by Lucy Diavolo
4. University divestment campaign organizers
The student-led divestment movement is putting the pressure on academic institutions around the world to uphold their commitment for the interest of the public and greater good by cutting their financial ties with the fossil fuel industry, which they argue is reckless in the face of climate change.
According to Vice, as of May 2018, 133 schools, including Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, and Yale, had divested from fossil fuels since the movement began in 2011. Today, educational institutions with previous investments in fossil fuels valuing over $1 trillion have committed to divestment from these industries because of these student-led divestment campaigns.
The success of this movement, however, is not only in the number of divested institutions or the amount of money moved. Just ask Emilia Belliveau, who has a master’s in political ecology and is a former divestment organizer at Dalhousie University and spent three years researching and interviewing the organizers of the movement for fossil fuel divestment on campuses. She tells Teen Vogue, “That perspective doesn’t acknowledge the social impacts of fossil fuel divestment as a movement. This movement has empowered thousands of young people around the world to be skilled community organizers with an understanding of climate change that challenges systemic power and inequity.”
“[Universities are] still engaging in colonialism in this era of reconciliation,” Sadie-Phoenix, two-spirit grassroots organizer and community advocate who led the divestment campaign at the University of Winnipeg, tells Teen Vogue. “Educational institutions have a responsibility to move forward with reconciliation after the history of residential schools. It can’t do that when it’s actively colonizing by failing to address climate change and threatening land and water. Infrastructure that’s gold LED standard is greenwashing when it’s funded by oil companies. Divestment is a way to uphold reconciliation.”
To learn more about starting a divestment campaign at your school, go to DivestEd.
5. Sunrise Movement
Sunrise Movement is redefining youth activism in the U.S. with the meteoric rise of their movement to make supporting the Green New Deal a mainstream position. Teaming up with the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sunrise Movement and the Green New Deal want to transition the U.S. to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.
Varshini Prakash, cofounder of Sunrise Movement, tells Teen Vogue that the group is led by young people. “Everyone who launched Sunrise Movement was under twenty-six at that time. For the first year before we launched, it was just a few of us—about twelve people— and we had no idea that it would become this large of a movement.”
Now, nearly two years later, Sunrise Movement boasts thousands of members and trained youth activists across the U.S. “We are combining protest organizing and electoral organizing together into one strategy, which is pretty unique, as opposed to many other groups who talk about it from the perspective of what we can get from our existing political reality,” Varshini says.
“The millennial generation is not starting from a place of what is politically feasible in this moment; youth are pushing to stretch the imagination of what is possible.”
Teens Are Suing the U.S. Government Over Climate Change:
The Trump Administration Is Trying to Stop Them.
ROSALIE CHAN
August 7, 2017
Jaime Lynn Butler, at the time a rising junior at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado, tells Teen Vogue that she got her first taste for activism from her family. Growing up on the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona, they’d joined their tribe in defending its water rights.
Now, Jaime is one of twenty-one young people who are suing the federal government for promoting measures that harm the environment, like allowing fossil fuel extraction, which has caused carbon emissions to “dangerously increase,” and subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. The group is made up of people ages nine to twenty-one, and they hope to claim what they say is a constitutional right to a healthy climate. They first filed the lawsuit in 2015, during the Obama administration.
On June 28, U.S. magistrate judge Thomas Coffin set the official trial date for February 5, 2018. But on July 25, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit put a temporary pause on the case, as the court is considering a petition from Trump administration.
The petition that the Trump administration filed requests a rarely used procedure called writ of mandamus, which, according to the Washington Post, basically lets higher courts review—and even possibly overturn—the decisions that lower courts made before the trial even happens. The petition is asking to overturn an earlier decision that denied the administration’s request to dismiss the lawsuit. “It’s a very rare type of motion that can be made at the court of appeals or Supreme Court asking the appellate court to require the district court judge to do something different from what it has done with an ongoing case,” Julia Olson, the executive director and chief legal counsel of Our Children’s Trust, tells Teen Vogue. “The only time that usually happens is if the court does something egregiously wrong.”
The teens who are part of this lawsuit are working hard to prepare, even as the federal government tries to stop them. Jaime is motivated by the issues she’s seen on her reservation. “Because of droughts … it’s been so hard for a lot of people to raise livestock to keep everything alive,” Jaime says. “There’s a lot of elderly people … that live really far in the desert without electricity or running water, and it’s really hard for them. If this keeps going, there won’t be a lot of water.”
The young people allege that the government has known about the dangers of climate change but has not done nearly enough to reduce the emissions causing climate change. If the lawsuit moves to trial and the court rules in the youths’ favor, the court must set a safe standard for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and that standard would be enforceable. It also asks the court to order the federal government to set a plan for limiting emissions.
