Climate Desensitization: The Educated Bystander

As climate activists looking outside of the little bubble of environmentalists in which we thrive, it can often seem astounding how desensitized much of our world is to the issues that seem so glaring to us. This is especially obvious in my community, where the fact that climate change doesn’t harm us in clear ways has created a sense of apathy toward the issue. As a climate organizer and school climate club president, this is something that I particularly struggle with. Living in a relatively progressive area of Southern California, most people don’t deny climate change; however, there is a giant gap between those who believe it’s real and those who act with the urgency that this issue calls for. Our events are often populated by the same small groups of people, students laugh at us for participating in strikes, and the label of “that climate girl” is something that has been weaponized against me on multiple occasions.

The phenomenon of the educated bystander is one that I believe comes from climate desensitization which stems from climate change being an idea we have grown up around. We were the generation that heard “climate change is real” used as a tagline in TV shows, the ones who saw the rise of VSCO girls, and the subsequent war on plastic straws. Climate change has always been an omnipresent issue and that has resulted in a present where no one seems to sense the urgency with which we need to act on it. Additionally, this media portrayal of the climate crisis as merely a consumer issue, or a matter of “saving the turtles”, has downgraded the pivotal role that environmentalism plays in human rights, labor, indigenous rights, anti-racist, (the list goes on) movements. Am I just being annoying when I tell you to join us in our strike for the climate? Or am I extending a hand to my siblings on this Earth, asking for them to care?

In a generation where it seems cool to not care, I wonder how we can break this mass desensitization to climate issues, especially in communities not on the frontline. This is something that I have reflected on thoroughly and I’ve concluded that there isn’t a way to deal with the issue all at once. However, the first step is educating people on climate change and helping them find their place in the movement. For example, our club has implemented a climate literacy campaign where we invite intersectional climate professionals to show our students how wide the world of environmentalism truly is and hopefully empower them to pursue their interests in a way that brings us towards a more just future. We also bring events to our school to show students the power that their voices can have.

We may be small (for now) and we may get laughed at, but at the end of the day, it’s worth it if we can get one more person to break out of the mold and care. That’s my goal as a club president, and I think it should be a wider goal in the environmentalist movement. While empowering the voices of those on the frontline of climate issues is essential to the advancement of environmental justice, mobilizing the people who aren’t directly affected by climate change (yet) is also an important step to creating a truly united movement.