Humans of USyd: environmental activists
In the lead up to the USU’s Enviro Week, Emily Graetz spoke with four of USyd’s environmental activists who are paving the way to a more sustainable future.
Varsha Yajman
Varsha is an Arts/Law (Political Economy) student. She was an organiser of the 2019 School Strike for Climate and the 2020 NSW Schools Coordinator for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.
I got into environmental activism when my school sent around some flyers for the AYCC student climate leadership program (Australian Youth Climate Coalition). From there I joined and organised the 2019 school climate strike and helped in building the September 20th strike and the Global Strike.
Managing all of that with year 12 was hard. But I think it was a good break away from school and grades. Being a part of something bigger – as cheesy as it sounds – really does make a difference and it makes you realise how small your little problems are.
At the moment, I’m mostly concerned with environmental issues like gas - that’s been at the forefront. Indigenous land rights are really not being taken care of at all. Also, as a person of colour I’m concerned with the Adani Coal Mine. The State Bank of India is thinking of giving a 1.5-billion-dollar loan to the Adani mine – and that is public money. India is in such a bad state with the pandemic so obviously that money should be used much more wisely. In the past few months, I’ve been helping with some protests that are in solidarity with India. We just found out they’ve chosen to delay the loan due to all the pressure that’s been put on them by people protesting around the world.
I never really understood ‘people power’. Even in school you learn about it - the idea that being a part of a team is better than being by yourself. But when you see it applied to a world issue, it’s amazing. Things like School Strike – that many people turn up – and it really shows you that being a part of something bigger does make a difference. It allows you to channel those anxieties. Being a part of a network and having a supportive community is so important.
Other young people can get involved by just joining a local group – I know it can be hard and it is daunting – but even just showing up to a Zoom! There’s so many environmental organisations and they have plenty of meetings online. If you’re afraid to turn your camera on, just leave it off and have a listen! It’s so important to be aware and get a little bit of knowledge and figure out what issue you’re actually passionate about and how you want to help, whether that’s organising, speaking or taking a backseat and coordinating events.
I think sometimes the word ‘activist’ – I don’t know how I feel about it sometimes. It can be a bit gatekeep-y. There’s a big misconception that activists are just doing it for their own gain and they don’t really understand what’s happening, especially if they’re a young person. It’s like “you don’t actually know what the world is like, you’ve only had 18 years on this planet and I’ve had 65”. I think the real thing with climate justice is that we are inheriting this world and this future that’s not going to be sustainable if we don’t do anything about it.
Tiger Perkins
Tiger is a Bachelor of Arts/Advanced Studies (Psychology and German) student and a member of the Enviro Collective.
Environmentalism has always mattered but I didn’t pick up on that straight away. In my gap year I started having some longer political discussions with my cousin about feminism and environmentalism. Then I came to the Uni the next year and that’s kind of when my activism kicked off.
For me, I’m concerned with government and big businesses’ tokenistic environmental activism – the fact that we allow ourselves to be distracted by things like keep cups and bans on plastic straws when there’s no real change that’s been driven. Those businesses are still releasing tonnes of carbon emissions… but then you can save 20c if you bring in your keep cup! Really the key issue is government inaction and their empty promises. You’ve seen it for decades, we’ve known about the effects of climate change since the mid-1800’s when there were first reports on it and almost 200 years later almost nothing of any effect has been done.
One of the most motivating things for me has been to realise that all these activist campaigns that I’ve been a part of have been connected. I think that it’s sometimes hard to see where the BLM campaign intersects with the climate movement and where that intersects with feminism and where that intersects with the No Cuts No Fees campaigns. At the end of the day it comes back to capitalism and recognising that any exploitation or oppression that occurs throughout any level of society comes back to a profit motive. It’s been really motivating to see that all these issues intersect at capitalism because it’s not disparate issues that you’re fighting.
I think that [grappling with individual v structural change] was a huge issue for me personally to deal with as well. It seems hypocritical: how can you be an environmental activist and continue to drive your car? How can you be an environmental activist and continue to occasionally get a plastic cup when you order an iced coffee? As much as you do have to live by the principles that you espouse, the vast majority of pollution comes from industry and mass scale production, not personal use.
A common misconception is when we hear the phrase “stupol hacks”. I think it’s a really big issue that turns people off the environment movement, that we’re seen to only be doing it as CV boosters or for our careers or trying to get into politics. I have no interest in going into politics – I want to be a teacher – but environmentalism really matters to me. It’s hard for people to reconcile that we’re not doing this for us. But then again, in a way we are… if the planet dies then we’re all going to die as well. This isn’t just about us. This is about the planet, future generations.
