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Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/23030924\/tiktok-alaina-wood-climate-change-sustainability<\/a>
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When Alaina Wood started posting to TikTok in 2020, her videos mostly had to do with strange things around her \u201chistoric\u201d apartment, such as issues with leaks and doors. Eventually, Wood, a climate communicator and a sustainability scientist, began seeing videos from users expressing guilt and hopelessness about climate change. <\/p>\n

News surrounding climate change can be scary. Wood felt the heat and anxiety, too, but after seeing how rampant this feeling was on the platform, she wanted to let people know that solutions were out there \u2014 it isn\u2019t too late. Wood, @thegarbagequeen<\/a>, now has more than 300,000 subscribers on TikTok and posts videos ranging from debunking climate doom, highlighting new studies and reports, and even talking about her own experiences. <\/p>\n

She talked with The Verge <\/em>about the virality of \u201cclimate doom,\u201d TikTok, and the importance of being practical when it comes to making a difference. <\/p>\n

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. <\/em><\/p>\n

What led you to TikTok as a platform to talk about climate communication? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I downloaded TikTok at the beginning of the pandemic because I was bored out of my mind. I had a lot of free time on my hands. I never thought I would talk about climate change. In fact, the first few videos I posted were about weird things. I started seeing environmental videos show up on my \u201cFor You\u201d page, a lot of which weren\u2019t quite true. They were somewhat based in science or making people feel guilty about not being able to do more. I made my first video about the environment in May 2020 saying why I no longer consider myself to be zero waste. From there, I started building a community of other people who discuss climate change in the environment and realized that people want to hear about this. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting that you mention the zero waste video. I remember seeing one video in particular. You were speaking about a woman saying that she was going to stop buying bananas, and you concluded that people should \u201ctry their best\u201d when it comes to zero waste and food sustainability. Can you tell me more about that? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m all for practical things. I live in an area that doesn\u2019t have access to a lot of the things that you\u2019ll see sustainability creators have access to online. I remember feeling guilty in college and first experiencing low waste, zero waste, sustainability and feeling bad that I couldn\u2019t do more. How I go about it in my personal life \u2014 which is also how I encourage people to go about it online \u2014 is to just change things in your life that you interact with frequently \u2014 don\u2019t try to change your whole lifestyle at once. <\/p>\n

For example, I drive a lot, and I can\u2019t use public transit (there\u2019s like two bus lines, and they don\u2019t go anywhere where I live). I just try to drive in a more fuel-efficient way, not speeding up or slowing down quickly if I can avoid it and setting cruise control when on the highway \u2014 little things like that. The average person can\u2019t just go out and buy a new electric vehicle. They\u2019re expensive. I still have a gasoline vehicle. So, for me, it\u2019s just finding little tiny ways to make your life a little bit more sustainable. It will help, and people shouldn\u2019t feel guilty if \u201cI can\u2019t do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, yes, we as individuals need to make change, but so do the corporations and governments. Unless the corporations and governments start making big changes, we as individuals can\u2019t as easily make those changes. <\/p>\n

Another series you do is called \u201cGood Climate News.\u201d How did that get started? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Last summer, I was seeing that scientists were saying it\u2019s not too late to solve the climate crisis, and people were saying, \u201cI\u2019m not hearing anything positive. What\u2019s changing? I\u2019m not hearing anything.\u201d So I googled and looked through various news sources and made a video about it. That blew up so much, and people were saying that they wanted more, so I did another version. From there, people were asking for a series, so now I do it once a week.<\/p>\n

Some of your videos put a spotlight on debunking climate doom, both on and off the platform. Why do you feel that it\u2019s important to integrate it into your content? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Back when I first got started [in May 2020], I didn\u2019t even know climate doom with a thing at all until last summer when I started noticing all these videos going viral, mostly to Bo Burnham songs from Inside<\/em><\/a>, and I was like, \u201cWait this isn\u2019t true.\u201d People are thinking that the world is going to end in 10 or 15 years, and we\u2019re all going to run out of food, and all of the things are going to go extinct. <\/p>\n

People are freaking out about climate change, but on top of that, I was noticing the reaction, which was eco-anxiety. Even beyond that, eco-induced panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, and people not wanting to have a future at all because they were seeing climate and thinking that was the truth. I feel like my duty as a scientist and climate communicator is to make sure the most accurate information gets out there, especially when inaccurate information impacts people\u2019s mental health. I suffer from eco-anxiety, so I can understand how people are feeling when they experience climate doom, but I mostly get frustrated. Climate doom is what people see. That\u2019s what goes viral, and [the message] never seems to be it\u2019s not too late <\/em>or here\u2019s some climate solutions<\/em>, but fear goes viral with just about anything. <\/p>\n

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