When Mikaela Loach first became interested in environmental issues, she made all the lifestyle changes we’re told to do to save the planet: she went vegan, boycotted fast fashion and cut out plastic. At the same time, she was involved in migrant rights and anti-racism organising in the UK, yet she saw the issues as very much separate.
I don’t remember when the ‘ah-ha’ moment happened, but at some point, I was introduced to this idea of climate justice, which sees these connections between the climate crisis and justice issues,” the 23-year-old says from her home in Edinburgh. “The climate crisis is a justice issue because it will cause — and it is already causing — the greatest displacement of people worldwide and it is a refugee-rights issue because of that.”
Loach was born in Jamaica to a Jamaican mother and an English father, and raised in “a very, very white environment” in Surrey, where she describes herself “being pretty much the only Black person in most places”. Through her activism work, she gained a clearer understanding of the connections between white supremacy and the climate crisis, and how the crisis is disproportionately affecting communities of colour.
“If we look at the fossil-fuel industry: where did they learn about extraction and exploitation, and those kind of practices? The blueprint for that was given by colonialism, which the British founded and spread all over the world,” she explains. “If we look at the communities that are being impacted most, they are communities of colour that have been made climate-insecure through deliberate underdevelopment by powers like the UK. If we look at all these different things, they are inherently connected — and yet for a long time, I had a lot of people say that if we talked about these justice issues, we were diluting the message. But I think we’ve seen throughout history, the strongest movements have been the ones that make the most connections, because all of our issues are connected together.”
Loach’s entry to climate activism was in 2019, when she chained herself to a roadblock outside the UK department for business, energy and industrial strategy, home to the British oil and gas authority, for 10 hours as part of a demonstration by Extinction Rebellion, a group she no longer works with. Loach is now taking a more strategic approach to activism, filing a claim against the UK government to end public subsidies for domestic oil and gas production as part of the Paid to Pollute campaign.
As well as tackling the climate crisis through a justice lens, she also studies medicine at the University of Edinburgh and co-hosts The Yikes Podcast. This September, Loach will be participating in SX21 The SustainabilitySummit.earth, a three-day summit organised from Ireland and taking place online.
In Loach’s view, the movement has become too individualised, placing the emphasis on lifestyle change over collective disruption of systems that prevent marginalised communities from accessing sustainable behaviours. As a result, the concept of sustainability has “become a bit gentrified” she says, adding that “the poster person is almost like this middle-class, blonde, white lady”.
“I realised that I could go zero waste, I could go vegan, I could use public transport, I could do all these different things, but if other people in my community don’t have access to those behaviours, because of different intersecting oppressions, then are they truly sustainable?” Loach observes that the dominant narratives about the climate crisis continue to perpetuate racism, namely the argument that overpopulation is the world’s top environmental issue.
“When you make people the problem, the solution is less people, and that is a horrible solution. Often when people are talking about overpopulation, they are talking about wanting less people in the traditional Global South, in countries that are majority people of colour. They aren’t saying they want less people in England or the States — that’s where the racism comes in, because it’s you saying that these people have less of a right to life than you do.
“When you look at per capita emissions, population is not the problem. The problem is wealth inequality. The problem is fossil fuels. The problem is capitalism. It’s not working class women of colour from the Global South, and when you make the argument for overpopulation, you’re using these people as a scapegoat for the wider issue, which is more based in the Global North and the West.”
Loach has built a substantial public profile, with 111,000 followers on Instagram, and has been dubbed “the UK’s answer to Greta Thunberg”, but she feels uneasy about the celebrity of activism and her own position in the movement.
“This is the thing I’ve grappled with the most,” she sighs. “I genuinely lose a lot of sleep about it, because I worry that the work I’m doing perpetuates an idea [of individualism and celebrity] that could be harmful. I don’t think we should put anyone on a pedestal, but I also recognise it is human nature.”
While she understands the public’s desire to hear human stories, it stands in stark contrast to her own belief that it is collective actions, not exceptional individuals, that bring change.
“It’s people whose names we’ll never know who will cause more change than people whose names we do know. But it’ll be people like myself or Greta Thunberg who end up being put on these pedestals and get a lot of work attributed to us that has been done by a movement, and that’s what makes me uncomfortable.”
