“It’s hard having to watch big corporate companies abuse their power.”

Natalie Mesko, 19, is a second-year college student at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Julia Dempski: What issues do you care about the most? What are you most passionate about? Most worried about or most motivated by?

Natalie Mesko:I would have to say climate change mostly because it’s hard having to watch big corporate companies abuse their power and use our natural resources for their gain they are using their own personal profit for destroying native tribes land so many different types of ecosystems.

Q:Do you know any corporations that are trying to combat or fix this issue?

A:The biggest one that I know is the Protect the Arctic Foundation. There’s a big project called the Willow project that’s been going on or the Biden administration is trying to pass through which they are mining for oil in Alaska and it’s one of the largest oil drilling projects. I also know that the Protect the Arctic Foundation is putting out petitions for people to sign and hopefully the White House will hear about it.

Q:Why are you so passionate about this issue? Do you have an emotional connection or personal connection to this issue?

A:Personally, I’ve always been raised to love our outside environment and I’ve always loved animals. It’s hard to watch the entire ecosystems be destroyed at one time and mass extinction extinctions occurring during our  period of life and we’re only so young and older generations tend to not care as much about it and I think that’s also hard to watch.

Q:Do you think you have a bigger impact as a younger generation compared to older generations do on this issue?

A:Yeah, I absolutely do because at a young age it’s important to know what your beliefs are in certain things like climate change and then you can pass it down to other generations. And I think younger generations have had louder voices than some older generations because I’d say younger as we get older, and time moves forward younger generations have found their voices more. For example, I look at my parents I don’t think that they were ever you know promoting certain things on social media or things like that and we have easier access to social media and making sure that our voices are heard.

Q:Would you consider this one of the biggest issues like our generation faces?

A:Absolutely cause I think that we have been almost thrown under the bus with this information because personally whenever I think about climate change it just makes my heart sinks because you know our future isn’t promised. It’s hard to even describe because it’s so heartbreaking but you know not knowing that our future is promised and some of us want to have kids and we don’t know if that’s even promised either. Like are they going to have enough space to live with overpopulation or see the animals that we used to see growing up.

Q:Do you think this climate change issue affects other issues we face today?

A:I would say it definitely can play into other issues and I think that you know economically it can play into different issues because these big companies they need money to function, but I think they struggle to know that there’s other ways to find resources to build their companies upon besides destroying entire ecosystems at one time. I think that plays a big role in their income so that’s where their problem leads into, and I think it’s a topic that polarizes people too because certain people don’t believe in climate change.

Q:Why do you think some people don’t believe in climate change?
A:I’d say it’s a pretty easy topic to get behind when you think about it even when we were younger like the climate wasn’t as extreme as it is now like some days. Like this winter we’ve had six inches of snow and then it all melts within the next day, like that’s not a normal thing to watch. And in the summer it’s been getting warmer and warmer. Even if you look at other states like California has had blizzards this years and the past two years, which is completely out of the ordinary that’s not something that usually happens.

Q:Do you think this issue is a global issue or just an issue affecting the United states?

 A:Absolutely a global issue, it’s a global crisis. Because more developed countries and continents like Asia they I think with their overpopulation everything there is a lot more extreme like the smog that they have going on there that’s not a normal thing or you know obviously rising temperatures isn’t just a United States issue it is a worldwide global crisis for sure for sure oh this issue the climate change issue are you motivated by it to seek change and like advocate for it absolutely because I think it’s a topic that definitely makes me upset when people choose not to listen to scientists or experts on this issue because they choose to believe things that people put in their heads that is just not true like if you do your own research and do read your own readings or even take a class on it you will be able to see you know all the things that have led up to the climate crisis that we’re in right now and I really don’t I think it’s hard to discover ways that you can advocate for it and change your habits.