Emily Marcil is Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s Great Lakes Regional Fellow and recently graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a major in society and environmental studies and minor in political science. She will be pursuing a Master’s at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability in Fall 2021.
As an incoming graduate student at the University of Michigan, I am afraid of how my life will look post-grad even though I’m supposed to be starting my life – not fearing it. Every summer we have record setting temperatures, intense droughts, wildfires and storms. Consequences such as rising food prices, housing and energy costs, and increase in respiratory diseases and death disproportionately impact poor people and people of color. I feel like I will be left behind financially as the gap widens between the rich and the poor.
When I first learned about climate change in my high school environmental science class I was completely taken aback by how we can just go on -- business as usual-- and not take action. As a sophomore in high school I went fully vegan because that was my way of decreasing my carbon footprint. However I knew that because of environmental racism, veganism is not accessible or affordable for some people. I also am aware of the fact that veganism alone cannot solve the complex problem of climate change. I’m not saying that change at the individual level is useless, because it does have great benefits; however we need to push for systemic changes.
I became involved with Citizens’ Climate Lobby because I believe in the power of citizens--ordinary citizens that know climate change is going to affect our daily lives--to make change. As a regional fellow I am able to connect with these ordinary citizens, specifically the younger generation, to build political will for climate legislation. Climate legislation such as the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act holds those big corporations accountable for the damage they’ve done by gradually increasing the cost to pollute. The dividend is also one of my favorite aspects of the legislation because it directly gives money to people to use however they please.
Climate change, being the existential threat it is, has made me realize how truly fragile yet precious our lives are here on Earth. It is not something we will experience far down the line, but something we are experiencing right now. Ordinary citizens need to take back the power in Washington and get real solutions passed in order for us to live healthy and happy lives.