Climate Girls Saving Our World: 54 Activists SpeakOut

By Gayle Kimball Ph.D.

Over 50 girls and young women from 30 countries share how to save our planet from environmental destruction. In the first book about the global young women's climate movement, you'll learn about their activist tactics and personal stories as they shape the future. You'll discover regional issues and understand Generation Z. The activists represent every inhabited continent and give first-person accounts. Gayle Kimball interviewed them because they're leading the climate movement and are courageously dedicated to stop climate change and destruction of our environment—the most important issue of our time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098398408

Book preview

Climate Crisis Facts

If we do not do things differently, we are finished.¹⁷ Jane Goodall

Our constant demand for growth and an endless cycle of production and consumption are exhausting the natural world. Creation is groaning! We are running out of time, as our children and young people have reminded us. Pope Francis

Today the world is at a crucial juncture and we must choose the right path to a green recovery for a better future. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres formed a Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change and prioritized climate crisis in 2021. (See fact sheets about climate change.¹⁸)

Increase in CO2

The UN’s IPCC scientists warned in 2018 that if the climate warms more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, tipping points will be irreversible. Greenhouse gas emissions (GGEs) must be cut in half by 2035. Tipping points include dieback in the Amazon rainforest and dying off of the coral reefs that support about 25% of marine life. Carbon dioxide concentrations are higher than at any time in human history, a level not reached in the past three million years. The Global Carbon Project reported that 43.1 billion tons of heat-trapping CO2 were emitted into the atmosphere in 2019, a 16% increase from 2018. In April 2021, PPM rose to 420 for the first time in recorded history, an all-time record. Even more harmful methane GGEs are also increasing; much of it from the burning of fossil fuels and agricultural production, including land use, deforestation, transport, and waste.¹⁹

The US emits about a sixth of the world’s CO2, second to China. The activist organization 350.org’s goal was to keep CO2 parts per million (ppm) concentration at 350, but it rose above 418 in 2020.²⁰ Levels are rising at about 2.5 ppm a year and CO2 has a long lifetime. Net-zero GGEs must be achieved by 2065, which means GGEs need to fall by about 8% a year for the next three decades.

The wealthiest 1% emit more CO2 than the poorest half of the world’s population, according to Oxfam. The Climate Accountability Institute reported that 103 fossil fuel and cement companies caused 70% of GGEs since 1751.²¹ The products of 20 fossil fuel companies caused 35% of GGEs since 1965 (Chevron is the worst).²² Companies like Shell would like to shift the responsibility to our individual actions, such as recycling, even though fossil fuels are the main problem. Even if all GGEs were ended now, the damages would continue to be felt for centuries as CO2 lasts for hundreds of years.

Fossil Fuels are Harmful

Oil is the lubricant of the global economy, hidden in common items like plastic and corn, as oil is used in fertilizers to grow crops. Fuel companies lied for over 40 years about causing global heating, called greenwashing, just like tobacco companies lied about the health hazards of cigarettes.²³ The US is the largest producer of petroleum and natural gas and the third-largest producer of coal. Natural gas captured in fracking is sold as a bridge away from oil because it burns more cleanly than coal, but it’s mostly methane, worse by 86 times than carbon dioxide.²⁴

Although the world’s richest 10% of the population is responsible for 40% of environmental damage and about half of the GGEs, the $100 billion aid package to help poor countries by 2020 hasn’t materialized. It was promised as part of the UN’s Paris Agreement signed by 195 nations in 2015. Worse, nations aren’t honoring their commitments to reduce GGEs, so they’re steadily rising.²⁵ Yet the Democratic Party’s 2020 plan relied on expensive and not widely used Carbon Capture and Storage from fossil fuel production, rather than eliminating it. Joe Biden did commit to transitioning from fossil fuel use in his second debate with Trump. A coalition of 500 environmental groups developed a plan for President Biden to tackle the climate crisis.²⁶ He ran and won advocating a $2 trillion climate plan and advocated phasing out dirty fossil fuels.²⁷

With a growing world population of 7.8 billion people and an expanding middleclass, the desire for pollution-producers like vehicles and cows increases. Agricultural GGEs are mainly nitrous oxide (lasts about a century) from fertilizers, and methane produced by cows, sheep, and rice fields (lasts about a decade). If everyone lived like people in the US, we’d need five planets, according to the Global Footprint Network. Hence, the popular activist slogan, There is no planet B. While the Global North is responsible for 92% of the excess GGEs, the US emits 40% of that and is the top emitter per person.²⁸ The Global South suffers most of the costs and deaths associated with climate breakdown: fires, floods, droughts, famine, disease, and migration to escape disasters. As climate urbanization increases, poverty increases and it’s harder to grow food. Water may become the most precious resource in our global future.

Coal supplies about half of the electricity used in the US from 118 coal plants and almost that many worldwide--a percentage that is likely to grow, according to the International Energy Agency.²⁹ Germany has 84 coal plants but plans to phase them out by 2038. China’s Belt and Road trillion-dollar project to build global infrastructure includes building new roads, around 200 new coal plants (as in Pakistan), and other construction projects that disrupt the environment.³⁰

Warming

Scientists warn that our planet could see a greater temperature increase in the next 50 years than in the last 6,000 years combined.³¹ Some warned that civilization was in jeopardy when the earth’s surface temperature passed 1°C in 2015 and that harsh conditions are inevitable as warming continues. The human effect is described in the book Overheating: An Anthropology of Accelerated Change by Norwegian Thomas Hyllan Eriksen. His title refers to human impact on the planet with our fast pace of life, similar to overheating a car, referring to the physics principle that more speed equals more heat. In his TED talk, Eriksen advises us to cool down, slow down, and look up--at the human family.³²

UNEP research shows that even if we stick to the Paris Agreement limits on GGEs in order to limit warming under 2°C, global temperature will rise more than 3.2°C by the end of this century.³³ Most nations do not abide by their plans, which will result in a rise to an inhospitable 4° or 5°. Children are damaged by rising temperatures, especially in areas with no cooling; in India, for example, only 4% of homes are air-conditioned. The social justice implications of climate change are a moral issue; although solutions are known, autocrats remain climate crisis deniers.

