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As demand for sustainable fashion grows, so does the need to navigate its myths. Misleading information is everywhere, from corporate greenwashing to the notion that all women are empowered by eco-conscious choices. One of the most prevailing and dangerous misconceptions about green fashion is that it’s a movement conceived by the West and led by white people. Sustainable fashion has let down people of color time and time again, whether through spotlighting majority-white representatives, favoring Western branding as the prevailing and acceptable aesthetic, or absorbing the capitalist notion that it’s a lifestyle to buy your way into.
With strong historical, spiritual, and ancestral relationships with the regenerative power of the Earth, many communities of color were living sustainably long before corporations sold it back to the masses as the neoliberal ideology we know today. The fashion industry also operates under colonialist ideas — the extraction and exploitation of resources, whether materials or labor, for infinite gain — meaning the communities who make the industry tick are often the very same communities being abused. There are the garment workers whose rights are ignored in warped and precarious fast-fashion production lines; the makers and craftspeople whose work is stolen by brands with more visibility; the activists whose ideas are taken without credit and popularized by the West; and the non-Western countries which are used as dumping grounds for cast-off clothing. The colonial powers at play are as sinister as they are far-reaching. As environmental educator Dominique Drakeford says, people of color are “the vanguards of the sustainability movements whose voices and work has been omitted and often weaponized.”
Change is long overdue. Here, we celebrate 15 activists, brand founders, educators, consultants, and thought-leaders — by no means an exhaustive list — whose work and leadership in caring for the planet and its people is benefiting us all. It’s time to learn, unlearn, and take action.
London-based American writer, consultant, activist, and personal stylist Aja Barber has long fought for the idea that fashion is best when it’s sustainable and inclusive. Her 208k Instagram followers are treated to outfit shots highlighting the joy of repeat-wear looks — the antithesis of the “one and done” mentality — plus a generous education unpacking everything from brand accountability to the importance of personal boundaries online. We’ve invested in her Patreon, too, where you’ll learn even more from Barber’s clarity and insights on intersectionality in the industry, plus find her podcast, brand, and article recommendations. Keep an eye out for the relaunch of her size-inclusive line with London-based label Lora Gene next spring, too.
“I had always wanted to work in the industry but found myself on the outside looking in because of privilege and race. I was participating in fast fashion but it felt sinister and I couldn’t put my finger on why. Once I went down the rabbit hole and saw the way it harmed the planet and marginalized people, there was no going back. The biggest misconception about sustainable fashion is that it’s always very expensive. Yes, the price of clothing should be higher — a $25 dress isn’t fair to the garment worker, ever — but if you’re shopping secondhand, you’re shopping sustainably. You can find brands on Etsy whose prices rival more upmarket fast fashion. It requires energy to make the switch, but it’s more satisfying and I spend less because I’m not buying something every month anymore. It takes many tries before you fully move away from fast fashion — that’s okay! Give yourself a little grace because the journey is long. Finding your own personal style is really key as you’ll make fewer mistakes in the things you buy. Stay out of the stores you’re trying to get away from and unsubscribe from all the emails that tempt you. I want sustainable makers and brands to start prioritizing being size-inclusive. If our movement doesn’t include everybody, it’s not a progressive movement.”
After learning about 2013’s Rana Plaza factory collapse, LA-based journalist, content creator, public speaker, and consultant Aditi Mayer began exploring the intersections of style, sustainability, and climate justice through her blog ADIMAY. Her responsible, inclusive, and thoughtful storytelling and her capacity to dissect topics like decolonization, environmental equity, and the exploitation of finite resources through analytical but accessible approaches have earned Mayer an engaged following both on and off social media, and stretching beyond sustainability spaces. Recently named a National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow, next year, Mayer will spend 12 months in India documenting the environmental impact of the country’s fashion supply chain.
“Fashion became a vehicle for me to understand larger systems of oppression and histories of colonization, and how those legacies tie into our unsustainable systems today. When I first entered this world, topics of race were always undermined and seen as distractions to the movement, when in reality, identity is key in how we engage with it: BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] communities are disproportionately affected by issues of social and environmental justice globally. I quickly learned that the sustainable fashion movement was homogeneously led by well-off white women, where the presence of women of color was often tied to their labor. Conscious consumerism is important, but sustainability has been led by the Western world and rebranded, reintroduced, and recontextualized as a consumer act, one limited to those who can afford it. I’d love to see more conversations about the sheer scale at which certain companies produce. I’ve written about the idea that colonial practice is rooted in the extraction and exploitation of finite resources as the means for infinite capital gain, and I’m fascinated by degrowth; it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of business as we know it but rather a reimagination that produces within our planetary and humanly bounds, and makes longevity and circularity a key part of the business model.”
Designer and London College of Fashion alumnus Comet Chukura cut her teeth at established labels like Preen and Michiko Koshino. Seeking autonomy and a more environmentally conscious purpose, she then founded her own brand Glow. Creating reflective knitted accessories like beanies and scarves — a boon for cyclists everywhere — and bridging the gap between functionality and aesthetics, Glow’s mission is sustainability, activity, and high visibility while honoring craftswomen over profit. Partnering with women’s groups and charities, Glow’s cool and cozy pieces are hand-crocheted by skilled BAMER (Black, Asian, minority ethnic, and refugee) women from low socioeconomic backgrounds who are paid their area’s Living Wage. With a few collaborations on the horizon, we’re particularly excited for Glow’s partnership with eco-conscious designer Christopher Raeburn, dropping in November.
“When I interned in fashion, doe-eyed, straight out of university, I created sample after sample, rehashing collections each season, but it didn’t feel innovative. [It felt] hollow. It suddenly all seemed so wasteful and it dawned on me that we were part of the problem. My style is imperative to me and as a London-based cyclist, I struggled to find well-designed, high-visibility fashion that was sustainable or ethically made. With Glow, I wanted to create a unicorn of a brand. With no one to answer to, being a founder and my own boss was the ultimate expression of my creative freedom and gave me the opportunity to make my way in fashion without having to jump through hoops. There’s a misconception that sustainable fashion is inaccessible or exclusively something that middle-class white people are able to engage with. We’re only going to make a dent in its environmental impact if everyone realizes they have a stake in it. It’s as simple as buying secondhand and buying less. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to accept that as a small brand it’s practically impossible to be 100% sustainable, so being strategic about what we can do creates the biggest change. Start small, figure out your MVP [minimum viable product] and don’t try and do it all by yourself.”
“Using what we have, being resourceful and upcycling are ways my culture coped with the war and struggle of not having everything we need. It’s been the compass in my life in approaching fashion, waste, and sustainability. The biggest misconception about sustainable fashion is that we can buy our way into it. The road nobody has ever taken is probably the one we need to explore: there isn’t a quick and easy fix. The industry is a complex and toxic ecosystem that requires multilayered and intersectional solutions if we aim to resolve and create a better system that benefits people and is designed with the Earth in mind. I hope by next summer, the industry becomes completely circular, meaning not one item goes into a landfill. Wear and take care of what you have, alter your clothes, learn how to fix your garments, know a seamstress or tailor, hand wash, hang to dry, and sew back your buttons. Resell instead of donating and if you do, make sure your items are impeccable, otherwise, chances are they’ll end up in a landfill. Learn, unlearn, and continue to be curious.”
Through her work on the intersections of climate justice, antiracism, and migrant and refugee rights, Edinburgh-based medical student and activist Mikaela Loach shares her inclusive and accessible insights and advice on everything from conscious consumerism and sustainable fashion to low-impact living with her Instagram audience of 86k. Along with Jo Becker, Loach hosts The Yikes Podcast, a space to untangle the messiness of the world with the aim of finding hope, whether advocating for trans rights or dismantling the stereotype of the “angry Black woman.”
