Born: 2001 Cause: Extracting Microplastics from the World’s Water
It’s not only about my method. I want to get other people inspired to look at creative thinking and creative ways to solve problems. Because, of course, this is only one problem. There are many more left to solve. —Fionn Ferreira
Have you ever noticed that the more you focus on a problem, the harder it is to solve it? They say the best thing to do when you’re stumped is to stop thinking for a bit. Take a shower, have a nap, or—better yet—go for a walk. Walking in nature is a powerful problem-solving remedy, shown to boost not only your mood but also your brain function. Just ask Fionn Ferreira—the inspiration for his microplastics removal project struck while he was kayaking around the Irish coast.
Growing up on a remote island in southern Ireland, Fionn spent a lot of time exploring the beaches and waterways. So, when he learned about microplastics polluting the water, he immediately set out to find a solution. “This problem is personal,” he says, “because I saw the effects of microplastic pollution on our environment all the time in Ireland.”
The first step in finding any solution is to understand the scope of the problem. A natural-born scientist, Fionn analyzed the plastics he found along the shore, mapping their numbers, types, and locations. Then, he researched existing solutions—only to discover that there weren’t any. That’s when Fionn decided to create the solution himself.
Fionn had been puzzling over the problem for a while when he stumbled upon an intriguing sight—a rock covered with oil-spill residue and microplastics. This rock was not only a symbol of the greater problem of pollution but also a clue about how to deal with microplastics. Why were the oil and microplastics both sticking to the rock? After a bit of research, Fionn discovered the answer: Both plastic particles and oil are nonpolar, and in chemistry, like attracts like.
He thought, “This is interesting. Maybe if I added vegetable oil to an expanse of water with plastics in it, well, maybe plastics would stick to this vegetable oil.” He was right, but he quickly realized that filling the oceans with vegetable oil wasn’t a great solution. Fionn was not deterred—he knew he was on to something. He just needed that last piece of the puzzle. And he found it, not when he was looking for it but while working on something else entirely (a high school science experiment).
That missing piece was a magnet. By mixing the vegetable oil with magnetic powder (which creates a ferrofluid), Fionn is able to pull out both the oil and the particles using a simple magnet. In the process, inky black, plastic- and oil-filled water suddenly becomes clean and clear. When talking about it, Fionn smiles and says, “I think it should be included in those ‘satisfying things to watch’ videos that you often see advertised on YouTube.”
Fionn tested his method on the ten most common types of plastic, from milk bottles to washing machine fibers and microbeads (which have been banned in the United States since 2015). And after thousands of tests, he discovered that his method consistently removed 87 percent of microplastics from the water. Now, with a little outside help, he’s ready to put his method to good use in wastewater plants and on ships.
Thanks to his win at the Google Science Fair, he’s had no shortage of people who want to work with him. He even received a congratulatory tweet from the president of Ireland that read, “May I convey my congratulations to Fionn Ferreira on winning the @googlescifair, with his project examining options for removing micro-plastics from the oceans. His problem-solving, environmental awareness and independent thinking are an inspiration to us all.” And that’s exactly what Fionn hopes to be—an inspiration to others to get creative when faced with a problem. The more minds at work, the more problems we solve!
Follow His Fight:
@fionn.ferreira on Instagram and @FionnFerreira on Twitter
Born: 2002 Cause: Climate Justice and Voter Registration
We should not be searching for hope, we should be searching for action and demanding urgent action from our elected representatives now. —Jerome Foster II
They say that one of the ways to discover your passion is to list everything you enjoy and look for common threads. Jerome Foster II would have absolutely no problem doing that. Though clearly multitalented, Jerome has found a way for all of his projects to revolve around one thing: combatting climate change.
Jerome’s résumé is almost intimidating at first glance. He’s an organizer for Fridays for Future, an advocate for Zero Hour, a National Geographic Explorer, a Smithsonian Ambassador, founder and editor-in-chief of the Climate Reporter (his global news blog), founder and executive director of OneMillionofUs (a voter-registration campaign), and founder and CEO of TAU VR (a virtual reality company). He’s also an AP high school student.