Project Drawdown lists the major sources of heat-trapping greenhouse gases--as well as solutions described at the end of the book and online:³⁴

25%: electricity production

24%: food, agriculture, and land use

21%: industry

14%: transportation

10%: other

 6%: buildings

Over half of GGEs stay in the atmosphere, 24% is absorbed by plants, and over 17% is absorbed by the oceans.³⁵ Due to the greenhouse effect, the average global temperature has increased by 1.4°C since 1880, with two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1975. Warming the soil, which stores vast amounts of carbon, causes it to release carbon into the atmosphere in a domino effect.³⁶ Nearly half of all people in the US (162 million) will face more heat and less water over the next 30 years, leading to less food production, more migration, and a decline in quality of life.³⁷

The oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat in the climate system.³⁸ Warming oceans cause expansion, which coupled with ice melt and permafrost melting, leads to coastal land flooding, which could increase by 48% by 2100. Sea levels are rising over three inches a year since the early 1990s. By 2050, the number of people at risk of floods will increase to 1.6 billion, according to the United in Science 2020 report. The ocean rise could threaten the homes of 150 million people in the next three decades and damage food crops.³⁹ The damages due to sea rise could cost about 20% of the global economy.⁴⁰

European Commission scientists predict sea levels in Europe will rise by around one meter by the end of the century, part of the reason they funded a Green New Deal. A Marshall Islands’ spokesperson called two degrees of warming genocide. Arctic ice continues to shrink (by around 40% since 1979) because the Arctic hasn’t been this warm for three million years, rising twice as fast as the global rise. Ocean warming can lead to marine heatwaves, called blobs, which harm plants and animals. By 2050, high tides will flood much of Vietnam, parts of China and Thailand, most of the Nile Delta, and more.⁴¹

The oceans absorb about one-third of CO2, which results in acidification that harms marine life, as does quick warming.⁴² The oceans haven’t been this acidic for 15 million years. Four in 10 humans rely on the ocean for food but predictions are that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the seas.⁴³

The main source of oxygen in our atmosphere isn’t rainforests, but ocean algae--the ocean produces 70% of our oxygen. Warming and pollution runoff, like fertilizers, can cause algae to grow in blooms that are toxic to sea life.⁴⁴ When the source of the bloom runs out, the algae die, causing huge increases in bacteria that consume oxygen from the water, leading to dead zones. Humans dump eight million tons of waste into the ocean each year, plus toxic agricultural and industrial runoff.⁴⁵

Extremely hot zones, like the Sahara Desert, now comprise 1% of the land but will expand to nearly a fifth of the land by 2070. This could displace one-third of the earth’s population as climate migrations increase and more than 140 million people will be displaced by climate change in the decades ahead.⁴⁶ Drought and the food shortages it causes, or rising seas, already spurring migration of millions of people from rural areas. Torrential rains submerged one-quarter of Bangladesh in July of 2020, flooding nearly a million homes. The refugees inflate major political conflicts, such as the Syrian civil war, the Arab Spring, and Brexit. Climate hot spots leading to migration exist in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, described as The Great Climate Migration.⁴⁷

Extreme Weather

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense. In Australia, more than 20% of their forests burned in the fires of 2019 and 2020. The number of US weather disasters that cost over a billion dollars in damages doubled during the past decade and 14 of the extreme weather events in 2019 cost more than $45 billion. As of July 2020, there were 10 more of these climate disasters in the US.⁴⁸ Record numbers and size of damaging fires in California in 2020 were blamed on the climate crisis by Governor Gavin Newsom, who lost patience with climate deniers. The fires turned the sky orange and snowed down ash where I live in Northern California and made air quality toxic for weeks. The smoke was so extensive that it traveled around the world, leaving us with the poorest air quality in the world.

Extinction

Scientists warn that we’re facing the Earth’s sixth mass extinction (see Saving Life on Earth: A Plant to Halt the Global Extinction Crisis.⁴⁹) As Thunberg said, We are wrecking our world. Animal populations decreased catastrophically by 68% between 1970 and 2016—and by 94% in Latin America, according to The 2020 Living Planet Report. Around one million animal and plant species face extinction, including one-third of all insects and 32,441 of assessed species on the Red List of 120,000 identified plant and animal species.⁵⁰ About two in five plant species are in danger of extinction, mainly in tropical areas.

Pollinators are in jeopardy and coral reefs are bleached and dying, while invasive species are spreading. Yet the Trump Administration tried to reverse or weaken about 100 environmental rules and succeeded with 66 of them, according to Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Harvard’s Environmental and Energy Law Program. Scientists were silenced or replaced, such as the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the top US scientific agency. Many of these attempts were challenged in court by environmentalists.

Pollution

The Lancet Countdown Report reveals the connection between the climate crisis and public health.⁵¹ Pollution is the world’s leading cause of death, causing eight million deaths in 2017, according to the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution.⁵² Air pollution in the form of soot made Covid-19 even more deadly, according to a Harvard University study in the US.⁵³ Areas where low-income people live are likely to be more polluted, as are urban areas where the majority of people live.

Textile production of fast fashion is second only to fossil fuels for pollution, even more than airplane and marine shipping pollution, and much of our clothing gets thrown in garbage dumps.⁵⁴ The textile industry is responsible for about 20% of water pollution and some say is the second main polluter, after fossil fuels. Microfibers in oil-based synthetic fibers, such as popular yoga pants/leggings, shed into water sources.⁵⁵ Aware of this problem, green clothing companies like Patagonia aim for eco-friendly clothing.

In 2020, 167 chemicals were registered in the US, but less than 1% were tested for toxicity, despite the fact that these chemicals influence genes.⁵⁶ For example, genes that control the immune response are very sensitive to these chemicals. California passed a bill banning 24 toxic chemicals used in cosmetics (starting n 2025), while the EU already banned more than 1,600 chemicals. Most of the climate-disease burden (88%) will be borne by children and 90% of children are exposed to unhealthy levels of particulate pollution.⁵⁷

Plastics are made from fossil fuels: 380 million tons of it were manufactured in 2015, according to the Center for International Environmental Law (mostly manufactured in low- income communities). An estimated 30 million tons of plastic waste entered the world’s waterways in 2020 because less than 10% of plastics are recycled.⁵⁸ Plastic bags, six-pack rings, and packing straps are particularly harmful to sea animals. Globally, we use about one billion plastic bags each year (8.3 billion metric tons over six decades), creating tons of landfill waste, or plastic waste is often burned, polluting the atmosphere. Globally, around 500 billion plastic water bottles are used each year and most are not recycled. They get dumped in rivers and oceans, sometimes collecting in massive gyres, killing more than 100,000 marine animals and birds.

