Image: elders sit around the Christmas tree in the New York State Capitol last month, during a sit-in for climate action.

I first got involved in the climate movement as an undergrad back in the ’00s, and since then I’ve written a lot about the youth climate movement. From the Fridays for Future climate strikes, to the push for a Green New Deal, to fossil fuel divestment campaigns, young people have been at the forefront of some of the most exciting grassroots climate initiatives in recent years. I’ve been hugely inspired by the many young climate activists whom I’ve interviewed about their work–so much so that in 2022, I wrote the first book to comprehensively examine 20+ years of youth-led climate organizing in the US.

I still take a lot of inspiration from young people who are fighting for a livable future, often pioneering new, creative forms of activism in the process. However, I’ve always known that for the climate movement to win it can’t just be young people leading the way. Recently, I’ve come across (and had the privilege of writing about) some especially inspiring examples of people above age 60 who are taking matters into their own hands as they fight the root causes of the climate crisis. Their actions remind us that escalated forms of activism like nonviolent protest and civil disobedience aren’t, and shouldn’t be, only the domain of the young.

In my own current home state of Washington, it was a group of elders affiliated with Seattle-based group Troublemakers who last year carried out one of the boldest direct action protests against logging old forests that our region has seen in a long time. And last month, members of the amazing Third Act movement organized another act of civil disobedience to push New York’s “climate Superfund” law over the finish line.

During the time that I myself identified as a young climate activist, I was fortunate to work alongside many older individuals–and in almost every case, I found it to be an overwhelmingly positive and empowering experience. The truth is that the whole climate movement benefits when folks from all generations and walks of life work together, each bringing their own special skill sets and wisdom gained from their lived experience. When tackling an existential threat as dire and all-consuming as the climate crisis, no generation can afford to sit back and stay on the sidelines.

I’ve also talked to many young activists who say they don’t want to be told it’s their responsibility to fix the problems previous generations started. Rather, they want older activists to join them in the trenches–and that’s just what folks in the stories linked to above are doing. Those of us who no longer identify as “youth” often talk about what an inspiring example young activists are setting–and rightly so. But we sometimes tend to forget how inspiring our own actions can be.

I’m no longer a youth activist, and I’m also at least a couple decades away from being an “elder.” My role in the climate movement looks different from when I was in my teens and twenties, and it will almost certainly change again in the future. However, I’ve always considered it very important that I be doing my part to advance just solutions to the biggest planetary crisis humanity has ever faced.

That’s not going to change, nor should it.

Photo credit: Fossil Free Media