Youth Climate Activism across the Americas

Youth Climate Activism has played a key role in changing narratives around Climate Change and Climate Justice throughout the world. However, this movement of young people wanting a better future for themselves and the next generations undergoes significant challenges that hinder their success. 

In this ArcGIS article, I aim to display two environmental justice activists and the different obstacles they face in their environmental justice work as young adults. I aim to highlight the diversity of what youth climate activism across the Americas can look like as well as focus on what young people envision as a better future for themselves and their community. I have organized this article by first explaining my own story as a climate activist and the experiences that inspired me to investigate the topics in this text. Following that, I will talk about my family in El Salvador, the projects they have worked on, and how they came to shape the connections and inspiration between me and the need to continue learning about what youth climate activism looks like throughout Latin America.

For the methods of this ArcGIS StoryMap article, I collected interviews with four different youth climate activists in Latin America throughout the 2022 Spring Quarter. The names of the interviewees were the following: Ernesto Fuentes from El Salvador, Isis Riquelme from Chile, Kevin Sanchez from Lima, Peru, and Belen Gomez from Ecuador. For this paper, I will only be focusing on Isis Riquelme and Ernesto Fuentes.

I met Isis through an online group chat on WhatsApp that was made to bring together young people from Latin America that were attending COP26 in Glasgow. I sent a message to the group chat as a whole asking if anyone would be interested in being interviewed for this research project and the ones who responded I followed up with through WhatsApp and scheduled interviews according to their availability. The interviews were presented as an informal, “Get to know you” interview, where the main objective of the interview was to get to know what the interviewees were working on and what their inspirations were for doing the work that they do as well as begin building the connections between myself and the interviewee. The questions that were asked were the following:

• What is your name, age, and where are you from?
• How did you first hear about climate change?
• How did you start with Climate Activism?
• How do you deal with the difficulties or challenges that are placed in your way as a young climate activist?
• What inspires you to do the work that you do?
• What is the vision that you have for your future and the future of your community?
• What do you think people in the United States should know about climate activism in Latin America?
• What advice would you give for people in the United States who want to help and support movements in Latin America?
• How does it feel to be a young person involved in politics, directly talking to politicians and organizing in your country?
• What do you think of events like COP26? Do you think they are effective in furthering better climate legislation worldwide?

For the fourth interviewee, which was my cousin Ernesto Fuentes, I asked the same questions except the ones pertaining to COP26, and the relationships between the United States and Latin America. I did not ask these questions to him because he has not had the experience of attending COP26 or being involved in climate activism at an international level. I use the interview with Ernesto to showcase the ways in which his activism has shaped the things that I do as an environmentalist. The main focus of this article is the interview between me and Isis Riquelme from Chile and her experiences in the world of International Climate Justice Activism.

I will first include the interviews for Ernesto Fuentes since he is part of my own story of climate activism, and Isis Riquelme since their answers were exceptionally rich with knowledge about Climate Justice and their vision for the future. Belen Gomez and Kevin Sanchez will be added to the article at a later date.

I began participating in youth climate activism around the summer of 2019 when I was introduced to the organization, The Sunrise Movement while attending community college. There, I was introduced to the diverse world of activism, climate justice, and community organizing and uncovered how environmental injustices affected me, my loved ones, and the communities I belonged to.

The first meeting I attended in Sunrise was a Leaders of Color training where they talked about Climate Justice and how to win the Green New Deal. In this meeting, I met other people of color who were as concerned about the climate crisis as I was. Before that, at my college, I felt as if I was the only one who cared about these issues and everyone else couldn’t see or cared about what was going on. In Sunrise, I found a community of people who were working towards a better future, and I was excited to be joining them in doing so. I went from feeling like I was alone, to having an abundance of support, friendships, and mentorship from the people I connected with. The friends and mentors I met during my time at Sunrise helped me accelerate my leadership skills, and made me realize the agency and power that young people have in shaping the future towards something better than what we have now.

