Recently, we have realized the value of Voice – how it can inspire and move us to be the best Bae we can be. Our desire to amplify the amazing voices in Tech Bae is what drives Pass the Mic: blogs from Baes sharing what is important, meaningful, and requires action from us all. To recognize Earth Day, we Pass the Mic to Katie McCrea, an environmentalist, and Bae, to hear why we all need to be thinking about divesting this year.
Happy Earth Day Baes!
My mom, Heather McCrea (TechBae co-founder), has been lucky enough to be my co-pilot during my entire environmental journey. At the young and very ripe age of 13, I stumbled across a PETA video while browsing YouTube and very adamantly declared to my mother later that day that I was becoming a vegan. As a family who loved cheeseburgers, ribs, and mac and cheese, it’s safe to say this took my mother by complete surprise. She tried a few vegan recipes for me, but ultimately we ended up eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, salads, and pasta dishes (vegan has come a long way since my journey began!).
Looking back, I remember feeling a very intense moral duty to save the planet, so much so that I became an environmental studies major, continued my vegan diet, always made sure I brought my reusable bags to the grocery store, and, of course, would never use a plastic straw.
Climate change has always been presented to me as an individual moral responsibility: reduce, reuse and recycle. Yet, very similar to creating more inclusive and diverse work environments, an individual’s diet—just like a company’s hiring practices—is not going to result in the change we want to see in the world. We, collectively, must push for a fundamental change to the current systems around us.
While my diet may not change the fact that 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from 100 companies, our collective voices and dollars can. The push for institutional (and personal) divestment from fossil fuels is a powerful way of lending your voice and dollar to the environmental movement. Want to learn more about fossil fuel divestment? Here is a beginner’s guide to fossil fuel divestment that I found helpful.
Happy divesting!
Katie