By now, you probably know who 16-year-old Greta Thunberg is. From the brilliant shade she threw at President Trump after he mocked her heartfelt speech at the U.N. Climate Action Summit, to leading the Global Climate Strike of 4 million people, it's clear she's a superstar climate activist who isn't going anywhere.
But she's not the only young person demanding action on the climate crisis.
Here are five young climate activists you should also follow.
1. Alexandria Villaseñor, 14 years old
As the founder of Earth Uprising, a global climate change movement, and one of the youngest organizers of the historic Sept. 20 Global Climate Strike, it's no secret that Alexandria Villaseñor is on the frontlines of the climate change movement.
Villaseñor was inspired to learn about climate change after visiting California in 2018 during the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in the state's history. The smoke traveled to where she was staying and triggered her asthma, which led her to research the wildfires and their causes, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"I kind of linked the California wildfires to climate change because climate change is fueling those fires," Villaseñor told Mashable earlier this year.
As Villaseñor explained at Mashable's Social Good Summit, she saw Thunberg's speech at the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Poland, where Thunberg berated world leaders for their inaction on climate change. Inspired by the Swedish teenager's FridaysForFuture movement, in which Thunberg protests climate change outside her country's parliament each week, Villaseñor also skips school on Fridays to strike in front of the U.N. headquarters in New York City,
Her work doesn't end there, though. Villaseñor and other young climate activists filed a legal complaint against five major countries for their contributions to climate change, which they say violates the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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2. Isra Hirsi, 16 years old
Daughter of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, Hirsi is the executive director and co-founder of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike, a group that organizes youth climate strikes around the country and advocates for climate policy like the Green New Deal.
Originally, Hirsi focused on combatting racial injustice. Vice reported that Hirsi shifted her mindset when she realized just how much climate change affects people of color in particular. Now Hirsi is an unstoppable force, bringing attention to the fact that climate change is also a race equity issue, and speaking out about the importance of diverse representation in climate change activism.
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3. Xiye Bastida, 17 years old
The Mexican-born activist is no stranger to climate change and its devastating effects. As Bastida explains on the Global Climate Strike website, she was forced to leave her hometown in Mexico after floods prevented her from attending school. And as the Huff Post reported, she and her family relocated to New York City where she learned about Hurricane Sandy and realized the climate change problem was global.
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Bastida now works as an activist, Fridays for the Future NYC organizer, and youth ambassador for Y on Earth, which provides communities with information on sustainability. She even helped organize the Sept. 20 U.S. Global Climate Strike in New York City, where Greta Thunberg spoke.
She keeps indigenous people's perspectives front and center in her work. As she told Huff Post, "People talk about the environmental movement as having started 60 years ago. But indigenous people have been taking care of the earth for thousands of years because that’s part of their culture. "
4. Vic Barrett, 20 years old
Barrett, an Afro-Latino climate justice activist, first experienced climate change's ramifications during Hurricane Sandy, when his home lost power and he could not go to school. He took this fight against climate change directly to the U.S. government. Through Juliana vs. United States, Barrett, along with 21 other young plaintiffs, are suing the government for its central role in encouraging the climate crisis by supporting an energy system that emits huge amounts of greenhouse gases.
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This battle is ongoing. In the meantime, Barrett centers black, brown, and indigenous people at the face of the climate crisis, he told Mashable in a Twitter direct message. To that end, Barrett continually uplifts marginalized voices in the climate conversation, encouraging diverse youth like himself to attend climate campaigns.
5. Katie Eder, 19 years old
Eder's commitment to addressing climate change cannot be understated — the Wisconsinite is taking a two year gap before starting college, so she can fight the climate crisis.
Eder is the executive director of the Future Coalition, a network she founded in 2018, consisting of over 40 youth-led organizing groups. She also created the U.S. Youth Climate Strike Coalition, which spurred hundreds of thousands of young people and adults to participate in the Sept. 20. Global Climate Strike in America.
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In all of her work, Eder's goal is to help young people make changes in their communities by sharing resources that have traditionally only been available to adults.
"We as a generation have gotten really activated because I think we realize that if we don't step up and do something, no one is going to," Eder said.
Topics Activism Social Good
