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Xiye Bastida is, literally, the daughter of a climate summit. Her parents met at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, held in June 1992. Her mother, a Chilean with European roots, had led several sit-ins to prevent the construction of seven dams, while her father, of Otomi-Toltec origin, an indigenous Mexican people, defended what his community had always believed: that human beings should be reciprocal with Mother Earth. They both traveled to Brazil as representatives of their countries at the UN, and there love arose, amid conversations about the protection of the atmosphere, the conservation of biodiversity, or the fight against deforestation. Ten years later, she was born.
It is not surprising, therefore, that Bastida —who migrated with both of them to the United States at the age of 13— became one of the most visible faces of the international student movement that in 2019 led millions of young people to protest in different cities around the world to demand action against global warming and climate change. An effervescence fueled by social networks, fueled by the figure of Greta Thunberg and materialized by a generation afraid of the future, but not of taking to the streets. Fridays of partying were replaced by those of claiming the Fridays for future.
Xiye looks back on that year with excitement. She started by organizing students at her school, who would go and talk to local authorities, but they didn’t pay much attention to them. Then they started seeing news about Greta Thunberg and realized they weren’t alone, “that there were other young people around the world who cared about the same thing,” she says. A youth climate revolution was blossoming. In August of that year, the world followed the journey of the young Swede who, to avoid the carbon footprint of a commercial flight, chose to cross the ocean on a yacht for 14 days. Xiye welcomed her across the Atlantic, and became one of the main organizers of the Fridays for future —or Fridays for Future— in New York.
The initial group of 15 students from her high school grew and spread to other schools until in September, on the occasion of the UN General Assembly, they managed to gather 600,000 people. “It exceeded our expectations, and it changed my life. When we walked through the streets of Wall Street, I think that all the businessmen who saw us through the windows felt the power,” Bastida recounts in a chat with EL PAÍS from Medellín, where she attended the forum. She Is Global to share their experiences.
P. After that the foundation of Fridays for Future The pandemic hit, and it was like I lost my momentum…
R. The pandemic came and stopped all the momentum we had. I founded my organization, Re-Earth Initiative. I said: if I can’t do it in the streets, I’ll do it virtually, and we mobilized 300,000 people online for Earth Day. We continued to work, study, educate each other, and today we are part of many organizations to which we provide advice. Also, since we were all online, we realized that marching in the streets excluded many activists, because for example it is illegal to hold a protest in Malaysia or Singapore. Just because we are not in the streets does not mean that we are not permeating the world of decision-making.
P. What is the main difference between the young people who were marching at that time and those who advise organizations today?
R. We went from being 16 or 17 years old, to being 21, 22, 23, so we are graduating from university. We all chose a career that has to do with the environment. We are becoming professionals in energy issues, in climate negotiations, in leadership. Today, the movement works through youth-led organizations that are raising and delivering funds for other youth, like the Youth Fund for Climate Justice.
P. What have been the main achievements or tangible changes?
R. The changes have coincided with the climate conferences. For example, a loss and damage fund was created, The fact that countries in the global north are committing to giving money to countries that are damaged by climate disasters is a very important achievement, and at the upcoming summit we are going to talk about how countries have to start taking responsibility for their historic decisions to maintain this fund. Another huge achievement is that since last year fossil fuels have been mentioned in the United Nations declaration. The fact that we can now name why we are in this crisis, which has not been achieved in 27 years, is monumental, because it means that now all countries must have an energy transition plan. That is a systemic change. And another achievement is that the United Nations recognized that we have a right to a healthy environment. So we can use frameworks like that to start suing everyone. If changes are not being made already, with the information that exists, we have to start putting legal pressure on them.
P. One imagines the hisghschool, or high school, like in the movies, as places full of pressures. In that context you become an environmental leader. Didn’t that take you away from what you do? coolof the popular?
R. When I started organizing the marches, I stopped caring about what people said, even what my teachers said. I kept getting straight A’s; I didn’t drop out of school. I thought: I have a purpose, which is to change the world, and I’m going to do it no matter what people say. What I was afraid of was the United States immigration system. I was afraid that they would see me at a protest and say: we’re taking away your visa, because I don’t have the same rights as a citizen. I was afraid that they would deport me.
P. Among the terms that have been coined is that of climate migration. The community where you grew up before migrating to the United States, San Pedro Tultepec, in the State of Mexico, suffered a flood…
R. Yes. My community was flooded when I was 13, but that wasn’t what made us move. It was because my parents got a job in New York related to climate change. The day before we moved, the flood happened, so the story is very confusing. Obviously, it had a very strong impact on people’s health. Our river is one of the most polluted in Mexico. But climate migration is something that is already happening. Millions of people have to leave their homes because of heat waves, floods, or because the water is no longer coming, and by 2050 there are predictions of 1.5 billion people becoming climate refugees. A large part of the world’s population will have to move because of the climate crisis, because of stronger hurricanes, because of fires, and the world is not prepared. If we are not prepared today for migration caused by political and armed conflicts, much less for climate migration. Where will the people from the islands that are already under water go? Where is the concept of nation? There are islands that, as they are going to disappear physically, want to become nations on the internet, virtual nations.
P. But legal action can be taken to put pressure on governments…
R. Yes. In fact, the biggest movements now are legal actions. For example, the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Colombia has just become the first large country to sign. Many islands have signed these treaties, because they are the most vulnerable. Legal frameworks have also been seen to protect rivers, mountains, ecosystems, and with my colleagues we are working on a project called the Tribunal for Future Generations. Just as we have rights for children, for refugees, we want to give rights to future generations. What decisions are we making today that may violate the rights of generations born in 50, 100 years? We know that the International Court of Justice and other courts can be very slow, but we believe in the symbolism of saying that we are going to make a declaration for future generations, and in fact the United Nations is going to do so in September of this year.
P. What was your childhood like in Mexico, with your parents as activists?
R. We, as part of an indigenous people, have ceremonies. They were always in the four directions, with the four elements, thanking Mother Earth for everything she gives us. I thought that was how the world was, but in my own environment there were so many factories, so much pollution, and I said: why is the world like this? I was raised with an environmental consciousness, and when I realized that my peers didn’t have the same thoughts, I asked my parents: why are they talking to me about climate change if no one talks about it. I thought they were almost making things up, because I didn’t see it. I thought: if this was really happening, people would change their way of being and acting, and it wasn’t until my community was flooded that I realized that the climate crisis was already happening.
P. As an activist, however, it is very difficult to be 100% consistent. In the end you are travelling to a climate summit, you are taking a plane, you are using certain products…
R. That is the big conversation we have between individual change and systemic change, because I think that we can all make individual change, but it doesn’t work if industries continue to produce tons of plastic. These are systems that have made us dependent on fossil fuels, on buying more low-quality clothing. I will never say to someone: why are you using a plastic bottle? Because even if I have my own bottle and consume less, and I bathe with solid shampoo, the real fight is with the system. With legislation that says: we are going to ban these plastics, you get rid of them much faster than if I went from house to house. So that is what I focus on: systemic change. That is why I go to many summits, but with the aim of influencing the people who make the decisions, and above all to tell them to include us young people in making those decisions.
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