Nico, Author at Action for the Climate Emergency

Representation Matters: AAPI Creators You Should Follow

For too long the climate movement has not reflected the leadership of those who represent the communities most affected by environmental degradation. This is both a disservice to the movement as a whole and these people and communities. Representation matters. This AAPI Heritage Month, here are just a few AAPI climate creators that should be on everyone’s radars.

Asian and Pacific Islander Activists You Should Follow

These six climate activists are tired of the inexcusable lack of action to preserve a habitable planet for all. Here they speak about how their identities impact their climate work and what it means to them to be a climate activists from the Asian and Pacific Islander community.

ACE INTERVIEW: Talulah Juniper on Youth Voices in Politics

Talulah Juniper is a 17-year-old Junior at Sonoma Academy in Sonoma County. She started doing climate action work when she was in about 6th grade because it seemed to be the only logical step for her after hearing about the climate crisis and seeing the direct damage it had inflicted around them.

ACE INTERVIEW: Nithya Mooli on Combating Climate Misinformation

Nithya Mooli is a 16-years-old climate advocate based in Pennsylvania. She is currently in her third year at Great Valley High School where she is a member of both the Girl Up organization and ACE. Mooli describes Girl Up as “an amazing feminist activist club” at Great Valley High school and ACE as “the climate justice organization that we all love.” She is particularly interested in combating climate misinformation within the larger climate action movement. This is her story.

ACE INTERVIEW: Bobby Zimmerman on Addressing Community Needs through Community Action

Bobby Zimmerman is a 16-year-old student activist located in Malvern, Pennsylvania (Southeastern PA). He works with his schools’ Environmental Enthusiasts club to clean up sites in their community which are heavily affected by pollution, fundraise for local organizations, like The Philadelphia Environmental Justice Initiative and national initiatives like Tree-Plenish, and educate his peers on pressing environmental issues. He is passionate about the power of local community action and the ways in which, together through collective action, we can all create profound change, starting at the grassroots level and growing to the national and international stage.

Representation Matters: Women Creators to Follow

Representation matters. There is something so insatiably empowering in seeing people who have faced the same kinds of adversity that you have faced in life overcome their hardship and achieve success nevertheless. It is inspiring, comforting, and necessary to see and know these people because it gives us reassurance in times of doubt that we too can achieve success despite the adversities that we each face. Moreover, representation builds community and nothing is more powerful than what we can do when we join forces.

ACE INTERVIEW: Charlotte Stuart-Tilley on Climate Change and Consumption

Charlotte Stuart-Tilley (they/them and she/her) is a GenCLEO strategist with the CLEO Institute, working with fellow youth to make change in their communities. They are in their junior year of high school and hope to major in geology or environmental sciences when they reach college. Charlotte is currently based on Mvskoke-Creek land, in Tallahassee, Florida. Stuart-Tilley is particularly interested in focusing their work within the broader climate movement on the ways in which consumption culture contributes to the climate emergency.

Women’s History Month: Youth Activists You Should Know

By many social, economic, and political measures, women around the world are disproportionately impacted by the climate emergency. They are also at the forefront of the movement to engage in urgent climate action and lead the world into a new era of sustainability. It is imperative we all think critically about how to center the women in our circles in all capacities, but especially in regards to climate leadership. Highlighted below are just a few youth women activists paving the way for a new generation of climate and community defenders.

ACE INTERVIEW: Pujitha Masireddy on Grassroots Organizing

Pujitha Masireddy is an 18-year-old advocate located in Southeastern PA. She is involved in prison abolition and climate justice organizing. In terms of environmental justice, she works closely with an organization in Chester known as Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL). She is passionate about grassroots organizing and the power that collective action can have on combating the climate crisis.

ACE INTERVIEW: Issac Smith on the Necessity of Local Youth Climate Action

ssac Smith is a former ACE fellow and now a member of the Youth Advisory Board, and a third-year student at North Carolina State University. Since joining the fellowship in 2018, Issac has worked on campaigns to encourage voter registration, end the Duke monopoly, and shut down the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.