Why I Raised My Voice for Environmental Change

Along the corner of 44th Elm Street, a shiver of uneasiness enfolds my spine. My greasy hands sweat as I introduce myself to other high school students, and representatives of different schools in the Wilmington Region of Southern California. It is a beautiful sunny day, yet awkwardness coats the crowd. Students scratch their heads and shield their eyes, making me wonder if this morning’s protest will successfully voice the crowd’s concerns. Despite my doubts, I remind myself of the scope of today’s goal: to document the students who physically articulate their concerns about the detrimental oil refineries to a larger audience. I feel naturally inclined to walk the streets, but as an onlooker rather than an advocate. 

As the crowd emerges to hundred-ish students, I wrap my dusty hands around the tips of my grainy charcoal camera and close my left eye. Fingerprint stains and oily rust smudge the viewfinder, but shifting its single-frame focus away from Representative Nanette Diaz Barragan (California’s 44th Congressional District) only creates a tampered and untruthful perspective of my photos. I cannot publish bad, partially-framed photos, particularly because I feel obligated to capture the full essence of someone’s personality in a single frame, to document a full-framed voice of a person’s perspective.

My eyes are alert and unfixed as I look through the colors and lighting of the student crowd encircling the representative’s words, “Planet over profit! Remove oil once and for all!”  I cannot help but softly grin through the muffled clicks of my camera, knowing my photography is shining a light on a new generation of leaders who are standing up for cleaner, ethical communities and the fight for limitations of oil and gas pollution influences. I document student voices to encourage others to utilize civic engagement practices, the practice of amplifying loud voices. 

Over time, the students progressively repeat the words louder, and a harmonized collection of voices mutes the alleyway’s bustling car engines. Even though I joined the protest as a mere bystander photographer, I could not help but repeat the following words, “Planet over profit! Remove oil once and for all!” Realizing that the awkward presence has faded, I put away my camera and slowly turn up my scratchy voice. While I am not an avid supporter of the environmental movement, I know my supporting presence can make a large difference. I want to pour a part of my spirit into this movement. This call to the cause makes me wonder, “Am I competent to become a youth activist?”

We then begin to walk across 44th Elm Street, which was full of guzzling cars. The anxious doubts of failure quiet in my mind. Every radiant smile that a student glances at my side, I shout louder. As the passing cars on the street honk a bass-cheerful roar, I shout even louder. A shout for the woeful victims of gas and oil explosions. A shout for the victims who fight cancer from the effects of high-rate pollution. A shout for the students who are fighting to make a significant change. Eventually, my shouts overshadow my doubts and I forget why I came here in the first place. I am participating as a youth environmental activist and a youth photographer.

The two roles of photographer and activist overlap, and I now see these two careers as an inseparable single identity of me, myself, and I. I am still a photographer who captures and analyzes the raw essence of empathy and heart among young activists, but I am also a future youth activist who fights along a particular moment, action, and emotion. Whether I am a bystander or the leader who takes action, the complexity of youth voices does not revolve around mere anticipation, but rather the energizing spirits to engage and participate through their physical actions, exemplified in me. The fire grows hotter, and my pounding heart urges me to scream our message louder.

Why is it important for students to engage in public advocacy? Why is it important to raise our voices? Civic Engagement. Public Advocacy and participation encourage individual empowerment, and critical thinking which fosters policy change. No matter who we are, we all have the same potential to walk out of our box and fight for the surrounding community.

Photo Credit: Ryan Doh