NEWSViolet Affleck Recalls 'Arguing' With Her 'Shell-Shocked' Mom Jennifer Garner About Climate Change During L.A. Wildfires
Violet Affleck butted heads with her mom during the L.A. wildfires.
Violet Affleck didn't understand the level of shock her mom, Jennifer Garner, felt during the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year.
The 19-year-old daughter of the 13 Going On 30 actress and her ex-husband Ben Affleck recalled a fight she had with her mom about climate change in an essay published in Yale University's Global Health Review on Sunday, May 18.
Violet Affleck's Yale Essay Begins With a Bang
The teenager recalled an argument she had with mom Jennifer Garner in a recent essay for Yale.
Violet, who is a freshman at the Ivy League college, titled her paper "A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles" and called out the "wealthiest citizens" for being major contributors behind the "climate crisis."
"I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room," Violet's essay began, recalling how she and her siblings Seraphina "Fin," 16, and Samuel, 13, were forced to leave their home amid the terrifying blaze.
Explaining the situation, the famous offspring penned: "She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself and my siblings. I was surprised at her surprise: as a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when."
Violet Affleck Recalls Her Family Evacuating L.A. Wildfires
Jennifer Garner took her kids to a hotel when evacuating during the L.A. wildfires earlier this year.
As she "chatted with adults in the hotel where we’d gone to escape the smoke," however, Violet realized her "position" on the matter was an "uncommon one."
"People spoke of how long rebuilding would take, how much it would cost, and how tragically odd the whole situation had been," she remembered, noting how individuals believed "the crisis was acute, a burst of bad luck. It had come from a combination of high winds and low rains."
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Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner's Kids Have Classic Sibling Dynamic
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner share three kids.
Violet shared a conversation she had with Samuel during the tragic blaze, as he asked her: "What did global warming have to do with the speed of the wind?"
"Hopefully, most of us understand the climate crisis better than my little brother," she quipped. "We know, for instance, that it’s existential and accelerating, meaning the danger to places like L.A. will only increase as the planet heats."
The Yale student went on to describe climate change as "existential and accelerating."
"It’s anthropogenic," Violet declared. "Driven by unsustainable consumption patterns concentrated among the wealthiest citizens of the wealthiest countries, all of which have already subjected most of this country and the world to deadly temperatures, fire-flood cycles, rising seas, and dying crops."
Violet Affleck Fights Against Climate Change
Violet Affleck has publicly fought against climate change and for mask mandates.
"Our bewildered response to crises like the LA fires tell us we may still be accustomed to addressing the climate crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic: as a question of how fast we can get back around to pretending like the problem is gone," she suggested.
Violet has always been an outspoken advocate for things like climate change and mask mandates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In July 2024, Violet stood before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and demanded mask mandates in Los Angeles hospitals, as she emotionally shared her difficult experiences recovering from viruses.
