Profile: Olivia Bennett

I am currently a junior at The Berkeley Carroll School in Park Slope, Brooklyn, but commute every day from Manhattan. I think my passion for climate change occurred a couple of years back when I watched a TED Talk by Lauren Singer, an Environmental Studies graduate from NYU and former Sustainability Manager at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. She lives a zero lifestyle in New York. I remember thinking to myself, if she can do it, so can I. So I started making small changes to my life and became more aware of the products I was purchasing.

My obsession with becoming environmentally conscious passed onto my parents and we now all work together to remind each other about small things like bringing reusable bags to the grocery store and buying locally sourced vegetables.

However, climate change is more than just living zero waste. After joining the Environmental Club at my school, I learned that climate change is an intersection between politics, social justice, and health. After realizing this, I knew that I was passionate about combining all these factors in my future career. I have always been artistic and in design class each year I always bring environmental issues into my architecture plans and product designs. Climate change doesn’t just have to be about using less plastic and protesting on the streets. There are so many different fields that can be connected to climate justice.

These reasons are why I decided to Join FXB Climate Advocates. Karina offered so many resources and I realized this would be a great opportunity for me to dive deeper into my passions as a climate advocate. The idea of climate change can be overwhelming with so many issues to tackle; however, being apart of FXB has already allowed me to meet people with similar interests to me and make my voice heard.