While his packed schedule certainly seems like a product of passion, Jerome would argue that it’s not—it’s a product of fear. “I am NOT passionate about the climate crisis,” he says on Twitter. “I am scared of the climate crisis. It is in the same way that I am not passionate about gun violence but rather I am scared of being gunned down in my own classroom.”
Jerome believes that every one of us needs not only to change our behavior but also to advocate for sweeping legislative change. Smaller plays, like recycling at home, won’t make the kind of impact we need to make in the time we have left to make it, he says. He also believes that his generation is going to be the one to get the job done.
After joining Zero Hour, Jerome decided to spend his Friday mornings striking for climate change outside the White House. He spent his Friday afternoons at the Capitol Building, interning with Representative John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia. Jerome was worried about splitting his time between the two most powerful buildings in D.C., saying, “I thought they wouldn’t support it because I’m literally striking against the U.S. government.” But it turns out that he had nothing to be nervous about. When the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis noticed Jerome striking outside the White House, they actually asked him to speak at an event.
Being that close to the action, Jerome couldn’t help but notice how voter turnout affected the legislation that gets passed. But currently only one in five young people turn out to vote. Jerome founded OneMillionOfUs to change that.
In chapters all over the country, organizers with OneMillionOfUs educate, energize, and—most importantly—register young people to vote. And they have their sights set on the 18.36 million potential voters turning 18 before the 2020 presidential election. To help encourage these new voters, organizers talk about issues where their vote can effect the most change, including immigration reform, gender equality, racial equality, gun violence, and climate change. As Jerome says, “Change starts in the streets and ends at the polls.”
While his organizers work on increasing voter turnout across the country, Jerome is still raising awareness in D.C. Recently, he’s joined forces with award-winning actress Jane Fonda for a new initiative, called Fire Drill Fridays (@FireDrillFriday on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook). The name comes from Greta Thunberg’s now-famous call to action: “We have to act like our house is on fire, because it is.” Jane adds, “This is a collective crisis that demands massive collective action.” And she’ll be advocating for that action at the Capitol every Friday alongside indigenous leaders, experts, community members, and climate activists like Jerome.
Rather than debating whether this crisis is real, we need to be finding solutions to solve it. —Jerome Foster II
Schools may be lacking lessons on climate change, but Hollywood sure isn’t. In fact, Jerome credits James Cameron’s movie Avatar with alerting him to ozone depletion. Not only are many actors and celebrities vocal advocates for 
climate-change causes, they’re also educating the public through entertainment. In addition to high-budget sci-fi hits like Avatar, you’ve got explosive action movies like The Day After Tomorrow and even heartwarming family films like WALL-E and Tomorrowland offering warnings about the climate crisis.
Follow His Fight:
@jeromefosterii and @OneMillionOfUs on Twitter and Instagram
Born: 2002 Cause: Environmental and Indigenous Rights
Together we have to stand united because we are all living on the same planet. And now we have to save her. —Helena Gualinga
If you’ve ever learned about Greek mythology (or read the Percy Jackson books), you know what the Hydra is—a terrifying, many-headed sea monster. Just think of climate change as the Hydra. Its heads include environmental issues like endangered species and melting ice caps, but they also include social justice issues like racism and income inequality. You may see separate sets of razor-sharp teeth snapping at you, but they all belong to the same monster.
Now picture all of the climate activists battling together, swords in hand. Isra Hirsi leads the attack on the head that leaves people of color vulnerable. Jamie Margolin fends off the one that’s counting down to zero. Jaden Smith swipes at the head that spews pollution and poison. And Greta Thunberg throws everything she has straight at the body of the beast.
Helena Gualinga is part of that fight, swinging her sword against the head that steals healthy, sacred land from indigenous peoples only to destroy it for profit or political gain. Helena is a member of the Kichwa nation and Sarayaku community, one of 370 million indigenous peoples that live all over the world. Like other people of color, indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by climate change.
Helena calls indigenous peoples “the protectors and the guardians” of the Amazon. The beautiful lands that they have spent centuries—if not millennia—caring for are being invaded and destroyed for oil, logging, ranching, and mining. And worse, the protectors are being oppressed and killed. Just recently, indigenous forest guardian and activist Paul Paulino Guajajara was murdered by illegal loggers in the Brazilian Amazon.