“Watching The True Cost documentary kickstarted my relationship with sustainable fashion. There’s a line in it talking about the clothes we wear as our ‘chosen skin.’ I love expressing myself through the clothes I wear but I know that my desire for expression should not cause someone else’s oppression; [it should be] something that empowers and protects the maker, too. Lots of people think that to dress sustainably you need to buy the same amount of clothes from expensive ethical brands, or get rid of everything fast fashion you own — no way! The most sustainable clothes you have are the ones already in your closet and rewearing is better than buying new clothes from an ethical brand. I’ve learned a lot about privilege here: ethical brands’ limited size ranges means that plus-size folk are left out and fast fashion is often the only option. The Unplug Collective does amazing advocacy around this, I’ve learned heaps from them.”
San Francisco-based Ayesha Barenblat has worked tirelessly with brands, manufacturers, and governments for over a decade to improve human rights within the fashion industry. Growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, Barenblat learned the power of garment factory employment in lifting women out of poverty but she’s also seen firsthand the damage wrought by fast fashion on women of color across the globe. Remake.World, which Barenblat founded in 2011, is one of the most vital resources for progress and education in the sustainability sector. Working with 500 ambassadors across the world, through fact-filled stories and campaigns, plus a Seal of Approval system that holds brands to account through traceability, maker wellbeing, and environmental impacts, Remake.World has effected genuine change. The platform’s viral #PayUp petition garnered over 272k signatures this year, leading to 21 brands agreeing to pay for back-ordered clothes totaling $22 billion globally, and many garment workers receiving fair pay. Now, with the recent launch of its #PayUp Fashion movement, which outlines six demands for a post-COVID-19 recovery in fashion, the path towards a fairer, more inclusive, and reformed industry has been paved.
“The fashion supply chain is one of the few industries in the world that mostly employs women — more than 75 million — most of who are in their early 20s. At the time Rana Plaza fell down, I was working with the International Labor Organization to improve garment factory conditions. As the death toll mounted, I watched the footage with growing horror and felt that I had to do more, sooner and faster. I have had the pleasure to have meals, laugh, talk, and be awestruck by the women who make our clothes – they’re not victims as the media paints them. These are incredible, resilient women often supporting upward of five family members, leaving the safety of their villages to enter the big bad world of factory city life. I believe these stories, of the millennial maker, could spark a more empathic connection with millennial shoppers. On transparency, I believe brands first need to move the conversation beyond ‘is this product doing as little harm as possible?’ to ‘is it actually doing good for makers and the future of our planet?’ From raw material to end of life, brands should focus on protecting the wellbeing of the people behind the fashion and environmental stewardship.”
Scroll through sustainability consultant and creative director Emma Slade Edmondson’s Instagram account and not only will you be greeted with the most colorful outfits, you’ll be inspired to #JoinTheRentalRevolution, get stuck into #SecondHandSeptember, and rewear your existing items on the ‘gram. Alongside heading up her consultancy brand, ESE, which helps elevate brands and organizations looking to do social and environmental good, Edmondson has driven real change in the sustainability space through transformational campaigns like Love Not Landfill, aimed at converting 16-24-year-olds to secondhand clothes, and Charity Fashion Live, which recreates London Fashion Week looks using only pieces found in charity shops. She’s also a TEDx speaker and hosts the informative and joyful Mixed Up podcast with Nicole Ocran, about mixed-race identity. Most recently, she’s been posting secondhand affirmations in her Instagram Stories throughout September, and started a collective of women of color with a professional interest in sustainable fashion called SIS UK — so watch this space.
“My relationship with sustainable fashion began with a mixture of my longtime love of secondhand, all of the beautiful pieces handed down to me from my mum and my nan, and my growing awareness of the amount of waste created by the industry. My work is varied and crosses disciplines but it’s always rooted in instigating behavior change towards a better future for people and the planet. If you can recreate catwalk looks the moment after they’re shown, using only what you can find in a single charity shop, then anyone can be inspired by secondhand clothing. The biggest misconception about sustainable fashion is that it’s boring, muted, and scrappy — it’s not just hemp sacks and hippies. It can be chic, colorful, exuberant, and fashion-forward. There’s so much innovation and design in the space right now; it’s an exciting place to be. The availability of larger sizing options needs to improve, period. I want to see our plus-size community be able to enjoy conscious options. It’s hard to change your mindset and habits, so take it slow and don’t beat yourself up.”
LA-based entrepreneur Dechel Mckillian spent a decade as a creative director and celebrity stylist in the entertainment industry, touring the world with chart-topping musicians like Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Lil Wayne. Witnessing firsthand fashion’s negative impact on people and the planet, Mckillian took a deep dive into sourcing more eco-conscious and ethical brands to style her clients in but knew that if she was finding it difficult to discover labels which put the planet first, then other people must be, too. Enter GALERIE.LA, which Mckillian founded in 2015 to bring sustainable fashion to the masses. From repurposed jewelry labels to recycled denim brands, GALERIE.LA hosts 38 brands online and at its IRL space in downtown Los Angeles.
“For so long people associated sustainable fashion with terms like granola and yoga but I want to change people’s misconceptions — it can be fashion-forward. Greenwashing runs throughout the industry so it would be amazing to see government legislation that connects the dots for true transparency, in the same way food is labeled on packages. Changing my buying habits was one of the biggest obstacles. There’s a big program in the industry to constantly consume, stay up to date with trends, designers and influencers, and I fell victim to its marketing ploys. In homing in on my personal style, I realized how little I needed and was able to free myself from the trap of constantly buying.”
While in Rajasthan, India, for her honeymoon, London-based Eshita Kabra was exposed to the polluting impact not only of the fashion industry but of our wasteful consumption habits. With an older sister who avidly subscribed to Rent the Runway, she started researching the rental market but took umbrage with the throwaway culture of #OOTD-fuelled “wear once and done.” Leaving her career in the financial services industry to found her own platform, By Rotation, Kabra’s mission was to create a self-sustaining community of style- and eco-conscious people, where quality fashion came at fast-fashion prices — without the human cost. Now the UK’s largest rental platform and app, By Rotation lets you rent and lend your wardrobe, with 28.9k Instagram followers providing unique styling inspiration and joyfully sharing By Rotation’s ethos of #WhatsMineIsYours. Having collaborated with the likes of Stacey Dooley and Abi Marvel, the brand’s most recent campaign spotlights plus-size rental, celebrating the size inclusivity available in this corner of sustainable fashion.
“I want to transform the way we consume fashion globally by sharing what we already own with our neighbors. Fast fashion welcomed people from all walks of life with its affordable (but exploitative) price points. With By Rotation, we’re doing the same but with better quality pieces that are already in circulation and are just as affordable. I am being overly optimistic but I hope to see an active and global regulatory body governing garment workers’ rights. I’m appalled by the lack of regulation and transparency in the industry as a whole, unlike the industry I previously worked in. There are many (well-known) companies and personalities who greenwash their credentials by taking the easy way out — partnering with fast fashion companies, cherry-picking ‘eco-friendly’ traits for marketing, or promoting a company while not disclosing a paid arrangement — which at times has misrepresented the ethos of sustainable fashion. I have learned that any business that does care about its environmental footprint will clearly demonstrate all the steps they have or haven’t taken to ensure they are mindful of the resources they utilize. A practical tip: unfollow and unsubscribe from fast-fashion retailers’ mailing lists.”
Consultant, podcast creator, magazine editor, and environmental educator Dominique Drakeford is based in Brooklyn and has been bridging the gap between people and the Earth through multiple mediums for over a decade. Her digital publication, Melanin & Sustainable Style (MelaninASS), dissects everything from wellness and clean beauty to ethical fashion and land sovereignty, all while amplifying the work of Black and brown brand owners, activists, business leaders, and makers. It has become a resource and network for BIPOC, those who not only “originally created regenerative thought and sustainability practices” but whose voices have typically been silenced and overlooked in sustainability circles. Alongside MelaninASS, her platform Sustainable Brooklyn provides a direct line between targeted communities and sustainability through consultancy and programming, while her five-part podcast The Root, created in collaboration with Kestrel Jenkins of Conscious Chatter, sets out to decolonize the sustainable fashion agenda by unpacking complex subjects such as racism as a system and the power of privilege with an incredible roster of activist-educator guests.
