It is an enormous demand with far-reaching consequences that few European politicians dare publicly raise, let alone embrace. Many people the world over believe it is simply not possible to just switch off from fossil fuels. Eighty percent of global energy still comes from them . And Europe is closely tied to Russian fossil fuels in particular, especially natural gas.
But more environmental groups are calling for the same sweeping embargo. They are disturbed by Europe claiming that it stands with Ukraine while it continues to buy billions of dollars of Russian fuel, helping the Russians reap record profits at the same time that their military slaughters civilians and commits other atrocities in Ukraine. Energy experts agree something different must be done.
“The activists are right that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should be a reminder of the urgency of moving away from fossil fuels,” said Jason Bordoff, a dean of the Columbia Climate School . “But the hard reality is that if Europe wants to eliminate dependence on Russia, it is going to need some alternative sources of oil and gas for a period of time while it transitions.”
Ms. Lasota and Ms. Jedroszkowiak say the only solution is to accelerate the transition to renewables, like wind and solar, and that until then, more Ukrainians will needlessly die. They have organized protests across Europe and confronted not only Mr. Macron but also Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister; Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament; top business people, including Total shareholders; and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who seemed impressed.
Since then, the European Union has held endless meetings about sanctions on Russia. At the end of May, European leaders scheduled another summit in Brussels. Ms. Lasota and Ms. Jedroszkowiak saw it as the perfect opportunity to “hijack attention.”
Posters urging the European Union to ban Russian oil are readied for use at a Belgium protest by climate justice activists last month. Credit… Ksenia Kuleshova for The New York Times
‘Wars Don’t Just “Break Out”’
Born a month apart and from middle-class Polish families, Ms. Lasota and Ms. Jedroszkowiak met two years ago at an activist summer camp in Poland where they learned how to get peacefully arrested and form human blockades.
The two recently put those skills to use, joining a blockade outside Total’s headquarters in Paris. Now they were arriving in Brussels to organize a series of “actions” timed to the E.U.’s summit.
They checked into a transit hotel near Brussels’s Midi train station. While Ms. Jedroszkowiak sat on the floor of their small room, headphones on, hosting a radio show for a new Polish outlet, Ms. Lasota sat at a desk writing an email to Charles Michel, the president of the European Council.
“She’s the cool one and I’m the serious one,” Ms. Lasota laughed as she typed away.
“No,” Ms. Jedroszkowiak corrected her. “We’re both cool and serious.”
Ms. Lasota speaking to colleagues last month in the Greenpeace office in Brussels. Credit… Ksenia Kuleshova for The New York Times
The next morning, at Greenpeace’s office in Brussels, more than a dozen other activists showed up, most in their early 20s, some in their teens. They gathered around a table piled with cereal bowls, coffee cups and glowing laptops.
Their mission: hold a boisterous antiwar event at Schuman Square, in front of the European Commission’s headquarters, on the eve of the big meeting.
“What do we need for the strike tomorrow?” Ms. Jedroszkowiak asked.
“Sunflowers,” someone said. (Sunflowers have become a symbol of the Ukraine war.)
“Cardboard,” another piped up.
“Paint,” someone else said.
Many of the activists hailed from Moldova, the Czech Republic, Poland, even Ukraine. Eastern Europeans tend to have a deeper, more intuitive connection to Ukraine’s suffering than Western Europeans, Ms. Lasota said.
“Honey, we come from such different contexts,” she explained. “I come from a country that has been nonexisting for 200 years. Countries near us just divided our nation and took our resources and land. For us, the war in Ukraine is easily understandable and easily felt.”
Ms. Jedroszkowiak agrees. She said that some German environmental activists, for example, were more concerned about the embargo’s economic effects than she would have expected.
“I was like, wait, are you serious?” she said. “You’re talking about the economy? And money? That’s the language of lobbyists, not activists.”
Ms. Jedroszkowiak’s response: “We can create green jobs. That’s the whole point. We have to change the entire system.”
Gabrial Gribincea, left, Dominika Lasota and Mia Bradic, climate justice activists, cutting cardboard boxes to make protest signs. Credit… Ksenia Kuleshova for The New York Times
Most of the young people gathered around the table were women, which Ms. Jedroszkowiak said was no coincidence, either.
