the internet is a double-sided tool in that it helps both to spread one’s message and to learn another’s. the resulting effect is that people can learn about a movement and then act on it. hence why many teenagers who use social media feel that they can make a change. 

a recent poll by the kaiser family foundation and the washington post shows that teenagers are less likely to feel helpless about the climate crisis than any other generation, and are one of the most likely to feel optimistic and motivated. in addition, around a quarter of the polled teenagers said they had participated in some form of climate activism. 

i reached out to around 30 high schoolers from all around the country to see whether i would find similar results. in some places, the outcome was as expected, and in others, quite surprising.

when asked what they believed is the most important issue we face today, nearly 40% answered either climate change or a climate-related problem. these answers were not surprising to me, as the coronavirus and racial/social justice issues are topics of extreme importance right now. while climate change was the primary answer, many people explained that they find these other issues equally important in the current world. 

notably, linnea warren, a respondent from syracuse, said, “it’s difficult to choose just one. we have climate change, police brutality and racism, ice holding children in cages, yemen going through a crisis, and the slave trade in libya. there are so many issues in the world that need to be changed, and almost all of these affect everyone.”

on a scale of zero to 100, the importance of fighting climate change scored an average of 84, and only one person gave a rating below 50. 

additionally, 68% said they had taken or were taking action to fight climate change, and 100% said that if there were simple actions they could take to fight climate change, they would do so. this surprised me because, while i had expected a significant commitment to environmental activism, i had not anticipated that the median number would be so high.

these specific results demonstrated that our generation is ultra awake to the fact that climate change is a serious problem worth fighting against. i continued the survey, asking questions geared more toward understanding where they were getting their information from, and whether social media is a large factor in their understanding of these issues.

when presented with a question about how social media informed their view on climate change, only 7% of the teenagers answered “not at all.” furthermore, 57% responded that they source their news from social media, be it all of their information or just a small amount.

these answers help paint a picture of just how impactful social media is in young activism right now. in the same poll where every single person answered that they would, if presented with the option, take action to fight climate change, a large majority finds some amount of their information on social media. 

sasha james, a rising junior from maryland stated: “climate change is the most looming issue by far and most people are either unaware of the gravity of the problem or are denying its existence because they think it is ‘years/decades away’ or because they are too scared to accept the truth and face it head on.”

gen z knows what is happening, and we understand that we must mobilize, as it baldly threatens our future. don’t worry, this generation is not wasting its time on the internet — we’re using it to change the world.

this decision marks the culmination of seven years of organizing by gw students and aligns with the recommendations from the university’s environmental, social, and governance (esg) responsibility task force.

“for nearly a decade, gw students and students across the country have been demanding that our universities take moral leadership and end their support for the fossil fuel industry,” said jeremy liskar, member of the student organization sunrise gw and a student representative on the esg task force. “our victory (this week) clearly shows that student organizing has changed the consensus on this issue. gw’s commitment will help move the ball for other institutions to take similar action.”

the task force, established earlier in 2020, included students, faculty, trustees, and alumni. together they recommended seven commitments to be incorporated into gw’s existing sustainability plan. in addition to divesting from all public and private companies that focus on fossil fuel extraction, they also recommend that the university commits to halting any new direct or indirect investments to businesses that reap the majority of their revenue from fossil fuel, including coal, oil, and natural gas.

“the covid-19 crisis has served to highlight the enormous impact humans have on the environment and the need for equitable access to healthy natural resources,” the task force wrote in a statement released monday. “the reduced burning of fossil fuels over the last few months has, in a short time, had a dramatically positive impact on the quality of the air we breathe and our waterways. simultaneously, the pressures of the pandemic alongside existing environmental, health, and economic disparities have laid bare the need for more inclusive and equitable structures in our institutions and society as a whole.”

gw joins 37 other u.s. educational institutions that have committed to or achieved full divestment, according to fossil free, including planet forward 2022年世界杯亚洲预选赛结果 schools middlebury college, suny-esf and the university of hawaii. other d.c. area schools are also part of the movement, as georgetown university made a pledge to divest completely within 10 years in february and american university announced the completion of their full divestment in april. university of maryland, located just outside of d.c., agreed to a full divestment plan in 2016.

this announcement comes at the culmination of an academic year saturated with advocacy by gw students demanding the university divest its roughly $1.78 billion endowment from businesses that profit from fossil fuel. currently, less than 3% of the endowment — or around $50 million — comes from fossil fuel investment, according to estimates. however, meghan chapple, director of gw’s office of sustainability, says divestment is more significant than that number may suggest.

