"History is made by people who had no clue whether their actions would create change." Or, why hope is an imperative.
A chat with young Greens candidate Ariane Giraneza Birekeraho, plus upcoming events and opportunities.
Hope is an imperative.
I Googled this phrase lately - while I was on the sofa, I don’t know why the phrase came to me. I found out it was the name of a compilation of environmental essays. Clearly I’m not the first person to think of this.
Lately I’ve been trying to find my motivation, my hope again. It's been a bit touch-and-go these last weeks. How is everyone else still going as if nothing is happening? I wondered. Haven’t they read the news?
The last few weeks have been long and tiring. I got robbed. Then arrested for holding a banner. Then I did stand-up comedy about being arrested.
There’s something hilarious, something not funny at all, something absurd about calling out the rivers of oil and the melting glaciers wreaked by the hand of ultra-rich corporations - and finding yourself branded as the criminal.
Then The Guardian sweeps in with its terrifying headlines about blowing past 2.5 degrees of warming and I have to confess, when the slew of follow-up columnists told us not to despair, I struggled. They said nothing is concrete. There’s still hope. Start composting.
I try to work and end up closing my laptop impulsively and lying on the sofa. I keep opening Netflix but nothing gets my attention. I check my phone and put it away and check it again.
Instagram shows me a massacre. Then a cat video. Now a woman whose life was transformed when she started going for a jog at 5am. Don’t stop talking about Sudan. Now an advert for a productivity app. I discover I probably have adrenal fatigue. I keep scrolling.
I go to a party and a guy there says, So you’re really into climate stuff, right? and I thought, flash flooding has killed 60 people in Afghanistan this week. There is a genocide. Isn’t it a bit warm? I go outside in the night air and try to remember how to socialise like a normal human being.
I wrote earlier this year that despair is futile. But it turns out that fending it off is an ongoing exercise - and it’s normal to struggle sometimes.
Our brains have never coped very well with the limbo space, where things are neither good nor bad, the world is not progressing in one linear direction to either doom or a bright green future.
Because, I don’t know, doesn’t it feel a bit more like things are turning inside out? The dark core of our economic structures, our failing political systems and corporate lobbying are being exposed to the light and decades of corruption and exploitation are spilling out into the public eye. And it’s a lot, you know?
Ended up at home on the sofa again. Googling for hope. That was my mistake. Hope is not an object to be misplaced, it can’t be summoned on command.
It is an imperative. Without hope we are dead before we die.
And the great thing about hope is that it’s free. Not much is free these days, so take it. It doesn’t need to be backed up by fact or justified.
But let’s be clear: hope without action misses the point.
Imagine that I had the opportunity to do something, anything, to make things even a fraction better, even just for a moment, just for a day, and I let it slide because I was already hopeless or worse, hoping someone else would fix everything (
writes a great summary on how we distance ourselves from the problem and delay action).Hopelessness is a self-fulfilling prophecy. In 30 years I want to look back and say I tried everything. We tried everything.
I’ve never needed proof of success to strive towards something I think is worthwhile before. Even if it doesn’t work. Because maybe it will work. We’re not that smart, you know? I can’t see the future or the butterfly effect of all our actions. Maybe cynicism is more naive and short-sighted than hope.
Hope is imperative, it is a political statement, it really is the only option.
Cover image: Nico Roicke - Unsplash.
What’s Going On?
Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating, with disastrous results.
Related: We cannot afford to despair - Guardian editorial.Banks have given almost $7tn to fossil fuel firms since Paris deal, report reveals.
Related: Barclays’ billions of ‘sustainable’ finance for fossil fuel industry is greenwash, says investor.Wind and solar are ‘fastest-growing electricity sources in history’.
Related: In the UK, a week of protesting over oil and gas firm Equinor’s sponsorship of climate conferences.EU spending up to €48bn on nature-harming activities each year, report says.
Related: The project exploring the hidden crisis of Europe’s groundwater.‘One less mouth to feed’: Climate disasters linked to child marriage in Bangladesh.
Related: Why are LGBTQ+ people more at risk from climate change?
If you’d like to support The Green Fix, please consider tipping us a virtual coffee.
Focus On: What it’s like to campaign for the Greens as a young black woman
Cass Hebron chats to Ariane Giraneza Birekeraho, first substitute for the Greens in the upcoming EU elections.
My name is Ariane Giraneza Birekeraho. I'm a climate policy manager at the climate NGO Belona Europa, where I work on industrial decarbonisation.
I'm also the first substitute for the Greens and Flemish Greens, for the European elections. That means that if any of our elected MEPs steps down I would step up. Our current MEP gained her place in the same way so it’s an exciting opportunity.
Why did you decide to start getting involved in green politics?
I've always loved politics. I was 23 when I had my first political job as a parliamentary assistant, and it just never left me.
When it comes to climate, I was sick and tired of people individualising the issue while not making the necessary structural changes. It makes me think about this one meme, where someone says late-stage capitalism is standing in a supermarket trying to decide what level of chicken happiness you can afford.
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Do you wanna be a good person and get the products that were locally produced? How about we make sure that all the oranges that are in the supermarket are locally produced?
