Environmental activist Alexandria Villaseñor is a leading figure in the U.S. climate change movement — and she's only 13-years-old. ️
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00:00I will stop my climate strike when world leaders meet my demands.
00:15So when I started my climate strike, I was alone on the streets.
00:19No one really paid attention when walking by.
00:21It slowly progressed where once I got more attention on social media and in the media,
00:27I started to get more visitors who would come by and strike with me.
00:31And so slowly, we're getting more students to strike in New York City,
00:35but the United States has a long way to go to mobilize for Fridays for Future.
00:53Change is coming whether they like it or not.
00:56Us youth are going to continue to strike school
00:58and put pressure on them to take climate action for as long as it takes.
01:11I just launched my new organization called Earth Uprising.
01:16We are an organization focused on climate education,
01:20getting climate change into schools and curriculums,
01:23and also giving students resources to take direct actions like striking.
01:27I get a lot of my inspiration from Extinction Rebellion
01:30because they are willing to do whatever it takes.
01:39I used to live in California.
01:41I moved to New York City recently.
01:43And last November, I was visiting family when the Paradise Fire broke out.
01:48And my hometown is only an hour away from the Paradise Fire.
01:52So we got a lot of the smoke and it reached hazardous air quality category.
01:57And so my family had to fly me back to New York City because I have asthma
02:01and that was an unsafe situation for me to be in.
02:04And so from that point, once I got back to New York City,
02:07I realized that climate change is affecting California by fueling all these wildfires.
02:13It is much harder to mobilize here in the United States
02:16because we have a much bigger climate denier community
02:20who always say climate change is a hoax and attack the student strikers.
02:27And so it's harder to mobilize here as well
02:29because we have a lot more laws in place that prevent us from protesting
02:33and go against our own laws.
02:35And so it's harder to mobilize here as well
02:37because we have a lot more laws in place that prevent us from protesting
02:42and go against our right to assemble.
02:44We are in a climate emergency.
02:46And so if we don't get necessary actions taken,
02:49then our future is going to be disastrous.