There’s No Recycling in Survival Mode

According to Forbes, the most important elements for human survival are food and water. Now, imagine you take those away from someone for days and ask them to care about climate change. They won’t. Humans need to take care of their daily needs to be able to worry about issues that will happen in a distant future. This is where it gets tricky in Venezuela.

“It’s not like people don’t know there’s environmental issues. They do. But right now, there’s nothing most can do about it” said Estefania Briceño, an architecture student from Barquisimeto, Venezuela. She has always had a sensitivity for climate change and its rapid evolution. She loves seeing all the movements and improvements taking place all over Europe and other places in America, and says she wishes our country would join in.

Estefania considers herself to be a “privileged” citizen. She lives in a good area of her city and has never found herself in need of food or shelter. Since she was little, she had access to the internet and to TV, where she got her climate concerns from.

“I was obsessed with Miley Cyrus, and it was around 2010 when she released the song ‘Send it On’ with a couple other Disney stars”. This was a charity single for ‘Disney’s Friends for Change’ a movement that involved popstars in creating climate awareness in the younger generation. “After finding out about the movement, I wanted to get involved somehow. So, I guess I owe all of this to Miley Cyrus”.

She admitted to being called a “hippie” a couple of times in school for getting slightly mad at people from littering and for asking our professors if our classroom could plant trees at school. Estefania affirms that the Venezuelan population needs to be taught that caring about our future and the future of our children does not make us “hippies”.

“In school, I only remember being taught not to litter, not to waste water unnecessarily and to turn off the lights when leaving a room. That’s it. That’s all the education I got on the topic. If you ask me, this is the first step we should take: teaching kids at school what is going on and how we can prevent it. I believe knowledge is power and right now, we lack knowledge”.

Environmental Journalist Gustavo Carrasquel Parra recently carried out a study in which he visited 16 beaches in Venezuela. “There was not one beach in which I didn’t find less than 500 lollipop sticks. This plastic generates heat, and a big concentration of this material affects the ecosystem’s temperature; directly affecting corals and mangroves” Out breathtaking beaches are in danger and our society is not prepared for the consequences. ElDiario gives further details on the study: https://eldiario.com/2021/08/18/tierra-calienta-venezuela-cambio-climatico/

Though not everything is bad news. The number of young citizens who are worried about our ecosystem is growing every day. Organizations like FAO and PROVITA are new but have done a really good job not only cleaning up beaches and streets, but also educating the population.

“I am part of Fundación Azul Ambientalistas. It was actually created in the 1980’s but today it is taking more action than ever. We educate and support the community, we denounce crimes against the environment, and we investigate and propose alternatives to take care of our planet”

Estefania explained that people are open to help and to modifying their day-to-day practices. In the last year, 11 areas of Venezuela have been flooded. This has happened due to the irregular rainy seasons that have been taking place in our territory. These events have caused the loss of homes and loved ones for a lot of people. According to Estefania, one of the goals of Fundación Azul Ambientalistas is explaining that these longer-than-usual rainy season are a consequence of our actions and that we can help future generations to not go through this.

Venezuela used to be filled with “negacionistas” (the people who deny the existence of climate change). But after having this conversation with Estefania I’m completely sure that that number is lowering by the day with organizations like the one she belongs to. Our country is definitely behind, but following others’ footsteps we’ll be able to catch up and save our future from being on “survival mode” too.