“I grew up loving fashion; I was a thrift shopper, loved urban street culture (i.e. Missy Elliott), and always frolicked in my mom and grandma’s closet. Additionally, I grew up an environmental nerd. I was an avid backpacker and hiker, took BIPOC youth on educational outdoor trips, was on a review board for outdoor recreation-based nonprofits, and overall just loved the wilderness. My path has shifted a few times but my vision for merging my passions to create a career that heals me and the planet has remained steadfast. Environmentalism, as the term has traditionally been coined, is inherently white, violent, and oppressive. Studying environmentalism in traditional educational spaces opened my eyes to the detriments of these institutions. How sustainability is marketed and discussed in social spaces has been problematic for years, especially when the global climate crisis disproportionately affects communities of color. 75 percent of who you follow on social media, the events you’re attending, and books you’re reading should be from BIPOC communities who have been practicing all layers of sustainability despite, and sometimes because of, systematic oppression. Accountability leads to antiracism and sustainability work, from systematic change to wealth distribution. Eco reparations should be at everyone’s frontal lobe so that the communities who have always had the solutions can protect themselves and the planet from colonial fuckery.”
London-based designer and tarot reader Claire Yurika Davis founded her brand HANGER shortly after graduating in 2013. Specializing in slick, directional, and fetish-inspired latex, HANGER soon became a cult favorite not just for its mission to empower its wearer, but for its sustainability credentials, too. By sourcing the lowest impact materials, creating minimal waste, and reducing her collections from a relentless season-to-season model to just one a year, Davis’s sustainable practices began at day one. Catching the eye of the producers of Netflix’s Next in Fashion, hosted by Alexa Chung and Tan France, Davis was invited on as a contestant and captured the hearts of viewers with her warmth and sense of humor. Now closing her brand after seven years, she’ll be moving into consultancy to help brands create and communicate more sustainably to enable a better future for everyone.
“I was using sustainable materials and practices without labeling it as such and it took a mentor to point out that what I was doing was a real point of difference in my brand, so it was more of an organic process than a conscious decision. I have an expectation for everyone to be as ethical as possible as a standard – incorporating it into my own garments was a no-brainer. As a fledgling brand, when units are low, it’s much easier to align with your ethics. The biggest misconception is that sustainable fashion has to look like it came from Fat Face. HANGER proved it can be relevant and modern. Our mission is to help people step into whichever mood they choose, be that powerful or sexy, and connect with their mind and body. Also to highlight our community and uplift BIPOC at every opportunity. I hope after the pandemic brands can produce differently, making to order, making locally or adjusting their practices to be more flexible — they’re responsible for orders they’ve placed and had to cancel, and manufacturers should not have to pay for having extremely seasonal product. Especially those who source their garments from Asia, where the local workforce and economy suffer as a result of Western demands.”
Based in Brooklyn, multimedia journalist and director Sophia Li’s Instagram was a tonic in the early stages of lockdown. Her IGTV series, Supernatural is the New Natural, welcomed hypnosis practitioners, astrologers, and Hailey Bieber to talk all things spirituality and navigating the new normal. It’s her sustainability work that first caught our eye, though. Producing self-dubbed “conscious content,” Li’s aim is to make educational, accessible, memorable, and resonating content that helps shift minds and behavior for the benefit of the planet and its people. From this handy flowchart which we refer to before every new purchase to teaching the Open Education courses at Slow Factory, we’ve learned so much from Sophia already. This autumn, she’s launching her first evergreen collection with Public Habit, a sustainable brand that uses deadstock fabric in a made-to-order business model and labels each unisex piece with a sustainable rating and carbon footprint calculation.
“Growing up, I spent my summers in China and because of high production volumes, shopping there was always a season or two ahead with trends. I’d buy my entire wardrobe in the shopping meccas of Shanghai and Hong Kong. Going as a young adult, though, I witnessed how this was affecting the air and quality of life, and that blue skies could be gone in a matter of years if this formula of consumption was kept up. While entertainment media editor of American Vogue, I saw the sheer quantity this industry thrives on and how it relies on volume and profit more than anything else. I’ve realized in this capitalist world that you can still love fashion while wanting the systems in place to completely deteriorate and rebuild themselves. Fashion profits should be decentralized — there’s no reason why a fashion billionaire exists while their garment workers are being exploited. Never let eco-anxiety get the best of you: being aware of the purchasing power you have is the biggest hurdle and every decision from then on will be harmonious. Humanity was intended to be regenerative with Mother Earth — observe how the Indigenous approach nature. We have to shed the ego to get back to our ecosystem.”
Cofounding her game-changing store Sancho’s back in 2014, Exeter-based Legesse is giving sustainable shopping a total refresh. Selling affordable, organic clothing from esteemed brands like People Tree, Lefrik, and Armedangels, and using suppliers certified by the Fair Wear Foundation, the store’s aim is equity, equality, and amplified voices for all Black and brown people, and fair wages for garment workers. There’s even a transparent pricing collection to make ethical fashion more accessible, whereby you can choose the price you pay for an item without it negatively impacting anyone in the production line. Keep an eye out for SHWAP, the app Legesse is producing. Currently, in its first stages, it’s set to tackle the quantity of clothing products by enabling users to buy and sell pre-loved items.
“The value of money was always clear to me, as was how hard one needed to work to be able to afford things like fashion. When I started working I would count every new purchase by the number of hours I’d need to work to pay for it. This made me a huge fan of charity shops, secondhand, and hand-me-downs. I became captivated by the craftsmanship of makers at market stalls with their fabric weaving, garment sewing, and hand embroidery. I want to see more brands owned by garment workers win. There are enough technology and global transport links for the biggest fashion brands to be located anywhere in the world.”
Back in 2017, entrepreneur Brittany Sierra founded the Sustainable Fashion Forum after noticing a lack of IRL events, conversations, and community that drew a direct line between fashion fans and industry players. Now a hugely successful online platform — think witty, playful, and ultra shareable memes celebrating sustainable living — the SFF is also an influential conference held annually in Portland, Oregon. Hosting brands like Mara Hoffman, adidas, Girlfriend Collective, thredUP, and Fashion Revolution, the platform fosters education and engagement that leads to individual and collective change.
“There’s a misconception that you have to give up fashion in order to be sustainable, that it sucks the life and fun out of fashion with muted colors, boxy silhouettes, and basic design. I don’t think that’s true. I’d like to see more BIPOC hold corporate leadership positions. Having so many brands represented at our conference is an honor, as we’re a small but mighty team of three POC women, but those chosen to represent their company aren’t diverse. It’s always been important to me that the work speaks louder than the color of my skin — I don’t want people to unconsciously judge SFF because a Black woman is running it, not to support it simply because a Black woman is running it. If the BLM [Black Lives Matter] movement has taught me anything, it’s that being a Black woman in the sustainable fashion industry means the responsibility to show other people of color that there is a place for them in this space. It means being visible, sharing my voice, and doing what I can to make the industry I love welcome to all.”
After the Rana Plaza disaster occurred while she was studying fashion, and witnessing unsold stock being sent to burn while interning, Ngoni Chikwenengere set her compass towards more sustainable living. Noticing a gap in the market for affordable contemporary tailored pieces for young women, she launched her label WE ARE KIN in 2016. Growing quickly from Graduate Fashion Week to cult favorite, Chikwenengere’s label is responsibly sourced and sustainably manufactured in Bow in east London. Avoiding fast-moving trends to create timeless pieces with longevity — think breezy linen jumpsuits and cotton workwear trousers — WE ARE KIN works on a pre-order model, meaning reduced waste and no unwanted stock.
“We’re lucky to live in the time we do now. There’s so much advice on explaining the difference between fast fashion and sustainable fashion and the cost of certain items. I hope to see unethical and unsustainable fashion go the way of fur. Consumers are waking up to the true cost. Before every purchase, ask yourself: Do I need it? Who made it? Can I find it elsewhere more sustainably? Last year, this led me to buy reusable bamboo face-cleansing pads, for example. Swap clothes with your friends. You don’t always need to buy new.”