“We are arguing that the government has known about climate change for fifty years. We see that and have evidence for it,” Aji Piper, a sixteen-year-old rising senior at West Seattle High School at the time of writing, tells Teen Vogue. “Because the government has violated our rights for so long, they now need to be held accountable and take responsibility and reduce the effects of climate change and reduce our emissions.”
Aji has also been involved in a state lawsuit in which young people, ages twelve to sixteen at the time, sued the State of Washington because its clean-air rule didn’t do enough to reduce emissions. Last December, a Seattle judge ruled that the youths can move forward with the case against the state.
To prepare for the federal trial, Aji has been studying scientific papers to make sure he’s totally knowledgeable, as “[Trump] has made it so people are paying more attention to issues they care about, especially in a time when things are being rolled back and people are really upset about it,” he says.
Nathan Baring, a seventeen-year-old rising senior at West Valley High School, at the time, in Fairbanks, Alaska, agrees the case has gained more momentum since Trump became president, especially as Trump has enacted measures that work against effective climate change action. But now, Nathan says, the government is doing everything it can to stall the case.
“I’ve lived in Alaska my entire life,” Nathan says. “Just in my local area in Fairbanks, one of the most vivid signs of climate change is the frequency of winter rain.” Like Jaime, Nathan has been involved in local environmental activism. Fairbanks has some of the worst air pollution in the country, and he does not want to grow up in an area where he can get respiratory issues from playing sports outside. Other parts of Alaska are also facing the direct impact of climate change.
“The biggest issues that are current to Alaska are certainly permafrost melt, coastal erosion, melting sea ice, and wildfires,” Nathan says.
The legal team is working to prepare expert reports for the
trial, bringing in evidence on the impact of climate change. Some of the teens on the case are also helping, conducting factual research and creating charts and graphs for the trial. During the week between the science march and the climate change march, some of them did a speak-out in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building.
Climate change affects everyone around the world but will especially hurt young people who have to grow up with its effects. Jaime notes that it’s also important to recognize that people must fight climate change through an intersectional lens, as the effects of climate change hurt people of color the most.
“A lot of other reservations are having a hard time with water,” she says. “There are so many things that have happened on a lot of reservations where the government has taken away or ruined some land … on our reservation. If they tried to help with climate change and try to stop it, I think it would be really helpful for not just the Navajo reservation but other reservations.”
As these teens wait for the court to consider the petition, they hope to gain support across the country for the trial. They will be planning solidarity rallies and days of action as the trial date approaches. For more information on the movement, visit youthvgov.org.
How to Take Direct Action on the Climate Crisis at Your School This Year
TEEN VOGUE STAFF
August 13, 2019
The back-to-school checklist is usually pretty standard: ordering textbooks, buying new notebooks and pens, looking up the locations of your new classrooms. But this year young climate activists hope you add another item to your list: figuring out how to help address the impending threat of the climate crisis.
From pushing your administration to institute a recycling or compost program to participating in national walkouts, there are many ways to take direct action to make schools greener and stand up to defend the rapidly warming planet and those threatened by the changes.
We reached out to three different climate justice organizations— Sunrise Movement, Zero Hour, and the U.S. Youth Climate Strike—and surveyed five different climate activists under twenty to hear what they had to say about advocating for climate justice in their schools. Zero Hour’s deputy communications director Natalie Sweet, 16, and Georgia co-executive director Zeena Gasim Abdulkarim, 18, told us how they launched initiatives in their schools. The U.S. Youth Climate Strike’s cofounder Isra Hirsi, 16, and activist Sabirah Mahmud, 16, explained what it’s like organizing with classmates. And Sunrise Movement’s pre-college organizing lead Rose Strauss, 19, shared why putting pressure on institutions like schools is so important.
Below, read what they had to say to Teen Vogue:
What kind of climate advocacy have you done at your school?
Zeena: I encouraged my classmates to practice sustainability in their lives and to take action against the progression of climate change by being conscious of their carbon footprints and how they could positively impact the climate movement. I did this through a politically and socially oriented club that I founded at my high school in my junior year. Through this collective effort, we successfully swayed our school’s administration to make the shift from a nonrecycling establishment to a recycling establishment.
Rose: In 2017 and 2018, twenty people died in a mudslide, and wildfires burned down peoples’ homes in my local community of Santa Barbara. One of my university’s departments put out a report about the economic benefits of a fossil fuel project in our community— while taking money from fossil fuel corporations—so we confronted the professor who directs it, at his office, in May. It was part of our larger campaign of holding our school accountable for not holding to its values and mission. (UC Santa Barbara did not return Teen Vogue’s request for comment.)
Natalie: I have started several climate initiatives at my school, such as the first high school chapter of Food and Water Watch’s Take Back the Tap project, which aims to eliminate plastic bottled water at schools and universities. I also have written a climate action–focused op-ed for my school newspaper and urged my school community to participate in the climate strikes.
