By Avery Roberts
Although they strive to be good role models, my parents — like most — fail in one area: climate action. True, they congratulate me on being a ‘youth climate activist’. They put on a brave face; reassure me that climate change is “not that bad.” Unfortunately, those well-intentioned words sometimes invalidate legitimate fear. Further, they fail to prevent fossil fuels, like liquid natural gas, from destroying our world. Like many, my parents have never joined me in climate action.
Here lies the narrative that the ‘kids will save us.’ This idea that youth advocacy will be the “silver bullet” that solves the world’s problems, including LNG expansion, is a burden that far too many young people shoulder. “The kids will save us” narrative denies that everyone, including parents, must act for us to reject fossil fuels.
I joined Zero Hour, a global youth-led climate justice organization, because I want to become a writer, sharing the stories living in my head and heart. My ambitions are threatened by an increasingly unstable climate system. Climate activism is not a priority for my parents because they’re focused on their careers and caring for our family, but they may not realize that care and advocacy support each other. After all, parents everywhere care for their children in many ways, but their support is for naught if we are not guaranteed a livable future. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2023 was Tampa Bay’s driest year on record, with an eighteen-inch decrease from typical precipitation conditions. If parents, like governments or corporate entities, continue their inaction, Tampa Bay’s nearly one million residents will suffer, and climate impacts will only expand. In fact, 2023 was the hottest year on record and marked the first time the global temperature average rose above 1.5 degrees Celsius (a warming threshold set by the Paris Climate Agreement). The climate crisis will only intensify if immediate action is not taken to phase out fossil fuels. It is time to make climate action as normal as cooking family dinner or teaching a child to ride a bike.
Despite the urgency and attention the climate crisis demands, taking climate action is not easy or obvious. One study reported that some parents’ own anxiety about climate change stifles conversations about the issue with their children, let alone action on it. Make no mistake, it will be challenging and uncomfortable to talk through environmental racism and the gravity of the climate crisis if you have not engaged in activism before. More than discussing it, you must translate this knowledge into practices that dismantle the systems of oppression causing this crisis.
However, in the internet age, climate action and education have never been more accessible. For example, parents can divest their personal finances from banks investing in fossil fuel expansion. They can bring their kids along to a climate protest, or call their elected officials together. Parents can even help their kids sue the government for their right to a clean, healthful environment with Our Children’s Trust! Third Act specifically empowers Americans over the age of sixty, who may be both parents and grandparents. Climate change can be so overwhelming that individual acts feel fruitless, but every single action builds our global movement for climate justice.
Apathy to climate catastrophe is allowing the fossil fuel industry to grow far past its time. Parental inaction tacitly endorses that apathy to the next generation. Parents have a huge opportunity — and responsibility — to model environmental stewardship and social responsibility. They needn’t be an outdoor enthusiast or a full-time activist to make a meaningful impact. Again: every single action doesn’t just matter. It’s necessary.
We can’t do this alone. Gen-Z is ready to welcome you.
