When Calico Tria was returning home from her hula lesson on August 8, her father called. The apartment in Lahaina was gone, he said, and he was running for his life.
He was trying to escape America’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century, an inferno in Hawaii fanned by the powerful winds of a distant hurricane and barely held back by the state’s weak defenses against natural disasters.
Her father survived. But for Calico, 13, the devastation of the past week has only reinforced her commitment to a cause that is coming to define her generation.
“Climate change has caught fire a lot,” she said. “How many natural disasters must occur before adults realize their urgency?”
Like a growing number of young people, Calico is involved in efforts to raise awareness about global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, last year, she and 13 other young adults, ages 9 to 18, sued their home state, Hawaii, over their use of fossil fuels.
With active lawsuits in five states, TikTok videos that mix humor and anger, and marches in the streets, it’s a movement that seeks to shape politics, influence elections, and shift a narrative that its proponents often say emphasizes climate disasters rather than the need to make The planet is healthier and cleaner.
Young climate activists in the United States have not had the same impact as their counterparts in Europe, where Greta Thunberg galvanized an entire generation. But during a summer of record high temperatures, choking wildfire smoke and now a storm battering Los Angeles, American teens and young adults concerned about the planet are being taken increasingly seriously.
“We’re seeing what’s happening with climate change, and how it affects everything else,” said Elise Joshi, 21, executive director of Gen-Z for Change, an organization she joined when she was in college. “We go through a mixture of anger and fear, and finally channel it into hope in the form of teamwork.”
Growing youth frustration with the Biden administration’s climate agenda is a key factor in next year’s presidential race. They are particularly angry that President Biden, who pledged “no more digging on federal lands, during his campaign, has failed to deliver on that promise.”
Young people are helping to organize a climate march in New York next month, during the United Nations General Assembly. And their power is being felt even in deep red states like Montana, where a judge on Monday handed the movement its biggest victory yet, ruling in favor of 16 young men suing the state over its support of the fossil fuel industry.
In this case, a drawn-out battle resulted in an upset victory that means, at least for the time being, the country must consider potential climate damage when approving energy projects.
“The fact that children are taking this action is unbelievable,” said Badge Boss, 15, one of the plaintiffs in the Montana case. “But sadly, he should have come to us. We are the last resort.”
This mixture of pride and indignation is not uncommon among young climate activists. Many are energized by what they see as a fight for their lives, but they also resent that adults have not seriously confronted a problem that has been well understood for decades now.
“You think I really want to be in a situation saying, like, ‘I don’t have a future,’” said Messina DeGrazia Roberts, 16, another plaintiff in the Hawaii case who lives on Oahu. “Being 16 and just wanting to live my life and to hang out with my friends and eat good food, I don’t want to do that. And yet I am, because I care about this world. I care about the earth and I care about my family. I care about my future children.”
In the case of Hawaii, it was young He filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Transportation about its use of fossil fuels, arguing that it violates their “right to a clean and healthy environment,” a right enshrined in State constitution. The state has filed two petitions to dismiss the case, but this month a judge ruled Set a trial date for next year.
A nonprofit legal organization called Our Children’s Fund is behind the Montana and Hawaii cases, as well as active litigation in three other states. A similar case she brought in a federal court, Juliana v. United States, was dismissed by an appeals court in 2000, days before she was due to go to trial. But in June, a different judge ruled that the case could be resolved again Proceed to trial.
Vic Barrett, 24, a Bronx resident, is one of the plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States and became interested in climate change a decade ago after learning about it at an after-school program shortly after Hurricane Sandy inflicted widespread damage in the Northeast.
“I’m beginning to understand how disproportionately low-income, black and brown people in New York were affected by Hurricane Sandy,” he said. “People like me are at the forefront of the climate crisis.”
“It is absurd that while the Biden administration celebrates the one-year anniversary of the IRA this year, it actively opposes Juliana and expands exploration on federal lands,” said Zanaji Artis, 23, who quit his job at Goldman Sachs. spending more time working at Zero Hour, a climate nonprofit organization he co-founded while in high school.
Mr. Artis, who helped organize a Youth Climate March in 2018, is still sending people out onto the streets. Zero Hour is now recruiting people for the March to End Fossil Fuels, which will take place in New York on September 17th.
Among the frustrations of Mr. Artis and his team is management’s decision to approve Project Willow, a massive drilling project in Alaska. Early this year, TikTok erupted with calls for the White House to deny approvals for the project, pushing the issue into the mainstream and giving thousands of young people common cause. Content creators juxtaposed images of Mr. Biden with collapsing glaciers, recorded tearful selfie videos and smashed songs from “Encanto” with slideshows of cute animals.
Their efforts failed. In March, the administration approved Willow, which is set to produce crude oil for another 30 years. But the #StopWillow campaign, which has more than 500 million views on TikTok, has shown that passionate youth can shape the national debate.
“It was still a win,” said Ms. Joshi, who posted the first #StopWillow video on TikTok. “Millions of people have been talking about why a project in remote Alaska is so important to our health,” she said. “This base building will be used for future campaigns.”
Across the movement, there is an effort to combat “climate nihilism,” the murderous acceptance that nothing can stop runaway global warming. That sentiment, captured in the phrase “OK Doomer,” contributes to the slow pace of progression, they contend.
Spinning the fear and frustration many young people feel into positive action is a major goal of Wanjiku Gatheru, 24, who founded an organization called Black Girl Environmentalist that works to get more young people of color into the movement.
“Fear does not drive people towards sustainable action,” said Ms Gatheru. “Providing solutions in the midst of a problem discussion helps attract people.”
Enthusiasm for the climate movement is spreading in surprising ways. A group of techno-optimistic youths who avoid doom have adopted the moniker “Decarb Bros.” And among Republicans, millennials and members of Generation Z are more likely than older adults to believe that humans are warming the planet and support efforts to reduce emissions, According to the Pew Research Center. Overall, about 62 percent of young voters support phasing out fossil fuels entirely, according to Pew.
On the island of Maui, Calico and her family have been trying to recover from the second natural disaster in five years. In 2018, flash floods from Hurricane Olivia destroyed their home on the north end of the island. Now, fire.
“We really need the adults to wake up,” she said. “If we don’t fix this now, there will be no future.”