Pirate's Cove

The NY Times is taking us down a whole new stupid road, and doesn’t even realize it

With TikTok and Lawsuits, Gen Z Takes on Climate Change

As Kaliko Teruya was coming home from her hula lesson on August 8, her father called. The apartment in Lahaina was gone, he said, and he was running for his life.

He was trying to escape the deadliest American wildfire in more than a century, an inferno in Hawaii fueled by powerful winds from a faraway hurricane and barely hindered by the state’s weak defenses against natural disasters.

Her father survived. But for Kaliko, 13, the destruction of the past week has reinforced her commitment to a cause that is coming to define her generation.

“The fire was made so much worse due to climate change,” she said. “How many more natural disasters have to happen before grown-ups realize the urgency?”

Like a growing number of young people, Kaliko is engaged in efforts to raise awareness about global warming and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, last year she and 13 other young people, age 9 to 18, sued their home state, Hawaii, over its use of fossil fuels.

Have they all given up their own use of fossil fuels? No?

With active lawsuits in five states, TikTok videos that mix humor and outrage, and marches in the streets, it’s a movement that is seeking to shape policy, sway elections and shift a narrative that its proponents say too often emphasizes climate catastrophes instead of the need to make the planet healthier and cleaner.

TikTok is considered the worst of all social media for their “carbon footprint.” And it entices users to travel all over to make their videos. Hawaii wouldn’t survive without fossil fuels, but, hey, let’s see them try. Every experiment needs an experimental group, right?

Chief among the frustrations of Mr. Artis and his cohort was the administration’s decision to approve Willow, a huge drilling project in Alaska. Early this year, TikTok erupted with calls for the White House to deny approvals for the project, thrusting the issue into the mainstream and giving thousands of young people a common cause. Creators juxtaposed images of Mr. Biden with collapsing glaciers, recorded tearful selfie videos and mashed up songs from “Encanto” with slide shows of cute animals.

The thing about using social media is that it’s easy. People do not really have to do much of anything. Just a quick post, a stupid video with a dance or something, and that’s it.