The US produces more plastic waste than any other country (followed by the EU, India, and China). The US dumped between 1.1 million to 2.2 million metric tons of plastic in the oceans in 2016 and recycles only about 9% of plastic waste.⁵⁹ Most of it (88%) is exported to countries with inadequate waste management, while facilities to process singleuse plastics are decreasing as Asian countries like China and Vietnam no longer process recyclables. A fossil fuel industry group lobbied for the US to press Kenya to reverse its ban on plastic bags and to continue to process foreign plastic waste.⁶⁰ In response, Greenpeace Africa circulated a petition to the Kenyan government asking it to stay independent. Over 180 nations, including Kenya (but not the US and UK), agreed to regulate plastic as hazardous waste in May 2019. The petrochemical companies receive billions of dollars of subsidies from the US government. Scientists are looking for bacteria to eat plastics, upcycle it into useable liquid,⁶¹ and for ways to manufacture plant-based biodegradable plastics

Physical Health Problems

Hotter weather is associated with mental health problems, especially after 10 consecutive days of extreme heat in areas without cooling systems.⁶² A Climate Impact Lab study of climate change warned, In poor hot countries, the heat may be even more threatening than cancer and heart disease are today.⁶³ Extreme heat harms health and food production, especially for low-income people.⁶⁴ The chief economics advisor at the UN’s World Food Program attributed the increase in acute hunger cases to 135 million people to climate change, conflicts, and economic instability.⁶⁵ He predicted even more increase in hunger due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, the UN World Food Program stated the number of hungry people doubled in 2020 due to the pandemic and that children are the main victims of malnutrition. Also, micro-plastic particles are now found in human organs since we eat, drink, and breathe around 50,000 particles each year.

As the African continent warms, this inhibits malaria mosquitoes but favors the mosquitos that carry dengue fever--for which there is no treatment. Nets don’t protect against the Aedes mosquitoes because they bite during the day. (In the US, toxic forever chemicals are sprayed from planes to kill mosquitos.⁶⁶) With the destruction of wildlands, infectious diseases like coronaviruses are increasing due to closer contact of humans and wildlife such as bats, pangolins, and birds. Habitat destruction through deforestation, mining, wildfires, and eating wild bush meat also brings humans and wild animals into closer contact. This enables pathogens such as Covid-19 to spread to humans through animals like bats since about 75% of infectious diseases originate with wildlife in a process called zoonosis.⁶⁷ To mitigate the conflict, countries can create new parks, wildlife refuges, and marine sanctuaries, and preserve wilderness areas. People exposed to pollution are more likely to be infected by Covid-19 and die from it because of reduced lung function, even more harmful than smoking tobacco.

Lack of Political Will to Listen to Scientists

Politicians like Trump and Bolsonaro call the climate crisis a hoax and roll back environmental protections. When informed that California forest fires of summer 2020 were associated with climate change, Trump replied with a smile that it will get cooler and I doubt that science knows.⁶⁸ Under Trump, government employees were told not to mention the climate crisis, even at the Environmental Protection Agency.⁶⁹ The 2020 Coronavirus Relief Bill allocated billions of dollars without including climate impact, although changing weather patterns and pollution from factories and factory farms make pandemics more likely and more virulent for people who live near them.⁷⁰

Right-wing media perpetrated the denial of human impact on the climate crisis, with Fox News hosts and radio host Russ Limbaugh comparing the ideas of climate change with the concept of systematic racism, in denial of both. Influence Map reported 44 of the world’s 50 influential lobbying organizations are actively working against an effective climate policy. Also, we still have influential people like Supreme Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who, when asked about human effect on climate change, said she couldn’t comment because it’s a very contentious matter of public debate, rather than a scientific fact (although only about 13% of people in the US are denialists like former President Trump). She was willing to acknowledge that smoking is linked to lung cancer during her confirmation hearings but not the climate crisis.

Malena Ernman stated, Our fate rests in the media’s hands. No one else has the reach required in the time we have left to act…because when the media chooses to push an issue, as in Sweden with #MeToo, everything changes... Many within the environmental movement are hoping for a similar breakthrough for the climate.⁷¹ In a step forward, The Guardian newspaper began using the phrase climate crisis rather than the milder climate change.

Some complain about the cost of Green New Deals. To fund a green future in the US, changing to 100% renewable energy in a decade would cost around $4.5 trillion, less than the $6.4 trillion spent by the US on wars since 2001. Global military spending is increasing, spending over $1.9 trillion in 2019.⁷² The biggest spender is the US (it spends $80 million an hour on the military-industrial complex), followed by China, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. A 2020 report titled No Warming, No War: How Militarism Fuels the Climate Crisis, explained that the US fights wars for access to oil and the US military is among the biggest polluters, producing about 59 million metric tons of GGEs a year.⁷³

Enforcing fair taxes on corporations, the wealthy, and Wall Street could bring in $866 billion. Taxes on 12 US billionaires (the Oligarchic Dozen includes Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffett), who own more than $1 trillion in combined wealth, could help. Ending subsidies for coal, oil, and gas could save $649 billion a year, and cutting military spending could provide $350 billion a year. These savings could easily fund the Green New Deal. The climate crisis is not a future problem; it’s causing suffering now. Only the emperor without new clothes could deny science and justice.

Overview of The 54 Climate Activists

Our typical activist is first-born (two-thirds of them), optimistic, communicative, feminist, determined, passionate, and caring. She was motivated to take action either by well-known girl activists or by her parents. The most common career goal is to influence policy by working in government or an NGO (non-governmental organization). Our activists think women are the majority of climate activists because they are more compassionate and have a special connection with nature, they’re most harmed by climate disasters, and, because of sexism, they know they have to work hard to achieve their goals. These activists recharge by being in nature and being with family and friends. They think Gen Z is powerful and the best hope for saving our world. They’re righteously angry at older generations for their destruction, but not their parents, who they find supportive, and they’re appreciative of adult allies.

Characteristics

Birth Order (most were born in the 2000s) Two-thirds are first or only children.

First-born: 25

Only child: 12

Second born: 8

Third or more: 9 (In my study of visionary scientists 36 were first-born and 26 were latter- born)

Attitude

Optimists: 24

Pessimists: 6

Both: 4

They’re realists but feel they have to have hope to continue working so hard. (See The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell who taught hope as a cognitive skill to her at-risk students.) Thunberg says things may look dark and hopeless, but she maintains hope because of the awakening shown by grassroots movements like #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and School Strike (FFF).

