OK, let’s recover from thinking about oil and gas leases by turning to young leaders in the climate movement. A new film called To the End focuses on young women leaders, especially women of color. One of the featured women is Varshini Prakash, still in her 20s, who helped found the Sunrise Movement, the youth climate action organization that raised climate issues to the top of the talking points list in the 2020 election and has strongly influenced President Biden’s climate policies.
An interview in Salon with Prakash (link below) celebrates the way young people are leading in the climate movement. Prakash remarks, “What is most inspiring to me is to see the level of latent energy and the firecracker that is ready and willing to explode in youth energy that is freaked out and wants to do something about it and is just waiting to be ignited.”
She also acknowledges frankly the griefs and disappointments inherent this work, most recently the frustrations over one fossil-fuel-industry-funded senator who managed to torpedo the Build Back Better Act. Her response? Renewed determination:
“Organize better, organize smarter. We need to build power that can outweigh the power of these extremely corrupt organizations and corporations that are throwing our future into peril.”