ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES
AS I WRITE THESE FIRST LINES for our environment-themed May issue, I can’t help but think of the cloud hovering over our heads. We all seem to be full of great intentions, but the fact remains that there’s a darkness looming on the horizon. How do we talk about the health of the planet and the climate crisis and be inspiring and optimistic? Just recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is made up of the world’s leading scientists, released the final part of a report that took eight years to compile. It had one very clear message: We have to act now or it will be too late and the damage we’ve done will be irreversible. It’s news that makes us feel helpless. And even without this current discourse, it’s no surprise to learn that, according to a Leger Marketing survey published in 2021, nearly 75 percent of young people aged 18 to 34 suffer from eco anxiety.
During our team meetings to plan the pages of this issue, the mood was heavy. We wanted to find a way to frankly address climate issues by being realistically alarmist but not defeatist, to sprinkle everything with a bit of hope without being in denial—a pretty tough balancing act. It reminds me of Naomie Klein’s 2019 book, On Fire, which, much like the current IPCC report, breaks down our climate situation and the importance of what we do next. In short, we must move from an individual mode to a collective mode (even if the two reinforce each other). One of the keys to impactful activism is to choose actions that have a high potential for contagion and that can reach a critical mass of people ready to change things. As evidence, consider this: All the major social movements were first carried out by small groups who were mobilized and motivated. Many once “radical” ideas have become the norm, from the end of slavery to the acceptance of workers’ rights, women’s suffrage and same-sex marriage. Nothing is impossible when, together, we roll up our sleeves.
In fact, very recently, the first international treaty for the protection of the high seas was adopted by the member countries of the United Nations—historic for the health of the oceans, which are threatened by global warming, plastic pollution, overfishing and mining exploration of the seabed. Activism works! In 2019, 7.2 million of us demonstrated against the climate crisis globally. What if we were to pick up where we left off?
Do you have ideas you want to share? Send them to me on Instagram: @sophiebanford.