Characteristics

Determined: 14

Passionate: 14

Caring, kind: 12

Creative: 8

Brave: 8

Curious: 4

Hard worker: 4

Scientific, happy: 2

Career Goals

Work for an NGO. 11

Work in government policy. 7

Green business. 6

Environmental scientist. 6

Lawyer. 3

Media. 3

Educator. 3

Feminists

All but two. These two believe in equality but don’t use the feminist label. The others were generally very enthusiastic, saying 100%, etc.

Keirsey and Bates Personality Inventory

ENFJ is the majority type, the Idealist Teacher (https://keirsey.com/temperament/idealist-teacher/) J’s are more likely to do a task like filling out a questionnaire, so this is not representative.

E: 8, I: 4

N: 8, S: 3, X, 1

F: 9 T: 3

J: 11, P: 1

Astrological Type

Why include a non-scientific typology? Most know a little about their sun sign, a quick way to define personality characteristics.

Virgo: 10

Gemini: 8

(both are ruled by Mercury, the mental aspect, communication)

Libra: 6

(Gemini and Libra are air signs, communicators)

Scorpio: 5

Sagittarius: 5 (ask deep questions)

Aries: 4

Aquarius: 4

Cancer: 3

Capricorn: 3

Pisces: 3

Taurus: 2

Leo: 2

What Motivated Their Activism

Greta Thunberg speeches: 14

(Other young women activists 8)

Parent: 14

Natural disasters: 9

Being in nature: 8

Documentaries (like by David Attenborough, Al Gore and fictional heroes like Princess Leia, Jane Eyre, and Harry Potter): 8

School information: 13

Books and reports (e.g., IPCC report and Small is Beautiful, Our House is on Fire, An Inconvenient Truth: 4

Internet information: 3

Heroes in fiction: 3

Love animals: 3

Percent Female in their Groups

Most—8; 90s--4%; 80s%--6; 70s—4; 60s—8; 50s—4. Only two groups had more males, in Kenya and Japan.

Chapter 1 Overview: Youth Climate Activists

We can’t save the world by playing by the rules. It’s time to rebel. I want you to panic. Greta Thunberg

Kelsey Juliana is the lead plaintiff in Juliana v. United States

Current Issues

Recent youth activism reflects Generation Z’s values: belief in gender and ethnic equality, righteous anger about the destruction of our environment, impatience with adults, and outspoken criticism of them. Used to instant posting on the internet, they expect quick results. Our activists frame their activism in terms of climate justice, including how the climate crisis most harms disadvantaged groups, including women and low-income people. Some from the Global South reported they are treated like token representatives or left out of coverage by the media. Our activists emphasize that the crisis is real now, not a future problem and that the current economic system can’t allow the kinds of changes necessary to save our world. Hence, a revolution is required. They refer to scientists as the authorities and feel Gen Z are powerful changemakers, the only ones who can save us from the failures of older generations. They use the word power a lot. As Youth for Climate Argentina activist Eyal Weintraub said, The most extraordinary aspect of this movement is realizing the unlimited potential of our generation, including the art of making the impossible possible.

They value flat or horizontal organizing, where everyone is valued and has a voice, rather than hierarchical structures. Hence, they form coalitions like Polluters Out and work with older groups like Greenpeace or Amnesty International. An Indian activist explained, I don't think it's completely possible to have a flat structure when one person is spending say five hours a day compared to someone who's spending an hour a day on a particular topic. So that is hierarchy but at least it's democratic in that it's voted upon. Effective organizations develop transparent communication channels and a self-organizing structure so that everyone can get involved.

Jamie Margolin, co-founder of Zero Hour, described issues in current youth organizing from the inside that I glimpsed from my interviewees. She said Thunberg got the idea to strike in a telephone meeting about starting a Swedish version of Zero Hour, after being upset by learning in school about the amount of trash in the ocean, etc. Margolin also inspired Nadia Nazar,* with whom she co-founded Zero Hour at age 15 when they connected on Instagram from opposite sides of the US. Now both are in their first year of university. Activists start young: Margolin started in second grade organizing a Green Club and Hannah Testa* started in kindergarten.

Intersectionality is a frequent theme: Margolin identifies as a young, Jewish, Latina, gay woman. Her book is dedicated To the queer kids: We are unstoppable. She faults the older environmental movement for lacking a national space for young women and POC leaders; therefore, Zero Hour is mostly led by young women--typical of youth climate organizations.

Green Girl Leah Thomas criticized racism in the older mostly white environment movement and popularized the concept of intersectional environmentalism to dismantle systems of oppression in the environmental movement.⁷⁴ She graduated with a major in Environmental Science in 2017 and points out that systems of oppression are not siloed in separate issues, they are intersectional. She advocates social justice pledges for environmentalists, such as, I will stand in solidarity with Black, Indigenous, and POC communities and the planet. She also points out the importance of rest and joy in self-care as a powerful part of activism: Nurturing your soul is an act of resistance. An example is Election Defenders and others who organized Joy to the Polls to bring music and dancing to people waiting in line to vote in 2020, posting playlists on Spotify.⁷⁵

The title of Margolin’s book Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It reveals a common theme: the belief that Gen Z has power. They’re media sophisticated, as her many suggestions in the book reveal, and they’re likely to use art, videos, music, etc. as part of organizing. For example, she suggests filming politicians when lobbying them and telling stories to convince people more than citing facts--because they both spark emotion.

An important theme is interpersonal relations among activists, referred to as drama (discussed in the mental health section). Jealousy may arise when some leaders get more media attention or when jockeying for decision-making power takes place. Margolin reports that tension is normal: I’ve sure had a lot of it in my movement-building experiences, it’s the most difficult aspect of organizing. At first, she acted like a dictator, until disagreements finally surfaced, and she turned to consensus decision-making based on teams with directors, with a final vote on a proposal. The team directors have weekly conference calls. Margolin reports It’s my job as a leader to support and guide, so she doesn’t discount the need for leaders like some activists do. She learned that community building is half the work of changemaking because infighting weakens the group. She said this includes letting go of irresponsible members.

