The importance of youth voices in the importance of environmental writing cannot be underestimated. “The responsibility for caring for our planet has the ability to give our lives meaning and purpose,” says Alexandria Villaseñor, Guest Judge for our Climate Writing Awards. “Being an environmentalist can bring a lot of satisfaction and joy because our planet, our biodiversity, our natural wonders are all inspiring and amazing.” At just 13, Alexandria began a solo climate strike in front of the UN, and she is now an internationally-recognized environmental activist and author.
Read on to learn more about her activism, her writing on the climate crisis, and her advice for young climate writers.
You participated in a weekly (solo) strike in front of the United Nations Headquarters that lasted for over two years. What did you think about as you passed those hours alone?
I was alone at the UN for the first 14 weeks of my strike before I started having people join me regularly. Honestly, most of the time, I felt anger and sadness. In some ways, I resented having to sit out there to bring attention to a problem my generation didn’t create. I also spent a lot of time thinking about what other people might be thinking as they walked or drove by. I’d wonder if they even knew what climate change was or if they were a climate denier. Sometimes I considered the bubble people lived in that allowed them to narrowly focus on their day without considering the larger environmental and social issues of our time that they were clearly living within. I also learned a lot about how our privileges protect us from harsh realities. People who have the resources and connections to escape the worst effects of the climate crisis were often more likely to just walk right by and be unconcerned with my message. I learned a lot about humanity during the two years I sat on that bench.
You’ve written and spoken widely on the climate crisis. What is your writing process? How do your ideas spark to life?
When I write is deeply connected to my mood at the time. I do things to create a space that can influence my mood, such as light candles or meditate. I’ve created collages of pictures on my walls to look at and provide inspiration while I write. I also write in solitude and quiet, so I’ll ask to not be interrupted with my thoughts. Thinking about the climate crisis and all the other social justice issues facing us right now means that we have to think deeply and consider different aspects of a problem or idea. There is some research that says the climate crisis is so large and affects so many different areas of our lives and society that we can’t conceive of the problem all at once, and I find this to be totally true. It’s hard to think in what’s called “multiplicities,” which is what you have to do in order to comprehend the scale of climate change.
The anthology All We Can Save features your stunning essay “A Letter to Adults,” which you wrote at age 15. Can you explain what you meant when you wrote, “The climate crisis is the largest generational inequality there is”?
My parents were raised in Northern California, and they often talk about when heat waves were considered to be anything above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, we’re seeing heat waves with temperatures above 110, 115 degrees. Today’s heatwaves in the same region regularly buckle roads, break infrastructure, cause massive power outages, damage crops, and kill people. This generational inequality can also be seen with biodiversity. My mom remembers driving down the California Central Valley delta as a teenager and talks about how so many insects would hit the car window that she couldn’t see. Today, you can make that same drive and sometimes never have a single insect hit your window. Some people might not find this alarming, but humanity needs insects to survive. The intergenerational differences in biodiversity is a constant reminder that we’re in the sixth mass extinction in our planet’s history. My generation is also experiencing significant economic inequality. For example, the home my grandparents purchased for $15,000 in 1971 now sells for $1.2 million dollars, while the average wages in the U.S. have stagnated since that same time. The destruction of our natural world over time is directly related to these growing economic inequalities as well. Sometimes I wonder why adults would ever think it’s okay to leave a world like this to their children. These growing intergenerational inequities aren’t sustainable for humanity and a livable planet.
In the same essay, you wrote, “To me, the responsibility to save and protect our planet for ourselves and future generations is not a burden. I think it’s a blessing.” Can you describe what you meant by “blessing”?
I think what I mean by “blessing” in my essay is really better identified as “purpose.” The responsibility for caring for our planet has the ability to give our lives meaning and purpose. Being an environmentalist can bring a lot of satisfaction and joy because our planet, our biodiversity, and our natural wonders are all inspiring and amazing. To have a purpose where it’s our job to protect all of that is like a dream job. Can you imagine a world where it’s our job to hike through waterfalls and take naps in fields of wildflowers, all in the name of protecting them? It sounds perfect to me!
Write the World’s Climate Awards will be given in three genres: poetry, flash fiction, and advocacy letter writing. What advice do you have for climate writers?
The most important piece of advice I can give to writers is to just start putting words on paper. They don’t have to make any sense; it can just be rambling thoughts and ideas. You can write bullet points, keywords and even draw pictures! Nobody is going to see it except you! All it takes is to write a couple of sentences, and you’ll feel a shift, and it will propel you forward. I’ve noticed that my greatest time of procrastination is before I’ve put anything on paper and while the ideas are still swirling in my head. Sometimes those ideas get stuck there, and I’ll even start to worry about not getting them on the paper in the correct way, and it’ll stop me even more. So those first couple of words are so important. In order to get somewhere, all you have to do is take the first step.
About the judge: At the age of 13, Alexandria began a lone climate strike in solidarity with the Fridays for Future movement in front of the United Nations Headquarters, a weekly strike that lasted over 2 years, while also co-founding the U.S. Youth Climate Strike Movement of 2019. Now, at the age of 17 and a high school Junior, Alexandria has become an internationally recognized environmental activist, public speaker and author featured in the anthology of women climate leaders, All We Can Save. She addressed the 2020 Democratic National Convention, the United Nations, NATO and the World Economic Forum. She has attended COP25 in Madrid, COP26 in Glasgow and COP27 in Egypt. She was a child petitioner for the ground-breaking international complaint to the United Nations, Children vs. Climate Crisis and is the youngest Junior Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences. Alexandria sits on many Youth Advisory Boards including the U.S. based environmental policy think tank Evergreen Action, the American Lung Association and IKEA Corporation. Alexandria has been honored by Seventeen Magazine as one of their “Young Voices of the Year” and by Marie Claire Magazine and as “Environmental Changemaker”. Alexandria has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times and The New Yorker, and has written op-eds that have been published in The Guardian and Teen Vogue. For her work, Alexandria has received the Earth Day Network Youth Leadership Award, the Rachel Carson Environmental Justice Award, and the Common Good American Spirit Changemakers Award, and was included in Politico’s top 100 people influential in climate change policy list.
