Youth Climate Activists You May Not Know

Five young climate activists whose names aren’t Greta.

Transcript

00:00I've taken this issue to my government, to the court in my country, but they didn't give

00:19me justice, so I wanted justice.

00:27It's our right to live, to have cleaner water, to live in a healthy environment, to have

00:34cleaner air, and it's our right, and they are just, they are violating our rights.

00:44I'm here because I want all the global leaders to do something to stop climate change, because

00:50if it's not going to be stopped, it's going to harm our future.

00:54So if we want to stop global warming, we have to do something now.

01:04This isn't just about polar bears and sea level rise.

01:07This is about humanity and life on earth being fundamentally changed forever.

01:20Young people are standing up all over the planet because we see that climate change

01:25is a human rights issue.

01:39The U.S. government has known about the climate crisis, has known about the contribution the

01:42fossil fuel industry has for over 50 years, and has failed not just to adequately act

01:48on our behalf, but has directly gone forth to perpetuate this crisis by subsidizing the

01:52fossil fuel industry, by opening up federal lands for exploitation and extraction.

01:57This is us experiencing the loss of our homes, of our communities due to permafrost melt

02:02in Alaska, or due to sea level rise in Florida, or due to the wildfires that I've experienced

02:06in my backyard in Colorado.

02:13I am lucky that I am still surviving, and I will...

02:31My parents had to sell off our land and livestock to sustain our lives, and when the money was

02:37over, it was a question of survival and death.

02:46I will tell you that we are a generation of scared people, but very ambitious, very united,

02:55very persistent, and very good at action.

02:59I sacrifice all my pocket money into a lecture cleanup activity I do to beat plastic pollution,

03:07and I need you to join me in this fight.

03:12Your beds might be comfortable right now, but not for long.

03:17You will soon feel the same heat we feel every day.

03:22Be rest assured that youth from the other side of the world fighting for a safe future

03:28for you and for us all, and are not about to give up yet.

03:58And we are the main guardians of the forest.

04:16We, indigenous peoples, depend on nature, which is our mother, and on our territory,

04:21because that is what keeps us alive.

04:23But we are being persecuted, threatened, and murdered.

04:27Last year alone, 164 Nature Defenders were killed, almost one every two days.

04:34We cannot accept that our bloodshed, not a single drop of blood, should be shed.

04:40We, the youth of Belgium, the youth of this planet, are standing here today to face those

04:52who destroy our future.

04:58We posted a video on social media, and it went viral, and then we did our first strike,

05:02and we were there with 3,000.

05:04So it was amazing.

05:11We're all on this world globe, on this earth together, so we really need to work together

05:17to try and fix our homes, because our home is on fire.

05:21So we really need to get the water and to get the fire out, and we need to do it together right now.