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ISU Climate Activists Talk State Of The Movement During Pandemic

Breanna Grow
/
WGLT
Clockwise: Illinois State University junior Rachel Sabella, senior Jake Breit, senior Xavier Braboy, and junior Devin Paoni all joined the climate movement on campus through the Student Environmental Activism Coalition (SEAC).

Last spring students at Illinois State University led a crowd of least 250 in a march through Uptown Normal to demand governments take action to fight climate change.   

That summer, the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) had successfully lobbied the Town of Normal to require that leasing companies provide onsite recycling at their rental properties. 

And in February the newly-formed Divestment Campaign was putting pressure on the university’s administration to examine its investments in fossil fuels.  

The movement had built real momentum. Change was coming.  

And then … you know what comes next. 

Not only did COVID-19 force students to stay home; it pushed the climate crisis out of the global spotlight. 

And then, just as parts of the country were beginning to reopen again, a police officer killed George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis, kicking off ongoing racial justice protests.   

While climate change may not be the big headline right now, senior anthropology major and divestment campaign member Rachel Sabella said students aren’t letting the issue take the back seat. 

It’s complicated, she said.

“Like the Black Lives Matter movement, there are things that are more pressing right now, but we can’t really say that one injustice is greater or worse than another injustice,” she said. “So that’s why at least I believe that it’s really important to work with these issues in conjunction with each other.”

Students say they believe racial and environmental injustice are inextricably linked: Examine one close enough, and you’ll find the other. 

Senior history major and fellow divestment campaign member Jake Breit said the impacts of climate change will hit people of color the hardest.  

“So because minorities tend to get pushed into the less affluent areas by these systems of racism that we see, the extreme weather for instance like extreme heat or extreme cold, present more of a risk to them because they don’t maybe have as insulated of a house, or homelessness even,” Breit said.  

Breit and Sabella said they want to participate in protests on campus. 

“It has been a bit of a bummer now to see any momentum that we had built up get the wind taken out of the sails,” Breit said. 

But no matter what injustices you’re fighting, you still have to deal with COVID-19.  

“These kinds of avenues that we would normally use for activism aren’t as available anymore, so we’re trying to find ways to be creative to get around it,” said Breit.  

New infections on campus this week have pushed the countywide positivity rate into the state’s warning level.

Xavier Braboy is a senior environmental health major and social media moderator for SEAC.

She said it’s just not wise to be out protesting, noting that even internationally-recognized Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is staying home.  

“She herself has known that COVID is the reason we can’t do everything we want to do with activism,” Braboy said. “So, unless we’re all safe, we can’t continue to keep the earth safe.”  

So the student coalition holds twice-monthly meetings on Zoom, and uses social media to continue to spread the word about the climate crisis.   

Junior psychology major Devin Paoni is a member of both SEAC and the Student Sustainability Committee.   

Paoni said SEAC’s numbers had been growing every semester. But for the pandemic, they would have done a lot more activism with an even bigger group this semester, she said. Now that protesting is off the table, they need to take a more individualized approach, she said.

For Paoni that means reminding students to avoid creating extra waste by purchasing reusable masks, and choosing recyclable paper bags at the grocery store over the standard plastic.   

She’s also been phone banking for the League of Women Voters, encouraging students to register to vote.  

“Historically our group of people from 18 to 22 don’t go out to vote,” Paoni said. “There’s a lot of voter apathy and if we want to fight environmental issues, then I think our generation needs to be very active, especially at the ballots.”    

The students are divided on whether the movement can still prevent climate catastrophe.  

Paoni said she’s cautiously optimistic.  

“Only because we’ve been vocal and since a lot of people have been vocal across the nation, people know there’s an issue,” she said.” The only issue is, are they gonna do something about it...It’s a matter of advocating. And I think if we can mobilize our generation to do something that’s where our real power is.” 

Braboy said she thinks the current racial justice moment shows the country is more ready than ever to make real change.

“The timing of the Black Lives Matter movement during a pandemic kind of set the stage that, maybe even as a country in general we are fed up, tired, of all of the injustices,” she said. 

Sabella and Breit said they’re not optimistic, but still determined to do what they can.

“Articles have referred to us as the last generation that can do something about this before it’s catastrophically too late, so I think it is our responsibility as people who care about the climate and people in general to try and preserve the planet,” said Breit.

He said he hopes people recognize the recent twin hurricanes as warning signs.

Sabella said a time for change should be a time for lots of change.

“I remember when covid first started to shut things down, a lot of people in the environmental movement were saying, let’s not go back to business as usual, this is a great chance for us to change things for the better,” she said. “There are better ways than turning on these factories again.”  

Sabella said to keep an eye on the quad next week, where she and others will be “chalking” more about fossil fuel divestment. 

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Breanna Grow is a correspondent for GLT. She joined the station in September 2018.