UBC Climate Hub: Finding Hope, Joy, and Community in the Climate Movement

This community story was originally posted in text and video by Charged Up, a David Suzuki Foundation program on empowering communities across Canada with renewable energy.

You don’t have to look far to find dispiriting news about climate change these days, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed by anxiety and grief. So how can we continue educating ourselves and taking action on climate when the planet’s outlook often looks so bleak?

According to some inspiring young climate leaders, one answer is community.

The UBC Climate Hub is a youth-led initiative that empowers people to take bold action on climate change. Its members agree that the community they’ve built through their programs and initiatives has helped them find hope and even joy in the climate movement. And this allows them to keep doing their important work.

Members of the Hub spread their hope and joy to local high school students through workshops that help participants tell their own climate stories. These workshops not only give students a voice and empower them to take meaningful action, they also connect young people who might never have otherwise met, creating powerful and sustaining friendships.

According to Grade 11 student Nahira, “When you find someone who does something that’s powerful or inspiring, you feel like you want to change the world with them.”

Check out this video by Avery Holliday for a dose of hope and joy. For more inspiration, learn more about the UBC Climate Hub, Sustainabiliteens Vancouver and Climate Strike Canada.

Special thanks to Grace Nosek and Emily Mittertreiner of the UBC Climate Hub and Peter Planta, 2nd unit DP.

This video was produced on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples.