Leading Climate Action: the power of youth leadership
By Elyse Lindgren
The Impacts of Climate Change are the Youth’s Future
Youth today are growing up in the peak of what is known as the “Age of the Anthropocene”. The Anthropocene marks the significance of humans’ modifications to our world - so much so we decided to name an epoch after us. One of the most significant impacts of humans’ influence on the Earth is climate change. Climate change poses a critical threat to youth and future generations’ livability if we do not work together as a collective to address the systems driving climate change. The systems that perpetuate climate change, like the fossil fuel industry, are continually supported by our government through financial investments and subsidies. Additionally, the Canadian federal government has set targets to reduce emissions by at least 40-45% below 2005 levels. However, to meet the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s call to action to keep warming below 1.5 degrees by 2030, Canada will need to reduce emissions 54-66% below 2005 levels by 2030. The emissions reduction gap and the governments’ current fossil fuel investments are key reasons youth are motivated more than ever to act now and hold local and national leaders accountable. To do so, youth have uniquely embedded themselves to tackle the climate action gap left by governments through university divestment campaigns, establishing youth-based organisations, and sharing content online.
Students Lead Divestment
Recently, student-led movements and organisations that aim to divest universities from fossil fuels have been among the most impactful movements by youth to invoke climate action. Over thirty student-led climate action groups in Canada have formed fossil fuel divestment campaigns, such as Simon Fraser University (SFU), University of Toronto, McGill, University of British Columbia, and the University of Victoria. For example, student club SFU350 from SFU has created substantial success by influencing the SFU administration to fully divest from fossil fuels by 2025. This comes following the release of their “Climate Emergency Declaration Open Letter”, which lists seven calls to action for the SFU administration, one of them being fossil fuel divestment. Their call to action was crafted through countless unpaid hours of labour with the hope of invoking real change. The letter was backed by various other student groups on campus and grabbed the attention and support of “BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau, 350.org co-founder and climate activist Bill McKibben, Canadian author Desmond Cole, community activist and organizer Harsha Walia, student unions”, and received over 900 student signatures. SFU350 also painted a mural (with washable chalk) on the universities grounds to further emphasize and amplify their call to action to other students and faculty members. This later sparked further attention from news outlets like Burnabynow and CTV Vancouver. Work by student groups, like SFU350, reflects the community youth have built around climate action, and the imperative impact youth can have in mobilizing climate action – helping us reach our climate targets.
Photo by Nancy La (the Peak)
Sustainabiliteens & Climate Strikes
Other youth climate action movements like Sustainabiliteens, a Metro-Vancouver youth-based organization, have created a global wave within the youth movement. By organizing climate strikes aimed to hold industry and government accountable on climate targets, Sustainabiliteens has made direct impacts to enhance climate action while building community. Sustainabiliteens has brought together over 3,000 youth to help put forth Vancouver’s climate emergency plan, spearheaded one of Canada’s largest climate strikes of over 175,000 people, and organized a blockage and mural painting that successfully pushed Chebb insurance to stop insuring the Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline. Bringing together people on climate action like never before, youth are standing up for their futures by pressuring decision-makers to push through climate policy and limiting harmful projects by government and industry.
Community on Social Media
One overlooked aspect of youth community building around climate action is social media. Social media and environmental content creators are one of the key areas youths are communicating and learning about climate action movements. Content creators like Leah Thomas (aka @greengirlleah), who has over 230,000 followers and is the founder of the Intersectional Environmentalist, which provides educational content surrounding environmental and climate justice work. Coining the term intersectional environmentalism, their work emphasises the intersections between environmental issues such as climate change, and social justice. The Intersectional Environmentalist uses its platform of almost 430,000 followers to amplify the voices of Indigenous People and People of Colour working within the environmental movement.
Furthermore, Indigenous youth activist voices like Autumn Peltier (@autumn.peltier), a global water activist from the Anishinabek Nation and Quannah Chasinghorse (@quannah.rose), a climate activist from the Hän Gwich’in and Oglala Lakota Nations have gained a considerable following (Peltier 126K and Chasinghorse 395K) allowing them to communicate the harsh realities of climate change and colonial systems have on their communities. Breaking through mainstream, colonial media – social media has provided a more open platform (although not without its faults) for Indigenous youth and youth of colour to communicate directly with their audience, share climate equity and action information, and inform on how people can get involved.
Call to Action
Youth are coming together both in-person and online to build a community like we have never seen before. Youth influence and involvement are crucial as climate change impacts will directly affect them and future generations the most. Where local and national governments lack, youth are stepping up to fight for their future and demand an equitable world for all. Joining a local youth organisation can be one of the most critical steps to building community in the youth climate movement. Solving the climate disaster is going to be a collective effort that needs to involve amplifying the voices of youth to provide a safe and equitable world for present and future generations.
Are you a youth in the Metro-Vancouver area and want to get involved? Reach out to these organizations to see where you can help.
· CityHive
· British Columbia Council for International Cooperation (BCCIC)
Want to learn more? Follow some of these youth-based organizations and people to see where you can utilize your skills to support and amplify their work.
· Intersectional Environmentalist (@intersectionalenvironmentalist)
· Leah Thomas (@greengirlleah)
· Autumn Peltier @autum.peltier