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#StopWillow: Gen Z's attempt to save the Earth from climate change explained

Willow supporters assert that it will improve energy security, generate jobs, and spur economic growth

The ConocoPhillips Willow Project, a proposed multibillion-dollar drilling project in Alaska, is being fought by Gen Z environmental activists on TikTok. These activists have struggled for years to gain widespread support for their cause. 

Willow has emerged as a trending subject on TikTok as the Biden administration gets ready to make a final decision on the contentious project. The online activism has resulted in more than one million letters being written to the White House protesting the project, as well as a Change.org petition with 2.8 million signatures and counting.

About 50 million people have watched videos with anti-Willow hashtags like #StopWillow in the past week, and on Friday, Willow was listed among the top 10 trending topics on TikTok, only behind the superstars Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber. Much of the increase in interest has only occurred in the past week.

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What is Gen Z worried about?

According to the ConocoPhillips fact sheet, the project's backers assert that it will improve energy security, generate jobs, and spur economic growth as it has the potential to produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil per day. Its rejection might enrage Alaskan members of Congress, Huston Business Journal reported.

The project would, however, be detrimental to Biden's climate change program because, according to the administration's own environmental evaluation, Willow would produce nearly 9.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

"Willow will lock in Arctic oil and gas extraction for another 30 years and catalyze future oil expansion in the Arctic. While out-of-state executives take in record profits, local residents are left to contend with the detrimental impacts of being surrounded by massive drilling operations,” Sonny Ahk, Iñuipat activist and author of the largest #StopWillow petition on Change.org, reported Yahoo. 

Thousands of jobs or destructive loss?

The administration approved the contentious proposal on Monday, March 13. The Willow plan calls for the construction of five new oil drilling sites on public lands in the North Slope of Alaska, reported CNN. The project, according to ConocoPhillips, the largest producer of crude oil in Alaska, will provide thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue for the federal government. Opponents warn that there will be serious environmental consequences. 

#Stopwillowproject

On Twitter, many users expressed their views on the #stopwillowpetition. A user wrote, “We are causing a mass extinction. Willow will not immediately relieve any oil shortage, it will be 10 years from now. Meanwhile, devastation living conditions, & big oil has not proven they can refreeze the Artic”. Another user wrote, “It’s valid to feel disappointed about the #WillowProject decision. Next step for now is to support @Earthjustice and make sure not to lose the amazing community we’ve built in the last few weeks. The work continues. #StopWillow.”