8 Young Environmentalists Who Are Working to Save the Earth
Climate change, wildlife conservation, and other big picture issues facing our planet may seem much bigger than any of us, but even if you haven’t even graduated college yet, you can make a tremendous difference. These eight young people may have started their activism on a small scale, but their actions have since made such a strong impact that they could very well have a hand in saving the fate of our beloved planet. In honor of Earth Day, we rounded up some of the most inspiring teens from around the country — check it out.
Courtesy of Allison Boyer1/14Allison Boyer, 18, Chico California
What started as a 7-year-old’s desire to do something about the palm oil crisis plaguing orangutan habitats has turned into a fully scalable nonprofit called Purses for Primates that has raised over $27,000, to protect orangutans and their shrinking habitat. Allison is also a Barron Prize winner, and collects gently-used handbags from across the U.S., resells them at fundraising events, and donates 100% of the proceeds to Orangutan Outreach, a New York City-based conservation group.
She is a founding member of the group’s extensive children’s program, Forest School 101, and serves as the program’s current ambassador. “Orangutans have such an intelligent mind. They teach each other and grow together,” she tells Teen Vogue. “I have and always will feel personally responsible to try my best to rally as many people as I can to help save these creatures.” She attributes much of her success, though, to her BFF, Natalie Katsikas, who stuck by her side over the past 11 years while other friends faded away or called her efforts “dorky.”
Courtesy of Allison Boyer2/14She and Katsikas traveled to North Korea for a business competition called Sage Global, where they placed 2nd in the world in the social enterprise business category, and were then featured on Nickelodeon's The Halo Effect, receiving $10,000 as a surprise at the end of the episode. She, too, has received the Barron Prize.
Courtesy of Annabel Caren Clark3/14Annabel Caren Clark, 18, Dallas, Texas
Annabel’s activism started small: she rallied her high school classmates to plant milkweed around the school for monarch butterflies in the peak of their migration season. After her peers expressed a desire to learn more about environmental conservation and a lack of knowledge about how to take action, she looked for ways to get involved and found World Wildlife Fund’s Panda Ambassador program, for which she was chosen to serve as a ‘super activist’ working directly with WWF to lead and advocate on conservation issues in the U.S. and around the world. From there, Annabel took her passion directly to her classmates, creating her school’s very own World Wildlife Fund Club, where she continued researching and preparing presentations on species such as snow leopards, elephants, and ocean life. It’s now one of the most popular student groups at the school, and she has since created a program for middle schoolers as well.
Courtesy of Annabel Caren Clark4/14The initiative she took to create a movement where there once was none earned her the Hendrix College Book Award for artistic creativity, global awareness, professional and leadership development, service to the world, and research. “There was so much potential for change, but no one was doing anything about it in my community. Environmental action is not just for a specific kind of person. To create a diverse and well-represented club, I try to incorporate aspects of art, biology, and politics into our projects,” she tells Teen Vogue, adding that people “don’t have to fit any stereotype” to be environmentalist. Her advice for teens everywhere is to start by committing to a few simple habits, such as signing online petitions and educating themselves on ways to help the environment, like reading environmental agencies’ newsletters and websites.
“Keep up with current events regarding environmental policy, and try hosting events and fundraisers, starting an email chain.”
Courtesy of Delaney Anne Reynolds5/14Delaney Anne Reynolds, 17, Miami, Florida
Delaney grew up surrounded by water, splitting her time between her modern city and a remote, 1,000-acre island that housed just 43 solar-powered homes. In third grade, her class collectively wrote a book, Laws of the Universe, that inspired her to learn more about the environment she came to love so much. She continued to research issues like rising sea levels and gradually learned about climate change and the significant threat that rising oceans pose to South Florida, and began to interview local political leaders, climate scientists, business owners, and others being impacted by sea rise or working on solutions to help them. Our planet's warming climate, she says, is the most important challenge that our generation will ever face.
