The Life of Climate Activist Jamie Margolin

Brut America

She’s only 18 and she has already sued the state of Washington for their inaction against climate change, and rallied thousands of young people during protests.   Brut nature met climate activist Jamie Margolin at the C40 Cities summit.

Transcript

00:00You have to use the seats that you have now because by the time I get there it's going

00:27to be way too late.

00:57I was working as a climate justice activist in my community, but it wasn't until 2017

01:21when there were these hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, hurricane, and then massive

01:26wildfires in California and in Canada, and the smoke blew over my city of Seattle and

01:31coated us in this thick layer of smog, and that kind of thing had never happened before.

01:35Those kind of events all happening at the same time really made me understand the severity

01:40of the climate crisis and how it was closer to home than I thought.

02:08I posted on my social media, we need a massive climate march, and we need to have kids marching

02:15for climate action.

02:28A few other kids replied and said, we're with you, let's do this, and so then it just kind

02:33of grew from there.

03:33You're here spending a few moments with me, but that is nothing compared to the hours

03:56that members of Congress have spent with lobbyists from corporations that make billions of dollars

04:01off of the destruction of my generation's future.

04:04It's physically impossible for us to just keep consuming on an exponential level on

04:10the earth to be able to sustain that, and so we have to break that cycle.

04:14There does need to be some level of growth and comfort and having people live normally,

04:23but that normal doesn't have to be constantly striving to just have the big mansions and

04:29the jets and all of the things that we're taught to value.

04:31I feel like my generation is ready to say that way of life is toxic and unnecessary

04:35and the people who live that way aren't even actually happy.

04:59It's a just and equitable way to get down to the current carbon limit that we need to

05:06get down to in order to save a life on earth, but doing that in a way that doesn't leave

05:10communities that are feeling the worst impacts of the climate crisis behind.

05:14All leaders have two choices.

05:16One, join us, adopt a Green New Deal in your community or your constituency, and take action

05:22to save your children's futures, or you have a second option.

05:28Check it out.

05:58By 2030, we will have known if we have created a political climate that will have allowed

06:22us to salvage life on earth.

06:23To give you an idea of how soon 2030 is, by then I still won't be old enough to run

06:29for the American presidency.

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