4 Trailblazing Young Climate Change Activists to Watch out For

Greta Thunberg has been making the headlines recently for her work on striking, bringing awareness to climate change, and her impassioned speech in front of world leaders at the World Economic Forum. Of particular interest in the discussions have been how young she is. You’ll be happy to know that she’s not the only young activist working hard to demand action on the climate crisis. Read on to find out more about 4 other young climate change activists who are fighting for a better, cleaner future.

1. Autumn Peltier

16 year old Indigenous activist Autumn Peltier comes from Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island in northern Ontario, and has been working for eight long years by pressuring politicians to take a more serious look at climate change.

Her work has a focus on advocating for clean drinking water for Indigenous communities, which is unfortunately still not a guarantee for many First Nations across Canada. She even serves as the chief water commissioner for the Anishinabek Nation, an advocacy group representing 40 First Nations across the province of Ontario. She is also a member of the North American Association for Environmental Education. Here are just a couple more of her accomplishments:

• Keynote speaker for the UN
• Honoured by Ontario Lieutenant Governor with the Sovereign's Medal
• Recognized and honoured as an Ontario Junior Citizen
• WE Day Award Winner for Youth in Action

2. Isra Hirsi

You might be familiar with Isra’s mom, Ilhan Omar, who has been the US Representative for Minnesota since 2019. Isra deserves credit in her own right, however, for the incredible climate advocacy work she’s done. Also 16 years old, Isra is the co-executive of the US Youth Climate Strike, the organization leading student climate strikes across the country. She joined after hearing about the water crisis in Flint, and the pipelines being built in her own hometown, Minnesota. Her focus has now turned to marginalized communities who have been disproportionately affected by climate change. She even attended the UN Youth Climate Summit in 2019.

3. Mari Copeny aka Little Miss Flint

This past Earth Day, Mari Copeny (“Little Miss Flint”) was honoured by the Cartoon Network when they designed a PowerPuff girl inspired by her - pretty sweet! At only 8 years old, Mari wrote a letter to Barack Obama (who was president at the time) urging him to take action on the Flint water crisis. Since then, she has:

• Worked with the People's Climate March to push awareness on the lack of clean drinking water in communities across America,
• Started #WednesdaysForWater to raise awareness for those communities on social media,
• And is working with Hydroviv, a water filtration company, to bring safe drinking water to communities suffering through lead crises!

4. Meghna Shankar

The 19 year old University of Washington student found time in between studying towards her degree in physics and computer science to organize Fridays for Future Seattle, and serve as amember of Sunrise University of Washington. Her interest in climate change activism started when she read Al Gore’s book Our Choice, and was further inspired by Greta Thunbeg’s strike on march 15, 2019. She organized a protest, where hundreds of students spoke to their mayor and city council president.

Her organization has been working tirelessly during the pandemic as well - they’ve been doing everything from Twitter storms to informational graphics.

Looking the climate crisis in the eye and working towards curbing our impacts can be a lonely, daunting experience. However, knowing that our future is in the hands of these bright, bold, passionate individuals who are working from such young ages to bring equity and liberty to all makes the fight feel a lot less intimidating.

Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram at @climatechagesimplified. Interested in some books on climate change? Check out some resources here.