I continued attending other Sunrise events and meeting new people. Eventually, I got involved in creating Climate Justice training workshops for them. These trainings were orientated at a variety of different audiences. I worked on trainings for high schoolers, other Leaders of Color trainings and even facilitated workshops remotely when the pandemic started. The best moment occurred to me when I was flown out to Portland, Oregon for a “Training for Trainers'' event right before the pandemic in March of 2020. At that event, I got to meet people from all over the United States who were doing climate justice work in their communities in various capacities. 

All of the people that I met throughout my time volunteering, became an amazing inspiration and reflection for me to continue working in the environmental justice field. I was able to participate in things I would’ve never dreamed of, had it not been for the mutual goal that was organizing towards a better future and protecting our communities against the climate crisis and the institutions that seek to extract profit from marginalized communities. I began to see myself as an agent of change, as an empowered leader, and as a bigger part in the huge collaborative effort that is climate activism.

Right before the pandemic, I was working at full capacity: academically, as a student worker, and as a climate organizer. I was in the process of creating a Climate Justice training at my community college where I had been working as a student leader for the ethnic resource center at my school. There, one of my responsibilities was to organize events, so I had planned on inviting my Sunrise friends to create a workshop so that my peers from the center could finally be introduced to the ideas of environmental justice and climate activism that I had talked about so much. 

Unfortunately, that event didn’t end up happening because the world went into lockdown. I went on to continue holding remote training courses then later decided to stop volunteering to focus on completing my undergraduate degree at UC Santa Cruz in the summer of 2020.

As time went on, my experiences as a climate organizer became more interesting to me as I learned about the ways in which people of color and marginalized communities tend to be the most affected by climate disasters and environmental injustices. It was interesting to see how being part of those communities that were being directly affected by climate change shaped the ways in which I showed up to do Climate Justice work. As I spent time volunteering, I realized that there are a lot of barriers for young people of color in the United States to be fully involved in changing their political reality through direct action and organizing since many have to work and provide for themselves or their families or are being affected directly by environmental injustices such as polluted water or unjust government laws such as immigration or incarceration.

I realized that because of my family’s financial situation, and my status as a first generation, immigrant, college student of color, I was already going above and beyond just by participating and being in an organization like the Sunrise Movement. I realized that I held privilege in being in those spaces, since I was lucky enough that my family had enough resources to support me in things that I wanted to do to further my education and career experiences. In those moments I understood the realities and complexities of what it meant to be a climate justice activist, being both privileged enough to be in those places while also coming from the communities which were being directly affected by the climate crisis both domestically and abroad. I realized that my perspective and the perspective of young people of color held a lot of weight and importance in the climate justice movement and that our voice and agency have the capacity to move all different kinds of people into action.

It was interesting to see and experience the ways in which my white peers in Sunrise were usually the ones taking up leadership positions within the organization because they had the time and resources to do so. Even if I wanted to take larger leadership positions within the organization, I wasn’t able to have that opportunity because taking that up would mean sacrificing my time for my health, my academics, or my financial responsibilities.

I also noticed firsthand, the social “gap” between white environmentalists who had the best intentions, yet struggled to connect the messaging of climate justice to communities of color due to their positionality. I also witnessed some of the remnants of “classical” environmentalism which focused more on saving turtles, than saving people. Luckily, these spaces were meant to be held as a supportive community, so it was always engaging, dealing in real-time with the history of environmentalism and systemic racism in the United States, while simultaneously creating systems that could shape Sunrise into an organization that truly stood for climate and social justice in all its forms. It was an ongoing process that continues to this day, but I was happy that I was able to participate in any way I could. Even if I couldn’t accomplish everything I wanted to do, my time at Sunrise laid the foundation for my future endeavors as a young environmentalist, leader, and artist. 

With these ideas about the diverse ways in which people are drawn toward climate activism, I became interested in learning more about what it was like for young climate activists in Latin America. I had been exposed to the nonprofit world in the United States during my time in Sunrise and I learned about how these types of organizations operate, but I also noticed that people in my community were being affected by environmental injustices and were fighting against oppressive forces without any lack of coverage or recognition.

