The Climate Generation
Born into crisis, building solutions
Grace Gibson-Snyder, 19, of Missoula, Montana, was one of 16 youths who won a landmark climate case against the state of Montana. Tired of the focus on youth activism, she says grown-ups should be working to fix the problem.
Naomi Cambridge, 21, of Bridgetown, Barbados, recognizes that small island states are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. She volunteered in local schools to teach children about climate science, hoping to build a generation of solution-makers.
Joshua Forte, 29, of Bridgetown, Barbados, has won a number of young climate innovator awards for his entrepreneurship, but he sees financing as a huge obstacle.
Bri Fain, 22, of Fullerton, California, volunteers with AmeriCorps doing field science for the U.S. Forest Service and Trout Unlimited in Montana. Even if some of her family members don’t believe what they call “climate rhetoric,” she sees global warming as an existential threat.
Hunter Lyall, 19, of Taloyoak, Nunavut, caught his first beluga whale last summer. As a young Indigenous Guardian, he helps conserve this part of Arctic Canada with high tech knowledge and Inuit traditions.
Tad Tulurialik, 24, of Taloyoak, Nunavut, forges a career as an Indigenous Guardian in the northernmost town on North America’s mainland. His conservation work is a win for Inuit culture and Canada as it aims to counter Arctic warming.
Raquel Silva, 33, of Mangualde, Portugal, sees the impacts of climate change firsthand on her farm, from heat waves to drought. But she also believes her way of regenerative farming builds resilience to climate change for people and the land.
Daphne Hübsch, 18, of Frankfurt, Germany, joined the global protest movement Fridays for Future partly because, as a resident of the Global North, she feels responsibility to the Global South for the effects of her way of life.
Atlas Sarrafoğlu, 16, of Istanbul, Turkey, saw Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg strike for the climate and decided at the age of 11, that he wanted to be Turkey’s climate activist, even though he admits he didn’t know how.
Deon Shekuza, 33, of Windhoek, Namibia, was born in 1990, the year his country won independence, and he sees a similar change moment today. A warming planet is a crisis, but he understands it as an opportunity to fix the legacies of colonialism.
Reinhold Mangundu, 27, of Maltahöhe, Namibia, works with "Rural Revive" — a project that seeks to revitalize desert community life. He is also writing a book called the "Conundrum of Development."
Farzana Faruk Jhumu, 24, of Dhaka, Bangladesh, says every Bangladeshi knows what climate change is – because they live it daily – but she fights to dig deeper into the effect the crisis has on children’s rights.
Cover StoryClimate change is driving a global youth revolutionClimate change is shaping a mindset revolution – powerfully driving innovation and progress. And young people are leading the transformation.
Cover StoryHis gift of gab and hope may determine the temperature of your worldMoving and shaking at COP28 or back home in Namibia, this young climate activist sees opportunity for the Global South in the climate crisis.
Cover StoryOn tides of climate change, adaptability buoys hopeClimate change defines where young Bangladeshis live, if they study, and when they marry. But resilient adaptation is making a difference.
Cover StorySuing the world to save it. Children pioneer a right to a secure future.Climate change: Eco-anxious youth are making progress in suing to create a body of law protecting against the effects of a warming planet.
Cover StoryA student’s ‘aha’ moment becomes a nation’s alternative fuelYoung Barbadian innovators see economic opportunity in the climate change threat, finding solutions unique to their environment.
Cover StoryIn a return to forgotten lands, young farmers go small, demand lessDigging into small agriculture, a new generation of young people returns to the land to a more sustainable lifestyle in response to climate change.
Cover StoryIndigenous Guardians protect their culture of cold in a heating worldClimate change is melting their world, but Indigenous Canadian Guardians use ancient knowledge and modern technology to protect their culture of cold.
Podcast: Why We Wrote This Covering the Climate Generation, its inventiveness and driveIn the face of an unprecedented threat, they have the most to gain from action and the most to lose from complacency. That made one global demographic group worthy of a multicontinent reporting project that spanned nearly a year. An editor and two writers take you inside the making of “The Climate Generation.”
