My Worldview
In October 2012, my community at the Jersey shore faced environmental tragedy for the first time in my life when it was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy. It wasn’t until my first Environmental Connections class at Dickinson College that I realized that a hurricane of such magnitude directly followed by a nor’easter was not an ordinary storm, but a climate event. My home is extremely vulnerable to the threat of climate change and sea level rise, and yet this information had somehow been left out of my Environmental Science curriculum. How could we have not talked about this, and why was no one taking action to address it? I knew that I wanted to dedicate myself to educating about this challenge of our generation, and at college I found a place in sustainability communication and activism. In January 2019, I attended my first School Strike for Climate in New York City, and the sheer power I witnessed being claimed by youth to advocate for change was deeply inspiring. We owe it to the places that we grew up in, that taught us to find peace and gave us a home, and the ecosystems that provide for us daily, to take action now.
Although I believe there is a shared responsibility to care for the earth and future generations, we are not all equally responsible for the ecological harm that's led to the current climate crisis. I have come to recognize my own privilege in this field and in having an environment I have been able to cherish so dearly. Not all have been so lucky, and advocating for environmental justice and the right to clean and healthy surroundings for all is another passion of mine. Everyone deserves access to green space and a safe environment, and far too often sustainability is viewed as something exclusive and out of reach. Issues of social, economic, and environmental justices are all deeply intertwined and intersectional, and tackling one is to tackle and dismantle them all. Climate justice is inextricable from social justice. I saw first hand after Superstorm Sandy how marginalized groups were most impacted and left without power and heat the longest, and desire to work toward a holistic vision of sustainability that puts people over profit, and encompasses social justice into all aspects.
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To work in this field means to find hope and resilience in the little things, and I think that individual, local action is powerful and should not be dismissed as meaningless; however, only when this individual action is done collectively can it start the movement that's needed to meet this moment globally. Awareness and education is the first step in that direction, and I hope to address this complex challenge in my future work as a science and eco-communicator. I have always had a passion for writing and believe that one of the most human ways we can rally for change is through storytelling. I also hope to work toward communicating environmental issues in an inclusive manner in order to be truly just and make climate change personal- because it is. Overall, I hope to pursue my passions for the environment, activism, social justice and communication in hopes to assist in the global project of creating a more inclusive and sustainable world.
Pictured: Hurricane Sandy in Seaside Heights, NJ. 20 minutes from my home.