I noticed that I was standing in a gap between people who were celebrated for being “environmentalists” and those who were being directly affected by environmental injustices while nobody paid attention to them. I noticed the differences between some who work on organizations and others who sometimes have to fight against their land being taken away because of military occupations, or scenarios where their land is extremely polluted and are facing health defects. This led me to want to understand more about other people’s perspectives on being a young climate activist, especially for people abroad in places like Latin America where being an environmentalist isn’t something that is celebrated or glamourized and can be a really dangerous activity in certain areas for young people to undertake.

My family and I got our citizenship documentation fairly quickly after moving to the United States. I was lucky enough to be able to travel back to El Salvador with my parents every couple of years or so for the holidays. As time went on, my two older cousins who lived there founded an organization called Un Pulmon Mas (One More Lung) with their friends who also cared about the environment. This was my first introduction to environmental activism before I even knew what any of that was. In El Salvador, my cousins were the first ones to introduce me to the world of hiking, the love of nature, and being outdoors, as well as to the experiences that young people in Latin America go through as climate activists. It also wasn’t just any outdoors, but my homeland of El Salvador. 

Before I joined Sunrise or even learned about the climate crisis through college, I had already experienced witnessing my older cousins volunteering and empowering others in their communities through their work in Un Pulmon Mas. I was deeply inspired by them at the time and their actions have shaped me into who I am today.

Now as a college student, after learning about climate activism and participating in it myself, I recognize the importance of their work and wish to highlight them, and their stories and difficulties as young climate activists. In the following section, I highlight one of my cousins, Ernesto Fuentes, and his path to learning about climate change and subsequently getting involved in climate activism.

The experience I had with Ernesto and my own family, regarding environmental organizing, stuck with me through my time in community college, my volunteering in Sunrise, and into my time at UC Santa Cruz.

I became increasingly interested in learning what the role of Latin America was in mitigating the climate crisis and how developing countries could use the climate crisis to create a better future for themselves. This became even more prevalent to me when I was reading Naomi Klein’s, This Changes Everything; Capitalism vs. The Climate in community college. There, I was introduced to the ideas of “climate debt” and funding global reparations not only for historical destructions stemming from colonialism throughout developing countries but also for the development of these places in a sustainable way, that alleviates their high levels of poverty and protects them from future environmental catastrophes due to climate change through investments in green infrastructure.

In her book, Naomi Klein talks with activist, Navarro Llanos, from Bolivia, who mentions that, “since countries like hers had done almost nothing to send emissions soaring, they were in a position to declare themselves “climate creditors,” owed money and technology support from the large emitters to defray the hefty costs of coping with more climate-related disasters, as well as to help them develop on a green energy path” (pg.5). Naomi Klein’s mention of the term “climate creditors” and “climate financing” interested me a lot when first reading her book. These topics interest me because of the immense levels of poverty and structural corruption present in Latin American countries like El Salvador. Financing climate resiliency throughout Latin America can be a great way for countries to alleviate poverty and create better living conditions for its citizens at the same time. 

Obviously conversations around “development” and climate mitigation can take many different forms and have many different viewpoints and perspectives. With some people wanting more development such as roads, and shipping docks and others completely against it due to the conservation of nature. I wish to further explore this topic throughout my career as I continue learning more about development and how it affects the lives of people throughout Latin America.

Naomi Klein mentions that, “The resources required to rapidly move away from fossil fuels and prepare for the coming heavy weather could pull huge swaths of humanity out of poverty, providing services now sorely lacking, from clean water to electricity. This is a vision of the future that goes beyond just surviving or enduring climate change… It is a vision in which we collectively use the crisis to leap somewhere that seems, frankly, better than where we are right now” (pg.___)

The future that Naomi Klein envisions is a future that I would like to take part in shaping. I think about my community back in El Salvador and how climate resilience could help pull many communities out of poverty and provide them with better standards of living while simultaneously taking better care of their environment. Along with Ernesto’s story that I highlighted earlier, there are tremendous opportunities for people in Latin America to create a better future for themselves that is not dependent on exploitation or the extraction of raw materials to wealthy countries. 

