The snow piles up on Moscow city sidewalks. Cars drive by, splashing dirty slush as they pass. Meanwhile, Logan Heflin sits outside city hall, an umbrella in hand and a sign sitting in front of him. This is just one individual’s way of expressing his thoughts on climate change.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
Heflin, a former ASUI Senator and climate change activist, stands alone on this corner every Friday. When he’s not protesting, he chooses to live a sustainable livestyle through, eating a vegan diet, walking everywhere and using reusable bags and straws.
He said even these small acts can have a large impact, but when a community works together substantial change is created.
“Just normal people have more power together than the people we think have power right now, so I think it’s important for all of us to utilize the voice that we all have because it carries more power than we think,” Heflin said.
He participates in Fridays For Future, an international movement where students skip class every Friday to demand climate change action from political leaders. He said, in this movement, anyone can go protest outside of a government building to demand climate change action.
“I’m out here protesting for climate action and making sure the people in power know we have to bring down greenhouse gas emissions to safeguard future generations,” Heflin said.
Jennifer Ladino, an expert in the human dimensions of climate change, also has a personal connection to the topic. Ladino recalls developing strong feelings about climate change during a heatwave in Moscow during June of 2015.
“Temperatures reached almost 90 degrees inside our house, and we slept in the basement for several days. My two kids set up what they called a ‘tent village’ and my heart stopped, and I immediately jumped to a vision of them as climate refugees,” Ladino said. “I don’t know if I ever stopped being anxious since that day.”
Following this experience, she has implemented new strategies to combat climate change on a personal level. She said they are a one-car-family, she is in the process of completely eliminating the use of plastic bags and she contributes to various environmental organizations.
“I think the more we can do to bring the issue close to home, to make it real for people, the better,” Ladino said.
One University of Idaho student’s realization of climate change started a little further away from home.
Dylan Porter, active member of the Center for Volunteerism and Social Action, studied abroad in Costa Rica. She said she experienced the effects of climate change first-hand. During her time in Costa Rica, she said she noticed more tropical storms and extreme pollution on their beaches.
“There’s so much trash on their beaches and in the small town I was in, we would play games to see how many straws we could pick up from their beach,” Porter said.
After seeing this impact in Costa Rica, Porter said her mindset on climate change was altered, making her a firm believer of its effects on the environment.
“We’re not facing the consequences at the extent that it could be, so let’s try to fix it before it gets even scarier,” Porter said.
THE EVIDENCE
Experts on campus have strong opinions towards climate change and it’s all because of research. Ladino, a UI English professor, researches emotions around climate change such as fear, anxiety, nostalgia, solastalgia (form of emotional distress caused by environmental change), resilience and ecological grief.
Through her own research, she found that emotions play a big role in climate change action.
“Most people agree that finding local communities and taking action are the best ways to deal with negative emotions, such as grief and anxiety,” Ladino said. “Positive emotions such as wonder can also be helpful, as they rekindle our love for the more-than-human world and make us want to protect it.”
She said the humanities and arts have a unique set of resources at their disposal to change feelings and mindsets about climate change.
The same philosophy motivates Erin James, a UI English professor and faculty expert on cultural aspects on climate change.
“Climate change is not just a scientific or environmental problem, it’s first and foremost a cultural problem in that it’s a certain lifestyle that has produced this issue,” James said. “That lifestyle is informed by ideas about how we live in the world and what our relationship to the world is.”
She said in her Studies in Environmental Literature and Culture class, she has noticed literature reflect the way people understand climate change.
“I find that the scarier books tend to have less of an impact because they tend to be a little bit familiar, and it’s very easy to say well this is not gonna happen, or its not going to be that bad,” James said. “I think the weirder books that make you slow down and struggle to understand tend to catalyze the most reflection and foster the most thinking about the relationship between the fictional book and your life.”
She elaborated by saying books have the power to change the conversation around climate change.
“If we told different stories we might kickstart a different way of living in the world that might be more conducive to help mitigate some of the sources of climate change,” James said.
James said although this topic is controversial, she doesn’t let beliefs on climate change impact her work. Rather, she chooses to focus on the evidence provided by her research.
“I think it’s much easier to ignore the problem, I think part of it is the narrative that exists and the type of information that you consume is going to determine how you think about an issue.” James said.
THE SKEPTICS
Some students who don’t believe in climate change have looked at other sources to support their opinions.
One student’s views on climate change were altered after taking General Astronomy at UI. Annie Myers, said she believes the Earth is heating up. And it’s not because of carbon emissions.
