Palau Fights For Climate Justice

At only the age of 10, Sofia Palau went to her first climate justice rally.

“I didn’t know everything that was going on,” she said, “but I understood that it was serious and needed to do something about it.”

Now a senior, Palau is a lead circle member for Youth vs Apocalypse, an organization she describes as filled with “passionately motivated youth that work to protest for climate justice and native land rights.” Palau joined the organization in January 2021, and has been working with its members ever since.

In doing so, Palau strives to get large corporations to move away from using fossil fuels and to invest in clean energy.

“We have been able to get the attention of big companies [such as CalSTRS and BigRock] when we have done actions outside of their headquarters,” she said.

Palau first began to realize that global climate change was a pressing issue in seventh grade, when she was doing a project on the Great Barrier Reef. Ever since, it has affected her every day life. “It causes me a little bit of anxiety but it also gives me the energy to stand up to big corporations even as a young person. It gives me motivation to work harder so I can do something about it,” she said.

Youth vs Apocalypse is currently planning an event scheduled for Dec. 19 called the Resiliency Village, where different booths of people sharing skills and resources with each other come together. The event will take place at Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland from 12-3 p.m.

Palau still strives to get large corporations to stop fossil fuel usage. As for other potential solutions, Palau suggested, “[We need to] regulate emissions,” and impose “a climate tax to tax companies for their climate emissions.”