Jamie Margolin

What makes Jamie Margolin a Global Shaker?

17-year-old Jamie Margolin, from Seattle, is one of the highest-profile climate strikers in the US. She set up the youth climate action organisation Zero Hour in 2017, when she was just 15.

Backed by 25,000 Twitter followers on her personal account, and 34,000 for Zero Hour, she has organised climate rallies in Washington DC, lobbied state lawmakers, and was part of a group of young people to sue Governor Jay Inslee in the state of Washington over the state’s lack of action to curb climate change — on the basis of a stable climate being a human right.

Margolin also testified before a US House of Representatives Committee on a panel called “Voices Leading the Next Generation on the Global Climate Crisis,” alongside Greta Thunberg.

“People call my generation, ‘Generation Z’ as if we are the last generation. But we are not. We refuse to be the last letter in the alphabet,” she stated passionately in court.

Her guide to being a young activist, Youth To Power, will be published in June 2020.

Speaking to Ecovote, Margolin describes Zero Hour’s work as a “movement that centers the voices of diverse youth in the conversation around climate and environmental justice.”

“We are a youth-led movement creating entry points, training, and resources for new young activists and organizers (and adults who support our vision) wanting to take concrete action around climate change,” she says. “Together, we are a movement of unstoppable youth organizing to protect our rights and access to the natural resources and a clean, safe, and healthy environment that will ensure a livable future where we not just survive, but flourish.”

Margolin was part of Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21 class of 2018, and in the same year was named as one of People Magazine’s 25 Women Changing the World.

A profile in Vox writes that she is the first generation daughter of a Colombian immigrant. “As a queer, Jewish, Latina climate activist, Margolin is committed to advocating for the most vulnerable communities,” the story reads.

“When you uplift Latinx voices in the climate movement, she says you must also fight for Indigenous rights, including the biodiversity that those communities protect.” She notes that in Colombia hundreds of environmental activists have been murdered since 2016. Most recently, miners invaded a village in the state of Amapá and stabbed Indigenous leader Emrya Wajap to death.

Last updated: November 11, 2019

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