Mental health has become an acknowledged issue, along with advocacy of self-care and taking breaks. Jamie Margolin told a reporter that she has suffered from depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder since she was little.⁷⁶ She said activism keeps her from stressing about her worries and that she is trying not to feel, but that her therapist helps her to feel better. Margolin recommends going to a therapist, which has helped her the most of all her self-care methods. Her workaholic focus on Zero Hour shut off her emotions and made me depressed, anxious, grumpy, and tired a lot. She spent much of her time in high school not paying attention in class, working on emails and such, or missing tons of school.

Our activists also mentioned having to give up activities they loved, like playing music, and missing school and sleep to do organizing. Margolin, too, fell victim to comparing herself to other social activists who got more attention on social media, as a social media addict in a world that pits people against each other for accolades. This sometimes makes me feel like crap, so she wisely tries to limit scrolling time. Margolin suggests taking time off and making time for fun, which for her is watching movies and listening to music, as well as being with friends and family. She usually has on headphones with loud music playing. Margolin frankly discusses the issues facing the youth activists I interviewed.

History of the Youth Climate Movement

Pakistani Malala Yousafzai is the most famous youth activist of modern times, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner (born in 1997), but her focus is on education for girls rather than the environment—the current emphasis for global young activists. (The UN defines youth as ages 15 to 24, consisting of around 1.3 billion people.⁷⁷) Earlier activists in the US were children and youth in the US Civil Rights Movement--like the Children’s March of 1963, Black Lives Matter (BLM was founded in 2013 by three Black women and expanded to local chapters), the Native American and First Nation protests against building oil pipelines, Hawaiian Kanaka Maoli youth protecting Mauna Kea volcano, and March for Our Lives against gun violence organized in 2018.

President Trump’s administration ignited Women’s Marches and Walls of Moms to protect BLM protesters, building on historic mothers’ groups against violence, like the protests against disappeared children in Argentina or Nigerian mothers taking off their clothes--part of an old tradition to calm violence. Thousands of local resistance groups developed to protest the Trump Administration, using the tactics of Indivisible to focus on local Congress members.⁷⁸ Some refer to the new activism, which in the US emphasizes the importance of voting, and did succeed in record voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election.

A Harvard graduate student named Denis Hayes organized the first Earth Day in 1970, which drew millions of people, beginning the modern environmental movement in the US. It grew into EarthDay.org, claiming to be the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement. This led to protective legislation like the Clean Air and Water Acts and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.⁷⁹ (Currently, Hayes is CEO of the environmental Bullitt Foundation, discussed in Climate Solutions below.)

The pioneering young climate activist is Canadian Severn Cullis-Suzuki. At age nine she and three friends founded the Environmental Children’s Organization. In 1992 she spoke on behalf of a group of 12- and 13-year-old girls her age who raised money to fly to the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, revealing, I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals are in it. As an adult, she explained, We figured it was going to be mostly old men, sitting around, making decisions that are going to affect our future and the future generation. So we wanted to go as the conscience, as a reminder to those decision-makers, who their decisions would truly affect. Described as the girl who silenced the world for six minutes, she told the delegates, I am fighting for my future.⁸⁰ Her speech went viral on the internet and Al Gore called it the best speech in Rio. But, the world didn’t listen to her, as GGEs and warming continued, reaching 1.1°C by 2020. In 2011, at COP 18 in South Africa, Canadian Anajali Appaduraai, age 22, also shamed the delegates, asking, Where is the courage in these rooms?⁸¹ She recently founded the Padma Centre for Climate Justice.

A third Canadian, Gen Y filmmaker Slater Jewell-Kemker* attended her first environment summit in 2008, in Kobe, Japan, when she was 17. She went on to film the UN climate conferences (COPs) in Copenhagen, Cancun, Paris, Poland, and Madrid. She produced Youth Unstoppable, an autobiographical film about the Global Youth Climate Movement, beginning filming when she was 15.⁸² She’s involved with the UN’s YOUNGO (Youth Constituency of the UNFCCC), but her main focus is documenting the history of the movement in her films. Comparing Gen Y and Z, she characterizes Gen Z as more confident changemakers, more concerned with the climate crisis as a social justice issue, and more inclusive--including indigenous groups--and the recognition of the need for self-care for mental health to prevent burnout. She advocates total change of the global economic system, as do other climate activists. Gen Zers think of themselves as braver than Gen Y, perhaps because they were beaten down by economic recession.

The newest star is, of course, Greta Thunberg in Sweden (born in 2003), who inspired other teens to lead the School Strike for Climate (FFF) movement around the world. She in turn was inspired by the Never Again students who organized strikes to protest school shootings after the Valentine’s Day massacre in their Florida school in 2018, and by Zero Hour’s July 21, 2018, climate march. Examples of earlier climate school strikes were organized in 2006 by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and a global climate strike was organized in over 100 countries on the first day of Paris COP in 2015.

When she was 15, Thunberg started the climate revolution with her first school strike in August 2018 in front of the Swedish parliament building, holding a sign translated as School Strike for the Climate. She said, Unite behind the science, that is our demand. She called climate change the biggest crisis in human history, which requires ending fossil fuel investment and GGEs. Building on her fame, in December, Thunberg spoke to COP in Poland in 2018, to the UN in 2019, and continues to address major conferences such as the World Economic Forum. (She doesn’t fly but takes more environmentally sound trains and boats.) She and other young activists want to keep global warming from going higher than the 1.5° C recommended by the IPCC report of October 2018. Thunberg referenced the report in her speeches, such as the French National Assembly and to the US Congress in 2019.

In a video dialogue with naturalist documentary filmmaker David Attenborough in October 2020, Greta Thunberg said that what introduced her to the climate emergency were films and documentaries.⁸³ She explained that her school striking spread from Stockholm to other Swedish cities, then to the Netherlands, then to Finland. A tipping point occurred when Australians started striking, got a lot of media coverage, and many young people got involved around the world.

The 2020 I am Greta film was made by Nathan Grossman who followed her around during her activism (inspired by the book I am Malala?), starting in 2018. What stood out in the film is her father is the parent who traveled with her, helped her pick out clothes, and comforted her. He said Greta has an almost photographic memory and she described herself as a nerd. In the film, Greta said she almost starved to death due to her depression and anxiety and that other children were unkind to her growing up. On the boat traveling to New York, she admits It’s too much for me, but feels she has to sound the alarm for others since children have to take action when adults act like children. She said that film shows the absurd celebrity culture: It’s strange that I became a public figure; I haven’t really done that much. Rather, we should focus on the climate crisis. She advocates the need to connect the dots because, We fail today so badly to connect the issues in one big sustainability crisis and see that climate change, loss of biodiversity, loss of fertile soil, overfishing, etc. are one issue.

