Climate change is the biggest threat facing our world’s future generations, which I’m sure you have seen in the news. They talk about how dire of a state our planet is in and the threat we are facing.
Simultaneously, around the world, there are many inspiring people who are aiming to help tackle our current climate crisis. Not only do they aim to do this themselves, but they mobilise hundreds of thousands of us to demand greater action on climate change.
They do this because the action of the current government and world leaders is not enough to help our planet. Shockingly, some politicians and global leaders have thrown their hands up and argued that it’s too late. Or, in some cases, simply do not believe in climate change or believe that the threat posed is that significant.
These activists are protesting, holding sit-ins and even striking from school and taking to the streets to campaign for a real change in the attitude towards our planet.
Shockingly, three years have already passed since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that the goal of limiting global warming to the 1.5-degree Celsius mark by the end of the century —”would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society to stave off the worst impacts of climate change’. Check out some of the highlighted impacts we are facing below:
Worried about climate change, why not check out our eco-friendly travel blog to pick up habits whilst travelling that can help our planet on a singular level.
Five Future Impacts (as stated in the Paris Agreement Report)
- Temperatures will reach 1.5C above 1850-1900 levels by 2040 under all emissions scenarios
- The Arctic is likely to be practically ice-free in September at least once before 2050 in all scenarios assessed
- There will be an increasing occurrence of some extreme events “unprecedented in the historical record” even at warming of 1.5C
- Extreme sea level events that occurred once a century in the recent past are projected to occur at least annually at more than half of tidal gauge locations by 2100
- There will be likely increases in fire weather in many regions
(Source:BBC)
We are going to highlight the profiles of some of our favourite climate activists to follow on instagram below. What are you waiting for? Get scrolling and follow some of these guys, and hopefully you will feel as inspired as us by keeping up with their journeys’ to help our planet.
Archana Soreng
Archana belongs to the indigenous Kharia Tribe from Bihabandh Village of Rajgangpur in Sundergarh, India. Not only is she a member of the UN Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, but she also works as a research officer at Vasundhara Odisha. This is an action research and policy advocacy organisation in Bhubaneswar, who work on natural resource governance, tribal rights, and climate justice. In addition to her previous role as ex-president of Tata Institute of Social Sciences Student’s Union 2017- 2018, she has clearly been busy getting to work on climate justice.
What’s inspiring about Archana is that she constantly champions the role of Indigenous people and practices in climate change. She tirelessly works to get Indigenous people a seat at India’s climate decision making tables.
Pattie Gonia
Pattie Gonia is a queer environmentalist who goes by they/she/he. They pride themselves in building a community for queer people and allies for our planet. He follows the philsopsy of ‘making the outdoors gay again’.
The mastermind behind this iconic environmental drag queen is Wyn Wiley, who comes from a small town in Nebraska. Funnily enough, you may have realised that her name ‘Pattie Gonia’ is a play on words for the massive outdoor wear brand – Patagonia. Not only do they advocate for the planet, but they also advocate for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. They do this whilst collaborating with huge brands such as Airbnb and NOLS, to actually benefit the environment and the queer community. They have even reached the likes of British Vogue!
Vanessa Nakate
Vannessa is an inspiring 24 year old from Kampala, Uganda. She is a member of the Fridays For Future movement, which is a youth organised movement that began in August 2018. This was organised after Greta Thunberg and other young activists sat in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis and the Paris agreement.
Not only that, but Vannesa is the founder of the Rise Up Climate Movement, which shines a spotlight on the work of activists in Africa. She is also the founder of @amillionactiviststories, which is a brilliant platform that serves as a vessel to project stories of other climate activists on Instagram.
Xiye Bastida
Xiye is a 19 year old Mexican-Chilean climate justice activist and member of the indigenous Mexican Otomi-Toltec nation, who are based in New York. She juggles being a student of UPENN, as well as being one of the main lead organisers for the Fridays for Future New York City. She has been a leading voice for indigenous and immigrant visibility in climate activism.
Xiye also co-founds Re-Earth, which is a nonprofit organization currently run entirely by volunteers. Their mission is ‘to break the echo chamber and bring climate action to the masses, by hosting informational webinars and writing toolkits’. Whilst doing so, they also aim to recognise their goal of striving to provide a wide range of avenues for people to participate in the climate movement, who would otherwise be unable, due to restraints such as financial and physical restrictions.
Vic Barrett
Vic Barrett is a 22 yr old Honduran-American climate activist and college student from White Plains, New York. He is also a fellow with the Alliance for Climate Education, and attended the COP 21 UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris.
Vic is one of 21 youth activists suing the American government to take action on climate change which is famously known as the Juliana Vs. United States case. He cares deeply about advocating for climate change, especially regarding the ways climate change affects, and will continue to affect young people like him.