If there’s one thing I’d say about activism, it’s an extremely welcoming community. It’s good to leave the high school clique-ness behind – to have such a common goal as the Enviro Collective does. Everyone is absolutely welcome, everyone goes out of their way to speak and introduce themselves to other people and it’s really fun! It’s a really great thing to know that you are doing good for someone other than yourself.
Jayfel Tulabing
Jayfel is a Medical Science / Computer Science student and member of the Enviro Collective.
I got involved in environmental activism around late 2019 when I went to the Sydney is Choking Protest for the bushfires and then the next year in 2020 when I started getting more involved at USyd I found the Enviro Collective.
At the moment, I’m pretty evenly concerned with the fracking that is happening over in The Pilliga/Narrabri and also this gas lead recovery plan that the Liberals are trying to roll out. I’m concerned with what is happening over in The Pilliga/Narrabri and the lack of cooperation that those oil companies are having with communities. It’s not only an environmental issue, it’s becoming an issue of Indigenous justice as well. I am also concerned with the gas lead recovery because I don’t think that the right way to create more jobs for people is through fossil fuels – we should be focussing on renewables.
A common misconception I think people might have about student activists is that we are extremely radical. Of course, we’re all radical to the extent that we want to enact change but what people are failing to notice is that we’re all quite rational and realise this is a climate crisis and everything we do is for the greater good – not for the sake of being radical. I get a lot of flack personally from older members of my family for being an activist and going out to protests - they don’t really see the point in them. But I think that going to protests and lobbying large companies and governments are the only ways that we’re going to actually have change happen.
The biggest lesson I’ve learnt is about having a tough skin! Being able to face all the negative comments that people say about you like “what are you doing, you’re wasting your time?” and getting some strength from that. Also, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt is to be informed. Before going out to a protest or before I go out to campaign, I like to make sure I know everything about what I’m talking about so I don’t look like a fool and so I can back up my arguments.
If students don’t view themselves as radical enough to go to these climate protests and want to get involved in climate activism and environmentalism, I think they should first and foremost get informed and educated: do the research you need to do to get information on the topics you’re interested in. Then attend reading groups from the Enviro Collective and other environmental groups’ meetings.
Drew Beacom
Drew is a Bachelor of Arts/Advanced Studies (International and Global Studies and International Relations) student and an SRC Environment Officer.
For me, getting into environmental activism happened step by step. I was doing small things in high school like organising Clean Up Australia Day. It was pretty easy to get yourself involved in at USyd, especially around 2019 when there was massive momentum with School Strikes. I was going to protests and I heard about the Enviro Collective and got involved in that.
I’m most concerned with the government’s gas-lead recovery at the moment. Coming out of Covid there was a really good opportunity for policy makers to say, “we’ve got a fresh start, we’re going to actually try and do something that not only benefits the economy but benefits humanity more generally”. And yet we’ve just seen the complete opposite – Indigenous lands out in Narrabri completely pillaged in order to turn a profit for a dying industry.
When you’re an activist and you’ve organised a protest in response to a certain policy or an idea – and it has failed – it can get quite difficult because you have to go “I’ve copped a loss here”. But in the grand scheme of things, we’ve made progress. I think having the resilience to be able to overcome adversity is important because it can be rife. Last year during Covid, not only were we told we couldn’t organise, we couldn’t protest, we couldn’t meet and on top of that, environmentalism was completely chucked out the window in favour of a fossil-fuel lead recovery. Considering that you’ve just got to say, “we’ll cop this loss but we’ll just keep moving forward”.
To get involved in activism, my first recommendation would be to join the Enviro Collective – it’s a really open space to focus on bringing on environmentalism and change through rallies and also social media campaigns which aren’t so time intensive and are easier to engage with. I think looking out for events that suit the individual and their experience level as an activist and the amount of time they have. Even reading some of the student newspapers which often advertise protests and activities that are going on – there’s always a little entry level thing that you can tag along to.
The most important thing at the moment for student activism is the Enviro Collective’s Student General Meeting on the 28th of April. We are trying to get the University formally acknowledge and endorse the Climate Strike on the 21st of May and thus have no penalties enforced for those students and staff who miss university on that day. We need 200 people in person for that to pass so building for that is really important at the moment and to get people to understand what a Student General Meeting is pivotal as well.
To get involved:
Student General Meeting: 28th April @4pm, New Law Lawns
May Climate Strike: 21st May @11pm, Hyde Park
USyd’s Enviro Collective