Meet Heather Brockbank: The Teen Climate Activist Building a New Lifeline of Care
“It’s really important that we build a lifeline of care for the environment at an early stage, and then hopefully it can spread with a domino effect that will get a wider range of awareness. If we educate people everywhere, hopefully they will become passionate about the environment.”
Meet Heather Brockbank, the 17-year-old Bahamian leader who is paving the way for a new generation of climate activists.
How?
By building, as she says, a lifeline of care.
So began my interview on World Environment Day with this impressive teen, and I could not wait to hear more. Named the UNICEF HEY Ambassador for The Bahamas and the 2021 BESS Scholar with the Bahamas Reef Environmental Education Foundation, Heather was, as she admits, an unlikely activist.
“I had been an unofficial activist in high school,” she notes. “I’d been on the back burner. I attended my school’s Eco Club…but I felt like I needed to find my passion. And then I realized that I found my passion when I was sharing my passion with others — helping them to understand why I care about the environment so much.”
How did she take that passion further?
She found OH-Wake Media, a global network backed by Lonely Whale that reaches across “all channels, time zones and geographies with one priority in mind: to make the voices of young leaders heard.”
With her own OH-Wake author page and their multi-channel platform at the ready, Heather found a new community of activists that “skyrocketed my passion even more.”
As early as age 16, Heather was able to talk about climate issues affecting her family and friends at home. “In an island nation,” she explains, “you’re the first to really experience climate change issues…like rising sea levels.”
Raising her voice and helping to educate those younger than herself was, she found, rewarding. “My passion was education,” she states, because “a lot of young people in this country don’t have proper environmental education. That was my leading push when I started.”
“It’s so hopeful and so promising to see the next generation taking the lead within the environmental movement,” contributes Kate Greenberg, who oversees the OH-Wake program. “I think that within the environmental space, a lot is often led with doom and gloom. When you see young leaders like Heather making their communities, our global community and local community aware of the issues, you just feel that optimism and that hope that is often missing from this conversation. I feel grateful to be educated and aware and inspired by young leaders.”
And as I listened, the hope and optimism were contagious.
How can more young leaders get involved with OH-Wake?
“Everybody’s welcome,” Kate says enthusiastically, “it is a very open forum.”
“Whether you’re a writer, whether you’re an organizer, whether you’re an artist, there’s a place for you within this movement, and all young leaders are welcome to join this conversation.”
“I encourage any young leader who is interested to just start,” Kate adds. “OH-Wake is a very open community where all young people, whether you are part of a big platform or a small platform, are welcome.”
And she means it.
With young climate leaders hailing from the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Georgia, Texas, Nigeria or the Bahamas (like Heather), global stories are being shared in new and impactful ways. “These stories affect people across the globe, Kate concludes, “and the more representation we can get, the more accurate, honest and authentic a story we can tell.”
That’s why storytellers like Heather are making all the difference.
“Not everybody has equal opportunities to environmental education,” Heather says meaningfully, “but they face these issues every day. They see these things happening — intensifying storm events, differing water quality, changes in the degradation of our environment — and they don’t know what’s going on. Integrating it more into school systems and having public access to information so people can learn about the environment is really important, because you’re building a regard for the environment.”
In her own words, building a lifeline of care.
What does she want today’s youth to know about joining that lifeline?
“A lot of times when people think about environmental activism, it seems like this unreachable item that’s designated only for professional speakers or scientists. But everybody has equal opportunity to be an environmental activist, whether you are five years old or eighty years old.”
“Regardless of your race, gender, ethnicity or anything, anybody can have equal opportunities to build the change that you ultimately want to see.”
And together, leaders like Heather Brockbank and OH-Wake are building the change we all want to see. Speaking with them on World Environment Day was a joy; seeing the community they are building across the globe every day is the spark of hope we need.
To learn more about OH-Wake or dive in and get involved, check out their magazine, video platform, radio channel or Instagram.
