Engage On 2/22/23 Engage On 2/22/23

Julia

The best and most effective way to reduce climate anxiety is to take actions in your life to mitigate you and your City’s negative impacts on the environment. After the Camp Fire in 2018, I felt very helpless and completely unaware of my capacity to help reduce industry-fueled climate change and the natural disasters that are increasing in frequency because of it. However, after joining activist organizations, organizing protests, and learning more about my City’s local climate policy, I realized I could make a tangible impact. In the several years I have spent involved in climate justice advocacy, I rarely find myself overcome with anxiety or fear of the future. I know I am having a real impact, because I am not just using less water and turning off the lights when I leave the room; I am joining a massive movement of activists that have political power and influence in pushing for environmental justice progressive. We all have the power do make a bigger impact than we think possible!

In addition to joining local activist organizations, you can make a positive impact on the environment by eating a plant-forward diet to the best of your abilities. I have been vegetarian most of my life and vegan for the past six years. Eating sustainably and reducing your meat and dairy consumption not only reduces animal suffering but also reduces your personal carbon footprint and encourages the people around you to learn more about climate-conscious eating. Additionally, as a family, we have replaced our gas stove with an electric one in hopes of improving our home’s internal air quality and mitigating the amount of natural gas we are using and burning. Our next steps as a family include purchasing all new electric appliances when our gas ones, say our gas-powered water heater, burns out. Every individual is different and the way each of us can contribute to the movement with our varying time and resources is different. But anything we have to offer is valuable and needed.

Julia Z, Palo Alto, age 16.

Engage On 2/22/23 Engage On 2/22/23

Sam

It's nice to be a teenager and not have to worry about things. But it's not so easy to ignore my fears about climate change. To ignore the fact that in 27 years, maybe sooner, my childhood home will be underwater. SFO will be underwater too, according to predictions from NASA and NOAA.

For a long time, I have personally been concerned about climate change. I shared this with my family, convincing them to go vegetarian, compost, and switch to green(er) banks. However, I mostly kept my fears about the world literally ending to myself.

This year, I started a research project to raise awareness about how we can increase building energy efficiency in our community. Interviewing community climate leaders affirmed the work I am doing and inspired me to stop ignoring climate change whenever I wanna “just be a teenager.” Recently I started voicing my concerns about climate change to my close friends, something I had never done before. I am getting involved with two local climate groups and convincing friends to join as well. Ignoring the reality and urgency of climate change is the easy thing to do, but by taking just one step into learning more and doing something, I started to feel a lot better about it. While not worrying about things is nice, I’ve found I feel a lot better when I actually face worries head-on.

Sam L, Palo Alto, age 17.

Engage On 2/22/23 Engage On 2/22/23

Brooke

Through growing up, I’ve grown deaf to the phrase “new normal”. I hear it too much to have this “new” state of living be anything but regular. Wildfires, record-breaking natural disasters, and new diseases happen regularly. As a child, it’s upsetting to hear this phrase since I know neither my parents nor any other adult in my life grew up with this sense of normal. Yet, by calling it “new”, it seems as if they’re conceding rather than fighting for the future of future generations.

What many adults fail to recognize is that there’s a cloud of fear present in many kids’ minds as they live through these times. I’m constantly in fear of the next natural disaster or global conflict. As I’ve begun to consider what my future will look like, I’ve realized that I don’t want to raise a family in the traditional sense of the “new normal”, reacting to a crisis that is already taking place. I want to live in a world where the “new normal” means coming together to not only solve these crises but working to prevent them.

While I’m incredibly grateful Palo Alto has developed climate initiatives such as the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (S/CAP) and the 2018 Zero Waste Plan, doing so doesn’t mean residents can let down their guard regarding climate change. To solve this issue, we need action in all sectors. We need individual action, along with business reformation and government policy. As adults, you hold more power than you recognize. While we, your children, will do everything we can to fight for our planet, we need you to fight for our future too.

Brooke T, Palo Alto, age 17

Engage On 5/28/19 Engage On 5/28/19

Avroh

It all begins with an idea.

When I think of the climate crisis, waiting for someone else to fix it isn’t what comes to mind. Instead, action, immediate action that achieves something measurable, is what I think of. As youth, we are told to look the other way, to let our capable world leaders take care of the problems. But it is forgotten that we are children of the Earth, and in that sense, it is also our duty to the Earth to preserve and better our environment. We hear our leaders talk big about climate action, but at its roots, we all know that this is only greenwashing. The Climate Crisis is a pressing issue, and simply talking about what we are going to do, isn’t going to cut it. Climate action is crucial for all of us, but for youth, our future is being sold so that those on top can become even richer. It is unfair how we will experience the harsh effects of the Climate Crisis while our parents and grandparents get away with escaping the greatest disasters of the Climate Crisis. It is funny how we youth must fight and take action while we should be in school, being “normal,” while our world leaders resist taking action against the problems they are responsible for causing.

Climate action is vital to youth because we push away the luxury of ignorance and a blissful childhood. Instead, we fight for our futures because we haven’t given up. But more importantly, we care. We care about the ground we walk on, the air we breathe, and the trees surrounding us. For all of the youth in Palo Alto, our futures are being destroyed as sea levels rise. Our beautiful coasts will be destroyed along with our potential just so some powerful men can make some money. But they don’t seem to grasp how we are running out of time, why we cannot afford to wait, and that immediate and meaningful action is necessary. Climate action is essential now because this is our planet, and I treasure it.

Avroh S, Palo Alto, age 14