Close your eyes. Picture your friends and family. Visualize your best memories with the people you love most. Where are you in these scenarios? What places are important to you? What landscapes do you want to protect, and what problems can you solve to protect them? Your answers indicate your unique role in the ongoing climate crisis. 

This exercise was introduced to Shippensburg University students on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. in the Luhrs Performing Arts Center by Wawa Gatheru. Gatheru, a Kenyan-American climate justice storyteller, was the Keynote Speaker of Diversity Week at Shippensburg University. In an event designed to supplement the First-Year Experience, Gatheru spoke about climate optimism and inclusivity. 

Gatheru is passionate about solving the climate crisis by reprioritizing and restructuring the world we live in. 

“To do that requires all of us to envision a personal connection to the climate crisis and develop a unique role in solving the problem,” Gatheru said. Luckily, Gatheru gave us a how-to guide.

The first step was to discover our own relationship with the climate crisis. To encourage and inspire her audience, Gatheru referenced the environmental science class she took in high school that catalyzed her passion for environmentalism. In fact, the visualization exercise Gatheru shared was from that class.

Gatheru’s second step was to embrace all the emotions we felt regarding the climate crisis, especially the non-traditional ones. Gatheru discussed the over prioritization of hope and the normalization of science as an objective field. The climate crisis outraged her, which fueled her passion for the cause. She encouraged us to allow whatever emotions we felt, whether good or bad, to do the same. 

The third step Gatheru shared was wanting us to recognize the climate crisis’s relation to both American and human history. 

“Too often, we are disoriented by the weight of the crisis and forget humanity’s tendency to survive and overcome,” Gatheru said. 

Though she referred to the climate crisis as “the greatest existential threat of all time,” she reminded us that it is not the first worldwide plight, and we will not allow it to be the last.

The final step Gatheru shared was to practice revolution every day. For this, Gatheru recommended a three-circle Venn Diagram. One circle included things that make us happy, the next represented our skills and resources and the final circle listed work that needs doing. The middle area, Gatheru explained, was an individual course of action. 

Gatheru’s talk was not a typical discussion of the climate crisis. Where a conventional climate activist may reinforce feelings of guilt or doom in listeners, Gatheru assured Shippensburg students that young people have an important place in the climate movement and that each individual action is worthwhile. 

As a member of Gen Z herself, Gatheru claims our generation is ready to make a difference. “We’ve never known a perfect world,” Gatheru said, but she guaranteed the one we have is “enough to want to fight for.”

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