Young Activists

Greta Thunberg

“I want you to act as if the house is on fire. Because it is.”

In 2018, at age 15, Greta Thunberg skipped school to sit in front of the British parliament, pressuring them to meet carbon emission targets. By December, more than 20,000 students in countries all around the world had joined her cause. Only a year later, she was asked to come to the UN climate conference in New York to talk about climate issues. Sure, most others would take a plane, but Thunberg, citing concerns with the environmental impact of plan travel, chose to travel by yacht to the conference, which ended up being a 15-day journey. Once there, she delivered her most famous speech, “How Dare You,” in which she lambasted the empty words of world leaders and their lack of action against climate change are a disgrace.

As a result of being an activist at such a young age, Thunberg’s views and ideas are often overlooked and ignored because she is “too young.” Former President Trump, for example, once told her to “watch an old fashioned movie with a friend” and to “work on her anger management issue.” However, there are some people who decided to listen to Thunberg and have fully supported and embraced her actions. Some of her supporters include the Pope, who told Thunberg to keep up her good work, and fellow famous youth activist Malala, who tweeted that Thunberg was “the only friend I’d skip school for.”

In 2019, she was named Time’s Person of the Year, and even received three consecutive Novel prizes, the most recent being in 2021. However, Thunberg’s goal is not fame or money; rather, she just wants adults to start to listen to the voices of the children of the world that up until now have been mostly ignored. Not only is she protesting, but she's also making changes to her own lifestyle in order to set an example for others. She is currently practicing a vegan diet and stopped flying, encouraging others to do the same. Now 18, Greta continues to speak out and encourage people to start acting against climate change, and she will not stop until her voice is heard and the issue is solved.

Haaziq Kazi

“What one should realise about marine life dying from plastic is not the number of deaths, [but] rather the process which leads to their death[s]."

In 2016, a small school in India launched a competition in which students were encouraged to invent something to solve a problem that they were passionate about. What the school did not know was that 12-year-old Haaziq Kazi was going to revolutionize the way we clean the oceans.

One day while washing his hands, the young boy noticed how the water flowed into the sinkhole. While most of us might not think much of that, that sparked a huge idea in Haaziq. He realised that if we used the same process to collect trash from our oceans, the process would be quicker and more efficient, and would not hurt any wildlife. And with that simple idea, he created ERVIS. ERVIS is a revolutionary ocean-clearing ship that is able to clean the trash that floats at the top of the water, analyze it, and then track down where it is coming from in order to stop the source from releasing more. The ship does this by using its four saucers, which cover the surface of the water, to create a sort of whirlpool that will drag all the waste into them. Depending on the size of the trash (bottles, microplastics, bottle caps, etc), they get pulled into their appropriate saucer.

Not only that, but the boat itself is made out of almost completely recyclable materials in an effort to preserve the environment, and it also works mostly with renewable gas. As if that was not enough, Kazi also created a receptive global platform where students can share their innovative ideas with the world. With his invention and the ERVIS Foundation that he created, Kazi continues to inspire people with his message that “with determination and an idea, anyone can change the world."

Melati and Isabel Wijsen

“No matter how old you are or where you come from, you can always lead by example. Don't wait for permission. Don't wait until you're older for someone to make that path for you. Make your own path-and go for it.”

Melati and Isabel were 10 and 12 years old when they realised the danger that plastic bags posed for animals in the ocean. Their island, Bali, is one of the major contributors to plastic pollution in the ocean. The pollution had deteriorated to the point that the country actually had a season where no one went into the water because it was filled with plastic bags and other waste materials. Thankfully for Bali, the two sisters were there. Melati and Isabel came home one day after school and realised that if no one else is going to stand up, they should. And with that thought in mind, they created “Bye Bye Plastic Bags,” an organization whose goal is to eliminate all plastic bags in Bali.

After presenting a TedTalk in London and making an appearance at the United Nations, the sisters decided that it was still not enough and started a petition to eliminate these harmful plastic bags. Over 100,000 people had signed it, and when the governor did not respond, the girls went on a hunger strike, pressuring the government to react. Only 24 hours later, the police took the two girls to the governor, who signed a memorandum of understanding for Bali to say no to plastic bags.

As adults often say, children are the future. And in the past few years, children have started to step up. You, too, can be part of this change. You don't have to be some big leader if you don't want to. Join a beach cleanup or stop using single-use plastics- anything you can do will make a difference. It doesn't have to be something big, because if everyone does their part, we can make a big change in the world together. All of these brave and inspiring children just go to show that anyone can make a difference, no matter their age, sex, race, or ethnicity. It is all about determination, dreams, and courage, and when you have those, you are unstoppable.