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Welcome toMoney Diarieswhere we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We’re asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last dollar.
It’s fair to say, 2020 hasn’t been a normal year. Whether you’ve been stuck working from home for months, were laid off, or are an essential worker, COVID has changed the way we spend money. Whether it was a sweatpant splurge or the security deposit on a new apartment, fill out this form to tell us about your biggest pandemic purchase and how COVID has changed your relationship with money.
Today: a fine gardener who makes $63,000 per year and spends some of her money this week on a linen shirt.
Occupation: Fine Gardener Industry: Landscaping Age: 28 Location: Coastal Massachusetts MyIncome: $63,000 (This is a total of all my income sources, which include my main job, unemployment, and personal work. I get paid hourly so my weekly paychecks vary widely based on the time of year and workload. I get laid off every year for a couple of months during winter when the available work comes to an end at which point I collect unemployment, which is calculated by the state based on what I made that year working. This seasonal unemployment situation is common for “unskilled” labor in seasonal/resort towns like the one I live in and because of this, the company I work for pays much higher unemployment insurance. Then on top of all that, I also do my own work on the side. This year, the breakdown looks like $44,000 from my company, $13,000 from unemployment, and $6,000 from personal work.) Husband’s Salary: $54,000 (plus a $2,000 food stipend) Net Worth: $285,000 (Breakdown: We bought land three years ago that we mortgaged, currently worth $450,000. We still owe $275,000 on it. We have a car and a truck, worth about $25,000 total. We have $50,000 in the bank, $10,000 in stocks, and $10,000 in maturing bonds. We also have about $15,000 in various retirement-related accounts. My husband and I have our own savings accounts that our paychecks go into and that we pay bills from. We have a joint account that we transfer money to for construction-related expenses (ie, well drilling) and our eventual loan downpayment. We don’t keep track of who pays for what, but it’s pretty evenly split. All of our income is shared equally.) Debt: $275,000 (mortgage) Paycheck Amount (Weekly): $1,000-$2,000 Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses Rent: $1,350 for a two-bedroom my husband and I rent Mortgage: $1,670 for our land loan (though we’ve always paid $2,000) Cell Phones: $160 for husband and I (unlimited data, still paying off my iPhone X) Property Tax: $200 Electricity/Propane: $150 (dehumidifier in the basement kills our bill) Patreon: $5 Health Insurance: ~$600, deducted from husband’s paycheck Car Insurance: $70 IRA: 3% deduction for both of us (our employers match 2%) Internet: we don’t have internet/TV access at our house so have no related expenses
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Whether I would attend college was never a question. It was 100% expected of me, especially because I was so good at school. Though my mom went to college, she ended up as a house cleaner, and there was always an unspoken shame surrounding her job and an expectation that my sister and I would have “real careers.” Ironically (or perhaps not?), I ended up in a very similar line of work that doesn’t require a degree (sister too), but I love my work, and my bachelor’s in horticulture has been invaluable to what I do. My tuition was covered by scholarships. My housing and food, etc., while I was in school was paid for with my summer work money propped up by my father’s social security I inherited when I turned 18 (he died when I was 10, and his SS went to my sister and me).
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
Though I don’t remember specific lessons, I was essentially taught by my mother through observing her actions and very loud opinions to always save my money. My mother constantly talked (usually negatively) about other people’s/families’ spending choices and she viewed everything through the lens of monetary value and financial consequences. Her tight grip on money and careful spending was a constant stressor and presence. I learned from a young age that asking for anything that required money (material objects, opportunities, etc) was a huge trigger for my mother so I never asked for any money and learned how to make it myself. I picked up frugality (and major financial stress) from a young age. I constantly check myself in judging other people’s financial choices and placing value on things in monetary terms alone.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I started babysitting around 12 to have some cash and because as soon as I could be trusted alone (and apparently with other children), I was left to my own devices and needed something to do. I did that, as well as working as an under the table counselor-in-training until I got my first taxed job at 14 at a mini-golf place. I’ve worked ever since.
Did you worry about money growing up?
Yes, I always worried about money. Modeling my behavior after my mother from a pretty young age, I didn’t like spending money because I never knew if I’d need it in the future. I felt guilty for the normal everyday expenses I burdened her with (clothing, food) because my mother was very open about her money-related stress. It’s not like there wasn’t enough money to feed or house us, and my mom owned (mortgaged) the home we lived in, but the stress of never having quite enough was always there.
Do you worry about money now?
All the time. I am constantly doing math in my head related to our finances and always save as much as I can. My husband and I don’t go out to dinner or bars, we have never been on vacation in the ten years we’ve been together, and we don’t buy much more than we need. If we make a larger purchase, it’s going to be something that we’ll have forever. I price check smaller purchases we make across multiple websites and buy most essentials in bulk to save money in the long run, but it’s also probably another scarcity mindset coping mechanism. I’ve been avoiding Amazon, and it’s killing me knowing we are purposely spending slightly more at other places. But being so frugal (as well inheriting a sizable sum of money) has led to being able to afford to buy land (mortgaged) that we will soon build on. Building and owning a house has always been our ultimate goal — we both have hard nesting and homebody tendencies. Even so, parting with the money we’ll be putting down for the construction loan, not knowing what our future holds, is terrifying. While at the moment we are in a really great financial place and are about to embark on the super exciting major milestone of building our forever home, I’m terrified by the idea that we are in professions without a whole lot of upward movement and our income won’t keep up with inflation. Finances are the scariest unknown when I think of the future.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I became financially responsible for myself as soon as I turned 18. I lived in my mother’s house until I went to college (a few months later) but never moved back in and was responsible for almost all my own bills and expenses (the only exception being my cell phone; I stayed on the family phone plan until I was 22 when my then-boyfriend and I upgraded to iPhones and got our own plan). My husband and I have a pretty hefty safety net in our own savings, but in the next few months, we’ll be putting it all down for our construction loan. By some miracle, we are both considered essential services (though my job certainly isn’t) and besides a brief local work moratorium for me, we’ve kept our jobs through COVID times and will likely be able to if things get shut down again.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
When I turned 18, I started receiving annual annuity payments (for five years) from my father’s social security (he died when I was 10). It totaled about $75,000. I also received $20,000 from a distant relative who died a few years ago. The majority of the inherited money went towards the downpayment of $108,000 on our land three years ago.
Day One
5 a.m. — We both wake up. My husband, R., is out the door by 5:20 (life of a farmer). I switch on NPR and take my shot of iron before starting the laborious process of making coffee with my Chemex. I harvest some kale from the garden and make a smoothie — I have been drinking the same yogurt-blueberry-kale smoothie every day for years — and pack a salad for lunch from veggies my husband grew. He’s the veggie manager at a bougie farm that also produces bread, milk, meat, and eggs so we eat well and save a lot on our grocery bills. Out the door at 6 to get my work truck from the shop.
7 a.m. — As I pass my road to head to the job site in my work truck, I realize I forgot about my yogurt incubating in the closet. I run home real quick to take it out, leaving it on the table and hoping my husband comes home at some point to put it away after it’s cooled. I feel bad giving my dog the false alarm of coming home so I slip him a carrot. He’s crazy for veg so definitely forgives me.
10 a.m. — I take a quick break from work to hit order on a shopping cart I’ve been narrowing down for a couple of weeks. I get three cotton shirts for myself and two linen button-downs that my husband and I will share for work. We both hate sunscreen so we wear linen long sleeves to protect our arms and shoulders. These ones were on sale so the pain of covering something so luxurious in dirt won’t hurt quite so badly. $116
3 p.m. — Done with work, drop off the truck. As I pull in the driveway, my husband is heading back out. He had a late lunch at home and took a nap because his morning greenhouse work gave him a headache. I eat my salad, tidy the house, and do some gardening.
7 p.m. — R. comes home and makes pizza with a leftover dough in the fridge. Pesto-broccoli-shiitake-pepperoni, my favorite! I have a horrible headache after dinner (didn’t drink enough water today) and lay on the couch cuddling one of the cats and reading. R. cleans the bathroom unprompted like the amazing feminist he doesn’t even realize he is then we go to bed around 10.
