How do I become a youth activist? Two lessons learned and five ways to get started!
Two former Youth Environmental Activists have come back to join the Climate Generation Team. We took some time to ask them what lessons they learned as youth organizers and how others can get started.
How did you become a youth activist?
I was always passionate about environmental and food systems at school, and I started looking for groups to get involved with – that’s when I found YEA! (Youth Environmental Activists). Being in the YEA program changed the trajectory of my life – it showed me how to organize.
What did you learn?
Walking into my first YEA! meeting, I thought maybe I’d learn something new about climate change. By then, I had learned some things about climate change but didn’t understand climate justice. I came to the program with some understanding of food systems and was interested in joining a community of youth.
I remember being asked by another student, “What is it that you want to do in your community?” At that moment, I realized I’d never asked myself how and why I wanted to make a difference. I had never been asked what I wanted.
I want to build a world where young people are believed in and respected and where we embody the world we want to live in now. I want to live in a world where we can gain power for the many and enact justice.
I left that first YEA! meeting with a new sense of what could be. As I continued working with a group of students and organizing others, it led me to see myself as a leader. YEA! taught me how to organize my peers and neighbors. I learned what it meant to understand institutions and map power.
By the time I graduated from high school and the YEA! program, I understood my climate story and how I wanted to enact change in the world. Working in a group to organize is so powerful, and that was a big lesson learned for me.
Throughout my three years as a part of YEA! and Climate Generation, I gained a holistic climate justice education, and I began to take action and organize around the racist HERC trash burner. The same HERC trash burner we are still resisting today, almost ten years later. YEA! drove me to study political science so I understood political institutions and power more deeply.
A story is a powerful thing. My career path has led me to craft narratives to elevate the causes of nonprofit organizations, and now I’ve come full circle to advance the work of Climate Generation. When people understand the “personal” in a policy through a story – it builds trust, connection, engagement, and ultimately action. Climate Generation uplifts and inspires conversation through storytelling and organizing about what the climate movement needs right now – in our local community here in the Twin Cities in the YEA! program or on a global scale at COP.
Climate Generation puts so much into the youth, educators and community it serves. I can’t wait to start a new chapter of my story with you, Climate Generation!
How did you become a youth activist?
When I first learned about the concept of climate change, it was through the lens of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis. In 2018, there was a significant push to establish gardens in my neighborhood because Cedar residents wanted access to more fresh food and produce. Witnessing this immediate need, I wanted to help, but with limited resources and tools, and lacking in-depth knowledge, it felt like I couldn’t assist the people who mattered most to me.
It was during a visit to the lunchroom by the YEA! Coordinator that I was encouraged to attend a Wednesday meeting of YEA! to learn more about their work and how I could get involved in the climate movement.
Hearing those words for the first time, “How I could get involved,” made me feel empowered for the first time like I was able to be part of the larger solution to help my communities and others around me.
Climate justice is not just about saving the world; it encompasses the intersecting values of why we do this work and why young people have powerful and brilliant ideas to bring to the table, not just in presence alone but through action as well.
As the years went on, with my learning and involvement through YEA!, I became part of a larger coalition of students called “MN Youth Climate Strike,” where we organized a student-wide walkout demanding divestments from fossil fuel companies.
What did you learn?
The moment students left their classrooms to march to the capital to be heard and seen made me realize the sense of community, visibility, and being heard.
That’s when I recognized the importance of YEA! because that coordinator asked me one question, and now my life is forever changed.
Now, I am a Youth Coordinator for Climate Generation, and I am dedicated to this work because I believe that the climate movement will be an ongoing, ever-intersectional fight. I aim to disseminate knowledge about the climate crisis and what I’ve learned to educate and support communities, placing care and intention at the center.
Here are some ways you can start taking action as a youth activist:
- Talk to your peers:
- Start by talking to your peers about it! A great way to get involved is to info share with you friends, peers and family members
- Start an ECO club at your school:
- One of the first way you can get involved is by working with other students around your school on the eco-systems at your school (Are they using a recycling system? How can you make that system better?)
