In recent years TikTok It has become one of the most popular platforms. Although many of the short videos they are challenges, dance choreography, lipsync, among others that seek to entertain, there are some users, such as @thegarbagequeen, who are taking advantage of this community to report on climate change and spread the interest to be an active part of the change.
In an interview given by the tiktoker, Alaina Wood, to TheVergesaid that the climate anxiety and “the heat” led her to start making videos in 2020 to talk about that feeling, as well as solutions, new studies and reports. It currently has more than 300 thousand subscribers who are interested in the subject.
At the time, I was in lockdown due to the pandemic, so I was bored and had time to spare. Then he started uploading videos “about weird stuff”, however, When the platform began to recommend videos on climate change, he noticed that many of them had inaccurate data, so he decided to make his own with accurate information.
“I made my first environmental video in May 2020 saying why I no longer consider myself zero waste. From there, I started to build a community of other people who discuss climate change in the environment and realized that people want to hear about this”Said the young woman for the aforementioned medium.
It was a problem for her to feel that she couldn’t recycle many things when she was in college, although has learned to be more practical in their lifestyle and try to show others on the internet that they can do the same.
For example, she drives her car a lot but it is because public transport does not reach where she lives, nor does it take her to a place that is useful to her, since she only has two routes available. In this case, although you still use a gasoline car because electric ones are expensive, Drive efficiently that is, without rapidly accelerating or decelerating or setting cruise control when on the road.
“For me, it’s just finding little ways to make your life a little more sustainable. It will help, and people they shouldn’t feel guilty if ‘I can’t do more’” assured the tiktoker. He added that, “at the end of the day, yes, we as individuals need to make changes, but so do corporations and governments.”
He assured that despite the fact that people make individual and personal changes, it is important that companies and governments also do so, because otherwise “we cannot make big changes so easily without them.”
On the other hand, he said that he was interested in uploading videos talking about the subject because he realized in the comments that many users were having. “ecological anxiety” and that several were even thinking about suicidebecause in some TikTok videos there were inaccurate and fatalistic data where they claimed that everything would be over in 10 or 15 years.
“I feel my duty as a climate scientist and communicator is ensure that the most accurate information is disclosed, especially when inaccurate information affects people’s mental health”, assured the tiktoker, who also suffers from ecological anxiety.
Along with other trends, “climate doom” has gone viral highlighting the importance of being practical and making a difference in the face of climate change, through small changes that positively impact the environment.
:
