13 year old Haven Coleman is the co-founder of US climate strike and one of the most recognisable face in the US enviromental youth movement.
She tells Teen Vogue that a fifth grade lesson about deforestation — particularly its impact on sloths — was the main motivator for her dive into environmental activism and her commitment to ending climate change.
“I was so mad that we were making the world so sick and hurting so many people, killing so many people. I knew that it was not about saving the sloths, it was about saving all the organisms that live on it,” Coleman told the site. “I started educating myself, then my parents, then the kids at different schools by doing presentations; then I started talking to politicians, speaking at rallies and events. I was doing everything I could do.”
From ten years old she participated in climate work. It was only a matter of time before she set up her own climate-focused organisation: Zero Hour Denver.
In a recent Twitter thread, she spelled out exactly why she’s fighting for change, adding encouraging messages such as “Joy is an act of resistance. We can’t be serious all the time or we go somewhere so dark we have no energy to continue the fight.”
In an interview with Seventh Generation, Coleman stressed her support for Denver’s pledge to have 100% clean energy in the city by 2030, describing it as “a great step into the future.”
“Millions of people will be displaced, millions will starve, billions of plants, animals, and organisms will go extinct,” she added to Teen Vogue. “So much pain and suffering for all the things living on this earth — all made by us. This is a fight that will determine life and death for so many; this is a fight that is worth fighting for.”
“Don’t shame the people, fight the system.”
Tags: Activism, Climate crisis, School Strike, USA
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