In late October among the bustling students and coffee mugs at Pascal’s Coffeehouse off of University Avenue, I had the privilege of attending the CLEO Speaker’s Network Training run by the CLEO Institute, an organization dedicated to climate education and advocacy.
The institute, run by Climate Speaker Specialist Ellen Siegel, aims to increase climate communication skills while also developing ideas for community-based solutions and action.
During this seminar, participants were taught lessons about climate science, developed their own climate action plan based on their skill set and most importantly built connections with community members outside of their everyday routine.
This community was filled with diverse voices and represented participants of varying experience, knowledge and involvements. In an age where intergenerational connections are hard to come by, and often result in disagreement, the training’s commitment to fostering these connections was refreshing, providing a baseline for future climate action and political spaces.
In light of recent events, most prominently the Jan. 20 executive order from President Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change, this kind of grassroots effort is essential for navigating future reversals of climate policy.
This decision, along with many other first-day executive orders, was a revealing beginning of this administration’s term.
Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and removing the U.S. from global climate initiatives such as the agreement’s long-term temperature goal was a careless choice, but not a surprising one.
Looking to the future, this legacy of isolating the United States from global climate discourse seems both unfortunate and inevitable, especially when the United Nations reports that in less than ten years, we will reach an irreversible temperature threshold that will make climate change even more of a challenge in our everyday lives.
These setbacks, although discouraging, make our actions even more important. Leaning into these changes and accepting that our past methods will not be enough is the first step, along with making sure we allow voices of all ages to be heard and that they are all attuned to their own strengths and skill sets, much like the activities presented at the training.
Reflecting on this experience over four months later, it feels difficult to hold the same hope that I and many participants clung to before the inauguration of a president who not only pushes climate change to the back-burner, but actively decides to work against organizations aiming to make positive change in the sector. It's easy to feel discouraged by the onslaught of damaging decisions enacted by the Trump Administration and expedited by like-minded GOP members of congress when climate-related natural disasters affect more Americans every day.
We should be worried, but it shouldn’t push us to fall into being passive or apathetic.
Be the catalyst for change in your communities, have those hard conversations and make sure that no voice is left behind. It’s easy to push off action, but it’s more difficult to reckon with that choice when it doesn’t work out the way you want.
Gracie Adams is a UF environmental science freshman.