Daily Total: $116
Day Two
5 a.m. — Up and making coffee and breakfast. Before I leave at 6:15, I promise our dog that he’ll get a walk this evening. Normally, he gets a walk before work but he’s getting old and in the summer, he doesn’t enjoy it so we wait until it cools down.
12 p.m. — Graham sticks and carrots for lunch while I drive between job sites. Constantly reminding myself to chug water all day.
5 p.m. — Home from work, R. is close behind me. I start poaching chicken for dinner, cook beets for future salads, do the dishes from this morning, and tidy up a bit. We eat chicken quesadillas with some flour tortillas I made in the last couple weeks and homemade enchilada sauce. The dog gets the beet skins and a bit of chicken water added to his dinner while the cats look on with jealousy. If they got chicken stock, they’d definitely puke.
7:30 p.m. — We walk the dog together, as promised. R. does the dishes and makes a batch of mayo while I knit on the couch. We have homemade ice cream for dessert and are in bed at 9. I try to read my library book, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, but I’m asleep after a couple of pages.
Daily Total: $0
Day Three
5 a.m. — Awake! Iron, coffee, smoothie, kiss R. goodbye. I harvest celery and onion from the garden for tuna salad, then make a wrap with greens, cheddar cheese, tortillas, and scallion salsa I made over the weekend. The recipe is from Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden, which is my go-to for quick veggie meal boosters.
6:30 a.m. — I get to work and I’m surprised to actually see another person at the shop when I get there! With COVID and the hot days, I’ve been going in early, the normal start time is 8.
12 p.m. — I eat my wrap and Google pictures of murder hornets. My coworker and I are pretty sure we saw one but it was probably a European hornet (still giant!).
5:30 p.m. — Home from work and I am beat. R. came home mid-day and did dishes, cleaned the litter box, etc, so I feel good hitting the couch. I have a hard time relaxing if our house is a mess, and though my husband would barely clean or tidy if he was on his own, he keeps up with it for my sake. I do the billing for my personal gardening clients for the previous month. I work for a company during the week and have my own clients for weekends. Thankfully, by this point in the summer, the maintenance slows and it’s every other weekend.
8 p.m. — R. is at a friend’s, so I’m on my own for dinner. I have a salad, topped with the anchovy-lemon dressing from Samin Nosrat’s book Salt Fat Acid Heat. It’s crazy good!! Bed at 9:30 after a little bit of reading.
Daily Total: $0
Day Four
5 a.m. — Harder to get up this morning, as it tends to be towards the end of the week. But the alarm clock is on R.’s side of the bed (we have a no phone in the bedroom rule) so snooze isn’t an option! I do my normal morning routine and soak beans for dinner. I also boil my cup in case I get my period today.
6:30 a.m. — Do a couple of internet things at the shop before I leave (no internet at my own house and the cell service is horrendous). Email out my bills and donate $50 to a Lebanon-based animal rescue and recovery organization. $50
12 p.m. — Tuna wrap for lunch again, carrots too. I pocket some Gin Gins for afternoon snacking. I’ve been hooked on them for years (only when I work though) and always keep a few boxes on hand. Must be a blood sugar thing.
3 p.m. — Munch on some stale graham crackers I keep in my work truck for befriending wary dogs — a must when my daily job is going to people’s homes unannounced.
7 p.m. — I eat cooked beans straight from the strainer with my hands for dinner. Then I take the pup for a walk, beer in hand. I have some cheese and crackers when we got back, then break a glass — my fourth in the last week! I celebrate my clumsiness with the last of the ice cream. Get in bed around 9 and try to read, but who am I kidding…
Daily Total: $50
Day Five
5 a.m. — Finally Friday! I do my morning routine and start some pizza dough. The flour jar is out so I fill it from the 50-pound bag in the basement. We’ve been buying it this way for years so we were ready for the COVID lockdown!
10 a.m. — There she is! Luckily, I happen to be working at a property with bathroom access the day I get my period. Most of the properties I work at don’t have bathrooms offered to use, and due to COVID, all the public bathrooms are closed. I snack on carrots and eye the dark clouds, hoping for rain. It’s been months since we’ve had a good rain.
5 p.m. — I get in the door and immediately take off my shorts, as one does, only to find that I have bled through my cup, through my underwear, and through my shorts! Bahhhhhh this has never happened to me before. I reassure myself that maybe the long shirt I was wearing covered my butt. My husband tells me probably no one could even see that angle of my butt because I’m so short. Between that, the 44 deer tick larvae I pull off my body with R.’s help (a personal record), and the mismanaged and frustrating job site, it has been a DAY. I am SO HAPPY it’s Friday.
7 p.m. — I make some pesto with basil and parsley from the garden to put on our pizza. Pizza is a weekly Friday tradition that my husband’s family has had forever and we take it VERY seriously. After pizza and beers, we go on a walk then do some couch-scrolling. R. made a new batch of ice cream yesterday (mint chocolate chip, my FAVORITE!) so I have a bowl before bed.
Daily Total: $0
Day Six
6 a.m. — Manage to just barely sleep until 6. I kept waking up throughout the night. I always sleep horribly on the first day of my period. At least I get to drink my coffee sitting down this morning.
10 a.m. — I spend the morning in my garden. I have a couple of slices of buttered toast from one of the loaves R. brought back from the farm yesterday. Though this is my off weekend from personal work, I head out to do some watering since it’s been so dry. I stop by the hardware store to get some braces for a cabinet I recently refinished and windshield washer fluid. $9.75
1:30 p.m. — I make croutons from bread and have a salad. My mom stops by for a bit to word vomit and watch me spill my salad all over myself. I text R. to bring home carrots and milk from the farm.
7 p.m. — I spend the rest of the afternoon doing really exciting things like laundry, dishes, and unsuccessfully attempting to nap. I have an appetizer of ice cream for dinner (I really love ice cream). We have pizza for dinner again so we wouldn’t have to think about what to make and snuggle on the couch. Bed by 9 again….have I mentioned just how cool we are?
Daily Total: $9.75
Day Seven
6 a.m. — I try to sleep in and almost trick myself into falling asleep again but it’s not working. Listen to the white noise machine and fan until 7 then get up. R. is taking the day off! We have tons of shit around the house to do though…ugh our Sunday is already over and it’s barely started.
1 p.m. — We bring the kayaks down to the landing on our road and go for a paddle. I take a beer and R. takes a joint. We stop on a sand bar and eat our tuna wraps and watch the birds. It’s super windy so we don’t go as far as we normally would.
5 p.m. — Making yogurt. It takes so damn long but it’s so damn good and the savings are huge if we make it ourselves with the free milk we get. I set it to incubates in a cooler with hot water bottles in the closet overnight.
7 p.m. — Hot cheesy chicken sandwiches for dinner with onions, garlic, pesto, and peppers. No matter how hot it is outside, I’m always in the mood for hot cheese. After dinner, I order us some bulk snacky stuff (chocolate covered graham crackers, peanuts, dried mango, etc) from Nuts.com. I pick the last of the chicken off the bone and leave it on a plate, knowing full well that when we leave to walk the dog, the cats will jump on the table and eat the tiny bit of scraps. Then, of course, ice cream for dessert. Bed by 9. I barely manage a few pages. There’s no way I’m going to finish this book by the time it’s due on Wednesday. $77.70
Daily Total: $77.70
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With lockdown making us crave green spaces more than ever before, it's no surprise that gardening has enjoyed a huge boom in popularity. A study published in August found that millennials have spent an average of £213 on their balcony, outdoor space or indoor garden during lockdown.
Whatever happens next, whether there's a nationwide second lockdown or not, our love of house plants and apartment gardening is here to stay. So it's definitely interesting to check out new research by the folks at Love the Garden, who analysed the most popular garden-related hashtags on Instagram with a view to predicting the biggest trends of 2021.
The good news? Though some of the results will be purely aspirational for most of us, there's plenty of gardening inspo here whether you have a tiny garden, balcony garden, or no garden at all.