“it’s important because it’s part of a larger movement and it sends a message about climate change … there is significant consensus that climate change is the big, pressing issue of our time,” chapple said.

the “larger movement” to urge institutions of higher education to commit to fossil fuel divestment began when unity college became the first to do so in 2012. the same year, the fossil free campaign — a branch of 350.org — was founded on student-led action to demand divestment. fossil free gw was formed in 2013.

in november 2019, fossil free gw announced they were transitioning to sunrise gw, to become a campus hub for the sunrise movement. as a chapter of the national youth-led group, sunrise gw organized art builds, protests, and petitions on campus urging the university to divest over the course of the 2019-2020 academic year.

this april, a referendum to divest the university’s holding from fossil fuel was included in gw’s student association election. it received approval from 85.66% of voters.

“i would like to acknowledge our student leaders who have — as representatives of their generation, of the generation that will inhabit the planet over the next 50 to 100 years, the generation that is going to be the future of this planet — i’d like to acknowledge them for all the work they have done to raise awareness of the importance of climate change to the leadership of the university,” chapple said.

two current undergraduate students, liskar and jillian weber, who has been involved in gw sustainability initiatives, were members of the 14-person task force.

“i think the student community can be confident that they were well represented in the voices that jillian and jeremy brought to the table,” chapple said.

liskar said sunrise gw is “ecstatic” about the divestment announcement.

since releasing their recommendations for the university sustainability plan in late may, the esg task force held two digital town halls, allowing students, staff, faculty, and alumni to provide feedback, and additionally received more than 100 submissions of “overwhelmingly positive” feedback via the task force website.

divestment strategies have been used in the past to invoke societal change, perhaps most notably in opposition to south african apartheid. in the mid-1980s, campuses around the world divested from companies doing business in south africa, ultimately helping to weaken the apartheid government.

chapple also drew attention to the university’s pledge to become carbon neutral by offsetting two centuries worth of greenhouse gas emissions dating back to the university’s charter in 1821. while gw had previously aimed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, the university this week committed to an accelerated plan, aiming to reach neutrality by 2030. gw also signed on to plans to go beyond carbon neutrality in honor of the university’s bicentennial next year, a pledge chapple finds equally significant to that of divestment.

other additions to the university’s updated sustainability plan include goals to eliminate single-use plastic on campus, increase the amount of greenspace for biodiversity, conserve stormwater, and convert campus transportation to zero-emissions vehicles.

more than 200 d.c.-area teens called for climate policy action friday morning, skipping school to participate in a global climate strike started by swedish youth activist greta thunberg.

the students protested outside the white house, then marched to the supreme court, where they staged an 11-minute die-in, saying just 11 years remain before it’s too late to combat the effects of climate change.

“i was kind of born into this crisis,” said 16-year-old jerome foster ii, who organized the strike. “the world is dying and our politicians aren’t acting.”

foster said he will continue protesting outside the white house each friday and will encourage his peers to join him. 

last week, a video of children pleading with sen. dianne feinstein, d-cal., to back the green new deal resolution went viral on twitter. the video, which now has about 10 million views, was posted by the sunrise movement, an environmental activist organization consisting mostly of young people. 

while feinstein made it clear that she thought the group’s goals were unrealistic, she released a statement saying she had her own climate change resolution she was going to release soon, but acknowledged their “spirited discussion.” others have criticized sunrise for only posting an edited version of the video on twitter at first, which some considered misleading.

it’s not the first time the group has made headlines. at the end of 2018, they staged a sit-in in house democrat’s offices to demand action on climate change and many attribute this action as part of the reason rep. alexandria ocasio-cortez, d-n.y., introduced a green new deal proposal in february.      

fifty-five percent of sunrise’s funding comes from institutions like the wallace global fund and the rockefeller family fund, but most of the rest comes from individual donations. they raised over a million dollars in 2018. 

sunrise isn’t finished yet. the group has plans to disrupt the 2020 democratic primary debates this summer.

from organizations focused on energy action to sustainable development, there’s something out there for you. the association for the advancement of sustainability in higher education has this list of student-focused campus sustainability organizations.

another way to help — from any campus? contribute to planet forward! anyone can be a storyteller. check it out!

in a unique collaboration between student leaders and the university administration, in 2004 the university of california adopted a comprehensive, ambitious policy on sustainable practices. the policy includes goals for the university to achieve the following by the year 2020: reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50%; purchase 20% sustainable food; and send zero waste to landfills. towards these goals, uc has already earned 87 leed certifications and is saving $32 million annually on its utility bills thanks to energy efficiency investments.

this is part of uc’s broader sustainability commitment to lead the way toward a more economically robust, environmentally resilient, healthy future. uc campuses have become living laboratories for sustainability solutions.

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