Also, I'm just done. The Dutch elections really lit a fire under me. I remember being invited to a climate debate. They invited me to ‘nuance’ the debate and the bullshit certain politicians would say. Like being anti-wind turbine or saying that we should not help any poorer countries with their green transition.
A politician from the VVD [conservative party in the Netherlands], also used their Indian heritage and the fact his family don’t want money to justify pulling back on financial support for the green transition, essentially calling the whole notion naive.
So I'm there at this panel and I remember my heart beating while saying, sorry, but what the actual fuck? I come from a continent where less than half of people have access to electricity. There, energy justice is not a climate issue, it's a developmental issue.
Even though I'm a refugee - I came to the Netherlands at the age of nine, and to Belgium at the age of five - I take responsibility for the historical emissions that Europe has produced and brought us to this horrible state of climate crisis. And if I can do it, white people, how can you not do it after having generations of people who actually profited from these emissions?
And if you look at the historical emissions, and the fact that all of these climate technologies are, and the Intellectual Property of them, are in the West, they’re in the States, it's in Europe. Do you know how much money Europe is making off of this whole green transition from developing nations?
At the end I got a standing ovation and I was scared. I was like, I'm gonna get fired. But something just broke in me. I can't sit here and try to be polite when people are saying dangerous stuff for future generations.
I'm sick and tired, and I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was done and I decided I am angry and I'm going to show my anger.
What is it like to campaign as a young black woman?
At my first job at the bank BNP Paribas, the CFO took me to his office to tell me that three colleagues had complained about me. And it was about my smell. After only working there for two years. They'd never been in three metres of proximity to me. I cried then because it was like, wow, I've been hearing this since I was five, in kindergarten. Now I was 24, and my actual big girl job as an anti-money laundry investigator, and the CFO is here, being a messenger for racists.
When black Dutch politician Sylvana Simons wasn't re-elected to the Dutch Parliament, part of me was like, someone has to take the mantle. I’m one of the things that far-right people fear the most. The amount of hate I get online when I talk about climate or even when I talk about human rights, I can use their rage against them. So every time they react and react racist things, I do a little video explaining to them. You have the power.
If you don't want to see me on your television spouting my woke nonsense, the only thing you have to do is not leave a racist comment. If you don't leave a racist comment, then I won't get more views on TikTok because engagement is engagement.
People are reacting heavily to the video, so they're going to send it to more people. Every racist comment you put there is bringing the world a step closer to me as a mayor, a minister, a European president.
It's a very 21st century election strategy. It's the only way. They hate me already. So might as well use that to my advantage.
I live in Antwerp where Vlaams Belang [far-right party] were just at 30%. I know you guys exist. You can't scare me. The only reason why I cry is for all the other groups that are being intimidated by seeing my comments.
I had a school debate and this young girl told me that she wanted to be politically active. But looking at what women have to endure, she does not think that she will ever do that. I came back from my debate and I saw that this young woman had started to follow me on Instagram and on TikTok and I did a little dance.
Two days later, one of my biggest racist backlashes started. All because I did a video on the day that Dries van Langehove was sentenced. I made a TikTok. I was on a work trip in Berlin and it was a sunny day so I'm out there in the sun and I'm like, hmm it's a gorgeous day and in the background I just put the heading of the article. I don't say anything in the video. The caption is, it's a gorgeous day.
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That video got seen by almost 15,000 people and within the hour I had 500 comments that were death threats, rape threats and just racism. People were sending me monkeys and bananas. And apparently for TikTok that's not against community guidelines.
But what actually made me break down and cry was when I saw that the one young lady that I tried to motivate had seen that.
How do you address the political disillusionment among younger people?
Even if the far-right gets 30%, we're still 70%. What I'm more scared about, what the real enemy for me in these elections is apathy from young people. That's when the far right wins. When decent people who care about stuff feel like... caring about anything is just not worth it.
We need to care, we need to keep caring, because electoral politics are not everything. Under electoral politics, we have administrations that are full of people who care.
When I was at this Young Green campaign, they asked me a question that has very much centred my campaign now. It was on the basis of what Obama's speech writers and Obama's team would do before every big speech he would give on policy. They would ask him three questions. Why you? Why this? Why now? Try to answer that. They told us to dig deep, because the answer to these questions is not in my CV, it's something deeply personal.
Young people, in order to prove that we have the right to be somewhere, we start talking about our CV and everything we’ve done. At the end of the day, politics is a social job. It's about humans, it's about narratives.
And I started telling them this story. I came to Europe at the age of five after living in refugee camps in East Congo, refugee camps in Kenya, refugee camps in Tanzania. I got here and I was also in camps here in Belgium and it was in the Netherlands where I went through the whole system. And these were in my developing years that really made a difference for me. I was always surrounded by people who have done very desperate things to get here. And what I share with those people is this unrealistic, unearned optimism for the future.
Because you have no other choice. This unearned, unrealistic, unwavering optimism for the future is the reason why people go on dangerous boats in the Mediterranean Sea. It's the reason why people send their children off in a place where it's not clear if they're ever going to see them again. That's the only way where you can still have the imagination that something will be better.