#balconygardening
Get the right plants for your balcony and you can turn it into your very own little green oasis.
#wildgarden
Even if you're lucky enough to have a garden, chances are that it's not exactly wild. Still, this is a fun hashtag to scroll through for plant ideas.
#insideoutside
This one's versatile – #insideoutside can mean super-fancy glass-roofed rooms and conservatories, or simply bringing a bit of the outdoors inside with plants and wild flowers.
It sounds fancy, but permaculture gardening – an abbreviation for "permanent agriculture" – simply means harnessing the power of natural forces like wind, sun and water rather than chemicals to make the most of your garden. You're probably doing it without even realising it.
#whitegarden
This one's as self-explanatory as it is pretty.
#windowsillgarden
If you don't have a balcony or outdoor space, this hashtag's the one to peruse for indoor gardening inspo.
#greygardens
This hashtag is probably trending in part due to the enduring popularity of cult documentary filmGrey Gardens. Still, grey garden furniture is pretty chic, no?
#cottagegardens
Well, there's no harm in looking, is there?
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It’s time to wake up. On Global Day of Climate Action, VICE Media Group is solely telling stories about our current climate crisis. Click here to meet young climate leaders from around the globe and learn how you can take action.
Many people first started paying attention to the youth climate movement in 2018, when now-17-year-old Greta Thunberg began protesting outside Swedish Parliament in her home country. Her small act of civil disobedience had a ripple effect. Students across the globe began striking by refusing to attend classes, which eventually turned into the “Fridays For Future” movement.
It may sound like a ploy to get out of chemistry, but it’s not. Gen Z ranks climate change as the most important issue of our time, according to last year’s Amnesty International survey of more than 10,000 members of 18- to 25-year-olds. “Older generations were not out there protesting in the streets on this issue the way Gen Z is,” asserts Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo, PhD, who teaches political science and environmental policy at Christopher Newport University. These under-25 activists have formed organizations like Fridays For Future and Zero Hour, a movement that focuses on helping young people take action. Others have sued their state or even the United Nations. They’ve staged hunger strikes. They’ve performed spoken word poetry.
These kids care. A lot.
“Younger people see the total mess that Boomers and, to a lesser extent, millennials have left, and they have to figure out how to fix it,” says Jessica Green, PhD, an associate professor focused on climate governance at the University of Toronto. That’s a heavy burden to bear. Many self-report feeling eco-anxiety, or “a chronic fear of environmental doom,” according to the American Psychological Association.
“For some Gen Z folks with whom I work, their eco-anxiety is related to a continuation of generations’ worth of oppression,” notes Kristi E. White, PhD, a clinical health psychologist with a focus on how climate change affects well-being. She’s referring specifically to BIPOC communities, which “have always been the most severely impacted by sustainability failures.” Others are confronting the more recent realization that they’re “inheriting many generations’ worth of avoidance and poor stewardship,” she says.
While not every young adult is channeling their energy into activism, the post-millennials who are seem particularly ardent. Their attitude is: “The world is falling apart right now, and if you think it’s okay, what’s wrong with you?” Green says.
We talked to leading climate activists in the U.S. — most of whom still can’t buy a legal drink — about how they got their start, what their activism looks like mid-pandemic, and why they think the youth are such incredible change-makers.
“When I was young, 5 or 6, I wanted to be a writer. I never would have expected that I’d end up being a climate activist at 15. But in 2018, I started striking at the end of the week as part of Fridays for Future. People called me alarmist and dramatic. I would tell them that, in the future, school wouldn’t matter anymore because we’d be running from multiple crises. And here we are. That future is now. Even if COVID didn’t exist, the entire West Coast couldn’t go because of the air quality. It would be so unsafe. And other places are beginning to see catastrophic events because of climate change.
“The fires show us just how quickly we need to take action. I have a lot of family out in California. I was actually there over the last few months, very close to the LNU Lighting Complex fire. I’m very lucky to have been able to leave a few weeks ago. But as an asthma sufferer, I’m still recovering from the smoke inhalation. The scientists are warning us about the future and that it will get so much worse. We should listen to them.”
On channeling fear for the future into action
“I feel a sense of eco-grief. For me, that means a feeling of sadness and loss. I’m seeing the collapse of our biodiversity. I recently wrote a chapter in the book All We Can Save, and doing that reminded me of the Monarch butterflies in California. When I was growing up every year in the springtime, we’d get just so many butterflies. I’d see them on the playground, and in the fields, and it was always so exciting. But the population has declined drastically in the past couple of years. And so it’s just extremely upsetting to see those things that were very personal, and know that future young people won’t be able to experience them.
“One thing that helps my eco-grief is taking direct action. Going out and protesting.”
On why younger generations make great activists
“Young people are forces when it comes to climate change because we speak very directly and bluntly. We have resources such as technology and social media and use them to our advantage when it comes to organizing and connecting with each other. Especially during the pandemic, we’ve been using social media to our advantage. Doing initiatives and campaigns, and putting pressure on politicians and those in power.
“Youth activists think more outside the box, and don’t think just in terms of what’s ‘politically possible.’ It’s not only that we’ll be using the planet the longest — although thingswillget worse in our lifetime. We’ll see the worst consequences of climate change.
“The youth climate movement has also seen how our movement needed to grow and be more intersectional, that it needs to have more people of color and people being affected directly by the climate crisis at the front lines. Because of that, I think that we’ll come out of this pandemic even stronger.”
“I first got into climate activism in sixth grade. My dad and I have a tradition of stargazing together. He’s super into astronomy, and we’d go out every night when I was little and he’d talk to me about the different constellations. But when I was visiting my grandmother’s house in the capital of Iran, Tehran, I went out and couldn’t see the stars because of the air quality. I thought, That’s so sad.
“The climate crisis is affecting the Middle East, with temperatures rising more than twice the global average. I was struck by the fact that my relatives weren’t really aware of what was happening and didn’t know about climate change. And so for the past, like, six years, I’ve been translating climate information to help educate them.
“And it’s not just my relatives. I found a study that showed only 5% of Iranian university students could properly explain the greenhouse gas effect. I saw there was clearly an issue, and I couldn’t find much climate change education that was available in Farsi, the language they speak. So, I founded Climate Cardinals, where I work with volunteers to translate climate information into 109 different languages. Recently we partnered with the UN’s environmental program to translate their Youth #ForNature Manifesto that they’re going to be releasing soon in different languages.”
On why younger generations make great activists
“I think it’s because we have more to lose. We’re going to be around much longer than the politicians who are in their 60s and 70s who haven’t taken action on the climate crises. They just don’t have as much as stake. Hopefully the rest of us have many years left on this planet, and we don’t want to continue to live knowing it’s getting worse every year.”
On going to extremes to raise awareness
“Last year, at 17, I got up at 5 a.m. and took an Uber by myself to DC instead of going to school. I was the youngest person and one of the only women to join a week-long hunger strike at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. I was demanding that she take action, and wanted an on camera, hour-long meeting with her to discuss the climate emergency. She was calling the Green New Deal ‘The Green Dream, or whatever.’ I could only join in DC the first day because I couldn’t skip more school, but I continued the hunger strike. I had such a horrible headache by the time I stopped. The first thing I finally had was a strawberry and almond milk smoothie because I didn’t want to overwhelm my body.
“Sometimes you have to escalate things to raise awareness, to get people and press to pay attention. And the climate crisis is being escalated every year, so.”
On inciting change during a pandemic
“There’s no substitute for nonviolent, civil disobedience like the way Fridays for Future was doing with their weekly protests. But there are a lot of ways to continue activism virtually, during COVID. I’ve been very much focused on continuing to grow Climate Cardinals during this time, and our transcriptions can be done from the safety of your home. Anyone who cares about climate change should know there are still ways to get involved, and I’d urge them to take the first step and put themselves out there.”
