Sustainability & The Environment with Tatiana Ringsby

Sustainability & The Environment with Tatiana Ringsby

Despite everything that’s come our way in 2020, climate change was still an important topic on everyone’s mind. Even before the chaos of 2020 (pandemic, Australian wildfires, etc.), a 2019 survey of over 10,000 18-25-year-olds across 22 countries revealed that 41% of respondents cited global warming as the most critical issue facing the world.

On October 20, only weeks ahead of the 2020 election, The Conversationalist Founder and CEO, Sophie Beren, spoke with Tatiana Ringsby and a group of Gen-Z panelists about climate change, sustainability, and the environment. The panelists approached the topics from various political perspectives but unified around its urgency. They each spoke eloquently about their research and experience.

Championing togetherness

Our host, Tatiana, is a YouTuber, influencer, model, and environmental activist. She also owns a sustainable streetwear brand called Pronounced Tatchi! Her expertise and experience in the sustainability space brought depth and nuance to the conversation. The event also included a giveaway of Ringsby’s merch from her second capsule collection, which added a bit of fun suspense to the convo.

After introducing the panelists, it was time to get into it.

When you hear the terms “sustainability” and the “environment,”  what comes to mind?

Claira Janover is a Harvard student studying Government and Psychology who has worked for the UNEP on global environmental law and policy reform in the past. She said that sustainability is about making affordable and maintainable lifestyle choices that reduce a person’s carbon footprint. But she also spoke about what sustainability looks like in a more structural sense. “I think what we're talking about is creating a society more broadly, and specifically an economy, that's decarbonized and isn't reliant on fossil fuels and producing carbon emissions to function,” she said. “The way to do that is something that I’m excited to talk about with all of you.”

Ben May, an environmental advocate, writer, speaker, and Founder and President of the ThinkOcean Society, said that sustainability and the environment are the most critical topic of our generation. “Largely because of intersectionality, I think sustainability and the environment play into every part of our life,” he said, adding that the topic doesn’t get proper recognition from people in power, and he hoped to see youth advocates change that. 

Kaleigh Cunningham is a graduate of the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where she founded a Young Americans for Liberty chapter. She said she believes humans can coexist with the environment to create a more sustainable future.  “I think that we can work together, and while doing that, we can also ensure that our most vulnerable aren't left behind by regulating out their ability to access energy and those other things that come from the environment,” she said.

Why do you think climate change is such a controversial topic?

Benji Backer is President and Founder of the American Conservation Coalition and a recent graduate of the University of Washington. He said that climate change is so controversial because it’s politicized and made about partisanship instead of environmental impact. “When you think of climate change, you think of these things that aren't in people's backyards,” he said. “When climate change can be made into something that everyone can relate to, they can start to fight for it.” 

Do you believe that government funds should be allocated toward fighting climate change?

Safiya Khan, a freshman at George Mason University studying Government and International Politics, said she agreed with Benji’s point about climate change politicization and compared it to the pandemic. “Wearing a mask is becoming a political ideology instead of human safety, and we've seen that with climate change too. I think that's very purposeful,” she said. “There are certain entities that would rather [climate change] remain politicized, and we remain polarized on this issue. When you keep people farther apart, and even when people have the perception that we have more differences than we have in common, that keeps that cycle going of people not unifying together,” she said.

I think it is important to see it as a political issue,” said Sequoia Smith, a recent college graduate and the former Director of Advocacy and Communications at GenZ Girl Gang. “It's not only just taking care of the environment. It’s making sure people have good-paying jobs and affordable housing, making sure people have healthcare. I see the environment as this consensus of all our social issues that are like happening in our country.” she said. She also agreed with Safiya’s comparison of the climate and the pandemic and pointed out that both issues illuminate how our system puts profit before anything else. 

What do you think would happen if climate change wasn't prioritized in our government, and why?