There are young people throughout Latin America who are working and struggling to make this new future a reality. However, it is a hard and difficult process because of the intense influence of corruption and lobbying from fossil fuel companies, extractive companies such as mining, and the lack of political will from politicians in Latin America who don’t understand the situation or chose to ignore it because of their own interests in the aforementioned industries. Creating socio-environmental change in throughout the Americas comes with a lot of difficulties and obstacles at every level. 

In the following section, I aim to highlight the story of a young climate activist Isis Riquelme, from Chile. I aim to highlight the difficulties of climate organizing in Latin America while also noting how movements in the United States can be aware of climate justice efforts in other areas of the world.

Isis is also the co-founder of a B corporation that focuses on risk and disaster management. She works alongside 4 geographers who work together to reduce the level of damage from climate and geological disasters. They are currently in the beginning process but are working by connecting and educating young girls, teenagers, and women leaders to STEM pathways. So that way more young women are able to access data analysis, and data science, in order to be able to predict what kinds of disasters might happen in their specific area, where they will occur, and how to reduce and prepare for the damage. Isis mentions that one of the things that are very helpful in mitigating damage from climate catastrophes is being able to reduce the level of risk and disaster, as well as having educated people so that they do not set up housing in vulnerable areas and that they have tools for mitigation and adaptation.

Isis says that risk management is a very fundamental aspect of climate mitigation that is often overlooked. She says that what people fear the most about climate change are the natural disasters: wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes, and also surviving them. In order to evade that fear, Isis aims to empower and educate people and specifically women, in understanding the risk and damage assessment of natural disasters. 

Her experience and knowledge as a young climate activist and spokesperson were really prevalent throughout my interview with her. She continued to tell me about what kinds of difficulties she goes through as a climate activist and young person which I will touch on in the following section.

Isis mentioned that Quintero was one of the moments where she realized the difference between being conscious about climate change and having the will to want to change things at a political and cultural level. She mentions that wanting to take action as a climate activist in Latin America means crossing a certain boundary, that puts her in possible danger. That there is a lot of prejudice and that being a climate activist is a sure way to put herself and her family in danger of many threats or could even end up dead. She mentioned the ways in which police forces in Chile during the Pinochet regime and subsequent administrations have investigated violence against activists in Chile and some have ended up going missing or murdered. Luckily, she also stated that the rates of activist murders have decreased significantly over the years but that the rates are still the highest in Colombia and other countries in Latin America continue to have significantly higher rates than Chile.

I asked Isis what happens when there is resistance from government administrations who don’t want things to change, or who aim to support extractive industries in Chile. Isis responded that “When it comes to governments, we protest. We protest and we protest and we protest and we insist. Dominga has been in the country for 12 years but at the same time we have continued to protest and we have reached a moot point where nothing is happening. If we are not able to get something done with one government, we are going to make their lives miserable until we accomplish it with the next one. Sebastian, the last president tried to approve Dominga and we protested and didn’t let him do it. We sent cards abroad and claimed human rights violations. This new government has promised that Dominga will not be approved.”

I asked Isis about the obstacle of political leaders not wanting to move fast enough on climate. An obstacle that is present in the United States. She replied that, “We need to elect leaders who have the political will to change things. Boric had a very strong commitment to environmental justice, and even though he is not perfect, he has the drive to want to change things. We need to elect leaders with that ambition and to also elect younger leaders. He is the youngest president in the world at 36 years old. Elected leaders need to know in their mind the consequences of the climate crisis and that gigantic efforts need to be made at a political level for humanity to adapt. If we have politicians who are businessmen or serve big industries we will never have strong political ambitions. There is a lot of lobbying by big businesses…and I’m not even saying that businesses are our enemies, on the contrary, there are companies that are adapting, yet there are other industries who do not have that will and want to continue destroying the environment and specifically the environments of developing countries for their own gain.”

In the fall of 2021, Isis got the opportunity to travel to the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow, UK. An event where political leaders from all over the world get together to create stronger international environmental commitments, and form better ways of cooperation between nations, non-profits, and international corporations. I was interested to ask Isis questions about COP since I had learned in my classes that there is a lot of debate as to whether these kinds of international events were actually useful for mitigating the climate crisis or if they were just for show. Isis got to travel to COP26, representing Chile and the organizations for which she was a part of. I asked her about her experiences there and what her thoughts were regarding these topics of debate. She had a lot of realistic and inspiring things to say about these questions, the role of young people in creating change, and realistic ways in which countries could create significant change for a better climate and future.

