Riley: Reimagining our Future

More Than Just Ideas: How Collaboration Can Save the Planet

By: Riley Schacht

What do students want to see in a greener, just future?

That is the question Tania Roa asked her “Reimagining our Future” participants. Roa is the Communications and Outreach Coordinator for Sustainable Harvest International, an environmental non-profit that supports low-income farmers by providing local, long-term technical assistance and resources as farmers transition from conventional agriculture to regenerative practices.

After asking the initial question, Roa gathered the group into a circle instead of immediately wanting answers. She asked the students - from different schools and backgrounds - to share a few things about themselves, including names, grades, schools, and a dance move that represented them. After everyone had participated, Roa asked everyone's three favorite dance moves. After the group came together in consensus, Roa said to combine them all, working together collaboratively. According to Roa, the activity aimed to demonstrate how “in climate justice, there are many different people with different ideas, and that’s okay.”

Following the group experience, students were again asked, “What do you want to see in a greener, just future?” Student desires varied from coexistence to less animal abuse, to electric cars, but the collaborative message, according to Roa, was clear. “We can all come together with these different ideas or skills and create better solutions for the future,” she said.

The need for a collaborative future in climate solutions makes activities like these so impactful. Climate change is a problem that affects every part of the world, and every person in it. With this in mind, people need to see climate justice with the view that it takes more than one idea, or one perspective, to fix the climate crisis.