WLA Student Helps Organize the Youth Climate March
In recent years the youth environmental movement has grown from an idea into a series of innovative, startups run by dedicated collections of youth activists around the world. Zero Hour, the group that organized the Youth Climate March, is one of these collections that understand the urgency of this climate global crisis.
Searching through my Instagram feed, I heard rumors about an event called the Youth Climate March. After scouring their website and reading news articles about this movement, I felt compelled to reach out to them and get involved. I first emailed them, a laundry list of all the thing I had done and was doing to help stymie climate change.
After an hour of emailing, I started reading more about this “Youth Environmental Movement” which led me to learn that in Sweden, youth rose up and put pressure on their government to act on climate change. With the support of youth across the globe, the Swedish government put forth plans to become 100% renewable by 2040. What if the youth in the United States did the same?
Days after I had joined, I realized that the Youth Climate March had grown from just happening in DC, to happening in London, Paris, New Orleans, San Francisco, and so many more places. Zero Hour had turned into a global youth revolution seemingly overnight.
My role in Zero Hour was as a contributor to the partnerships and communications teams. I worked to connect Zero Hour with organizations such as National Geographic and the Climate Reporter and worked to amplify the voice of #thisiszerohour on many different social media platforms to get the word out that Generation Z is the generation that will not watch on the sidelines as the fossil fuel industry destroys the planet.
The day of the march, was extremely stressful for all of us, especially for Jamie, the founder of Zero Hour. Some of us were setting up the stage, making press passes, others were catching two and three Ubers around the city to print speeches. I was coordinating with four youth photographers to take footage of the march and escorting local press to their area to film. I also did a live interview with the Hip Hop Caucus, it was an exhilarating rush to the finish line where the final product was surreal. During the time of the march there were speeches from front line community members, indigenous native american groups and migrants that had traveled thousands of miles to safety, all telling their story in the pouring rain. Globally, the march was a great success in numbers and speaking about the climate crisis, however our Washington DC march from the National Mall to Lincoln Park was a small but passionate group. The rain weeded out all the people that were just there to take a selfie and left us, the activists who knew that rain could never put out the fire burning in our hearts.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”
— Native American Proverb
