Community Brings Change

As humans we act in an individualistic and egotistical manner. If something is directly impacting our community and loved ones we quickly try to find a solution to the problem. However, when something is happening in a different country overseas we do not respond as quickly as we should. This will forever be a lingering question in my mind about any movement but especially the environmental movement. Environmental issues in whatever form they come in directly impact a group of people living in that area but also they have a domino effect. Oil extraction for instance, contaminates the water supply for that community like in Alberta, Canada or Flint, Michigan. Why is it thought that these issues are not publicized in the media until it begins to affect the rest of the continent or country? If people were aware sooner so much could have been prevented.
Naomi Klein highlights the importance and role that community members have in participating in environmental issues. The look of an "activist" is shifting into someone who no longer has to fit a specific mold. The general public has the notion that an activist depicts a hippie from the 60s. The reality is that the times they are a-changin'. The look of an activist as she describes, "look like everyone: the local shop owners, the university professors, the high school students, the grandmothers." Everyone is joining to fight for the struggle and for a better tomorrow. As cliche as it may sound one of the reasons most people choose to stand in the front lines and risk their lives is for future generations to be able to thrive.
Along with the shift in community, there has also been a shift of the people in the front lines. Women are partaking in the movement. Our voice is no longer being silenced by males who are notorious fro shunning us down. Traveling through different places where Blockadia is taking place Klein notices recurring themes and women being leaders os one of them; "...often [they] dominate the front lines, providing not only powerful moral leadership but also some of these movements' most enduring iconography." Women becoming leaders has some how sparked a reinvention of what movements look like. Is it women who are bringing the sense of togetherness that the environmental movement lacked? Klein mentions the old babushka wearing grandma who is rioting with everyone else with the caption "You know your government has failed when your grandma starts to riot." I would say that yes, women are bringing change through community. Toxics are affecting the future generation at an early stage, in the womb. "The various toxic threats these communities are up against seem to be awakening impulses that are universal, even primal-whether it's the fierce drive to protect children from harm, or a deep connection to land that has been previously suppressed."