One of the biggest problems Helena sees is that so few people are aware of what indigenous peoples are facing—it doesn’t make international news. But it should. “In my territory, we protect the global climate from destruction, and that’s why indigenous peoples’ rights to their territory go hand in hand with climate justice,” she says. “That is why I feel I have to do this, for my people and for the world.”
When asked how people in other countries can help, she answers, “It’s important to be aware of what is happening and why.” And that has become Helena’s mission. She wants to get everyone talking about what’s happening in the Amazon. Right now, the bad guys are using the darkness to their advantage. She shines her light on Ecuador so that those who are destroying her homeland have nowhere to hide.
Now, Helena isn’t Joan of Arc. She’s not literally battling the bad guys with sword in hand. The sword Helena wields in the fight against climate change is her voice. In speeches and on social media, she documents the fight for the Amazon. She calls out the corporate greed, the political corruption, the destruction, and the violence. And she calls for the protection of indigenous rights. “By protecting indigenous peoples’ rights,” she writes, “we protect billions of acres of land from exploitation.”
We are the voice of the forest.
—Helena Gualinga
Indigenous peoples are the original owners and caretakers of their particular region—they are the people who came before settlers or colonizers.Many of these groups have a deep respect for nature and a unique understanding of how to care for it. 
For generations, they have coexisted with it in sustainable and symbiotic ways, their traditions carefully preserved and passed down. But there’s one centuries-long tradition that Helena would like to end: the fight to protect that heritage. In an Instagram post on November 6, 2019, Helena wrote, “. . . if big companies and our governments don’t stop stealing our lands, if they don’t stop killing our leaders. Our elders’ fight and my generation’s fight will be passed on to them. They will be the next targets. We can’t let that happen.”
Follow Her Fight:
@SumakHelena on Twitter and @helenagualinga on Instagram
Born: 2003 Cause: The Climate Crisis
We showed that we are united and that we young people are unstoppable. —Greta Thunberg
Do you think you’re too young to make a difference? Or too small? Or too shy? So did a 15-year-old girl named Greta. But, by finding a cause she believed in, she found her voice. And now she’s using it to energize millions of people, challenge powerful world leaders, and save the planet, one peaceful protest at a time.
When Swedish-born activist Greta Thunberg (pronounced TOON-bairk) first learned about climate change at the age of 8, she was wracked with worry. Human activity has led to pollution, depletion of natural resources, animal habitat destruction, and emitted millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere, causing the earth to warm at a dangerous rate. With animals dying, oceans swelling, and deadly storms raging, Greta understood that human beings were destroying their own future, and they didn’t seem to care. For years, Greta lived with a sense of dread, so depressed that she could barely eat or speak.
Finally, she confided her fears in her parents. They were in awe of their daughter’s passion and confidence—and her ability to win an argument. It didn’t take long for Greta to convince her world-traveling mom to give up airplanes and her dad to give up meat to help reduce the family’s carbon footprint. She herself became vegan (someone who doesn’t eat or use any animal products like meat, milk, or leather). By making a difference at home, she realized she could make a difference anywhere.
The only question was how to make that difference. She found inspiration in the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, who organized a walkout to protest the lack of gun control. With her parents’ permission, Greta decided to stage a similar protest for three weeks leading up to the Swedish general election. The goal: to convince people and politicians to take real action. She needed them to see that climate change was “a matter of life and death.”
On August 20, 2018, Greta skipped school to sit outside the Swedish parliament with flyers and a simple, hand-painted sign that read “Skolstrejk för Klimatet” (School Strike for Climate). She wasn’t alone for long, though. By day two, she had plenty of people standing with her on the pavement and on social media. Their support gave her the confidence she needed to do even more.
Less than a month after her first day outside parliament, Greta bravely stood in front of hundreds of people (and all of social media) to give her first-ever speech at the People’s Climate March rally in Sweden. Her three weeks were up, but nothing had changed. So she announced that she would continue to protest every Friday. Her speech ended with a call to join her: “Everyone is welcome. Everyone is needed.” And join her they did, in a worldwide movement they called #FridaysforFuture.