“I think there are other things to do with it like how the Earth rotates on its axis and our relation to the sun,” Myers said. “A lot of things can be explained through looking at astronomy and the studies of the planet. Heating of the planet is only increasing with what humans are doing so if we were not creating carbon emissions and having all that happen we probably wouldn’t see such an intense acceleration in heating.”
She said the Earth is moving in ways we have never experienced before, which is why people are uncomfortable and wanting to relate it to humans. She said she believes humans are not the sole cause for climate change, but do increase the severity and acceleration of its consequences.
“I think blaming humans for climate change is an easy way to explain it and an easy way for people to grasp it,” Myers said.
Another student, Kyli Pierson, said the thought that humans are capable of causing such destruction to the Earth is a little far-fetched.
“I totally think the climate is changing, I just don’t think it’s completely human caused. I’m not saying all the things humans are doing have no effect, I just don’t think all the terrible huge disastrous things that people talk about could happen, I don’t think we have that much control over it,” Pierson said.
Both of these students said pollution is an issue, but have different views on its importance.
“The drastic change in ecosystems is for sure an issue and I think that that has a lot to do with human footprint, carbon footprint, single use plastics and not disposing of our materials in the proper ways…it is killing animals and I 100% believe that,” Myers said.
While Myers believes pollution should be addressed, Pierson said she doesn’t think it’s the government’s job to fix it.
“I do think we should take care of the Earth, but I just don’t think it’s something that the government should be pouring a lot of money into,” Pierson said.
The skepticism surrounding climate change extends beyond UI. Griffth Richter, who attends Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, has different reasonings as to why he doesn’t believe in climate change. One of those, he said, is how scientific opinion is constantly changing.
“My skepticism is caused by the fact that scientists are often wrong, the classic example being the many truths of where the sun has been located in our solar system,” Richter said. “Many theories were accepted, and people believed that the sun revolved around the Earth for a time until proven wrong.”
Richter said he does believe pollution has an impact, but more so on people than the planet.
“I do not like trash in the oceans simply because it harms wildlife. I have seen China’s polluted air and have come to understand that while I want to deny it, pollution is certainly a problem,” Richter said.
THE ADVOCATES
For some students, evidence of climate change is impossible to ignore.
UI student Chayce Reynolds, was introduced to climate change through The Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence.
“We studied climate change because of the refugees coming in,” Reynolds said. “Indiginous people are getting moved because they can’t survive where they used to.”
What solidified her opinion was when she traveled to Europe this summer and experienced one of the hottest heatwaves in a century. She said this proved to her the evidence of climate change is real.
A first-hand experience also shaped UI student, Cameron Weller’s beliefs on climate change. He said after visiting Montana’s Glacier National Park he was surprised to see the impact climate change had on the park.
“Glacier National Park has almost lost its namesake, wildfires are more abundant, snowpack is less abundant, sea levels have risen and storms are becoming more tempestuous,” Weller said.
Besides student’s experiences, politics also play a role in their opinions.
Reynolds said she believes if political leaders, such as President Donald Trump, did believe in climate change, they still wouldn’t do anything about it.
“He (Trump) has no concern to anyone outside of himself, so to ask him to care about the environment is not gonna happen,” Reynolds said.
A similar point of view was shared by UI student Audrey Lodge.
“If Trump doesn’t believe it, or it’s a Democratic thing to believe in climate change, then if you’re a Republican you’re automatically just not going to care about it,” Lodge said.
She said there needs to be more drastic changes on a larger scale than just at the individual level. She agrees we need to change policies that restrict people.
“The most important issue we should be looking at in political candidates is if they care about climate change and if they’re going to do something,” Lodge said.
This firm belief that politics influence climate change is what drives Reynold’s to also believe capitalism is a contributing factor.
“I think capitalism allows for us to view people as labor and for the environment to be viewed as resources instead of our home, which means human lives and Mother Earth are expendable in the pursuit of progress, power and wealth,” Reynolds said.
Resolving this issue is tough she said. Reynolds said, the people who have the privilege, money and power to fix the issue are not concerned about it.
“It’s hard because that structural change wouldn’t have to just be from the bottom, but from the top as well, and they’re more worried about evading taxes than helping people and the planet,” Reynolds said.
Lodge has a similar point of view and said nothing will happen unless there is a major change.
“This is literally where we live. We are literally sinking, and burning on fire. No one gives a s**t,” Lodge said.
Story by Lizzie Holdridge
Photo by Brianna Finnegan
Illustrations by Trent Anderson
Design by Trent Anderson