Isis began by telling me that going to COP26 wasn’t as flashy as the media makes it out to be. She told me that most conversations, agreements, and decisions are actually made long before the event takes place, about 2 to 3 months before, which means that a significant percentage of the people who attend don’t really go there to negotiate or debate, but rather simply go somewhat as tourists to wherever the event is taking place. She told me that out of the 38,000 people or so that attend, only about 5,000 of those people actually go there to negotiate, and that if an organization brings five or more people, only one or two of those people actually go there to work on a project or to negotiate. 

I asked Isis if she thought that events like COP26 actually helped foster better international climate agreements and cooperation, or if it was all just for show. Her response was that events like COP26 affect international climate cooperation very little. She went on to tell me a story about a long time negotiator who mentored her group. Who told them that young people needed to demand a lot, to demand things in excess, because the results would be a lot smaller than that they asked for. She went on to say that “if you demand a lot, you will get very little. If you demand very little, you will get nothing. Something that is demanded for 2027, you will probably get it in 2035. The timing and pacing of the changes are very slow and minimal.” After that, Isis went on to mention that this slow process towards change happens because there is a lot of corporate lobbying that goes on at these international events. She recounted the times where she would notice businesspeople from companies like Shell or other fossil fuel companies getting to talk directly to government officials from the United States. While other nonprofits or youth organizations never even had a chance. Isis responded that when these things happen, young people need to put more pressure on politicians to do the right thing and take fossil fuel companies out of the decision-making processes. She continued by highlighting that while fossil fuel companies benefit by having this direct connection, in trying to please them and their agendas, wealthy nations sacrifice humanity and the planet, by putting the needs of a wealthy few first, above the security of the rest of the world.

I asked Isis how she felt about being a young person mingling and interacting with people in positions of power. She responded that she felt very nervous and disoriented when first arriving there but that once she got settled, it was time for her to get to work representing her country and her organizations. She told me of a moment where she was chosen to give a speech at the opening ceremony. However, she didn’t know that it would be broadcast in the main area of the event where all the presidents and top leaders from all over the world would be attending. She had thought that it was a speech for an embassy, or a smaller group, but when she discovered that it was for everyone, she taken aback yet was excited and surprised. 

Isis told me that in her speech, she didn’t shame or bash world leaders for not doing enough, which is what usually happens. Instead, she told world leaders that, “young people are making progress. They are creating projects and solutions. But they are not being taken seriously as solutions to be implemented as government policies for today’s problems.” And that, “young people aren’t doing these things for their own gain, but rather they are doing it because they have the moral responsibility of changing the current system under which the world operates in order to not go extinct as a species.” Isis continued to say that young people are not being held as part of the conversation in international politics. The people in the room who get to decide what happens to the rest of the world are old white men, and there are almost no women, or people from developing countries deciding what happens to the planet. Isis asserted that this wasn’t right. Having leaders like these, continued to perpetuate colonialism, imperialism, and the extractivist neoliberal system in which the world operates. That if we, as a global society continued in this manner, without having leaders who were truly representative of the people they serve, we wouldn’t have a planet and we as a species would go extinct.

Isis continued to tell me about how as a young person and climate activist, she feels as though she has had to mature rapidly, or at least be able to operate at a level that allows her to speak honestly to politicians. She mentions, being able to talk, “tu a tu” or “you to you” the phrase meaning being able to talk to politicians as if they are the same as you instead of using words like “usted” which is used when speaking to someone in authority, like a grandparent or a teacher. She says that bringing down politicians to reality and telling them that she is a human being and that so are they, is important for getting politicians to make the right decisions when the time calls for it. 