For his young age, Vic has achieved many triumphs; he has organized his peers in local frontline climate campaigns, met with the Minister of Environment and Energy for the Maldives, and he has even spoken at the United Nations headquarters in New York City about achieving sustainable development goals!
Luisa Neubauer
Meet 25 yr old Luisa Naubauer, who hails from Hamburg, Germany. She is often described as the ‘German Greta’, as she is one of the main organisers of the Fridays for Future movement in Germany, which organised the school strikes prior to the pandemic.
The reason why she feels so passionate about advocating for the planet, is the impact it will have on her generation. She has stated that she feels like her generation is “losing our safe space, our ecosystems, our species, and the sentiment that we could grow up on a safe planet”. This is a true statement because it is feared that 1.2 billion people could be displaced by 2050 due to climate change.
Greta Thunberg
Greta is arguably the most famous of the young climate activists included in this article. Greta is an 18 year old Swedish environmental activist.
The young climate activist has made many headlines over the last five years. It’s crazy to think that she is internationally acclaimed, and even garnered attention from the likes of former president Donald Trump, when all this started due to Greta skipping school in protest. As climate change is among the biggest threats for the younger generation, Greta became famous for challenging world leaders on their lack of climate change action. She has a long list of incredible accomplishments for her age. She has already been declared Time magazine’s person of the year in 2019, had three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, and she has even got her own BBC documentary called ‘A Year to Change the World’, working alongside legendary environmentalist activist Sir. David Attenborough.
Most impressively, Greta has created what is known as the ‘Greta Thunberg effect’. What originally started as a one-person protest outside Swedish parliament, quickly became a worldwide phenomenon that influenced millions of young people alike to do the same. Even adults were swarming the streets globally to demand action on climate change!
Bella Lack
Bella Lack is an 18 year old climate activist who has racked up quite the impressive CV for her age. She is a youth ambassador for an impressive number of organisations, such as the Born Free Foundation and Reserva. She has even produced her own documentary about the dangers of deforestation connected to palm oil production. From as young as 15 years old, she has been speaking at protests and multiple conferences attended by world leaders and influential decision makers.
Wildy enough, Bella’s journey began at just 11yrs old, when she had found out about the effects and devastation that palm oil causes, and how it was endangering the livelihood of the Orangutan. She started campaigning and fundraising, which ultimately led meto her creation of a Twitter account. Now, with over 140,000 followers on Twitter alone, it’s easy to see why she is an inspiring example of being the voice of reason, and resonating with mass audiences to highlight the importance of our climate.
Varshini Prakash
Varshini is an Indian American climate activist who is unstoppably passionate about the Green New Deal, having released a book explaining it in detail.
Not only that, but she is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Sunrise, a movement of young people working to stop climate change and advocating for political action on climate change. She was responsible for organising the group to a protest sit-in, which occupied the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s office. They were asking that a congressional task force was to be established to address climate change.
She even took on the giant fossil fuel industry by pushing her university (UMASS) to stop investing in coal, oil, and gas. She led the campaign to victory after a two-week long escalation involving thousands of students, alumni, and faculty. It’s no wonder she was named on the 2019 Time 100 Next list.
Naelyn Pike
Naelyn is a 19 year old native from the San Carlos Apache Tribe, she has been inspired by and followed in the footsteps of her grandfather and mother, who are activists like her. Her family founded Apache Stronghold, which is an organisation dedicated to defending holy sites, and freedom of religion for Indigenous communities who have been persecuted for generations.
She’s passionate about youth taking a stance on problems the world is currently facing. She speaks at gatherings such as schools and conferences around the world to bring to light the stolen rights of her people, whilst aiming to inspire other youth to do the same and get involved. She advocates for young people to join the fight against racial and environmental injustices. When she’s not speaking and protesting, Naelyn has been working with a group to save the sacred site, Oak Flat, from being sold to a foreign mining corporation.
Anita Okunde
Okunde is a 17 year old Manchester based activist, public speaker, youth commissioner for the Well-being of Future Generations Bill, and Girl Up Manchester founder and President, all whilst studying for her A-Levels! She’s also part of the UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN) – the grassroots youth climate strikes organisers in the UK. If that wasn’t enough, Anita is also a part of the Fridays for Future movement and aims to support digital climate actions during the global pandemic.
For the young age of 17, we think it’s incredible that she has been listed top 100 environmentalists by Forbes! She has even featured on Green Pieces young activist of colour to be following list!
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our blog and have had a good browse at these inspiring people. Please do go on to support a few of them and maybe join in their inspirational movements!
That’s all for now, to keep up with us on our forestation journey be sure to follow our Instagram and subscribe to our monthly newsletter for updates.
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