Greta continued making impassioned speeches, inspiring change, and calling out the grownups who weren’t doing enough. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2018, she said, “Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago.” A month later, at the World Economic Forum, she said, “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.” Her fearless calls for change earned her a reputation for speaking truth to power and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Greta was right to think she could make a difference. On September 20, 2019—just a year after her first protest—Greta led 4 million people across 161 countries in the largest climate strike in world history. A week later, it was 7.6 million in 185 countries. And the numbers just keep growing.
Greta is still young, small, and shy. But she knows that just on the other side of her fear is the power to move mountains, and so she pushes through it. She says, “I don’t want to be heard all the time, but if there is anything I can do to improve the situation, then I think it’s a very small price to pay.” Just imagine what you could do if fear weren’t a factor!
Born: 2000–2003 Cause: Climate Justice
It’s so important for the younger generations—especially Generation Z—to speak out on climate change, even if some adults underestimate you. —Jamie Margolin
Jamie Margolin has always had strong opinions about climate change. But as a young, mixed-race girl, she was getting used to adults ignoring her concerns. She never let the patronizing “don’t worry” smiles get to her, though. She knew that the real problem was that these adults weren’t just ignoring her. They were ignoring climate change entirely—even as Earth’s fate ticked closer and closer to the point of no return.
Jamie decided it was time to take matters into her own hands. “We must speak out because it is our lives that are on the line,” she writes. “It is our future and there is nothing more powerful than youth saying that we will not lay down and accept this fate that is being laid out for us by the powerful among our parents’ generations.” She immediately got to work.
Although she didn’t have much luck rallying people in her local community, Jamie didn’t let it deter her. Instead, she realized she needed to think even bigger. At age 15, she decided to organize a march on Washington that the adults couldn’t ignore.
Friends Madelaine Tew, Nadia Nazar (@nadiabaltimore), and Zanagee Artis (@ZanageeArtis) joined Jamie (@Jamie_Margolin) in creating Zero Hour, an organization dedicated to climate justice. The name comes from the urgency of the cause: “There are zero hours left to take action,” says Jamie. Today, more than a dozen strong, capable teens fill out the Zero Hour team. Their website (thisiszerohour.org) boldly declares, “We know that we are the leaders we have been waiting for!”
The Zero Hour activists stand for “intersectional climate justice,” meaning that they believe that climate change is directly related to equality and justice for disadvantaged groups. Sea levels are rising and threatening to drown cities, ice is melting and releasing long-slumbering viruses, and dangerous natural disasters are becoming the norm. And the people who are most likely to suffer from these climate-change consequences are women, people of color, low-income communities, indigenous peoples, and people with disabilities.
Just think of it in terms of evacuation. Evacuating before a natural disaster can mean the difference between life and death. But it requires physical ability to pack up and leave, transportation, and savings to pay for hotels, food, and clothing (because you won’t be able to work and earn money). We know that natural disasters are getting worse and more frequent because of climate change. And we know that not everyone will be able to get out of harm’s way. That’s why we have to be concerned with both climate change and the people it’s most likely to affect.
The Zero Hour activists aren’t just fighting to save the planet. They’re fighting to prevent the kinds of disasters that take lives and devastate communities. To make a difference on one issue, they have to tackle them all—climate, economic inequality, racism, sexism, and colonialism. And that takes more than just protests. As Jamie says, “We can’t pretend like we have the luxury of choosing one solution.” Education and outreach are a big part of the Zero Hour playbook.
The team created a campaign called “Get to the Roots” to help educate young people about intersectional climate justice, and they use teen ambassadors to spread the word at schools and recreation centers across the country. (FYI: They’re always looking for new recruits!) Plus, members have given TV interviews, TED Talks, speeches, lectures, and even testimony in front of Congress to educate the public on climate change and demand government action.
In all of their appearances, the Zero Hour activists are both vocal and specific about their demands so that no adult can say, “I don’t know what these kids want.” You can find the complete list of science-backed demands on their website—the same list they took to their elected officials on July 19, 2018.
