How to get peers to join the climate fight!

 There are several ways in which I would persuade my peers to join the fight against climate change. But I think the most important way is by making climate change matter to them. Too often I see people undervalue the severity of climate change and act like it does not affect them. But the reality is, it affects all of us, and with our generation specifically it will hurt us worse than any other generations have seen before. 

Another part of persuading people to engage with climate justice is through the decolonization of the movement. With climate change disproportionately affecting black people, the climate movement is not just about the environment, it is about racial justice as well. 

Furthermore, this is not only a racial and environmental movement, but one for class justice as well. Poor people disproportionately suffer at the hands of climate change more than any other social class.

Yet- although they are the most affected, they are the least represented in the climate change movement! This needs to change, and I think one of those ways is by not only informing people about climate change but intentionally broadcasting and amplifying the voices of people of color and poor people- including indigenous populations (which are also disproportionately affected by climate change and have suffered an injustice at the hands of the US government).

In other words, connecting the issues from the recent BLM movement to the climate change movement is important. As well as recognizing the intersectionality of the movement.

I would expect a reaction of “not caring” or performative activism. I would help encourage them to move beyond this by opening up conversations that are educational and hopefully pique their interest enough to continue on to lead them to a path of more education on climate justice. By repeatedly talking about the subject, it becomes a lot less easy to pretend like the problem does not exist. At the least it makes them think about the issue. 

I also think it is incredibly important to work with community organizers to create protests and things of that nature. However, in a pandemic, I do not think these are ideal. Instead, many organizers have created other avenues of helping our community right now. So until the pandemic is over- educate educate educate!