By the time Kevin J. Patel was 12 years old, the native Angeleno had already developed severe heart issues due to the area’s historically poor air quality. For the past two decades, Los Angeles has been named the city with the worst ozone pollution , according to the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” annual report, with locals becoming all too familiar with the thick layer of smog that blankets their surroundings. Patel, who is founder of OneUpAction, an organization helping youth in marginalized communities take climate action, recently turned 20. He’s just one of millions of young people around the world that have been forced to personally experience the devastating and irreversible effects of humanity’s role in climate change.
Eighteen-year old Jonah Gottlieb, co-host of the Our Future Now! podcast and the co-founder of the National Children’s Campaign, can concur. “Being from a frontline community in Northern California that experiences the effects of the climate crisis every fire season, I’ve seen this firsthand,” he says. The National Children’s Campaign is a nonprofit that advocates for US youth and the issues that most affect them, including environment. The unprecedented number of large wildfires raging along the West Coast this season is a grim reminder of the urgency of the climate crisis.
Many young individuals like Patel and Gotttlieb have been galvanized into action. “Young people are uniquely positioned to fight against the climate crisis because we’ll be the ones facing the brunt of its consequences,” says Patel. “We have a sense of urgency as the last generation that can slow the effects of global warming before it’s too late.”
Running out of time: an urgent problem calls for immediate action
Experts believe we only have a decade left to stave off the irreversible damage caused by the climate crisis. This sense of urgency helped spur the largest global demonstration ever in the fight against climate change last year, when millions of people came out in support of youth-organized protests around the globe. “The biggest thing I’ve seen the youth achieve would be unity in our cause,” Patel says. While the impending climate crisis and lack of action taken by policymakers and corporations can be “depressing” to think about, Patel admits, he tries to “find comfort in how many people within this movement have mobilized to bring awareness to the climate crisis”. He continues: “Seeing so many people from all sorts of backgrounds unite and stand in solidarity is amazing.”
Solidarity is necessary – beyond just the pure urgency of the situation, young people have been uniquely affected. “Climate crisis disproportionately harms young people for a myriad of reasons,” says Gottlieb. “Children are much more susceptible to many health issues caused by pollution than adults.” For example, during wildfires – which Gottlieb’s Northern California hometown experiences increasingly frequently – children are more susceptible to adverse health effects, as they breathe faster than adults. “During natural disasters exacerbated by the climate crisis, children’s education is one of the first things impacted,” he adds. Speaking of extreme weather and weather-related events, these increasingly frequent occurrences deal a particularly major blow to developing countries in Asia and Africa – nations that have some of the biggest youth populations.
The climate crisis is also affecting young people on a psychological level, explains Vasser Seydel, deep seabed mining campaign director at The Oxygen Project, an organization dedicated to defending ecosystems that serve as oxygen sources and raising awareness. The nonprofit’s digital materials are resources for young climate activists and eco-aware consumers, helping to catalyze the environmental community around often-underrepresented issues. Seydel, a recent University of Georgia graduate cites increasing rates of depression, anxiety and suicide among young people as evidence that the next generation suffers from “eco-anxiety”. Many are overwhelmed by the idea of “runaway climate change”, referring to when Earth’s atmosphere will contain too much carbon dioxide, sufficient enough to block out any thermal radiation and prevent it from cooling.
“The good news is that there’s an antidote to eco-anxiety and depression, and it’s taking action,” Seydel says. “If you can get yourself to start taking action, you can overcome the paralysis and the overwhelming nature of the climate emergency. At the end of the day, it’s about collective action, so just get started and inspire others along the way to do the same.”
Getting involved
The easiest way to make an impact is by starting at home with your own habits, and working to influence those around you. “This is how we can change behavior and culture to create more regenerative and resilient communities,” Seydel says. “It can be really fun to educate yourself and commit to new habits that are beneficial for the planet. If you’re passionate about the emissions of agriculture, commit to a plant-based diet. If you’re concerned about the fossil fuel industry increasing their number of plants, avoid plastics. If you want to do more, [you can] compost, recycle, plant victory gardens, whatever you can think of.”
You can also get involved at the local level by supporting advocacy groups in your own community. From IIan Zugman, an environmental activist in Brazil fighting off the fossil fuel industry, to 17-year-old Quannah Chasinghorse in Alaska, fighting for the environment and Indigenous people, change-makers around the globe are organizing around issues core to their communities. You can find and support youth-led organizations through social media or via local school districts and community groups. “You hear a lot about the bigger youth movements today but it’s also about people taking grassroots actions and making solutions in their own communities and in their own way,” Seydel says.
As far as spreading the word on a regional, national and global level, the internet and social media are critical tools. “Through new media, we can direct relevant and urgent information to specific and regional audiences around the world,” Seydel says. “The challenge is how to move from simply raising awareness to creating tangible impact.” That impact can only be achieved if we use a “combination of local, state, federal and global action”, Gottlieb says, “and so it is up to all of us to organize in our communities to create a better world”.
And since marginalized and lower-income groups are impacted disproportionately by the climate crisis, it’s critical to make sure all voices are represented. “When we talk about intersectionality with this movement and making sure that all communities are present and included, we’ve done a poor job of this,” Patel says. “This is an issue that’s affecting a lot of people – we need to bring in more people from communities that are directly affected. Climate activism has always been associated with the white middle-class youth and not the youth of color or Indigenous peoples. We don’t want to be tokenized. So it’s very important to talk and find solutions to fixing intersectionality in the climate movement and making sure we include those on the frontlines of this crisis.”
Showing up to the polls
In addition to changing your own habits and supporting environmental organizations, one of the most impactful things you can do in the fight against the climate crisis is to vote for and support candidates that care about preserving a livable planet. A platform that holds big business accountable is a critical part of this. “Voting is so important in the fight for climate change because [individual] humans aren’t exactly the ones leaving the biggest carbon footprint; it’s corporations,” Patel says. “So while it’s great to take sustainable steps in our own lives, it wouldn’t be as effective as being able to work on making industries greener. We need people in office who will pass laws that will ensure a better planet for all of us.”
If you’re not of voting age, Gottlieb suggests connecting with the adults in your life and talking about the issues that are important to you – and adults should initiate these conversations, too. “I have genuinely found that many elementary school and middle school students are more adept at understanding climate science and climate policy than some members of Congress, so adults may be surprised at how much the youth in their lives know,” he says. “If we’re having more of these conversations where we can highlight what young people are fighting for and what their adult allies can do to make a difference on their behalf, our movement will only grow.”
To anyone who might be disillusioned by the political process and not want to cast a vote, Gottlieb says, “Regardless of whether you want to participate in the political process, electoral politics impacts your life and the lives of millions of people around the country. Whether at the local, state or federal level, you can always find someone running for office who is fighting for the same things you are.”
While young people are more than capable and willing to fight for our planet’s future against the very real and immediate threat of climate change, they shouldn’t have to do it alone. “Our movement is strongest when we are working collaboratively with people of all ages,” Gottlieb says. “If every single adult was voting on behalf of their children and voting like they care about their children, young people wouldn’t have to be taking to the streets and devoting our childhoods to saving our planet.”
Image credits: Guardian Labs / Getty Images