Sabirah: I have spoken with school administration about the need for more climate-friendly solutions in our school environment. Instead of giving plastic-heavy packaging with our breakfast, [I’ve urged them to] invest in more eco-friendly alternatives, such as juice boxes that don’t need plastic straws.
I have also [urged] the administration to help our students start striking and skipping school on global strike dates, such as March 15 and May 3. To prepare everyone in my school environment for these strikes, I visited many advisories (homerooms) in the morning and gave mini-speeches to the teachers and students about why it’s so important to come out and make sure that you[’re] presen[t].
Isra: I used to be a part of my school’s environmental club where we would organize [about] how to compost and recycle. Also helped the student walkouts in my school for the strikes by boosting on social media and passing out flyers.
Why was it important to you to press for these issues?
Rose: We took action because our schools, our universities, are meant to prepare us for our future. But instead they are funding the same corporations that are actively destroying our chance at a livable future. People are dying from the climate crisis on our doorstep. Schools, especially ones on the front lines of disasters, must stand by young people in our fight to stop the climate crisis.
Natalie: Climate change is going to affect my generation and the generations to come the most; however, many people still do not know or recognize this threat. It is crucial for me and other climate activists to provide outlets for education and action in our communities.
Sabirah: Ten years from now I will only be twenty-six years old. Those in office or who have the privilege to make decisions about MY future are not making decisions that will give me the future that I, along with everyone in my generation, deserve.
My family in Bangladesh are losing their lives due to climate change and we’re just sitting here in our privilege not doing anything because we don’t see these people who are suffering.
What was it like organizing fellow students?
Rose: There was so much energy. People were scared but also excited about having the power to make a change. When adults say no to us when we ask them to protect us, we know that we don’t have to turn around and walk away. We can fight back through nonviolent direct action. We can demand that these adults—and the schools run by them—choose our long-term futures over short-term profits.
Sabirah: Organizing with fellow students is honestly so stress relieving because, if I’m going to be honest, adults are a little intimidating. I have made a lot of friends through organizing, and they’re super kind, so that is probably the best thing about organizing with other students. They get all your problems with being an organizing activist and student because they experience the same thing.
Isra: It’s a little harder getting peers to come to the walkouts/events because everyone is becoming very apolitical. Being one of the only outspoken students at my school, it has made it more difficult to get others to join me.
Did you encounter any challenges in your work at school?
Zeena: My high school’s administration was wary of the idea of transition[ing] to a recycling establishment because they believed they did not have the proper resources to collect the recyclable items from each classroom, so club members and I brainstormed until we established an effective system of schoolwide recycling collection. When we presented them with our proposal, they deemed it feasible, and we shortly began recycling as a school.
Rose: We weren’t sure whether a confrontation or a sit-in would be best, so we brought food and everything in preparation for a nightlong sit-in. People were also scared of the police coming. Scared about how we would look to the administration and staff at our school. Many people in my school and in the community told us not to do this. People are always worried to do direct confrontation. But if there is anything I have learned through
organizing with Sunrise Movement, it is that direct confrontation changes what’s politically possible.
Natalie: Most students would ignore my emails or refuse to see the purpose in taking steps to reduce climate change. This was slightly discouraging, but it just motivated me to work harder to spread the message of climate justice.
Sabirah: Many people don’t really understand what we’re doing, and some teachers have criticized me and said “strike on the weekend.” Their words, however, don’t really get through to me and I stay resilient. Students, at times, have criticized me about striking, usually by saying “striking doesn’t even do anything” or making mindless comments to irritate me. I usually try my best to calmly explain that, “Hey, striking is actually important because it’s expressing our First Amendment [right], and the system needs to know that we will risk our education to protect our future.”
What should parents, teachers, and administrators know about how to support youth climate activists in school?
Zeena: The best way older generations could possibly support younger generations in the climate movement is to educate themselves on the climate crisis, practice sustainability in their daily lives, attempt to influence their peers by having discussions related to the climate crisis, steer clear of supporting the companies that fund the fossil fuel industry, and most importantly, by voting.
Rose: When we go on strike for a Green New Deal, don’t just applaud us, strike with us. When we make demands of our school and community, be vocal advocates for our work. School administrations and teachers: Stop shying away from taking stances because of partisanship. That is no excuse. This is not about Right or Left—this is about moving forward for the future of your students.
Natalie: Support the youth climate strikes! Listen to our voices and take part in this fight with us. Many youths can’t vote yet, and votes from parents, teachers, and administrators for politicians who support climate action are extremely important and a major way to support youth climate activists. In the end, we need change on a broad, national level, and electing officials who will write laws for change is the way to address the climate crisis.