monitor the spread of harmful algal blooms in the Delta and hold responsible agencies accountable. Now we’re working with the mighty residents of Benicia to take legal action against Valero—one of the richest corporations in the world—to force them to clean up the toxic mess they're making in the Bay and local neighborhoods. 

With RyanNicole’s help, we’re broadening our audience and taking this message to more people.  For the communities experiencing pollution around the Bay, she’s letting them know they can be agents of change—and that Baykeeper is here to help with scientific and legal resources.  

To debut the song, we'll be joining Ryan and our friends at Hip Hop for Change at the Environmental Justice summit on August 20. Please join us at the Presidio Park in San Francisco to celebrate the Bay and hear RyanNicole perform her ode to protecting it the Baykeeper way: Smallbut mighty

In solidarity,

Signature

Sejal Choksi-Chugh, Executive Director

Boat patrol

Photo, above, of Hip Hop for Change’s Marlon Richardson, Baykeeper Executive Director Sejal Choksi-Chugh, and RyanNicole Austin. Headshot of Sejal by Gail Odom. 

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