4 - Multiscale Struggles with Surroundings of Youth Climate Activists in the Philippines: From Conservative Parents to Global Environmental Concerns

Studies on environmental struggles in the Philippines have traditionally focused on local communities resisting destructive natural resource development projects, as discussed in Plundering Paradise: The Struggle for the Environment in the Philippines (Broad and Cavanagh 1993). This perspective, however, does not readily apply to today’s middle-class youth climate activists in Metro Manila. Their daily lives in this highly urbanized megacity seldom involve direct encounters with “nature,” and their ecological concerns are rooted not only in individual destructive projects but also in a pervasive and profound sense of socio-ecological crises.

Hence, the environmental struggles these young activists engage in should be considered as struggles that span multiple scales, from grappling with personal climate anxiety to navigating complex relationships with parents who may stigmatize their activism. Young activists also extend their solidarity to marginalized communities while directly confronting the oppressive power wielded by the state and large corporations. This paper offers an outline of their activism, drawing from data gathered through participant observation within a youth climate activist group in the Philippines, and then proposes a novel framework for conceptualizing their environmental politics, wherein “environment” is understood in its fundamental sense as surroundings. This definition contrasts with the traditional notion of “environment” in political ecology, which tends to emphasize nature as an object. By embracing this broader interpretation, the research aims to shed light on the intricate web of challenges and motivations that shape the activism of these Filipino youth climate activists.