Isis began telling me about the ways in which Latin America and other developing countries are treated in these international events. She mentions the need for a stronger Latin American union. Talking about the ways in which the agendas for each country are so different. Wealthier countries like the US and China get to “pisotear”, or “step on” developing countries since they exist in such a fragmented way. Isis thinks that having a stronger unified Latin American continent with similar goals could provide a lot more pressure for wealthier countries and corporations to act on climate change financing and development. Isis is concerned, that if Latin America isn’t able to unite, they won’t be able to receive the necessary financing for climate change mitigation and adaptation required. Fossil fuel and extractive industries will never leave countries like hers and eventually, we will be too late to do something about the climate crisis.

She mentioned to me the many different problems she encountered at COP26. She told me of an instance where she was having lunch with presidents from Africa, like it was normal. But that the president of the United States always had people, press and bodyguards surrounding him at all times. She said that leaders from developing countries aren’t given nearly enough recognition or respect that they deserve and that it is not right. She says, essentially the discussions occurr between the United States, Japan, China and the EU while the rest of the world seem like “their humble servants”. Overall, Isis asserts that there are a lot of structural problems, along race, gender and class, prevalent at events like COP26. And that things need to change if climate negotiations and international events like COP aim to seriously change things for the better regarding the climate crisis. Isis finished our conversation about COP26 by highlighting that more women leaders also needed to be present at international events. She talked about how studies have shown that countries with more women leaders in high positions have been able to enact better climate legislation and adaptations. She says that women have, “a lot more intrinsic relationship with nature. Both of us have been made invisible, both of us have been violated, both of us have been objectified, and we are mothers, sisters, and daughters who have more of a collective thought process. We think and care about our species. There have been studies that show that this is true, that women-led governments are able to advance more than those led by men who tend to perpetuate extractive economies.”

For her vision of the future, Isis plans on spending her time implementing her environmental education project across different countries in Latin America. She says that she plans on spending her time from today and into 2030 doing things for the climate crisis. Her reasoning for this is that she believes that if humanity really wants a new global culture that grows out of sustainability, and reaches carbon neutrality, we need to educate, educate, and educate. She believes in environmental education for everyone, but especially for new generations that have yet to be born, since they are going to be living on a planet that is completely different than what came before. At the same time, she says we need to educate current leaders, presidents and politicians. She highlights that we have the tools, the educators, the studies, and the scientists necessary to make a transition into a greener society but that humanity is lacking the political will of governments to do it at the speed which is necessary. She told me she gathers inspiration from knowing that she is not alone in shaping the future and that she deeply believes that humans can do things differently, restoring ecosystems, collaborating with each other, and working together for climate and environmental justice worldwide.

After the immensely insightful conversation about COP, I asked Isis what she thought the role of the United States was, when relating to and cooperating with the rest of the American continent, and what advice she would give to young people and people in the United States who were interested in knowing more or supporting climate justice movements in Latin America. 

She told me that people in the United States need to understand that instead of being an environmental leader, the United States is the biggest problem for Climate Justice. She mentions that the US, the EU, and China are responsible for causing the climate crisis ,and that the economic system which was imposed on the rest of the world through western imperialism has led to cause mass death, harm and the destruction of ecosystems and humans themselves, just so a small percentage of people can live a more luxurious life than the rest of the world. 

She told me flat out that the biggest favor climate activists in the United States could do for Latin America, is to demand that the United States megaprojects be taken out of Latin America and for the extractive industries to leave Latin America so that the people living there could be able to provide for themselves instead of having to serve an extractive economy that leaves people in poverty.

She talked about how, “Funding extractive projects isn't going to help climate resiliency. The climate adaptations form the Paris Agreement and the speed of transition that is needed is nowhere to be seen. Most countries are very poor, bankrupt or suffer from horrible inflation. These are some of the things that cooperation between the US and Latin America needs. They are the country that set the tone for the economic system in which we operate. A system that isn’t viable with the ways of being with the planet.” Isis continued by saying that, “If you give us money to destroy our ecosystems, we will probably follow through with it because we have the economic necessity to do it. It is because of the system that has been created. What happens in Chile today is the consequences of the United States.”

