In 2018, the state of California was on fire. Alexandria Villaseñor, who was 13 at the time, was traveling between her hometown of Davis, California, to her mother’s temporary residence in New York City, when she witnessed the destruction of Northern California’s Camp Fire, which would go on to burn more than 150,000 acres of land. As her family stuffed wet towels under their doors to keep out smoke from fires miles away from their home, Villaseñor was scared. This couldn’t be the new normal.
Before the Camp Fire, Villaseñor knew about as much as any other young teen about climate change: Go green. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. But, as Villaseñor, now 15, is aware, the conversation was bigger than individual action.
California’s wildfires have continued to get worse — in 2020, more than 8,200 state-wide fires burned a record-breaking 4 million acres of land, killing 31 people. And, as Villaseñor says, ongoing climate change is only going to make things worse. She quickly realized the fight requires international, government-level changes. For her, what started as local concern turned into a year-long protest in front of the United Nations’ New York City headquarters and a global campaign for more robust climate education.
“It was just very upsetting at the time,” Villaseñor said. “After hearing about Greta Thunberg and her climate strike, I decided to take my first form of action in the form of a school strike.” Beginning on Dec. 14 of 2018, equipped with simple white signs with black lettering — “School Strike 4 Climate” and “COP24 Failed Us”— and a puffy winter coat for days of New York City chill, Villaseñor spent more than a year protesting in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York City. “Every Friday … all the way up until the beginning of the pandemic in March,” she sat on a bench in front of the headquarters, pleading for the world’s leaders to take climate change seriously.
“That’s when I found out how important climate education was,” she reflected. “And just how much we lacked mainstream climate education these past couple of years.”
Her strike received national attention, with millions of other students around the world joining in the movement. Villaseñor used her new platform to found Earth Uprising, a global network of youth climate activists that provides peer-to-peer climate education, supports youth-led climate initiatives, and lobbies politicians to enact progressive climate action. Villaseñor says 2019 was full of successes for both Earth Uprising and the global climate movement — so much so that she often forgets all that she accomplished. (Her mother, a recent Columbia graduate with a master’s degree in climate and society, and her father, who helps Villaseñor manage EarthUprising, were behind her the whole time.)
Here’s the rundown: 4 million young people participated in September’s global climate strikes, inspired by Thunberg and organized by leaders including Villaseñor. She attended the global climate conference, COP25, in Madrid, Spain, and staged a sit-in to call for youth-oriented climate action from global leaders. She was a guest at the 2019 World Economic Forum. And, alongside 25 other young activists, she presented an official complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, arguing that their counties’ lack of climate action is a children’s rights violation.
For Villaseñor, the experiences continued to reiterate one pressing need beyond government accountability: a better climate education for the young people who would “inherit” the Earth.
“[It’s] completely unacceptable to not learn anything about our planet and our environment in school,” Villaseñor said. “That’s why I think that climate education is so important, and that’s why I focus a lot on it now.”
Villaseñor says that being a young teen in the climate justice field does have its difficulties. “I definitely think ageism is real in the climate movement. Usually I’m one of the youngest people when it comes to being in decision-making rooms,” she explained. “Adults like to tokenize young people and use us to push out their policies and their agendas. We have to really make sure that we’re in the room and we’re being heard.”
Right now, Villaseñor is working with the Biden-Harris administration on its climate plan, which has promised to center the needs of young people and communities of color most impacted by climate change. She even spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. “That was definitely a huge moment where I realized that people were listening to the voices of me and youth climate activists,” Villaseñor said.
When she isn’t connecting with her fellow youth activists or holding elected officials accountable to the climate concerns of their young constituents, Villaseñor is like most other teens. “My favorite thing to do, of course, is sleep,” she said. “I like to read, a lot. I like fantasy books, normally. I also like to write.”
Villaseñor, to perhaps no one’s surprise, is also a published author. Her essay “A Letter to Adults” — a call on older generations to support the climate justice fight — appeared this year in All We Can Save, an anthology of works by women climate leaders. Villaseñor writes:
The biggest reason why people don’t act: They don’t know about or understand the climate crisis. My generation needs to know the unique risks and vulnerabilities we are facing… Until you grown-ups get it together to improve school curricula, young people can teach one another what’s happening to our planet and how to mitigate the climate crisis.
Here’s what else she wants you to know.
1. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to young people who are looking to get involved in activism?
“There’s usually two main things that I tell young people when they want to get involved. First, find out your climate story — how are you being impacted by the climate crisis? From there, you can find out what you want to do about that. Do you want to join an organization that focuses on policy work or do you want to join an organization that focuses on direct action? Then make sure to pace yourselves because we’re in this work for the long haul. You have to make sure to take care of yourself to prevent activist burnout.”
2. Why are young people integral voices in the fight for climate justice?
“We are going to be the most effected by the climate crisis. It’s so important that we’re taking action, because the older generation doesn’t really have to deal with everything that we’re going to have to deal with. We’re getting the brunt of climate change.”
3. What are some tools or resources that budding young activists can use to inform and propel their activism?
“I definitely think social media is one of the largest resources that we have available to young people, and we should be using that resource for good. Make sure to have an account where you can put out your message … Make sure to follow climate scientists first … And then follow the large activist organizations like Sunrise or Earth Uprising, because there’s so much in collaboration that can be learned.”
4. What would you tell someone who feels disillusioned with politics or the current state of the world? Why is it still important to get involved?
“The first thing I’d tell them is that giving up is not really an option, because the future of humanity and our generation is at stake … Climate change is real, and it’s coming — it’s coming for us, especially. It’s just so important to support those taking action and do everything you can to make your voice heard.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.