Carrying that list to Capitol Hill was the true beginning of their crusade. The next day, they celebrated the climate-justice community through an arts festival in nearby Dupont Circle. And the day after that—July 21, 2018—Zero Hour took to the National Mall for The Youth Climate March, joined by sister marches across the globe.
At this point, Zero Hour definitely has the attention of adults in power. The organization continues to organize strikes around the country, making sure to feature cities that will be hardest hit by climate change. But their biggest goal is to make themselves heard in upcoming elections. As many of Zero Hour’s activists turn 18, they plan to ensure that climate change is a top issue and that any candidate not talking about it will answer to thousands of newly registered voters.
With everything that Zero Hour has accomplished, Jamie just laughs at the adults who still underestimate her. And she believes wholeheartedly that more young people need to find their voices, embrace activism, and get involved in creating the future they want for themselves. She’s even written a book (Youth to Power, out in June of 2020) to help them do it. Why? Jamie herself says it best: “If only a handful of youth that started the #ThisIsZeroHour movement can have the impact that we had, imagine what millions of us can do! So young people, what are you waiting for? We’ve got work to do!”
Born: 2003–2007 Cause: Bold Action Against the Climate Crisis
If we don’t stop the climate crisis soon, those already impacted will be hit even more and generations like mine won’t have a livable future. —Isra Hirsi
For too long, being too young to vote made young people virtually invisible to the U.S. government. Now, young activists are elbow deep in politics and demanding change from the inside.
Take US Youth Climate Strike, for example. This is an organization founded by a 12-year-old (Haven Coleman) to bring Greta’s Global Climate Strike stateside. She joined forces with 16-year-old Isra Hirsi and 13-year-old Alexandria Villaseñor not only to organize marches but also to hold politicians accountable. As Alexandria said at the NYC march on March 15, 2019, “Change is coming, whether they like it or not. We will continue to push world leaders until they take climate action.”
With their eyes on the 2020 presidential election, the USYCS activists focused on making climate change a part of the discussion. They amassed thousands of signatures on a petition for a climate debate and even contacted candidates directly. In the end, most of the candidates agreed, but the Democratic National Committee (DNC, the organization that hosts the debates) refused. More than that, the DNC threatened the candidates with expulsion if they entered into a climate debate. But the candidates heard the call of these young activists, and they held a climate change town hall (essentially, an informal debate) on CNN.
Millions of people will be displaced, millions will starve, billions of plants, animals, and organisms will go extinct. So much pain and suffering for all the things living on this Earth—all made by us. This is a fight that will determine life and death for so many; this is a fight that is worth fighting for. —Haven Coleman
The organization’s desire to get the candidates talking about climate change goes beyond raising awareness for green policies. It’s also about making sure that candidates will stand up to the kind of corporate greed that has ravaged the country, both environmentally and socially. A November 25, 2019, tweet from the USYCS account reads, “The Climate Crisis was not caused by the choices of individuals. This is a lie designed to make you feel guilty and powerless. It was created by corporate greed, an economic system built on unchecked exploitation of the environment.”
This is not some abstract future issue; this is something that’s happening in peoples’ lives every single day. —Feliquan Charlemagne
What the USYCS is referring to is the system by which the fossil fuel industry buys government support by donating to congressional campaigns. Congress doesn’t have any incentive to move toward clean energy because the fossil fuel industry gives them job security. By holding politicians accountable, young activists are making it very clear that they don’t play by the old rules. As they become old enough to vote, the only path to job security for Congress will be addressing their issues.
USYCS is “building a movement to take on the fossil fuel industry” while fighting for the Green New Deal, a program takes its name from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, which was a series of public-works programs and financial reforms that helped the country recover from the Great Depression. The Green New Deal would help the country recover from both climate change and inequality.
Introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, the Green New Deal program would wean the country off fossil fuels; curb greenhouse-gas emissions; ensure that clean air, clean water, and healthy food are basic human rights; and create high-paying jobs in clean energy industries for the working class. That last part—lifting up those who have been oppressed by the current system—is key. Without it, “oil barons turn into energy barons and workers are hurt all the same,” says Ocasio-Cortez. Until they can vote for the Green New Deal, the members of USYCS will make sure that their representatives do.
