Garbage Queen, the case of TikTok to make positive change in the face of climate change

In recent years TikTok has become one of the most popular platforms. Although many of the short videos are about challenges, dance choreographies, lipsync, among others that seek to entertain, there are some users, such as @thegarbagequeen, who are taking advantage of this community to inform about climate change and spread the interest in being an active part of change.

In an interview given by the tiktoker, Alaina Wood, to The Verge, she said that climate anxiety and “the heat” led her to start making videos in 2020 to talk about that feeling, as well as solutions, new studies and reports. He currently has more than 300 thousand subscribers who are interested in the topic.

At that time, I was in lockdown due to the pandemic, so I had boredom and plenty of time. Then he began to upload videos “about strange things”, however, when the platform began to recommend videos on climate change, he noticed that many of them had inaccurate data, so he decided to make his own with accurate information.

“I made my first video about the environment in May 2020 saying why I no longer consider myself a zero waste. From there, I began to build a community of other people who discuss climate change in the environment and I realized that people want to hear about it,” said the young woman for the said media outlet.

It was a problem for her to feel that she couldn't recycle a lot of things when she was in college, although she has learned to be more practical in her lifestyle and tries to show others on the Internet that they can do the same.

For example, you drive your car a lot, but it is because where public transport resides, it does not arrive nor does it take it to a place that is useful to you, since it only has two routes available. In this case, although you still use a gasoline car because electric ones are expensive, you drive “efficiently”, that is, without quickly accelerating or decelerating or setting up cruise control when on the road.

“For me, it's just finding small ways to make your life a little more sustainable. It will help, and people shouldn't feel guilty if 'I can't do more',” said the tiktoker. He added that, “at the end of the day, yes, we as individuals need to make changes, but so do corporations and governments.”

He said that even though people make individual and personal changes, it is important that companies and governments also make changes, because otherwise “we cannot make big changes that easily without them.”

On the other hand, he said that he was interested in uploading videos talking about it because he noticed in the comments that many users were having “ecological anxiety” and that several were even thinking about suicide, because in some TikTok videos there were inaccurate and fatalistic data where they assured that everything would end. in 10 or 15 years.

“I feel that my duty as a climate scientist and communicator is to ensure that the most accurate information is disseminated, especially when inaccurate information affects people's mental health,” said the tiktoker, who also suffers from ecological anxiety.

Along with other trends, “climate doom” has gone viral highlighting the importance of being practical and making a difference in the face of climate change, through small changes that positively impact the environment.

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