My Environmental Justice Journey: Sophia Wen, AB ‘12

Growing up in an immigrant household, my mother showed us how to live frugally - recycling shower water to water plants, altering torn clothes to use as dish rags, etc. Making the most of what is given to us and leaving things better than we found them became my norm. So, it shocked and angered me to see waste around me as I grew up. This was not an uneasy or accepting disappointment in capitalist norms of consumption without regard for reducing waste or reusing resources—this was a burning sensation that I felt deep in my gut. I realized that I felt rage at the environmental & social injustices in policy, the lifestyle and waste of the 1%, and displays of corporate greed. How we live, how we create, and how we die are based around social constructs - which means they will change. By focusing on justice in our environmental, energy, and climate work, we can work to change these constructs for everyone’s benefit.