Meghna Shankar
Age: 19 Location: Redmond, Washington School: University of Washington, physics and computer science major Activism History: Organizer at Fridays For Future Seattle; Member of Sunrise UW
On getting her start in activism
“In fifth grade, I read Al Gore’s book on climate change, Our Choice. The book was a gift from my dad. It got me interested in the cause. Then in high school, I heard about Greta Thunberg’s strike for global action on March 15, 2019, so I started organizing a protest. We walked out, went to our city hall, and spoke to our mayor and our city council president about our concerns about climate change. I believe students in [112 countries] also walked out in solidarity with the movement that day. I think it really shows that many young people are willing to put their education at stake for the sake of their future.
“I was so nervous that day because I had never done something like that before. I honestly was known for being a more quiet student, and following the rules. So for me, it was a big deal. I kept striking on some Fridays after that. I remember I would talk to my friends, and some of them would say, ‘Oh, I don’t see why this is such a big issue. I don’t want to skip lunch to come to your protest.’ In high school, there tends to be a lot of apathy coming from students because they don’t want to stand out. You know, they wanted to look cool. But climate change is something you can’t really opt out of.”
On inciting change during a pandemic
“Since the COVID pandemic, we haven’t been able to strike in person, but Friday For Future has been doing digital campaigns. We’ll do Twitter storms, and create informational graphics for the Global Day Of Action.
“But it’s not the same. I think if you don’t see the protests every day, you feel detached after a while. With Fridays For Future, we were able to engage young people in the community who weren’t necessarily able to do more intensive actions like going to policy makers offices or writing letters. Very young children would go to our strikes, and they would just hold up a sign. Anyone could get involved. Now we have to resort to posting photos on our Instagrams every Friday, which isn’t the same as standing outside for an hour. It feels a bit sad, but there are a lot of other youth-led organizations that are filling the gap virtually.”
On channeling fear for the future into action
“In the back of my head, I’m always thinking about climate change. Because of the fires on the West Coast, I’m looking out my window right now and I can maybe see half a mile away, I can’t really see the mountains.
“It’s scary because even adults who claim to support you aren’t doing enough to make change. Mayors, senators — they say ‘oh we’re so proud of what you’re doing, and we support you.’ And they’re happy to take a picture with us, but they don’t really do anything. Or they’ll approve things that increase carbon emissions. They say they’re for climate justice and the next week approve a new cruise ship terminal Seattle. And, right now, that gives me more anxiety than not being able to protest in the streets. It feels like adults are seeing the changes happening around us but nobody cares enough to do something about it. That’s why we have to act.”
Zanagee Artis
Age: 20 Location: Clinton, Connecticut School: Brown University, environmental studies and political science Activism History: Co-founder and deputy director of policy at Zero Hour; Fellow for Joe Biden’s campaign
On getting a start in activism
“When I was a kid, I loved the beluga whale at the Mystic aquarium in Connecticut. I have a picture of me standing in front of the giant tank with huge whales. I look so tiny. Going to the aquarium back then got me interested in environmental activism. I learned about pollution, and thought, Look at all these amazing sea creatures that are being impacted by plastic in the ocean.”
On why younger generations make great activists
“The youth climate movement is really about taking our futures into our own hands, but also fighting for people who are facing climate change in the present. Environmental actions of the past were not as radical in calling for systemic overhaul as we are today. But we know that without dismantling the systems at the root of climate change — the patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, and racism — we’ll never be able to have climate justice and have a transition to sustainable energy for the future.
“We started Zero Hour to emphasize that we have run out of time to address climate change. You can see rising temperatures in the Arctic, for indigenous communities their lifestyles and livelihoods are changing, you can see desertification, and deforestation happening in the Amazon. We know that this has been happening for at least the past few years now, and that climate change has been a stressor on communities around the world. And so we need to act right now.”
On channeling fear for the future into action
“I think a worst case scenario for the planet is something that most people are incapable of comprehending. The amount of change to the natural environment that will happen if we don’t act is terrifying. It could look like elongated hurricane and tornado seasons. Or like wildfire spreading from the West coast all throughout the country. We don’t really know for sure, although the climate scientists know a lot. It could look like the apocalypse. That’s why we’re fighting every day.
“After I finish at Brown, I’m planning to go to law school, and I’m interested in studying environmental or constitutional law. I want to do this to enhance my powers as an activist. I want to advocate for young people, especially those who are unable to vote, and anyone who I believe is being disproportionately harmed by a system that was not designed to protect them. And I’d like to someday eventually run for elected office.”
“I grew up in and around the water, learning about sustainability. And because of that, I’ve always had a vast love for the ocean. When I was 8 years old, I actually wrote my first children’s book about ecology based on No Name Key, a super-small island in the Florida Keys where I grew up part-time. As I was researching for that, I began to learn about climate change and how it’d affect the habitat that I love so dearly. I started to become extremely concerned because of how dire the situation seemed to be. I went on to found The Sink or Swim Project, a nonprofit advocacy organization focused on sea level rise and other environmental topics.
“It’s sad; my family has lived in Florida for generations, but recently, we’ve started having really bad flooding days every October. They have to close down the park where both my father and I learned how to swim. I hate it, because I want my future kids to follow in my dad and my footsteps and learn to swim there too.”
On going to extremes to raise awareness
“I’m the lead plaintiff in the Reynolds vs. The State of Floridaclimate change lawsuit. Seven of my friends and I are suing our state for not upholding duties outlined in the Florida constitution and something called the Public Trust Doctrine. That doctrine says the state has the responsibility to protect our land, the water, and, we believe, also the atmosphere. We’re asking the state to implement laws to help cut back carbon emissions so that we can help protect our atmosphere, because we know that burning fossil fuels and emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is what’s causing the crisis. So we’re basically asking the judge to require that the state do their job.
“I have to say, I never expected to sue anyone at the age of 18. Now I’m 21, and we just had our first hearing in June. But we’ve kept pushing on it. It’s been daunting at times, but it’s also really important. We’re seeing the effects of sea level rise, and it’s hurting the coral reefs, the land, and us.”
On channeling fear for the future into action
“Our family just finished recovering and renovating from Hurricane Irma, which made landfall in 2017 at our home in the Keys. Then we recently had another hurricane, Sally. When she went over the panhandle last week, all we had was some light rain, luckily. But hurricane season is extremely stressful. With a record number of storms forming in the Atlantic, it is a constant reminder of climate change. Warm ocean water is what fuels these hurricanes, so as we continue to warm our planet, these storms will become increasingly more frequent and stronger. That’s scary, and that’s why we have to keep fighting.”
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“So, I recognize the irony in this analogy,” begins Renee Salas, MD, MPH, an emergency medicine doctor and a fellow at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard University. “But the effect climate change has on health is kind of like an iceberg. There are the connections research and science has shown us — that’s what’s above water. But there’s probably so much more going on underneath the surface.”
Even considering that, the effects we can see are shocking. “In 2014, we did a survey of physicians at the National Medical Association [a U.S. organization representing African American physicians and their patients]. It found that 88% of our doctors were already seeing the health effects of climate change in their patients,” Mark Mitchell, MD, a public health physician specializing in environmental health, tells Refinery29.
The main thing these physicians reported was an exacerbation of preexisting heart and lung conditions, says Dr. Mitchell, who is also the associate professor of Climate Change, Energy, and Environmental Health Equity at George Mason University. But injuries from severe weather events, such as smoke inhalation due to wildfires, were equally common.
When I ask him to list all the ways we know climate change is harming health, he uses the mnemonic HEATWAVE, meaning: Heat effects; Exacerbation of preexisting heart and lung conditions; Asthma; Traumatic injury caused by climate-related severe weather; Water- and food-borne illnesses; Allergies; Vector-borne diseases, such as West Nile and Zika; and Emotional and mental health impacts from experiences like loss of property or life due to climate-related disaster.
Many of these problems are either partially or exclusively driven by the fact that the world is getting hotter. So if climate change is the iceberg, then its tip consists of the problems we can see, like the risk of heat-related illness and death.
But lurking below the surface are dozens of less-obvious but profound dangers. Like this: Rising heat is associated with an increased incidence in antibiotics-resistant bacteria, Dr. Salas tells Refinery29. Or this: When pregnant women are exposed to extreme temperature, their fetuses may be at an increased risk of congenital heart defects.