- Join a group of other youth activists in your area
- A great way to build power and organize is connecting with people who are already doing the work. Check at your school or at local organizations if they have youth committees or programs specifically working on organizing and local and state level policy, like YEA!
- Research!
- There will always be grassroot level groups and organizations doing a lot of the same actions you are wanting to do. Try and find ways to get involved like canvassing or attending meetings.
- Talk to your lawmakers:
- An easy was to get involved is to find out who represents you in your district and advocating to them things happening in your community
Becoming climate activists changed both of our lives, and you can take action too! Interested in learning more about how youth-led community organizing works? Check out our YEA page!
The post How do I become a youth activist? appeared first on Climate Generation.
Saturday, 17 October 2026
7.18 AM AWST
Hi folks! We’re joining you live from the Rainbow Warrior where we will be providing you with updates as our four activists continue scaling and occupying Woodside’s gas platform. The activists are peacefully protesting against Woodside’s latest gas expansion plans, the Browse project, which would see up to 57 toxic wells drilled at Scott Reef.
“Right now our activists are scaling Woodside’s massive Floating Production Unit. They are scaling the South-East pillar and the underside of the Helideck. They’ll be setting up camp soon and have plenty of provisions with them – so stick around!”
5:45 AM AWST
Our RHIBS are in the water! We’ve deployed our four activists and our ship crew on our small fast boats, headed to the gas platform. We’re carrying crew and equipment, plenty of food, all of our safety climbing gear, some big banners, cameras and a whole lot of heart… someone even has something to read after they get settled in.
5:26 AM AWST
Before sunrise activists prepared to launch RHIBS from the Rainbow Warrior.
Looking for a front seat view?
You can follow along with the Live Rainbow Warrior bow cam here!
Looking for more?
Follow us on Instagram for a peek behind the scenes and hear from our Rainbow Warrior crew.
Live blog: Greenpeace activists occupy Woodside gas project to save Scott Reef
Climate Change
Greenpeace activists climb and occupy Woodside’s Scarborough gas project calling on the Australian government to “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas” and “Save Scott Reef”
PERTH, Saturday 17 October 2026 — Four Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists are scaling and occupying a Floating Production Unit at Woodside’s Scarborough gas project off the coast of Western Australia, displaying banners reading: “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas. Save Scott Reef.”
- Photos and video available here and here. More will be uploaded throughout the day.
- Content and live updates will be uploaded to a live blog and to Instagram
Early this morning at 05:45 AWST, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists launched from the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s flagship vessel, scaling and attaching themselves to a Floating Production Unit (FPU), a key piece of gas processing infrastructure at the Scarborough gas field over 200km off the coast of Exmouth.
Woodside has since confirmed it has initiated a temporary shut down of the FPU.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific is occupying the gas platform in peaceful protest of Woodside’s plans to drill for oil and gas at Scott Reef as part of its Browse proposal.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Greenpeace Australia Pacific is taking action today to expose the unacceptable risk to Scott Reef posed by Woodside’s plans.
“Australians love our oceans. Woodside’s reckless Browse gas proposal would turn the magnificent Scott Reef into an industrial gas zone. Woodside wants to drill up to 57 toxic wells around Scott Reef, Australia’s largest oceanic reef, home to nesting green sea turtles, and endangered species like pygmy blue whales and the dusky sea snake; it is a place like nowhere else on Earth.
“Woodside has an alarming track record of oil spills, incidents and environmental neglect, and can’t be trusted with our oceans. From whaling in Albany in the seventies, to Woodside’s threat to Scott Reef today, there’s more than fifty years of history, of Greenpeace taking action off WA’s coasts to protect our oceans.
“There’s no future in new gas projects. Our future is in secure homegrown renewable energy, green industry and exports, where communities and places like Scott Reef are protected — there’s no future in dirty gas shipped offshore.
“The prospect of drilling for oil or gas on the Great Barrier Reef would be considered absolute madness today, but that is exactly the decision before the government: save Scott Reef or risk its destruction at the hands of a gas corporation.”
