Climate Activist Spotlight

Climate Activist Spotlight


Vandana Shiva is a 68-year-old Indian environmental activist with a focus on food sovereignty. Shiva went to school for physics, later pursuing research in the intersection of science, technology and environmental policy. She has written over twenty books, with her first, titled “Staying Alive,” linking the abuse of nature with that of marginalized women living in rural India. This study lead to her future co-authored book “Ecofeminism,” which aims to show how gender, nature and oppression intersect.

Tourist destinations introduce green fees

The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light the power dynamics that exist between countries with large tourism economies and the rest of the world. On Aug. 23, the governor of Hawai’i asked travelers to abstain from vacationing on the islands through the end of October in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19. These concerns about the impacts of tourism extend also into an ethical debate about the negative effects that large influxes of tourists can have on local communities. As more attention is given to the roles and responsibilities tourists hold in protecting the health of vacation hot spot communities, there is also an opportunity to reflect on the environmental consequences of tourism.

Climate Activist Spotlight: Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny

Climate Activist Spotlight: Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny

Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny, known to many as “Little Miss Flint,” is a 14-year-old activist based in Flint, Michigan. Her activism began at just eight years old, when she first became aware of the undrinkable water in her hometown, in which high levels of lead were detected. Copeny began to gain national attention when she wrote a letter to then-President Barack Obama to convince him to come to Flint and see the water crisis firsthand. This letter prompted Obama’s May 2016 visit to Flint. After his visit, he declared a federal state of emergency for the Michigan town and allocated $100 million in aid to address the issue.

2020 marks record high in environmental activist killings

Content warning: This article discusses murder and mentions sexual violence.

On Sept. 13, human rights organization Global Witness reported that a record 227 climate activists were murdered in 2020.

Climate Activist Spotlight: Greta Thunberg

By Helen Gloege ’23

Staff Writer

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has become a household name around the world. Thunberg is famous within climate activist communities for her organizing work and calls for action against climate change. In 2018, at the age of 15, Thunberg began spending her days outside the Swedish Parliament to call for action on climate change. Initially, she was alone in her protests, until other students began to participate in similar demonstrations within their own communities. This is where her well-known slogan “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (School Strike for Climate) originated. After the December 2018 general elections in Sweden, Thunberg and others moved to striking only on Fridays. This became Fridays for Future, an organized school climate strike movement which has now taken place for almost three and a half years. In addition to inspiring many young activists, Thunberg has also been given many honors and awards, including but not limited to being Time’s Person of the Year and three consecutive nominations for a Nobel Peace Prize between 2019-21.


Over 200 medical journals issue joint statement calling for action on climate change

On Sept. 5, over 230 medical journals from across the world came together to publish a joint statement demanding “urgent action to keep average global temperature increases below 1.5 C, halt the destruction of nature and protect health.” Authors of the statement believed that action had to be taken immediately — it was not possible to wait for the COVID-19 pandemic to fade. The joint statement, which NPR referred to as “unprecedented” in a Sept. 7 article, involved prominent members of medical journals from around the world.

The dark underbelly of the crystal trade

The dark underbelly of the crystal trade

After spending years being dismissed as a mystical, new-age spiritual fad, healing crystals have seeped into the mainstream through a combination of social media aesthetics and the wellness juggernaut. Despite general economic stagnation during the pandemic, the sales of near-gemstones like amethysts and clear quartz skyrocketed in 2020. Since 2015, demand for crystals has more than doubled in the U.S.

Coming back to college: what you need to know about the delta variant


While students settle back into campus life, the delta variant is an increasingly large threat. Currently, the delta variant is the predominant cause of COVID-19 cases rising in the United States. According to an article published online by Yale Medicine, The delta variant is a highly contagious strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It was first identified in India in December 2020. It rapidly spread and dominated the virus cases of India and the United Kingdom before arriving in the U.S. in March.

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