As the global climate crisis worsens, a new climate-action group has popped up at USC in mid September, opening up the opportunity for students to get directly involved in mitigating the climate crisis. The organization is a campus chapter of the Sunrise Movement, a national youth activist movement calling for government response to the climate crisis and advocating for job creation.
USC junior Noa Zimmerman started the hub after realizing students were looking for a way to get more involved.
“[We] can’t keep putting this in the back of [our] mind and pretending it isn’t happening because it is, and it’s affecting everyone,” she said. “It encompasses so many issues. Climate Justice is a big deal.”
Recently, USC announced that it will prioritize sustainability more than previous years, especially with the arrival of President Carol Folt. Zimmerman explained that Sunrise Movement organizes awareness campaigns and demonstrations to provide specific ways for students to make change.
“I think a lot of people here are looking for hands-on ways to help,” she said. “Sunrise is such a powerful movement, and it’s a great way to get involved.”
USC’s Sunrise Movement is still in its grassroots. An estimated 10 members meet in the Tutor Campus Center courtyard on Tuesday nights, and are hoping to become recognized as an official campus organization next semester. According to Zimmerman, they have plans to pitch approachable responses to the climate crisis to students and start a weekly demonstration near Tommy Trojan every Friday at noon. They hope this will motivate more students to take action.
“There are many students who are apathetic, and it's so important that they wake up to how big this issue is,” Zimmerman explained. “The old saying is more true now than ever: If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem.”
Since the release of the UN’s 2018 IPCC report one year ago, Generation Z’s climate anxiety has heightened. The report states that we must achieve zero-net carbon emissions by 2050, or there will be challenging risks to our ecosystem and human health. The current migrant crisis is in part because of climate change. The youth are unhappy that they are expected to play into a future that might not exist; balancing college applications and SAT prep with climate strikes and grassroots organization.
Climate action groups like the Sunrise Movement and Zero Hour have been appearing all over the country, encouraging young people to demand structural change.
“We've been put in a really bad position by the generations above us who've acted irresponsibly knowing that what they were doing was hurting the environment and covering it up,” Zimmerman said.
The intersectionality of the climate crisis is being highlighted by activist groups as well.
“A lot of the marginalized communities are the ones who have been affected the most, [they] are the ones in the front lines,” Zimmerman said. “Every problem is encompassed within the problem of climate change.”
Story corrected October 15, 3:23 p.m.: The story has been updated to reflect the correct pronouns of Noa Zimmerman, who uses she/her/hers pronouns.