Courtesy of Delaney Anne Reynolds6/14“In middle school I participated in building a solar power system at my school that now powers the athletic complex, half of the administrative office and library building, and includes a solar power charging station, a device that I personally conceived to allow students to charge their digital devices and, thus, connects them to solar power from the sun,” she tells Teen Vogue. Now, she’s the author of several children’s books on environmental topics, founder of The Sink or Swim Project, an educational and political advocacy organization, and serves as a public speaker and advocate. “South Florida is a community that has been labeled America's 'ground zero' in the global warming war given the risks we face from sea level rise.” She’s received the National Geographic Society’s Inaugural Teen Service Award, The George Eastman Young Leader’s Scholarship from the University of Rochester, an induction into CLEO Institute’s Leadership Council, and more. And, young people all over the world have contacted her to ask for help within their own communities, from India to Argentina and Italy.
Courtesy of Delaney Anne Reynolds7/14She’s shared PowerPoint presentations with teens in the U.K and sent boxes of her comics, toy bears and penguins to teens all over the world to use in making their own presentations, and even helped make a documentary film with two girls in Asia about climate change. She also successfully lobbied the mayor of Miami-Dade County for what is now a $1.7 million annual budget for sea level rise mitigation funding where there previously was none at all, and will be lecturing at New York City’s Columbia University over the summer. You can watch her TedX Youth Talk here.
Courtesy of Jackson Hinkle8/14Jackson Hinkle, 17, San Clemente, California
Jackson Hinkle, an avid surfer, has always been aware of the issue of plastic pollution and its effects on ocean ecosystems; but it wasn’t until this year, when he became a Water Ambassador for The Water Effect at The Ecology Center that he began to realize how far reaching the threats of plastic water bottles are. “From the methods in which plastic water bottle companies source their water, to the long lasting effects of plastics in the environment, to the inevitable health hazards of toxins leaching into drinking water from chemicals in plastic bottles, it was clear to me that I needed to take a stand and work towards building a healthier and more sustainable future,” he tells Teen Vogue.
9/14He recently organized a march against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in Orange County to raise awareness of water rights and support the creation of a clean future, and currently serves as founder and current president of Team Zissou, an environmental club that has popped up in schools in California, Hawaii, Washington, and Canada. Jackson is leading a campaign in his town called “Plastic Free SC,” which promotes the usage of reusable water bottles. “Our team is urging local restaurants and eateries to join our movement by transitioning from carrying plastic water bottles to selling more sustainable paper water bottles, and are planning to outfit our city with new water bottle refill stations and water fountains.”
Jackson was chosen to be a Youth Delegate at the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment this coming summer in Washington, D.C., and, just last week, proposed the details of the Plastic Free SC campaign to his local city council.
Courtesy of Hannah Herbst10/14Hannah Herbst, 16, Boca Raton, Florida
When Hannah Herbst, was in seventh grade, she received a newsletter discussing the living conditions of her pen pal Ruth, who lives in Ethiopia, and learned that she was living in energy poverty with minimal access to electricity: lights, medical supplies, even sewage control systems. “I knew that I wanted to do something to help, so I created an ocean energy probe I call BEACON, or Bringing Electricity Access to Countries through Ocean Energy,” she tells Teen Vogue.
The device converts the kinetic movement of current energy from any moving body of water into a source of useable electricity, and applications can be utilized in areas where people are living in a state of energy poverty globally, as well as a platform for STEM education in classrooms. It’s made from 90% recycled materials easily found throughout the world, including 2-liter bottles and recycled spoons. The device costs $12 to make and can produce enough electricity to power an LED light bulb. Hannah envisions BEACON being used in developing countries to power desalination pumps for fresh water, run centrifuges to test blood with, and power electric buoys for maritime navigation.