From aboard the Floating Production Unit, Dr Chris Holden, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activist said: “As a doctor, when I see new fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project being put forward, I can’t help but think about the impact this is going to have on the health of our communities and planet, and feel a sense of duty to act.
“Not only will this project do irrevocable harm to nature at Scott Reef, it will have a terrible impact on our climate, putting all of our lives at risk.
“On the Rainbow Warrior I’m carrying a copy of the 2025 Lancet countdown report, which warns that health impacts of climate change are worsening, with millions dying needlessly each year due to fossil fuel dependence, growing emissions, and failure to adequately adapt.
“With warnings like this from the leading global health professionals, our government simply can’t allow fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project to go ahead. It is their duty to do what is in the best interest of our communities.”
Almost half a million people have signed a petition calling on the government to Save Scott Reef and Woodside’s Browse gas project.
-ENDS-
Notes:
- Dial-in, SimSat and Zoom interviews with Geoff Bice, WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, currently aboard the Rainbow Warrior, can be organised separately
Media contact:
Greenpeace Australia Pacific media team on +61 406 231 892 or +61 407 581 404
The board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) will decide on Thursday on whether to “provisionally set aside” $20 million for Nepal to deal with some of the effects of the climate-driven flood it suffered in August.
The motion, seen by Climate Home News, has been drafted by a group of board members from both developed and developing countries and so is likely to pass easily at the fund’s first-ever extraordinary board meeting on October 22.
It invites the government of Nepal to submit a proposal for how to use the money, with the board then deciding at one of its regular board meetings whether to approve the proposal or not.
While Nepali officials have described $20 million as merely “symbolic” in the face of the $4.8 billion estimated costs of recovery and reconstruction, it would be the first time the new FRLD – agreed in 2022 months after devastating floods in Pakistan – has set aside money for a specific disaster.
Until now the fund has only taken requests through a single call for proposals, launched at COP30 in Belém last November, that gave countries six months to submit requests.
Most of the 180 projects the FRLD is currently considering are designed to help countries avoid damage from future climate disasters, for example by strengthening responses to floods in Bangladesh and Lagos.
The draft decision says Nepal’s proposal will serve as a pilot for how funding requests can be submitted outside of the fund’s current timetable. That could let governments seek funds quickly after a climate disaster strikes, rather than waiting for the next call.
This arrangement would set the fund apart from other United Nations funds designed for climate adaptation or cutting emissions like the Green Climate Fund.
Climate campaigners from Fill the Fund said the draft decision is “a real step forward” as it is “the first time this Fund has moved to respond to a specific disaster”.
Too little, too late
The FRLD was agreed by governments at COP27, set up and operationalised at COP28 in 2023 but has yet to award any money. The 180 funding requests it is currently considering would cost around $2.8 billion, but it only has $350 million to allocate.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has described the amount of money available in the fund as “ridiculously small” and Fill the Fund said $20 million “is a meaningful signal but it is a drop against an ocean of need”.
A glacial rock and ice collapse sent a torrent of water and debris through Nepal and the Chinese-administered region of Tibet on August 26. It killed more than 1,400 people, left thousands more missing and destroyed homes, bridges, roads and hydropower plants. Nepal’s finance and environment ministers quickly appealed to the FRLD board for funds, saying that “time is of the essence”.
Their call was followed swiftly by a letter from developing country FRLD board members urging the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary meeting to allocate funds to Nepal.
But developed countries initially called for an informal consultation rather than a full board meeting. It took a further 45 days for the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary board meeting for October 22 and to draft a motion for adoption.
Fill the Fund called for a permanent way of the fund rapid responding to disasters as “Nepal should not have required historic letters, an informal drafting group and the Fund’s first-ever extraordinary meeting simply to unlock an emergency response. The next country cannot wait two months and a bureaucratic marathon. Speed must be built in, not improvised.”
The post UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery appeared first on Climate Home News.
UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery
Is a Team of Is a Bunch of MAGA Thugs Beating the Snot Out of a Woman a New Low, or Is it What We Now Need to Expect?