When asked what an individual can do, she said there’s not one thing an individual can do because we don’t have the time or the carbon budget for anything but global actions. But, if she were to choose one thing, it’s to try to understand the crisis, educate yourself, and educate others. We need to be active democratic citizens to put pressure on people in power. Public opinion runs the free world so the source of hope now is to put enough pressure on the politicians. An individual can go vegan, stop flying, stop buying, but the most important thing is to understand why changes are needed now and spread awareness, information, knowledge. The media is the most efficient tool we have. When asked if she’s a pessimist or optimist, she a, I’m a realist. When asked about her advice for older generations, she said, We know you have more experience and are more educated, but you need to keep an open mind, thinking outside the box, and keep learning.

The first global school strikes took place on March 15 and May 24, 2019, and FFF leaders met in Lausanne, Switzerland in August of that year. The strikes spread to about 400 cities with tens of thousands of students participating in #FridaysForFuture.⁸⁴ Their third global strike drew three to six million people from over 163 countries on September 20, 2019 (with over a million demonstrators in both Germany and Italy). Bill McKibben called it the largest climate change demonstration ever. We young people are unstoppable, said Thunberg, I think people are underestimating the force of angry kids. Their placards read Time’s running out and There is no planet B. Climate strike was the Collins Dictionary’s word for 2019 and Oxford Dictionary’s word was climate emergency. FFF organized Digital strikes in 2019 to make activism available to people who couldn’t go to the streets and was widely used during the Covid-19 pandemic. An anniversary strike was organized on September 25, 2020, with over 3,200 events. Thunberg again called for recognition that climate change is our major crisis.

Typical of their generation, the Gen Z climate activists make good use of social media to gain supporters. Millions follow Thunberg on Twitter (over four million), Instagram (over 11 million), and Facebook (three million likes). The young activists communicate using WhatsApp, Slack, Zoom, etc. During the pandemic quarantine, Thunberg organized weekly webinars titled Talks for Future, featuring experts like Naomi Klein, shown on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.⁸⁵ (Zero Hour organized Get to the Roots weekly webinars in March 2020 to explain our societal systems of oppression.) However, in the digital divide, almost half the world doesn’t have access to the internet and women have less access than men (although digital helpers like Alexa and Siri are all female voices and more women are enrolled in college than men).⁸⁶

In February 2019, the European Commission pledged more than $1.13 trillion to be spent over seven years to fight climate change. Thunberg stood by the side of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels as he made the announcement and praised her and the hundreds of thousands of youth who had led weekly climate strikes since December. He said, I am glad to see that young people are taking to the streets in Europe to raise visibility of the issue of climate change.⁸⁷ Thunberg responded by pointing out that a minimum of 80% reduction in greenhouse gases is needed by 2030, not the 40% proposed reduction. When adults say her generation is the hope for the future, she responds, There is simply not enough time to wait for us to grow up and become the ones in charge.

She can be sarcastic in her response to adults who say youth will save the world—It would be helpful if you could help us just a little bit. She faults politicians for 30 years of inaction. In a 75-minute broadcast on Spotify in 2020, Thunberg said, The emperors are naked. Every single one. It turns out our whole society is just one big nudist party.⁸⁸ When she and other FFF girls met with Chancellor Angela Merkel in August 2020, Thunberg bemoaned the lack of progress in reacting to the climate crisis in the two years since their first global strikes, pointing to GGEs of more than 80 gigatons of CO2 and continual natural disasters.⁸⁹ The girls called for ending all fossil fuel investments and subsidies, making ecocide an international crime, establishing binding carbon budgets, among other changes.

A small girl with her hair in long braids and no makeup, she commented, All my life I’ve been invisible, the invisible girl in the back who doesn’t say anything. She is on the autism spectrum; Thunberg explains, Autism has given me an analytical and creative brain. It allows me to hyper-focus on the topics and activities that inspire me. She says in her booklet No One is Too Small to Make a Difference that almost everything is black or white to her, due to having Asperger’s syndrome—her superpower. Not being good at socializing, she is an activist.

She suffered from depression since she was 11 (partly because of pictures she saw of the suffering of polar bears and other animals hurt by global warming), was mute and anorexic so she couldn't go to school (as described in Our House is on Fire, written by her mother), and then receiving hate mail from critics and trolls. Activism is medicine for her depression when she feels like she’s doing all she can. (To learn about autism in young women, see my video interview with a psychologist whose daughter is on the spectrum and read an article by an autistic woman who faces pain from masking to try to fit in with the norm.⁹⁰)

Thunberg said in July 2020, Our current system is not ‘broken’--the system is doing exactly what it's designed to be doing. It can no longer be ‘fixed.’ We need a new system. Models of continued economic growth are fairytales, she said. Plans for new economic systems are proposed by green circular economies,⁹¹ Green Growth Knowledge Platform, Global Green Economy Index (Nordic counties and Switzerland⁹²), and the UN Partnership for Action on Green Economy. Model progressive societies, like Kurdish Rojava and Jackson, Mississippi are described in Resist: Goals and Tactics for Changemakers.

In Belgium, strike leader Anuna De Weever, 17, was inspired by a video of Thunberg. De Weever identifies herself as gender-fluid, which she explained gives her a viewpoint different from the mainstream unable to ignore real problems, so I start to have my own values, my own principles…⁹³ Many young climate activists are judged by their peers as the climate girl, meaning weird, not the normal teenager. Fluidity about social norms is a characteristic of Gen Z, which is comfortable with diversity of many kinds. Activists frequently use the term intersectionality to emphasize the connection between gender, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and so on, as part of their emphasis on social justice. (See Eric Holthaus’ The Future Earth for a discussion of climate justice initiated by social movements, including replacing the belief in economic growth and advocating for climate reparations.) Gen Z in the US is even more liberal than Gen Y, comfortable with gender fluidity, advocating government actions for equality, and blaming humans for the climate crisis.⁹⁴

Adult Critics

Activists’ conclusion that it’s up to young people to save our world counters the prevailing view of Gen Y and Z in some Western countries (e.g., US, UK, Sweden) were youth are criticized as apolitical, distracted, spoiled by protective helicopter parents, and so controlled they become anxious fragile teacups when faced with a challenge. A California State University administrator told me in 2020 that in the last ten to 15 years, the parents of his students are much more involved with him and students come in his office with their lawyer’s business card. I explore these judgments in Ageism in Youth Studies.

