The Teen Activist Leading #EarthUprising

Environmental activist Alexandria Villaseñor is a leading figure in the U.S. climate change movement — and she's only 13-years-old. ️

Transcript

00:00I will stop my climate strike when world leaders meet my demands.

00:15So when I started my climate strike, I was alone on the streets.

00:19No one really paid attention when walking by.

00:21It slowly progressed where once I got more attention on social media and in the media,

00:27I started to get more visitors who would come by and strike with me.

00:31And so slowly, we're getting more students to strike in New York City,

00:35but the United States has a long way to go to mobilize for Fridays for Future.

00:53Change is coming whether they like it or not.

00:56Us youth are going to continue to strike school

00:58and put pressure on them to take climate action for as long as it takes.

01:11I just launched my new organization called Earth Uprising.

01:16We are an organization focused on climate education,

01:20getting climate change into schools and curriculums,

01:23and also giving students resources to take direct actions like striking.

01:27I get a lot of my inspiration from Extinction Rebellion

01:30because they are willing to do whatever it takes.

01:39I used to live in California.

01:41I moved to New York City recently.

01:43And last November, I was visiting family when the Paradise Fire broke out.

01:48And my hometown is only an hour away from the Paradise Fire.

01:52So we got a lot of the smoke and it reached hazardous air quality category.

01:57And so my family had to fly me back to New York City because I have asthma

02:01and that was an unsafe situation for me to be in.

02:04And so from that point, once I got back to New York City,

02:07I realized that climate change is affecting California by fueling all these wildfires.

02:13It is much harder to mobilize here in the United States

02:16because we have a much bigger climate denier community

02:20who always say climate change is a hoax and attack the student strikers.

02:27And so it's harder to mobilize here as well

02:29because we have a lot more laws in place that prevent us from protesting

02:33and go against our own laws.

02:35And so it's harder to mobilize here as well

02:37because we have a lot more laws in place that prevent us from protesting

02:42and go against our right to assemble.

02:44We are in a climate emergency.

02:46And so if we don't get necessary actions taken,

02:49then our future is going to be disastrous.