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I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is. ~Greta Thunberg 2019 World Economic Forum
Climate Warriors Unite A Call to Action
I
by Sandra Yeyati
n November 2018, one of the worst fires in California history overtook the town of Paradise and surrounding communities, killing 88 people and destroying more than 18,000 buildings. Alexandria Villaseñor, who was visiting family 100 miles away in her hometown of Davis, experienced the suffo-
speak soon after the California disaster to world leaders at COP 24, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland, empowered Villaseñor to take to the streets and protest. “Greta gave permission to students all around the world to make their voices heard,” she says of the Swedish teenager whose school
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. ~Solemi Hernandez cating effects of the smoke: Every breath was difficult for the asthmatic teen who is now 14 and lives in New York City. The fire changed Villaseñor’s life. “I was very upset, and I wanted to understand why these fires were happening,” she says. “I started to research climate change and wildfires, and began to see the scientific connection between the two.” Awakened by personal concerns and ignited by emerging role models, activists of all ages are learning how to become effective climate warriors. Watching Greta Thunberg 18
Greater Ann Arbor
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strike initiative—Fridays for Future—has become a worldwide phenomenon. On December 14, 2018, Villaseñor began her own Friday vigils outside the U.N.—sometimes alone, other times with friends she’s inspired to take action; she also helped organize the 2019 Global Climate Strike in New York City, attended by more than 300,000 people, and founded Earth Uprising, a nonprofit global youth movement. She’s one of 16 youngsters, along with Thunberg, that filed a legal complaint with the U.N. demanding that