Indian scholar Tanu Biswas refers to adultist attitudes in intergenerational injustice, such as adults dismissing Greta Thunberg, while childist approaches acknowledge that children can teach and inspire adults.⁹⁵ Biswas identifies adultist tactics such as saying Thunberg and her peers are a pawn of adults, naïve, and emotional. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro called Thunberg a brat, which she included in her Twitter biography (pirralha). President Trump dismissively advised her to work on her anger management problem, chill, and go see a movie, unhappy that TIME Magazine selected her as their person of the year in 2019—so ridiculous, he said. His campaign posed an odd photoshopped TIME cover with Trump’s head on Thunberg’s small body in a pink sweatshirt. (TIME selected its first Kid of the Year in 2020, a 15-year-old scientist from Colorado named Gitanjali Rao—a girl. One of her projects is water purification, inspired by the Flint, Michigan problem with lead in the water.) After Trump lost the election, Thunberg tweeted back Trump’s advice to chill and go see a movie.

When young Sunrise Movement activists gathered in 86-year-old Senator Diane Feinstein’s office in 2019 to ask for her support for the Green New Deal, she was sarcastic, saying Well, you know better than I do. So I think one day you should run for the United States Senate and then you do it your way. She said there was no way to pay for it and she knows what can pass--the video of the encounter went viral.⁹⁶ A Belgian environmental minister, Joke Schauvliege, resigned after she falsely accused the strikers of being used by some unknown group, a typical criticism of youth.⁹⁷ Prime Minister Putin also said Thunberg was being used by adults.⁹⁸

Youth are accused of being apathetic politically, due to their low voter turnout rate, which, in fact, has been a problem: The US has one of the lowest rates of youth voter turnout in the world. Some say they’re too busy to vote and some youth explain that it’s not due to apathy but cynicism about corrupt governments. However, Gen Z is different. Groups like Never Again MSD and Sunrise traveled around the US to get out the youth vote, working together with groups like United We Dream and Dream Defenders. Never Again organized major art projects in public buildings.⁹⁹

Sunrise reported contacting 3.5 million young voters and training secondary school youth and others to do outreach, with worn shoes and hoarse voices from time on the street, singing into existence our dreams for a better world than the one forced upon us, as Varshini Prakash emailed. Never Again’s over 300 chapters focused on college towns, texted and phoned young voters in key states, held Zoom rallies, created voter guides, and held Town Halls on Twitter. Student Action also turned out the youth vote.

Like Bill McKibben, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledges the importance of youth climate activists, who show us what bold leadership looks like. In 2020, he selected seven young climate leaders as members of his Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. The UN hosted its first Youth Climate Summit the previous year, where 14 children (including Catarina Lorenzo* from Brazil) filed a formal complaint to UNESCO based on violation of their country’s UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Some adults formed support groups such as Parents for Future Global, Our Kids Climate, Mothers Out Front, and Elders Climate Action.¹⁰⁰

Tactics

Our activists use time-tested civil disobedience, including leaving school like the 1963 Children’s March during the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama did—which some of the girls mentioned, or Sioux youth leadership opposing the South Dakota oil pipeline. This means some consult history to see what tactics work and find inspiration from youth activists of the past. They aim to influence governments to formulate climate plans in response to the climate crisis by using traditional tactics: demonstrating, visiting their offices to talk, writing, petitions, and using social media. They feel sometimes youth get more attention because they’re not the norm, like when seven-year-old Sophia Mathur* drew pictures and sent them to politicians. They visit rural schools to teach children about environmentalism, especially in Africa and India, and some schools around the world have environmental clubs.

Our activists are aware of the importance of images, such as planning demonstrations in a place that will look crowded with a lot of supporters, or placing empty shoes in front of government buildings to represent demonstrators who can’t be there, or bright lanterns during a march in Manila, capital of the Philippines. They use colorful art images like the Zero Hour clock almost to midnight, and flyers, posters, and placards. They’re aware of the power of words, including slogans that get attention like The earth is getting hotter than my crush, and The seas are rising and so are we. They emphasize the power of telling personal stories, using emotive words, and avoiding too many scientific words or facts. They aim to make organizing fun, including dance videos, poetry, music, singing, and contests like who can pick up the most trash.

In Ronnie Cummins’ Grassroots Uprising: A Call to Action on Food, Farming, Climate and a Green New Deal, he suggests tactics for the Regenerative Movement: emphasize the positive and be hopeful, speak to local issues, be intersectional rather than focus on a single issue such as carbon drawdown, focus on system change rather than partial reforms, set a personal example, and act locally but cultivate global vision--like the old slogan Think globally, act locally. In Full Spectrum Resistance, Aric McBay emphasizes the importance of planning a long-term strategy rather than just reacting to current events.

Canadian Frank Rotering identified two categories of tactics for changemakers in an essay titled The Youth Ecological Report: 1) persuasion and education about the need for a new economic system and 2) actions such as street demonstrations or providing financial support to progressive groups.¹⁰¹ He listed actions students can do: go on strike by leaving the classroom until goals are met, disrupt school events with banners, educate others on social media and the student newspaper, and unite with other progressive student organizations. Taiwan is a model of educating children about the environment through stories, including ones with Buddhist themes.¹⁰²

The Never Again students used these tactics and more, amassing thousands on the streets, meeting with individual power brokers, appearing on national media, speaking to people locally on a bus tour, and creating branding slogans and symbols. It’s as if their previous work in classes and producing media was preparing them to be such skilled changemakers. (For more information about the Parkland students, see the chapter on Activist Tactics in Resist: Goals and Tactics for Changemakers.)

Other social movements share their tactics online, such as: place traffic cones over police tear-gas canisters (this spread from Hong Kong), use leaf blowers to clear tear gas, carry treatments for eyes stung by tear gas (water is best), use hockey sticks and tennis rackets to return tear gas canisters to police, use laser pointers to disrupt surveillance cameras, spray tank windows with black paint, and use umbrellas as shields against tear gas and rubber bullets. A leftist group called Lausan was formed by Hong Kong democracy activists to share tactics globally online and in webinars.¹⁰³

Youth activists also use older tactics of face-to-face lobbying of politicians, marches, walk-outs--a form of civil disobedience, lie-ins, and die-ins. To influence politicians, they organize Get Out the Vote campaigns (as done by OneMillionOfUs, Future Coalition, and Never Again youth groups in the US). To influence voters, they organize phone bank parties and mail postcard messages. They organize local clubs, chapters, and hubs.