I feel history is always made by people who had no clue whatsoever that their action would enact change or even better their life in their lifetime. They had no clue and there was no way for them to know, but they still did what was right. Future generations will thank us. Or not. We don't know.
I understand that people are cynics. Like it's a logical conclusion if you look at the world around us, but for me it's lazy. For me, being alive is putting in effort.
That's one thing a colleague of mine at the NGO that I work with said. He's like, okay, we're not gonna limit [global warming] to 1.5 degrees. Then we fight for 1.51, 1.52, 1.53… Not hitting that goal is not an excuse to give up.
One thing that I know is that allies are always to be found. Even in conservative parties like the EPP, the ECR. The low emission zone and the multimodal shift here in Antwerp, these are all measures done by a right-wing mayor.
There are different frames you can talk about climate. Climate is a very difficult, all-encompassing subject that touches upon all layers of society in different ways. But what I think helps is to use the environment. I feel that environment is always an easier ‘in’ to start talking about climate issues because even with far-right people, people don't like it that we are a species that is born pre-polluted. Because now there’s microplastics in the placenta.
Relevant: How to talk about the climate without losing friends and alienating people.
Secondly, administration. These are the monastic people who are actually supposed to write these laws and even though they don't have any type of political power, a lot of small acts of heroism happen while writing boring-ass EU directives.
Thirdly, business. Because if there's one thing far-right parties love, it's business interests. And I've noticed, they're my biggest allies. The director of the Flanders Chamber of Commerce said that we need more immigration. They're begging for Belgium to ‘import’, that's in your language, people from India, Mexico, from a couple of African countries to fill in the jobs.
All of this freedom, it's not a given. It's not a given at all. I come from a country where a genocide happens. And psychologically what that does to you is you're forever aware that it is a possibility. That life is stable and one day it isn't.
How can we support the green movement without contributing to green nationalism?
What I love, the only reason why I haven't shut down my comments completely, is that all these crazy racists have put me into contact with awesome progressive people. Even the ones with criticism, to be honest, at least we're talking about policy, I love it when we talk about policy, even if it's just disagreeing.
I get a lot of well-meaning white men who are progressive, at least they think they are, telling me that my way of communication is too direct and is scaring people away from the message. So I react to that, I'm like, so you say you're progressive? There's a genocide happening in Gaza. Children are being sold in Congo for the production of cobalt. But the tone of this black woman is the biggest problem. You are not progressive.
See whiteness as the same as masculinity, in a way. The toxic part of masculinity is not just something that just is. It has to be reinforced a million times a day by all of us, in a million different little ways. So my mere existence is transgressive. It goes against all the ways that whiteness is supposed to be confirmed.
My parents are both black, two refugees. But after almost every interview I had in the Brussels bubble, they asked me, So you're adopted, right? So... I now always joke like, you know that asking that question is recognizing that white privilege exists.
If there's any closing point or statement, this is the time.
I wrote this op-ed once, and my working title was, We Can't All Be a Wind Turbine Technician. Meaning a lot of us do jobs that are not directly linked to climate, at least that's what we think. But young people have enormous market power.
There was this KPMG study done in the UK last year, where they found that one in five workers has already turned down a job because of problems with the company's environmental and social governance. When you look at under 25, that jumps to 1 in 3. This scares companies, this scares the living hell out of them.
Engage within your company, engage within your direct community, engage with local politics. When it comes closer and closer to humans, the more difficult it becomes for politicians to willfully put humans in danger. Local politics is so damn important.
You can follow Ariane on Instagram and TikTok @arianethepolitician.
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So Now What Do I Do?
FIRST, EU CITIZENS: USE YOUR VOTE. USE YOUR VOTE. USE. YOUR. VOTE.
LEARN SOMETHING
Check out this cool online learning hub ‘Decolonize All The Things.’
Join Generation Climate Europe in Brussels on 14th June for ‘Unpacking the EU Elections for Intergenerational and Climate Justice.’
TRY SOMETHING NEW
The Council of Europe Youth are looking for participants for their seminar on ‘Youth, Politics and Elections.’ Deadline to apply is 24 May.
Brussels: The Green Fix is co-hosting a climate comedy night with Countdown Comedy Club on the 6th June. Details coming soon on our social media.
The Planet Poster Awards invites you to unleash your creative talents with a poster on the theme ‘Let’s Get Political!’ Deadline 15th June.
CHANGE THE SYSTEM
Join the International Days of Climate Action ahead of the EU elections from 31 May to 2 June!
The Creativity Pioneers Fund is looking to financially support initiatives targeting youth 17-27. Deadline 27 May.
European Institute for Gender Equality will cover the costs of up to 50 youth participants (18-30) to join the Gender Equality Forum in December. Apply by 30 May.
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Stay in the loop
You can follow us on Twitter @TheGreenFix, Instagram @thegreenfix_ and LinkedIn. Connect with Cass on Instagram @cass.hebron and LinkedIn Cass J Hebron.
Loved reading your thoughts - I feel you!! Thank you for featuring the Planet Poster Awards 🏆
Thanks for your honesty Cass. All the feels amidst all the things happening sounds right. Sending 💚