12-year-old Haven Coleman protests climate change outside government businesses and buildings to save the world.
The seventh-grader from Denver, Colorado calls out state lawmakers on Twitter and in speeches at town halls.
Inspired by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish activist, Coleman brought the movement to the United States along with co-directors 13-year-old Alexandria Villasenor and 16-year-old Isra Hirsi. Students in almost 50 states skipped school on March 15 to fight climate change.
When asked what inspired her to fight climate change, she told CNN: “About two years ago, I had this most amazing 5th grade social studies teacher. He would integrate stuff that’s going on in the real world with stuff that we were learning about.
“We were learning about ancient Amazon trade and he brought up deforestation. I learned more about deforestation, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, it’s endangering my favorite animal, the sloth.”
“Then while researching on a way to stop deforestation, I found climate change. Once I learned about climate change, I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is affecting me, it’s affecting the whole world, it’s affecting so many people in that it’s been ruling my life and it will be ruling my life for my whole life.”
“And so, I was like, “I gotta do something.”
“I got educated through the Climate Reality Project. I got trained there. And then, I talked to my [congressional] representative, and it snowballed from there.”
Coleman said that the biggest thing standing her way was “probably trying to get political will. Like, that’s really hard. We’ve been getting attention from adults but to get this radical change, we have to convince the people in power. So the problem is elected officials.”
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