Hype
Coming-of-age is a Vantage column where staffers share their opinions on a specific beat. From in-depth analyses of TV series to miscellaneous musings in music (and everything in between), this monthly column is an avenue to spread and inspire thought-provoking ideas.
In this column, Vantage Magazine Staffer Jia talks about her obsession with the climate movement, and how the YouTube channel Our Changing Climate helps her grapple with its complexity and seemingly unavoidable hopelessness.
I’VE ALWAYS been an idealist. One ideal in particular has stuck with me since the moment it conjured in my mind: The belief that the planet is saveable and that I could be the one to save it. Basically, a pipe dream.
How can I end climate change? The answer is I obviously can’t do it myself, but that’s never stopped me from trying. It’s easy to get sucked into the hopeless mindset that it’s too late, that we shouldn’t even bother because there’s nothing we can do to stop our environmental doom. I think it’s the complexity of climate change that makes us apathetic; there’s too much information about the problem and even more to comprehend about the solution.
Despite this, I immerse myself in such information anyway. I do so in bite-sized, oddly specific YouTube videos made by Charlie, the person who runs the channel Our Changing Climate. This channel is dedicated to bridging the gap between human culture and the climate movement. Every two weeks I find myself waiting on his latest upload. I never know what I’m getting next—it could be something as niche as how climate change is portrayed in your average American sitcom, or something as familiar as minimalism in day-to-day life. The videos are well-made, the arguments are compelling, and the takeaways are always enlightening.
If I had to describe the channel in one word, it’d be critical; Charlie does the exact opposite of sugar-coating. In one video, he expresses skepticism for countries that have pledged to have net zero emissions within the next 25 to 50 years. He argues that “net zero” needs to be contextualized. It can mean continuing emissions now while promising carbon sequestration in the future—a future we may not even have. He tells it how it is. His optimism is scarce, and rightly so. After all, the glass is almost empty.
Another one of his videos introduced me to Ecosia, a search engine that plants a tree in Burkina Faso for every 45 searches. I’ve been using it since 2019 and I still recommend it to people every chance I get. Thanks to Charlie, I discovered the beauty of looking to biomimicry for solutions; there is no better way to adapt to nature than to imitate nature itself. He talked about how ants can survive drowning, so long as they stick together.
Possibly my favorite thing about the channel is that it shows me environmental issues in places I wouldn’t have thought to look. For instance, in pop culture: There’s an entire playlist on Charlie’s channel dedicated to just movies and music, and why these kinds of connections matter in the climate movement (Spoiler alert: they directly affect how we perceive climate change). Other videos introduced to me obscure albeit interesting contemporary issues like eco-fascism and solarpunk.
However, perhaps the most impactful videos are the ones that call for systemic and large-scale transformations. Individual actions just aren’t enough to make it through the dumpster fire that is climate change. Charlie reassures us that we’re not alone in this, or at least we shouldn’t be. One of his more popular videos, entitled How We End Consumerism, comes to mind. It lists a plethora of structural changes that could help the planet: Buying less, redistributing food waste, expanding public transportation, and shifting the focus to care-oriented jobs like teaching and counseling. Indeed, we have a lot of room for improvement.
Charlie’s uploads serve as my biweekly reminder that being idealistic does nothing to help the climate movement. With every video I watch, a new crack forms in the unrealistic lens through which I once saw the world. This fight cannot be won with ideals. Rather, it is won by grappling with the ugliness, the conflict, and the unfortunate apathy that inevitably comes with it.
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