Nathaniel Clark – A&E Editor

nuc5002@psu.edu

Wanjiku Gatheru spoke on the development of one’s “climate story’ in the last Speaker Series of the 2022-2023 school year. 

For those unaware, Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru is a 24-year-old climate change activist. Coming from rural Connecticut, she is a first-generation American of Kenyan descent who has had a deep connection to the land even from a young age, when she began assisting on her family’s farm. This connection grew for Gatheru when taking an environmental science class in high school, where she learned that social justice and climate issues were deeply intertwined. 

Since then, Gatheru has decided to harness her passion for climate science and activism by pushing to make the climate movement more relevant and accessible. Wawa is the founder and Executive Director of Black Girl Environmentalist, a nonprofit committed to opening the doors of environmental science and advocacy for Black women and non-binary individuals. She also has worked with many popular figures in media, such as Billie Eilish and Kehlani, to bring environmentalism to the forefront of popular conversation. Wawa is also a frequent public speaker and writer, leading to her involvement in the 2022-2023 Behrend Speaker Series.

After being introduced by Dr. Ken Miller, Senior Director of Administration and Student Affairs, Gatheru opened her speech by expressing gratitude for being invited She then requested that the audience come into her speech with an “open heart and open mind.” 

The main goal of Gatheru’s speech was to convince the audience that everyone has a “climate story” that defines what they may lose or gain in the world of climate change. However, Wawa needed to first address the elephant in the room: the overarching climate crisis, or saga as she defined it. 

Gatheru proceeded to break down the modern societal inequalities involved in the climate crisis. These inequalities included the unequal impacts of climate change between social groups, the existence of Most Affected People and Areas, otherwise known as MAPA, communities, and how race is the number one factor when identifying how close someone will live to a power plant. Gatheru defined all these listed inequalities as “Environmental Racism,” even citing that the water crisis in Flint, Michigan was a result of environmental racism as well.

Even with all of the grave statistics surrounding climate change and environmental racism, Gatheru does not want people to feel like the issue is unresolvable. She defined our current period as a “one in a species-long opportunity” to lessen or end the effects of the climate crisis. To involve oneself in this opportunity, Gatheru states that an individual must rephrase the crisis in their own life. 

Gatheru’s point of rephrasing led directly to the first step of crafting one’s climate story: revisit the community which you came from. For example, Wawa reflected on the connections her Kenyan heritage had to her life in Connecticut. While did have a love and adoration for gardening and planting, Gatheru originally felt disconnected from the world of climate change. When she was growing up, the movement was overly white and privileged, creating an overt disconnect. The inaccessibility to this realm of activism was furthered through the scientific research that was available, all of which was full of knowledge hidden behind scientific jargon, making them incomprehensible to the general public. 

As previously mentioned, Gatheru’s stance on environmentalism shifted in high school, when she met her environmental science teacher, Mrs. Rose. Rose taught Gatheru the concept of environmental justice and introduced her to the TED Talks of environmentalist Peggy Sheppard. With these two figures, Gatheru realized that caring for the environment was already connected to her life, she just needed to ground it on her terms.

Wawa then led into step two of crafting your climate story: recognize the groups and issues you are continuing. With this point, Gatheru made the point that the Environmentalist movement is directly connected to the Civil Rights Movement. The speaker noted that the Industrial Revolution was grown out of blood money from slavery. Said revolution then led to various toxic chemicals being spread into the atmosphere. Wawa also noted that Martin Luther King Jr. was also an environmentalist, leading to this sense of interconnectedness between the movements. 

In general, the climate change and environmental science movement is not new, but it does take the youth to lead the next generation. 

However, it is the generational connections that lead to the creation of new leaders, building on a sense of hope. This connection led to Wawa discussing Black Girl Environmentalists. Gatheru wanted to end the ignorance of black female environmentalists, by increasing the accessibility of information. With this new organization and community, Wawa hopes to spread the message of black female environmentalism around the U.S. and U.K.

Wawa then led into step three: feel everything, every emotion. To get real with the world, one has to be real with themselves. In the STEM world, people are told to remove their emotions; however, this does not work when it comes to the climate crisis. The crisis is inherently an issue of emotion, of loss. People are already emotionally connected to the world and communities in which they live and thrive. By disregarding the issue, these individuals are putting themselves and their world at risk. 

Gatheru proceeded to connect her emotions to the climate crisis. She stated, “as a member of Generation Z, my future is not a certainty anymore like the ones who came before me.” It is these complicated emotions that push Gatheru to continue her message and show others the capabilities of humanity. 

In her closing statement, Gatheru pushed the idea that she is not trying to educate the world, rather, she is trying to activate it. Wawa is showing disenfranchised and underrepresented groups that they can be a part of the environmentalist movement. Rather than pushing a glum outlook on humanity, Wawa and Black Girl Environmentalist want to reshape the conservation into one with constructive positivity in mind. 

There is indeed still time to shift the tides of climate change. To begin, people must first craft their own climate story.