Green Newton

Newton resident Sara Tomas is a high school senior and the leader of the environmental club at her school.

What do you know about climate change?
“I think that climate change is not only an environmental issue, but it’s also a political one. I think—starting just environmentally scientifically, right—it is the collection of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. A lot of people say it’s carbon dioxide, but it’s also water vapor. In fact, it is also other chemicals that have accumulated.

In terms of politics, it can often be considered liberal to support climate change. One of the crazy awful things about this issue is that we can’t seem to agree that we all live on a planet, and it should matter to all of us.

How do you feel about climate change?
We just had COP28, and it’s frustrating because it was hosted in a nation that benefits greatly from petroleum exports. And clearly, there were a lot of choices that were made in the interests of companies, so it’s just once again, because of politics. Because of this, we’re not moving anywhere. It doesn’t feel to me that there is a substantial difference between now and 2010—which can be both good and bad.

Do you think there’s hope at all for slowing down climate change?
I think there are a lot of plans for carbon reductions that are supposed to be in place by 2030, and 2050. And I’m hopeful for some of them. However, I do believe that there are other systematic issues that really do need to be tackled before we can do climate change matters, which is the awful part. There are just so many obstacles in the way. It should be easy though, like the technology is there. And I think that is the hope—we don’t need to invent anything new, it’s just about our mindset.

What do you mean by “systematic issues”?
While climate change is something that should be considered by everyone, the fact that climate change and climate issues are considered more liberal makes it frequently very hard to get a lot of people to agree on any legislation. Especially in the U.S., I think a lot of our ways of climate advocacy are very “carbon centric,” or individualistic. It’s very hard, I think, to encourage people to make changes to parts of society that have been here forever, especially individualistic aspects. My class at school talked to some students in Sweden, and they were just so hyper fixated on the fact that we had individual cars! Everyone wants their own car.

Have you felt the effect of climate change on your life?
I’ve lived in Boston, but I’ve also lived in California and Australia. And a big thing in those places are wildfires. In Australia, wildfires are basically normal, and they’re actually very good about keeping people safe. It’s very controlled, which is why I think California especially felt so different. We would know when the fires would be in Australia—ash would be raining down from the sky, but we could have predicted it. In California, we had to wear masks before COVID; We already had those masks because of the smoke and the air quality.

I also did a lot of outdoor sports there, and frequently those sports would be canceled due to the air quality; we just couldn’t do it outside. It seems like I was affected in weird, small ways—a little dystopian, right? This is just the weird way that climate change affects your everyday life.

Have your parents told you stories about how things have changed?
My dad has definitely noticed some changes. When he was younger, he used to work on a farm, and the land where his farm used to be around his home has gotten drier and now catches fire. When he was a kid, he says, it never caught fire; that was never an issue in this area. We never had so many heat waves, and it was actually pretty bearable during the summer—but not anymore.

How do you think climate change will affect you in your life in the future?
Because climate change is a systemic issue, we’re the impacts of climate change hitting the people that contribute to it the least. That’s what I’m expecting to see with the new urban heat islands. As the weather gets more unpredictable, I expect to see cities underwater. However, I don’t think that’ll stop people from living on the coasts, because people love the coast, but it is going to make it a lot different.

How often do you talk about climate change?
Often, with my environmental club!

What is the work you do with the environmental club?
I think we really try to stay away from petitions. I think it’s very easy to do petitions. Otherwise, the biggest thing we can do without getting a lot of administration approval and doing a ton of crazy work is spreading awareness, especially at the high school level. We make sure people understand it’s not a political issue. This year, we’re going to host an Earth Day at our school on April 12—it’s very exciting! We went out to the field yesterday to plan out where all the tables are going to be, and we’re hoping that we can combine some games, maybe some music, and we’re thinking of even having some student speakers—we’re just trying to integrate everybody. We’re trying to make sure that climate change is an issue that spans all of us—we want to make it clear that it’s not just adults giving important speeches—it’s also kids who care. Also, we really want to make sure that everyone in our school at least is much more proactive about their understanding and awareness.

Do you talk about climate change with your friends and family? How do those conversations feel? What is the mood of those conversations?
For my dad who grew up farming, climate change is very important to him due to the crazy profound changes we’re seeing in farmland quality. He talks a lot about the policy side of things because he’s a professor, and so he thinks about climate change policy all the time. And once again, we come back to the fact that there are so many crazy obstacles that are in the way of making change. It’s possible that we could pass legislation, but if everybody’s not on the same page, it’s going to be really, really difficult.

Thinking of my classmates, frequently conversations will be like, “Oh, look, the weather’s been crazy,” and people will agree that it’s caused by climate change—and that it’s it. Maybe classmates will say that we should drive ourselves to get a sweet treat or boba less, but I think it’s once again these lifestyle things that are hard to change.

How have you changed your lifestyle?
I think there’s a lot of small changes that people can make, which is something that we’re going to try to push on Earth Day. Definitely during warmer months I try to bike as much as possible. I also wash everything with cold water. On Christmas, we don’t use wrapping paper; we have little bags that we make, and in general we try to buy big bags of ingredients, and we try to buy our produce from local organizations. I know these are small changes, and small changes can accumulate, but I think really the issue with a lot of these things is that I can do it because I have the privilege of being able to shop at Whole Foods.

I think we need to make sure that all local farmers markets can accept food stamps—Newton has like the pantry, which is great, but that needs to be everywhere.

If you were to describe your feelings about climate change in one word, what would you say?
Tumultuous, because there’s just so much going on. It can be negative, but there’s honestly too much going on to really say.

Is there anything about our climate future that makes you feel optimistic?
I am hopeful about it, but I’m also trying to be as realistic as possible. I think we could be idealistic and dreamy in the 80s, but even then they were coating their pans with all sorts of bad chemicals, and now more and more chemicals just keep on coming.

I think one thing that does make me feel optimistic is that there are small groups that are becoming more and more aware of the intersectionality of climate change and finance, and they’re trying to involve lower income communities—they’re thinking of these really creative ways to get people to make their lives a little bit more sustainable. I really do think it is those things that make all the difference.

Also, I’m a big technology fan, and so I think that we already have a lot of the technology required to live sustainably and to make sure our economy is run on sustainable energy. It’s all there. That is the positive thing. The only thing that’s in our way is ourselves. Which, while a little stressful, also makes me a little bit hopeful. You can really get to people—they’re not unmoveable.

Do you have anything else you’d like to share about how you feel about climate change?
I want people to know that it’s easy and very enjoyable to live sustainably. It’s enjoyable to live with Earth’s natural cycle because it makes everything else more special. Furthermore, having our infrastructure that works with the Earth is like something that is going to be very beautiful in the future.

Bianca Mints is a student at Commonwealth School.