Climate change may also be contributing to the spread of disease-carrying insects like ticks into new areas, resulting in an increase of issues like Lyme disease. Heat may play a role in hastening the spread of viruses like West Nile and Zika, too, by altering mosquitoes’ lifespan and behavior.
Increasing heat increases air pollution and lengthens the ragweed pollen season, which in turn exacerbates allergies and asthma, Dr. Mitchell points out: “Some of our allergists in the NMA are saying that they are concerned that they’re having to provide more and more adult allergy medications to younger and younger children — even though many haven’t been approved for kids. But the health effects are getting worse faster than we’re doing the research required to find out which medications are safe in kids.”
Then there’s the fact that students in non-air-conditioned buildings have a hard time thinking; they can fall behind in school. Heat can impair sleep among those who do not have access to air conditioners, which can have widespread impacts on their life. “That can be a hidden way it harms health,” Dr. Salas says. “Heat is insidious.”
So too are extreme weather conditions and climate-related disasters, both of which have become more common in the past several years due to climate change. Hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and drought all have the power to kill and injure, as we’re seeing in real time with the West Coast wildfires, which have killed at least 33 people and affected countless others through issues like smoke inhalation.
But a less-talked-about way climate change affects health is by damaging infrastructure, Dr. Salas notes. Power outages are becoming more frequent due to heat and extreme weather events, she says. “In one case, the hospital down the street from where I live lost power,” she tells me, explaining that the building had generators, but only enough to cool certain areas. “They had to evacuate patients from the upper levels because it got so hot. Even once the power was restored, some of the equipment had gotten so hot that it took even longer for it to come back online.” After Hurricane Maria, she adds, a factory in Puerto Rico that made hospital equipment was damaged; shortages reached Dr. Salas’s hospital in Boston: “We had strict criteria on who could receive IV fluids, and I handed out Gatorade to those who didn’t meet the criteria.”
Some of the damage is more subtle. While many areas aren’t necessarily getting more precipitation annually, the U.S. is experiencing more heavy downpours, Dr. Mitchell says. As a result, buildings, especially sub-standard housing, are developing more leaks, and the increased moisture is allowing more mold to grow — and that can worsen asthma and allergies.
Then there are the mental health effects of climate change, which Surili Patel, the director of the Center for Climate, Health and Equity, says get underreported. “There are acute impacts, such as the post-traumatic stress disorder after a hurricane rips through a town, but there are gradual impacts too,” she explains. “When a kid has grown up with the possibility of a severe asthma attack hanging over their head, that is harmful to mental health.”
Not all communities are equally impacted by the health-related effects of climate change. The experts who spoke with Refinery29 said the young, the elderly, the low-income, and communities of color are particularly vulnerable.
Children and the elderly (and, Dr. Mitchell adds, pregnant people) are especially at risk physically. Children’s bodies are still developing, which makes them more susceptible to illness from increased air and water pollution. Their mental health may also be harmed long-term by climate-related disaster disruptions and displacements from their home lives.
Older adults are predisposed to health conditions and prone to injury, Patel notes. They’re also less able to regulate their body temperature, making them at high risk for issues like heat stroke.
Pregnant women are more likely to become dehydrated, always a risk in extreme heat. “They can even go into premature labor due to heat,” Dr. Mitchell notes. Premature babies are more at risk for issues like learning disabilities. Black pregnant women are disproportionately affected by climate change in the U.S., research published in the journal JAMA Network Open showed, for many of the same reasons that people of color in general form another high-risk group.
People of color are more likely to have more underlying conditions and pre-existing illnesses that could make them especially vulnerable to climate effects, Dr. Mitchell says. At all income levels, they are significantly more likely than white people to have high rates of exposure to air pollution, water pollution, and toxic chemicals, and to suffer the resulting health effects, he says. They’re also more likely to be low-income, which makes it difficult to avoid or reduce environmental exposures and their health effects.
“Communities of all different colors are affected more severely by climate change than white communities,” Patel says. “Systemically, we have communities that have been drained of power and resources — or never had the power and resources to build healthy communities to begin with. I often say, we’ll all be impacted by, say, extreme weather conditions. The difference is, some communities will be able to rebuild and bounce back after a weather event destroys a town, and some will not because of these systemic issues.”
Additionally, low-income people tend to live in “urban heat islands,” areas that are hotter than neighboring communities, often due to a lack of green life and an overuse of cement. Low-income people may also be less likely to be able to afford air-conditioning, increasing their odds of being affected by the hotter temperature.
As with so many things, how climate change affects health is intersectional. Dr. Salas describes one recent patient, a man whose wife called 911 after he started acting confused. When he got to the hospital, his core temperature was 106 degrees Fahrenheit. “His body was literally cooking itself, and his brain couldn’t function,” Dr. Salas says. The man was low-income and elderly: He was living on the top floor of an apartment building, with no air-conditioning unit and one small window that didn’t open all the way. Climate change made the day hot, but being low-income placed the man in that un-air-conditioned room, which was even hotter, and being elderly made him even more susceptible to the extreme heat.
Dr. Mitchell describes working with people in a low-income housing development that was right next to a highway in Connecticut. “The [air] pollution and noise pollution were really, really bad, and harmful for people who had asthma. Their nurses would say to them, ‘You should close your windows,’ but they didn’t have air-conditioning. When it’s over 90 degrees, they’d have to have their windows open. But then their children would have asthma attacks and wind up in the hospital. The waiting list to change apartments was more than one-year long so there was little that they could do to change the situation.”
Emphasizing all the ways climate change has affected our well-being — and what we’re at risk for if things continue along their same path — may be key to actually prompting real change.
“Climate change is not just about polar bears and icebergs,” Dr. Salas tells Refinery29. “The way in which climate impacts health, and the way it’s disproportionately impacting some vulnerable populations, makes climate change personal. This is affecting your health, your kids’ health, your parents’ health, your neighbors’ health. And that can be a central driving force for climate action.”
“I think talking about the health effects makes climate change real to everyone,” Dr. Mitchell agrees. “It’s not just ‘out there,’ happening someplace else. A lot of families have someone with asthma, with lung disease, with heart disease. And so now they can’t go outside on certain days when it’s too hot or there is too much air pollution,” he says. “It’s not a political issue — health is health; it’s for everybody.”
While there are things individuals can do to protect themselves from the downstream effects of climate change — monitoring local air quality and staying indoors on hot or smoggy days; finding access to an air-conditioned space like a local library to use on hot days; having a plan for natural disaster; being aware of your local risk of vector-borne illness and using an appropriate repellent — these are short-term solutions for a long-term problem.
“In many ways I think we’re forced to put a Band-aid on a bullet wound,” Dr Salas acknowledges. “Studies show, for instance, that as A/C use increases, we’re creating more greenhouse gas emissions and more air pollution.” But as the world gets hotter, A/C can save lives. As such, she advocates for solutions that make it more accessible or affordable, like subsidizing electricity for cooling for those who need it (similar to heat subsidies), while at the same time pushing for bigger solutions, such as creating more green space in cities to reduce the urban heat island effect. Dr. Mitchell is also in favor of allowing health professionals to write prescriptions for air conditioning units, and of climate-protective solutions that benefit the more vulnerable communities. He talks about closing down fossil fuel power plants in urban areas, for instance, which has been associated with a drop in asthma symptoms among people who live near them — who are often predominately Black and low-income communities.
“The COVID-19 pandemic shows that we as a society can rapidly change our behavior. We can do the same thing with climate change, and emerge from the ashes of this stronger and more resilient. But prevention is so critical, as the pandemic has shown,” Dr. Salas says.
Patel says that while meaningful change requires action from policymakers, there’s at least one thing individuals can do to help move the needle on the climate crisis. “Vote. Vote for health,” she says. “Not just in the national elections; the local ones are so important, because local decisions impact parks, education, and infrastructure in a huge way. So get to know your local candidates. And vote — I can’t stress it enough.”
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