Louisa Casson
Louisa Casson
London, UK
Some friends at school had got involved with a group called Climate Rush, dressing up as suffragettes to raise the alarm about climate change. I was intrigued and asked them why they got involved: hearing them talk about the destructive social impacts of failing to get a grip of climate change made me realise this was far more than an environmental issue. I think the world can and must do better than end up in a situation where people across the world have their opportunities to live fulfilling, happy lives disrupted by the shocks of extreme weather and rolling conflicts over limited resources. The failure to deal with increased migration into Europe over the past couple of years has shown how quickly protections for human rights and dignity can break down – why risk this becoming the norm? These friends also encouraged me to get involved, first with just handing out spoof newspapers showing future climate disasters without action when G20 leaders came to London. This showed me we could all take responsibility and action to do something. I can’t stand just moaning about problems – the idea of catastrophic climate change made me angry and terrified, so I wanted to act.
I’m campaigning for political action on climate change, experimenting with a whole range of different tactics. I’ve always sought new, challenging opportunities to work with other people: organising with young people from across the world to stage creative stunts at the UN climate talks reminding governments that they are negotiating our future; connecting NGOs across Europe to agree more ambitious EU climate policy; and now holding the UK Government’s incoherent energy decisions to account working for the Labour Party’s shadow climate and energy team.
For me, political change doesn’t just come from pressuring politicians to act. It also means supporting more people to feel part of the climate movement, and empowered to act – whether that’s running workshops to encourage young people to articulate what kind of future they want, working with arts organisations to end fossil fuel sponsorship of our museums, or organising action camps in solidarity with local groups resisting new coal mines in south Wales.
We now know that to tackle climate change, we have to get off fossil fuels. Like abolishing slavery, ending poverty: the goal has to be zero carbon. That opens up the much more interesting conversation at a local, national and global level about how to do this. Disruption always hits the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in our society hardest. We need to see a just, orderly transition that brings opportunities for truly sustainable employment in clean industries. My generation have grown up feeling like our protests against the Iraq war and university tuition fees were ignored; and that we’ve faced the brunt of the financial crash. Failing to act fast enough on climate change would be an even greater betrayal.