“‘What’s this pretty young girl doing in the Polish Parliament?’ I’ve been hearing that my whole life. I heard it was I was 14, and I’m still hearing it when I’m nearly 21,” she said. “And when you face that injustice, a rage grows inside you. And you start to see that all these injustices come from the same place: rich men who don’t want to admit they’re wrong.”
“And what more collapse do we need?” she asked. “As a Polish survivor from Auschwitz once said,” she added, referring to the well-known historian Marian Turski, “Auschwitz didn’t fall from the sky . Well, wars don’t fall from the sky, either.”
“People like to say wars ‘break out,’” she continued. “Wars don’t just ‘break out.’ Wars are the result of a political system designed for war.”
The Ukrainian climate justice activist Arina Bilai, center left, and Patsy Islam-Parsons, center right, joined other protesters in urging the European Union to fully ban Russian oil during a demonstration in May in Schuman Square. Credit… Ksenia Kuleshova for The New York Times
‘Chaos on the Table’
The next morning, the day of the big event at Schuman Square, Greenpeace’s front door kept banging open. Young activists brushed past each other, hauling sunflowers, signs and megaphones.
“I’m really excited about all the chaos on the table,” said Pavel Rysula, 17, from Prague. He was one of the few young male activists at the meetings.
With their iPhones and train tickets, they have built their own fluid community. Though many have stopped their formal educations, they read essays on social justice, research the latest climate science and constantly write letters and papers (for world leaders, not teachers). They also have fun.
“We scream. We sing. We dance,” Ms. Lasota said. “There’s nothing more energizing than this work. It’s the closest to love I’ve gotten in life.”
But, as with everything, there is a cost.
Climate justice activists traveling around the European Union for protests and conversations with politicians often sleep in crowded hotel rooms while on the road. Credit… Ksenia Kuleshova for The New York Times
Both Ms. Lasota and Ms. Jedroszkowiak recently dropped out of university programs in Warsaw, stressing out their families.
“My mom said she was terrified for me,” Ms. Jedroszkowiak said. “I was like, mom, I’m not a drug addict or going to war. Don’t be terrified.”
Ms. Lasota said that many childhood friendships simply “disappeared.” One of her friends was so hurt over a missed birthday party that they have not spoken since.
“It will be fine, eventually,” Ms. Lasota said with a sigh.
A few hours before the action in front of the European Commission, the skies opened up. People huddled in Brussels’s parks under the eaves of rain-lashed gazebos. Walking through the streets, the protesters got soaked.
When they reached Schuman Square, they found it virtually empty. Still, they carried on, lining up shoulder to shoulder, hoisting their sunflowers and their signs.
Full-time activism work can be exhausting for Arina Bilai, left, Dominika Lasota, center, and Wiktoria Jedroszkowiak. After staying up till 4:30 a.m. writing emails, Ms. Lasota caught a quick doze on a train in Brussels. Credit… Ksenia Kuleshova for The New York Times
“Even if it rains, even if it would snow today, even if there would be a storm today, we would come here,” Ms. Lasota belted out, in the rhythms of a veteran orator. “Because we will do everything we can to get this bloody embargo done and stop the horror that is happening in Ukraine and all over the world.”
“Em-bar-go! Em-bar-go!” they chanted.
The next day, the E.U. leaders did not touch the issue of Russian gas but agreed to embargo about 80 percent of Russian oil. The activists took it as a mixed success.
“Catastrophe was avoided,” Ms. Lasota said. “But to celebrate this as a major achievement, that’s ridiculous.”
New York Times: New Brand of Activist Takes Aim at Ukraine War and Climate Crisis, Together
my message went off by itself, how can I retrieve it?
It’s wonderful to see young people with the energy to correct my generation’s mistakes.
Can anything be worse for the environment than war’s intentional destruction of it?
With that in mind I naively approached the Sierra Club’s office in Saratoga Springs NY with an invitation to join the Saratoga Peace Alliance to lobby against the invasion of Iraq.
I was met with a distinctly cold shoulder; I always wondered if that organization feared the loss of donors who favored going to war.
Not long after, the US did invade Iraq, with disastrous consequences for the environment and much else.
So it’s heartening to read about these young people advocate for the environment and peace, so closely connected. They are so much smarter than we were.