Capital B - Meet the 24-Year-Old Climate Activist Trying to Shake up Los Angeles PoliticsBryant Odega wants to be the first Black councilman to represent one of LA’s key industrial districts.

By Adam Mahoney | May 2, 2022

Bryant Odega, a 24-year-old climate activist, is running for a seat on Los Angeles' City Council to represent one of the city's most environmentally challenged areas. (Abieyuwa Omoruyi)

"LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Bryant Odega wanted to spend his life as a school teacher, but watching floods, wildfires, and droughts ravage the world around him forced a change of course. “I saw a crisis being normalized,” the 24-year-old said. The stripping of federal environmental protections and climate policies at the onset of the Trump administration made him consider the power of local government in addressing environmental issues."

"If elected in November, Odega will be the first non-white representative of one of Los Angeles’ most geographically and racially segregated council districts. Within the borders of the district, which includes the historic Black neighborhood of Watts, 82% of residents are people of color and 25% live in poverty. The roughly 15-mile long strip of land includes the city’s highest number of polluting sites, the third-largest oil drilling field in the country, and the most significant port complex in North America. With $400 billion worth of trade goods and roughly $600 million of revenue flowing through the district every year, the fossil fuels, shipping, and logistics industries have dictated the area’s political willpower since it was annexed by Los Angeles roughly 100 years ago."

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