She continued by asking people in the United States to question where the things they consume come from. To question why the tag on their shirts says made in Mexico, and why this is the case. To understand that everything is connected and that we as a consumer, and people living in the United States are participating in an economy and creating lifestyles that are based on human suffering. Whether it’d be our t-shirts or our computers, or cars, the lifestyles and ideals that many in the United States have contributed towards, are harming other people and the environments of other countries and places around the world.  

Second, she told me that people in the United States and climate activists shouldn’t underestimate Latin America but rather recognize the immense importance that the continent plays in mitigating climate change and working towards a healthier planet. She says Latin America and its many environments and cultures are a strong and resilient continent. One in which nature is also strong and beautiful. lt is necessary to protect it so that we as humans can continue living on the planet. She says that Latin America holds an important role to play in solving the climate crisis, since there are a lot of diverse ecosystems that are the least damaged, such as the Amazon, or the Pacific Ocean, along with high levels of biodiversity throughout the continent. Latin America has the capacity for high levels of food production and ultimately fertile soil for people to have everything that is needed. She specifies that Latin America needs to be protected from the extractive industries which seek to destroy its important ecosystems. That climate financing is crucial for advancing society as well as seeking to take extractive companies out of Latin America in order to seek other forms of development that are aligned with nature. She says that each country should focus on creating a strong internal economy. One that doesn’t rely on extraction but rather empowers small-scale workers such as artisans, fishers, and farmers and that the surplus of that is shared amongst other countries. She highlights that the transition from the extractive economy to a more local economy is important for fighting against climate change and restoring our ecosystems, both in Chile, and the United States.

Finally, she says that people need to understand that we are all interconnected. That things that happen in Chile affect things in the United States and so forth. That we are all on one large continent that spans one hemisphere of the planet and that we are all human beings. That, “the idea of nations is something that is culturally fabricated, no longer than 1000 years ago. The planet has been interconnected for more than 4 billion years. For animals and nature, borders don’t exist and we should begin to think more like them.”

When we finished, I thanked Isis Riquelme for her time and her amazing and thoughtful responses to my questions. We decided to stay in touch and follow each other on social media in order to stay connected and continue learning from each other. I hope to continue collaborating with her and other fellow young climate activists in Latin America in the future.

At the beginning of this project, I didn’t know that I was going to learn so much about climate activism in Latin America through the stories and interviews of these young people. I had set my intentions for this project, to learn more about climate activists in other parts of the world and how they related to my own experiences of volunteering in climate justice organizations.

One of the things that stood out to me when I was volunteering, was the different levels of commitment and availability that different types of people had. On one hand, there were people who were able to devote themselves full-time, to volunteering and holding leadership positions in the organization. Others, like myself, could only volunteer for a certain amount of time due to other commitments such as school and/or work. I noticed that there were a lot of younger people of color in the organization who were not able to provide as much time to volunteer even though they wanted to participate in more leadership positions within the organization. Simultaneously, it also led to more of my older wealthier, white peers holding leadership positions. This led me to notice a “gap” in the organization, where leaders in the organization weren’t able to fully connect with communities of color that were experiencing environmental injustices directly. 

This reality got me interested in learning more about myself and why it was that I wasn’t able to participate more in the organization. It led me to realize that as a person of color, my communities were in direct threat from environmental injustices. People in my community didn’t have time to volunteer because they had to work in order to make ends meet. In my own personal case, taking time to volunteer would mean sacrificing my success in graduating community college, even though I had found a way to integrate both things, I realized that there were a lot of barriers that people of color have to overcome in order to do the things they really want to do.

My experience made me think about other places in the world where wealth is even more scarce or maybe more concentrated than in the United States. I became interested in learning about the experiences of young people in Latin America since they are striving for the same goals as activists in the United States but living in developing countries with different laws and realities.

This led me to one of the biggest takeaways from the project. Which was that it is even more difficult for young people of color in Latin America to volunteer and participate in climate activism, however it is significantly different than volunteering in the United States.

