I found myself struggling to write our final paper, because there were so many points I wanted to touch on and it seemed daunting to unite these points under a coherent argument. This blog post then is almost doubly difficult, because I’ll need to cut so many points out to keep the word count. Nonetheless, in this post I’d like to focus on systems thinking as it pertains to our action group project and the university system as a whole.

As we have learned it in class, systems thinking is an understanding that people, organizations, institutions, environments, non-human animals, and more are all in relation to one another. In our group, we worked as individual people within a group system. This group system worked within our class system, and the ICA system, and the university system, all of which also work within different systems (and of course our bodies are systems and relate to the ecological systems around us). 

In thinking about our group and ICA in relation to the university system, I found myself wondering about the purpose and feasibility of progressive struggle and action from within an institution so totally invested (literally) in fossil fuels, ecological destruction, and war. What are ways we could be using our energy more productively, while still pushing for climate justice? What will be the actual, material result of UW divesting from fossil fuels when so many other universities still will be? What are the contradictions of pushing for climate justice as students within an objectively colonial and imperialist institution? 

With all these questions, I don’t have specific conclusions. In my personal time, I engage in both institutional and subversive action, with varying results. I believe that there is value in organizing for institutional reform (particularly when keeping in mind the greater impact that success in this area can have), but I also recognize that American universities are inherently colonial and exploitative—in their histories, and in their present-day actions as well—and their interests are at odds with the interests of the masses. What I do hold is the importance of understanding the contradictions within any type of struggle. While there may not be one perfect way to “do the work,” building with each other and recognizing the limitations and strengths of different tactics will produce a more cohesive and powerful movement.

My primary takeaways from this course— while the enormity of the political ecology of death can be overwhelming and panic-inducing to contemplate, through community and following visionary paths, we can build a path forward for a future that includes all of us, starting with the communities most impacted by climate catastrophe. 

My group’s action project was monitoring the Institutional Climate Action (ICA)’s Divest from Fossil Fuels campaign for the UW.  The ICA’s divestment campaign was created after years of student-led efforts to push the UW Board of Regents and the UW Investment Management Company (UWINCO) to divest UW’s endowment from fossil fuels investment. For this project, I reviewed all of the financial documents made available through the Board of Regents agenda notes for the past year’s meetings, and made extensive notes, which were used to draft an email to the Board of Regents and UWINCO for further clarifications on their intentions for divestment following the passage of the ICA’s resolution by the Board. Medha and I were also responsible for the creation of the Decolonizing Climate Justice project, and I created the social media posts, included in the presentation recording.  As for the question— Are you inspired about the work you did? — I would say yes, but with the caveat that it is not really about me. I am proud of my creations, especially the social media posts about water conditions in Flint and currently, in Jackson, Mississippi, because it speaks to the urgency— what is conspicuously absent in mainstream conversations in the global north— about access to clean drinking water and plastic sustainability in this country. We need to apply a systems-thinking approach to this issue. Jackson is happening right now, and the only people I see talking about it online are those who are directly impacted, and they are Black and brown. The media neglect is another glaring piece of evidence that the organized abandonment of poor Black and brown communities in the U.S. is not only at the hands of the fiscal state, but also from the so-called movements for climate equity. Of course, my contribution is only a very small one. But I hope that future students can understand the importance and urgency of carving out spaces for these conversations, even if it means going against the grain of the academic culture they find themselves in. 

Systems thinking- From The Hunger Project. What if we applied this more holistically, to the water crisis in Jackson?

JACKSON, MS

I had the opportunity to work on the Save the Orcas campaign this quarter as part of the Action project, and I gained some amazing insights along the road. I had never worked on a campaign like this before, and on top of that, I had never participated in a program where I was being directed by a person who was younger than I was. My introduction to the marketing side came from the work we did for this campaign, which was mostly focused on their social media initiatives. I found this experience to be energizing because I had never before worked in marketing. I learned that even something as simple as designing an infographic for a company’s Instagram story required careful consideration and effort to ensure that the information was both readable and attention-grabbing enough for viewers.

Working with my classmates, I discovered that the work that was most successful was that which was motivated by the very animals we were attempting to save. When viewed in light of the information, the marketing we did might appear to be rather depressing; however, by incorporating color schemes meant to evoke images of the sea and the lives of these creatures, we were able to balance somber facts with amusing depictions of orcas enjoying their habitat and the effects they had on their environments. I was frequently reminded of the albatross movie we saw in class as I worked on this project. The natural order of things is still being destroyed as civilization advances deeper into the Anthropocene, particularly when it comes to the habitats of the oceans. A number of species are on the verge of extinction with little hope left due to the continued dumping of rubbish and the bad management of human constructions. At least with our project, we could see a clear result of the action we wanted to do, and by succeeding in that, it might even result in a slight improvement in the natural world. I couldn’t stop wondering how we could have ever allowed the world to get to this position while watching the albatross movie, but because of this campaign, I was able to see an example of it happening in our own backyard.