As an as an ecologist, a Black person, and a queer person, I cannot let my engagement with the environment end with my research. To address the climate crisis, alongside scientific research and advancing technology, we need a shift in how our society values labor, resources, and people.

We cannot address the climate crisis in a just and equitable way without a radical reimagining of how we treat and relate to one another. We cannot stop the climate crisis by becoming vegetarian and biking around more; we need to hold large corporations accountable, value low-carbon work (like care work: e.g. nursing, childcare), and finally reckon with the anti-Black racism and settler colonialism that allows us to justify building pipelines and other environmental hazards in predominantly Black, Native, and other communities of color (including and especially in outside the U.S.).

There are so many ways to engage with these issues, and I do not pretend to know the “right” way to do so. I was the Durham hub co-hair for the Sunrise Movement, and while at Duke was a proud member of the Duke Graduate Students Union working alongside the Durham Workers Assembly to push for fair pay and healthy, safe work environments for all Durham workers.