The following article was previously published on The Flat Hat’s website during the week of Oct. 9. However, due to an unforeseen technological glitch, it was removed from the website for a period of time and was re-uploaded today, Nov. 6.
With temperatures and sea levels rising worldwide, the entire world is seeing the effects of global climate change. However, despite global warming negatively impacting everyone, minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status are often the ones bearing the brunt of global warming’s adverse effects. Often residing in neighborhoods near sites of immense environmental damage with reduced exposure to green areas like parks and nature reserves, those of lower socioeconomic status disproportionately experience environmental injustice.
However, at the College of William and Mary, Minorities Against the Climate Crisis is taking action to support and bring awareness to minority communities experiencing these climate injustices. Ethan Stewart ’25, the president and founder of the club, said he started the organization to educate others and investigate solutions that could alleviate the disparate impact of climate change on socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.
“I’m very passionate about the planet and the people on it,” Stewart said. “I see a lot of misinformation that goes around the climate crisis, it’s a mix of ignorance and also not understanding the true effects of it. The main effect is going to be on people who look like me, a lot of our friends and our families.”
Stewart said that as a biology and environmental science double major, he always wanted to start a science-based club on campus and had consulted some of his professors to help him hone in on a focus for his organization. He ultimately decided to have the club spotlight climate change as he wanted to combat the misinformation, nihilism and apathy that he saw surrounding the topic.
“It’s important to understand the effects of where the world is going to go because I live here,” Stewart said. “I happen to exist on this planet, and I’d like to keep existing on this planet in a very comfortable way. And that can only be done through proper education, community organization and through proper discipline and training.”
Club secretary Isha Alaina Tubera ’26 explained that one of the strategies the club uses to meet this goal of education and training are informational presentations. Each of the club’s general body meetings typically revolves around an executive board member giving a presentation on a topic related to the climate crisis in hopes of more meaningfully motivating other students to make a difference in their communities, she says.
In addition to raising awareness through education, Stewart also identified community building as a key goal of the organization.
“One of our main priorities is to basically teach or bring back the idea of forming proper human connections beyond just living close to each other, like the social sphere of actually creating community coming together commonly to talk, to discuss, to have fun, to raise hope,” Stewart said. “Because beyond just the fundraising aspect — which you need to do because it’s important to raise money for these issues — it’s also important to create a long lasting community of people that understand the effects and how they can work together.”
For Tubera and Stewart, the fight against the climate crisis is a personal one. The two have family in the Philippines and Jamaica, respectively, who they say have been facing worsening storms and flooding as a result of global climate change.
“I lived in Jamaica originally. It’s an island nation, and we do experience water levels rising and also being bought out by foreign companies cutting out beaches that my grandmother, my mother used to go that now I can’t go to,” Stewart said. “The fishing villages were being submerged in the water, and people were sleeping when stuff like that happened. I’ve seen that globally that people are losing their homelands, their connections with the planet and their environment. It sickens me because I believe humans are animals who are part of the world, and I think we should be allowed to enjoy our world and not have to watch it suffer. Many of my grandparents, my aunties, my uncles, my mother and my family no longer have the same world that they used to live in.”
The club hopes to take on larger projects in the future, but as a new organization at the College, they are mainly seeking to build up their impact on campus by getting involved with local projects and by partnering with other groups on campus.
For instance, MACC, along with the Filipino American Student Association, the Asian American Student Initiative and the People of Color Art Collective, hosted a table in the Sadler Center Atrium to collect donations to support those affected by the Maui wildfires Sept. 19 and 20. Tubera also noted that the club has been reaching out to local conservation houses as they work to build a food forest, or a garden made up of trees that provides communities with nuts and berries while simultaneously improving air quality in a local underprivileged community.
This focus on the climate inequalities faced by minority groups and the actionable steps they are taking to combat these issues are what sets it apart from other environmental groups on campus, Tubera says.
“I think when it comes to the climate crisis, there’s very broad goals,” Tubera said. “Because there’s this focus, I think [MACC] brings light to the people and these marginalized communities that are going to be affected.”
This sentiment rang true for club member Molly Edmonds ’27, who said she was drawn to the club because she recognized the importance of MACC as both a safe space and platform for minorities and their perspectives.
“I know a lot of minorities don’t feel comfortable being in clubs that are mostly white people because they just can’t relate to them at all,” Edmonds said. “I think this club has a lot of minorities in it … so I think [MACC] makes them feel more comfortable so that way they can share their opinions and views instead of their voices getting drowned out.”
Tubera said that it is important for college students to take climate change prevention into their own hands. She added that students being more aware of the actions they take in their daily lives and their carbon footprint can be one of the first steps to alleviating damage done by global warming.
“Even though the news is saying all this stuff, and it feels like we’re in impending doom, we still can still make change,” Tubera said. “Change really just starts in our own backyard.”
Tubera said that many new students and other prospective members attended the first meeting, so she hopes the club is able to grow in size in the future. She also noted that she is proud of the work that Stewart has done to build the club from the ground up.
“We had a good turnout. I’m very, very pleased. I’m so proud of Ethan because it’s his vision come to life, being able to recruit many people, especially a lot of freshmen,” Tubera said. “I’m very excited to see where the club goes, because I know that there are a lot of other people who are very passionate about this.”