Courtesy Hannah Herbst11/14“I realized the environment was important at a very young age. I have always been curious, and as a child, I preferred ‘rock hunts’ to dollhouses, which sparked my first interest in learning about the environment,” she says. She is currently working on tweaking the final iteration of BEACON, and is in the process of open-sourcing her prototypes so that others around the world can replicate her creation, both for use to combat energy poverty in developing nations as well as to encourage STEM education in classrooms worldwide.
Hannah is also in the final stages of perfecting an invention called SEAIC, or a System for the Early Identification of Airborne Chemical, which would quickly detect the presence of an airborne chemical resulting from an inadvertent or intentional source, issue an alert to those in the impacted areas, and quickly evacuate vulnerable populations in these situations. “Be curious and bold as you seek solutions to local and global problems and find a mentor who shares the same passion you do,” she suggests. For her amazing efforts, Hannah was named a winner of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, a prize that honors 25 outstanding young leaders ages 8 to 18 who have made a significant positive difference to people and our planet. The top 15 winners each receive a $5,000 cash award to support their service work or higher education.
Courtesy of Celeste Tinajero12/14Celeste Tinajero, 21, Reno, Nevada
Celeste first became keyed into environmental action when her older brother started an Eco Warriors club at Reed High School and urged her to join. With a desire to make a lasting impact on the school, they competed to win grant money through a local organization called GREENevada to make their high school more sustainable. They won first place and immediately began to renovate Reed High's “outdated and wasteful bathrooms.” When they won second place the following year, they used it to encourage people to drink from reusable bottles out of a central Brita Hydration Station.
Now, she’s the Education Program Manager with local non-profit Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful, where she has designed school curriculum on sustainable living. “I have the opportunity to teach and inspire local students, residents and businesses about the importance of sustainable living and the health hazards of litter and illegal dumping, waste reduction,” she tells Teen Vogue. Starting with a platform like a school or a supportive non-profit organization can lead to other organizations, businesses, or agencies that can help fund projects to make your school more sustainable, she says, and before you know it, your project or initiative can transform into a career or a bigger project in the community.
“Don't hesitate and don't worry about funding. Work with a group of hardworking, willing, and determined people. Then create a compelling and efficient plan; the rest will follow,” she says. “We can fight for all of the issues that we are passionate about forever, but if we don't have an Earth to survive us none of it matters. Someone has to give our planet a voice.” She has received a Golden Pinecone Award for Youth Environmental leadership and a 2015 Brower Youth Award for her efforts.
Photo: Catia Juliana13/14Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana, 21, Eugene, Oregon
No big deal, but Kelsey currently stands as a lead plaintiff in the federal lawsuit brought by Our Children's Trust, filed out of the Eugene Federal District courthouse, known as Juliana vs. United States Government. “Our case argues that young peoples’ 5th amendment rights to life, liberty, and property and the inalienable rights to clean natural resources such as water and air are being violated through actions our government has and continues to take in funding and promoting excessive fossil fuel infrastructure, thereby contributing to climate destabilization and jeopardizing the security of young peoples’ future and violating our rights,” she tells Teen Vogue. Kelsey started her activism days early, organizing and leading a march around Eugene, Oregon for 350.org’s first national day of climate action when she was in fifth grade back in 2007.
“The past few years we’ve had states of emergency in Oregon due to drought and each year there are hotter and hotter temperatures. Seeing how climate change has had an impact in the five years since filing a suit for climate recovery in Oregon, and seeing how little action those who hold political power have enacted, makes me disappointed and concerned for the integrity of our democratic system and this planet,,” she says. Never one to miss a creative opportunity to raise awareness, she’s been heard chanting “Stop global warming or we’re all dead ducks,” in cheerleader outfits outside the University of Oregon Ducks football stadium on ESPN GameDay, and has been interviewed by CNN, PBS, The Atlantic, and other national media outlets.
“Some people don’t think much of the millennial and younger generations. They call us entitled, saying we lack drive and ambition. Well, we are entitled: to having our constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property upheld, and the climate justice movement is very much a youth-led one.” If you want to plug into a leading youth-climate-justice groups, she says, check out the Earth Guardians.
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