Media

Leah Green Girl Thomas views the explosion of art as revolutionary, as in posting on Tik-Tok with dancing, graphics, poetry, etc. Easily recognized images and symbols are useful tools to convey a message like images of the earth in distress. My photos of Miami student art show many images of the earth melting like an ice cream cone.¹⁰⁴ Other images are animals in distress such as polar bears marooned on ice floes, replicated by demonstrators wearing polar bear costumes in die-ins, or photos of koala bears with burnt paws from Australian bushfires. Cartoon heroines deliver a powerful message, like Luh Ayu Manik, a 14-year-old Indonesian heroine who transforms into an environmental protector superhero confronting illegal loggers and other environmental villains.¹⁰⁵

Colors brand movements such as green for environmentalists, white for suffragettes (worn by Congresswomen during State of the Union presidential addresses and Kamala Harris at her first event as Vice President-Elect), and by women demonstrators holding flowers in Belarus. They led demonstrations against a dictator who believes a woman’s place is in the kitchen. Black is worn by Hong Kong democracy advocates and yellow by the French Yellow Vests and US Wall of Moms in protests against police violence. Red symbolizes bloodshed as used by XR and in Chilean demonstrations. Russian protesters in 2021 waved gold toilet brushes to symbolize President Putin’s luxurious living. The Guy Fawkes mask worn by Anonymous protesters still shows up in demonstrations, as do national flags, and women with flowers in Algeria and Belarus. Cell phone lights are used in demonstrations, as after a military coup in Myanmar in 2021 (along with banging pots.)

Hand gestures are also widely used such as the 1960s peace sign and the threefingered defiance sign from The Hunger Games, used by Thai protesters against the Death Eaters, along with Harry Potter wands made of chopsticks, and inflatable yellow ducks, with leadership by girls like Benjamaporn Nivas, 15. Other gestures are the Black Lives Matter closed fist or the newer gesture, hands up don’t shoot. Yarn bombers (mostly women) take over spaces with their yarn installations, similar to the pink pussyhats worn in Women’s Marches against Trump. (See Memes to Movements by Xiao Mina.)

These symbols spread quickly and widely on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and so on. These grassroots communication avenues enable participatory politics, described in By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism by Henry Jenkins, et al. (www.byanymedia.org). This youth activism emphasizes storytelling, grassroots media, humor, fun, and popular culture references to increase political participation, imagine the future, and give youth a voice that earlier generations didn’t have. An example, Sunrise leader Varshini Prakash thinks their combination of protest organizing and electoral organizing is pretty unique. Youth are pushing to stretch the imagination of what is possible. Fandoms wield power, such as the charitable works of the Harry Potter Alliance fans or K-Pop fans on Tik-Tok. I would add the young activists’ recognition of the importance of emotion such as love or mental health. Grace (US) commented, I really love the phrase ‘Love in rage’ because we’re angry but we do have community and connection.

Since the Arab Spring and the occupations of squares in 2011, including Occupy Wall Street, youth activists have created a new public space, such as tent occupations. Manuel Castells’ Networks of Outrage and Hope describes these youth as forming a new political imaginary, creating collective identities with new models of collaboration--different from traditional political parties and labor unions. The goal is not to centralize control but get the message out through multiple media outlets.

TikTok incurred President Trump’s wrath after K-pop fans and their friends pranked his Tulsa rally on June 20, 2020, and pranked his Trump brand sales. The teens also drowned out anti-BLM hashtags with K-pop fan videos and raised money for organizations for racial equality. A TikTok influencer suggested swamping Trump’s social media and wrote, It’ll sting him that he got duped by Gen Z again. Many comments on TikTok praise their generation for changing the world and being powerful. Claudia Conway, teen daughter of Trump advisor Kelleyanne Conway, used TikTok to criticize Trump and her parents, speaking to over a million followers. Perhaps in response to the teens, Trump tried to ban TikTok in the US.

Other media tools are viral videos such as a spoof on the Australian government’s response to climate crisis or the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez narration of a future green society titled A Message from the Future.¹⁰⁶ The sequel is Years of Repair, produced by Naomi Klein. Humor is used: During Algerian demonstrations against President Bouteflika protesters brought houseplants to be watered when police threatened to fire water cannons. Suggestions for how to do outreach, including media, are offered by Rise for Climate, Power Shift, and TakingItGlobal.¹⁰⁷ Artivism ideas and templates are provided by Global Climate Strike.¹⁰⁸ Art was also used in Never Again’s 2020 tour of US cities to get out the youth vote, titled Our Power in the States ARTivism Series. Humor and playfulness are often used in recent activism, including images from superhero comics like Wonder Woman.

Music

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez Tonatiuh and his brother formed a conscious eco-hip-hop duo and produced an album called Generation Ryse, and he sings with his sister, Isa. The siblings write positive revolutionary rap songs like Be the Change to reach youth who might not listen to a talk and to build community. He said in 2020 that he finds that when on tour they can connect in a profound way with the explosion of activism around BLM and racial justice in their artful generation. Music and self-care are part of imagining the world we want. In a public lecture in my town, Chico, he said, A lot of kids don’t want to be activists. I don’t even want to be a damn activist, so the climate movement needs to be discussed in ways that just aren’t about activism or marching and should be intersectional to build cooperation between movements. He also advocates that we learn about the people who first lived on the land we occupy.

Lawsuits

A less common tactic is to sue governments, as when 21 children (including Martinez) sued the US government in Juliana v. US in 2015, based on the due process clause of the Constitution and the public trust doctrine. Our Children’s Trust does their legal work. In January 2020, a panel of three federal judges dismissed the lawsuit because they said it’s not up to the courts, but to Congress, to remediate the government’s climate policies. However, they agreed the government’s promotion of fossil fuels leads to a clear and present danger. The next step was to petition for the full court of 11 Ninth Circuit judges (en banc) to review the case. In Canada, 15 children, also staffed by Our Children’s Trust, sued the national government in 2019 for not