When Loach makes speeches, audience members will frequently approach her afterwards to tell her she inspired them — something she doesn’t take as a compliment. “It’s just like, ‘Oh, thanks that you’re doing it, now I don’t have to do anything.’ That’s not what I want to hear. I want people to say that they’re gonna fight too, and that they realise that they need to act. I am simply a tiny, tiny piece in a very, very big puzzle. When you put someone on a pedestal, you dehumanise them so much. If I thought too much — and sometimes I do think too much — about the pedestal that people put me on, I’d lose who I am as an imperfect human who will make mistakes.”
The past year has seen increased debate over the limits of social media activism, as the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement last summer was accompanied by a wave of “social justice slideshows”, often including unsourced, unverifiable data on a range of issues. Loach is wary of “infographic activism”, but notes that there are benefits to such social platforms too.
“People have told me they got involved with organising because of things they’ve seen on my [Instagram] account, and it made me realise that social media can be wide reaching. We can still criticise it, but I shouldn’t undermine that too much, because I’ve seen people organising protests all over the world just based off seeing things on social media. That’s where I think the impact can come. I think the danger can be when we make social-media action the be-all and end-all of activism, because sharing something can be really impactful, but that can’t be the beginning and the end of your action. What happens offline is also so important. Organising is where change happens.”
She adds: “One thing that I think is good for people to do on social media is to make sure that you’re checking: is this referenced? Are there sources? Even just google what’s been written there before you spread [information]. Apply a critical eye to everything you’re seeing and definitely read around it. Books are great and don’t get enough credit! We’ve now made it so that you can read infographics instead, but there’s so much that you can learn from engaging with those,” she says, highlighting Irish author Emma Dabiri’s What White People Can Do Next as her top recommendation.
Loach also urges people to be cautious of “greenwashing”, a corporate practice which she calls “one of the biggest stumbling blocks that we have towards climate justice”, whereby companies provide misleading information about their products or services to manipulate consumers into thinking they are environmentally friendly.
“These companies will be resistant to being called fossil-fuel companies, so they make out that they’re an energy company instead and that they do loads of renewables, when actually renewables will often make up only 5pc or less of their entire investments and most of their investments are fossil fuels, which they know is harmful. That is misrepresentation.”
For now, Loach is taking a year out from her medical degree, during which she plans to devote time to campaigning, but also to rest. “Being a medical student on placement in hospitals in the middle of a global pandemic was one of the most stressful experiences of my entire life, and doing that while also doing all this campaigning and taking the government to court, it got to a point where I was like, ‘I’m doing too much right now’. I’d be taking people’s blood during the day and then lobbying people in the evening! I realised that it was unsustainable.
“When we talk about what is sustainable for ourselves and our communities, that also includes our health and our mental health as well.”
When we speak, footage of an ocean fire following a gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico has just emerged, while British media reports that the UK government is preparing to approve an oil field in Cambo, Scotland, despite the International Energy Agency stating there should be no new development of oil, gas or coal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Such news can give rise to eco-anxiety — distress and fear of ecological disaster — but Loach has developed her own strategies to tackle this.
“I think there are two sides: acting, when I feel that that’s what my energy needs me to do, and allowing myself space for rest, when I feel like my energy is low,” she says, quoting the novelist Arundhati Roy: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
One individual action that really can make an impact, she says, is to change your bank and pension provider to one that doesn’t invest in fossil fuels. But for those looking to go beyond reusable water bottles and shopping second hand, Loach advises getting involved in your local community.
“If you’re not sure how, you can just google or look on Facebook for an issue you care about and your area, and then see if there’s a group that exists. You can literally just DM that group or send an email and say, ‘Hey, this is what I care about, these are my skills, let me know how I can help.’
“There are so many groups that now meet online, so even if you might not have a group in person in your village or town, you can find a group that organises digitally. You won’t feel as alone in caring about this, you’ll learn so much, but also, you’ll be able to act so much more and with much more power when you’re with other people.”
Mikaela Loach is among the speakers at SX21 The SustainabilitySummit.earth, an online event happening from September 21-23. Tickets cost from €29, see thesustainabilitysummit.earth