Nate Hochman is a rising senior at Colorado College. He is a Conservative Fellow at the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and said that many environmental policies are on the table right now. It’s fair to be optimistic about the future. He pointed to a study done by the American Conservation Coalition, which showed that Gen Z conservatives are more concerned about the environment than older conservatives. “One of the reasons I’m optimistic about the future on this is because our generation, across partisan lines, really agrees that climate change is an issue,” he said. Americans can't agree on anything these days, but our generation can agree on climate change, and that's something to be excited about.” 

“There have to be macro-level changes from a policy perspective. Being smart about renewable energy, investing and incentivizing carbon farming, curbing the effects of meat and dairy adopting a carbon tax,” Claira said. “All of these things are legislative and political ways to reduce the scale of global warming and climate change. But what we see is that the term time cycles make it so that there's little incentive for politicians to invest in the future.” 

Could rising temperature and severe weather disasters be related to climate change?

Jacob Abel, a spokesperson for RepublicEn.org and a recent graduate of Seton Hall University, said he believes that those things contribute to climate change. Some policies could be put in place to reverse those effects. But he brought the conversation back around to unity across generations. “I've met grandmas and grandpas who are involved with this because of their grandchildren. [They]  want to leave the world a better place than they found it,” he said.

Do you think that we do anything to hurt our planet daily?

Kaleigh said everyone has a carbon footprint and that we can all do things to lessen our impact. But she also added her ideas about the importance of unity. “A politician’s job is to make enough people happy to get reelected again,” she said. “So if enough of us are caring about these sorts of things, then they're gonna start addressing it.” 

Do you think that people are the major driving forces of these negative environmental changes?

“Yes, but with an asterisk,” Benji said. He added that since many of these events would have happened regardless of human behavior,  it’s important to distinguish that climate disasters occur more severely because of climate change. He hopes to see Gen Z following in Claira’s footsteps. “As a consumer, we do live in a capitalist system, and I happen to think that we can solve climate change while balancing capitalism in the government,” he said. “But we have a role as consumers in that conversation. We need to do more to act on climate change as individuals.”

“Although it's very important for people to make individual actions, whether that’s Meatless Mondays or composting, I think it's also important to hold corporations and companies accountable,” Sequoia said, going off of Benji’s point, adding that one hundred companies likely cause seventy-one percent of global carbon emissions.

She spoke further about the importance of focusing on the bigger picture regarding solutions to climate change. “Holding fast fashion companies accountable, holding oil companies accountable, holding all of these agricultural companies accountable, I think that will be a much more sustainable future instead of blaming a working-class person for not going vegan,” she said. 

Safiya agreed with Sequoia about the importance of holding elected officials accountable instead of focusing on individual action. She related this to voter turnout and the importance of coming together to make political change. “At the end of the day, no matter how many goals you have, how many dreams, how much change you want to create in the world, that can't happen if we don't have a planet to do it on and so it kind of all comes down to that,” she said.

“That was like poetry,” Kaleigh said to Safiya. She circled back to Sequoia’s point about holding corporations accountable and reminded everyone to be aware of what’s happening in their local community. 

Tatiana agreed. “I'm a big advocate for starting local and starting within your community and doing as much as you can in your own space,” she said. 

How has this conversation broken your echo chamber?

Ben said the conversation helped him understand the importance of I-statements and speaking from his own experience. 

“Go talk to someone who you disagree with on the subject or who differs with you on the policy they want to enact,” Jacob said. “I think that's a very simple action you can take to have a better understanding of where someone else is coming from.”

After saying goodbye to the panelists, Tatiana joined Sophie for a Q&A session where she spoke about her takeaways from the discussion, her career, and her sustainability journey. She said that communicating with the panelists made her realize that she wants to hold people in power accountable in her activism. 

“I am someone who very much does focus on working locally and picking up trash and doing my part as an environmentalist,” she said. “I think that's very important for me to start looking into, going out there, putting my voice out there in a more political sphere around climate change.”

Join The Conversationalist for plenty more panels in the weeks ahead, featuring important conversations about topics that impact Gen Z’ers. Follow The Conversationalist on Twitter,Instagram, and TikTok to learn about how you can enter to be featured on a future panel and text UNIFY to 1 (877) 222-1119 to join our community and connect with members.