In the case of Ernesto Fuentes, he felt as if he and his friends had a moral responsibility to help out his community since nobody else was willing to do it. He tells me of the immense piles of garbage that are present in his neighborhood, due to the lack of a waste management system in his neighborhood. This is a problem that is prevalent throughout El Salvador and other countries in Central America. It is a problem that people in the United States don’t really have to deal with that much. In El Salvador, piles of trash are left on the streets because of the lack of a waste management system, leading to diseases, insects, and other unsanitary conditions with which people have to live with. People do not bother to clean up heavy trash areas anymore since the problem has become normalized throughout the country. This is why in Ernesto’s story, he mentions that when he was cleaning up trash, some people would say to him that it is not worth it to clean up because it would get dirty right after anyway.

It was also interesting to note that Ernesto and his friends, use their own money to fund their organization. I found this to be very different from the ways in which I volunteered in the United States since the organization I volunteered for was a large one. With donors and a large presence throughout the United States.

I highlight that one of the main differences between my experiences and those of Ernesto is that he volunteers his time and resources not only because of possible leadership growth and community, but almost as a necessity. Due to the lack of environmental protections in his country. This is important to note, when thinking about environmental activism since people in the United States have a higher standard of living and services like waste management are common place everywhere.

In the case of Isis Riquelme, she is an extraordinary example of the dedication and commitment to climate justice that young people are able to express during these times. Her work as a climate activist, while still being a student and a parent as well is ultimately inspiring and outstanding. Her dedication to climate justice has taken to her to places all over the world, where her sharp intellect is necessary to speak truth to power to political leaders from all over the world. Her experiences with Dominga, Plan B, and her other organizations are a testament that young people can get involved in climate justice and enact change at a global level.

Similar to Ernesto, I found that the main difference between Isis and I was that she became an activist out of necessity. Having lived in an area where pollution was rampant as well as living in a country like Chile, where historical events such as the Pinochet dictatorship have led to such tremendous environmental injustices. This is one of the main differences that I identify between people living in the United States and other parts of the world. In the United States, people with enough wealth are able to live very comfortably and not have to worry about things like pollution or violence from government institutions. Specifically in the organization, I volunteered for, there were some who were significantly disconnected from the realities that a lot of people in developing countries face. At UC Santa Cruz, and throughout the United States and the developed world, people believe that going vegan or shopping at places such as Whole Foods is making a difference in the environment. And while this is not completely wrong, we miss the incredible reality that massive changes need to be made at a political level in order for environmental justice to be fully enacted. Our shopping habits in the United States will not stop mines in Chile from destroying entire important ecosystems. As Isis mentioned, our habits when shopping for clothes are inherently unjust. Our economies and ways of thinking as a developed nation lead to the extraction, destruction, and contamination of other parts of the world. While we believe that we are doing good by changing small things about our lives, more is needed if we wish to curb the climate crisis so that future generations have an opportunity for a better life. One of those things to do is to recognize that our lives affect others in other parts of the world. And that we are more interconnected than we make it out to be. Focusing on how we can synergize with other areas of the world such as Latin America can become an exciting and empowering way to fight against climate change. It is important for people to understand that while the United States has its own politics, we are not separated from the rest of the world and we in fact are directly connected to and part of the Americas, so we have a responsibility to help our neighbors and for them to teach us things about ourselves. This way we are able to do something worthwhile about climate that can really benefit large swaths of humanity. 

Another important takeaway from this project is the importance of young people being able to take charge in political decision-making processes at every level. Being able to make decisions that affect large amounts of people is critical in the fight against climate change. As Isis notes in her interview, young people are creating the solutions that the world needs, but they are not being taken seriously, by world leaders who have an interest in continuing the regime of extractive fossil fuel industries. Political leaders who understand the implications of climate change are needed if the world is to enact positive change. Fortunately, there are people like Isis who are committed to climate justice for the long run.

Finally, Latin America is an immensely priceless area of the world that cannot go under due to increasing climate changes. As Isis mentions, the ecosystems in Latin America are critical for the mitigation of climate change and more emphasis should be placed on the continent and its people so that we are all able to live better lives and withstand the changes that the world will undergo. There is always time to change and improve the world’s current systems. People like Isis and Ernesto exist to make this world a better place and through this project, I was able to highlight their stories and how young people have the capacity to be inspired as well in order to change the world and our collective futures for the better.