- Where do you like have your organization based?
- So, we don't have any offices or headquarters
cause we don't have enough money.
(laughter)
- Understandable.
- A plug to please donate to Zero Hour
at thisiszerohour.org.
(bouncy music)
- Hello
- Hi, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too, I'm Jules.
- I'm Jamie, hi.
- Hi Jamie.
- I'm Vanessa, it's nice to meet you.
- I'm Jamie, nice to meet you.
- What do you do?
- Well, I'm a climate activist.
But I'm also in high school, so.
- What grade?
- Twelfth, you?
- Ninth.
- Ninth, oof. You're just getting started.
- Do you have any advice for me?
Cause you're about to graduate
and I'm about to start high school, so.
- Ah, yes.
My advice to you is to find like communities
that really matter to you, and like find your people.
I came out of the closet as gay in high school
and so, I found my LGBT community really helped me
when I was coming out to my parents and all that.
And so finding your niche, finding your community
it's more important than, you know,
trying to please everyone.
- Yeah.
- Um.
- How did it go for you, your freshman year?
- Well my freshman year was interesting, because
my freshman year was the first year
when I really got catapulted
into my climate justice activism.
It's about a month after the 2016 election, I was like,
how many more times can I like wallow in my room
and write angsty things in my journal and be like,
"Woe is me."
Because if I have the privilege to wallow,
then that means I have the privilege to act.
- Yeah.
- What do you do when not being a climate activist?
- I run an organization called Zero Hour.
Um, and we organize marches, and protests, and rallies
to raise awareness and get politicians
and business leaders to act on the climate crisis.
And get kids to know about it and get involved.
- That's a lot of stuff.
- It is a lot of stuff.
- You're so young to be like doing all this stuff
on your own.
- There are a lot of kids your age and my age
who are really taking action on this.
Because it's our future, and, by the time you and I
are old enough to be in power,
you know, scientifically, there's a certain point where
where it's gonna be to late to reverse the bad effects.
- But what things would kind of stop us from continuing
our path of destruction, and kind of taking a step back?
- So there's a scientific change that need to happen,
but then there's also the political change.
So the political change that needs to happen
is we need more people in office
who will really stop taking, stop fun- stop taking money
from the fossil fuel industry.
Stop associating with those corrupting industries.
- Is there like any, um, country or any place
that it's illegal to have uh, the fossil fuel?
- Sadly, no.
There is no country in the world where um,
it is illegal to pollute.
That is legal in every single country in the world.
I think that you as a sixth grader have more intelligence
than most politicians currently in office.
I think you would do a better job.
- What could I do to help climate change?
- So you as a fifth grader can actually do a lot.
Um, join like a community of other people who
believe in what you believe in.
And and lend your skills and talents.
Whatever it is that you like to do.
What do you like to do?
- Build. - Do you like to build?
Like physically built?
- Yeah.
- Well we need a lot of people who build things
in order to solve the climate crisis.
So, you as a builder show up to a organization or whatever,
and say, "Look, this is what I'm good at. How can I help?"
- I've actually volunteer at my zoo, and they're like
a big thing on climate change too, so...
- Oh, awesome.
- I try to get involved,
and just last summer we've been like handing out these cards
about like trying to stop your carbon footprint.
- How how do you like, change your carbon footprint
and make it smaller?
- Well for me, you know, I'm I'm not a person who really
advocates that much for personal change.
Yes recycle, yes avoid plastic stuff, yes you know
we don't have to fly for something.
It's better that you don't.
But, that's not what's gonna save us.
We need a system change.
And so, individual actions are - they're not bad,
it doesn't hurt, but it it's not what we need.
And so I don't, I'm not into guilting people about
you're not eco friendly enough, you're not good enough.
And I'm all about system change and activism.
- How would you like, get into doing like, what you do?
- Are you on social media?
- Uh, yeah.
- Yeah.
I wasn't allowed to be on social media until I was like
in ninth grade.
But, I sound like an old lady when I say that.
(laughter)
Okay, well then then, no that's good.
K, whatever social media platform,
you can always find like follow different organizations
and they will tell you when there are are events.
And you can just show up to an event.
It's kind of like how you start a sport,
or how you start an activity.
But it's an activity or a sport that that changes the world.
- Where do you like have your organization based, or?
- So, we don't have any offices or headquarters
cause we don't have enough money.
(laughter)
- Understandable.
- No, but seriously.
We are based online, so we do like
we're all over the country and all over the world.
So we do conference calls, um, we do events together
but we'll do events in different places.
So we're working on organizing
voter turnout events right now for the 2020 election,
and then we organized a Youth Climate Summit in Miami
this past summer.
Really the power of the Internet
...is where we're based.
- Yeah.
- Do you have any advice about to a young person
to grow political consciousness and like their own opinion?
- Um, listen to things at the source.
So instead of someone's commentary
on a candidate's speech...
- Listen to the candidate, yeah.
- And then look up what they did.
Does what they did match with what they say?
If not, hm nah.
- If climate change continues at this rate,
how long will we have to stop it?
- Well scientists say that we have roughly
a little over nine years to stop it.
Um, but that is not nine years to sit and wait.
That's nine years to be acting.
And so we're under a really, really tight time frame.
And that's really scary, but we don't have until we're old.
We have to change now.
- I saw the video of like, Antarctica like, melting.
And that just scared the life out of me, cause I was like,
why is this happening?
- Like...
- Yeah...
- ...something should be done.
- It is scary, and that's why it's really important
to have like a community of people that you can go to.
Eventually if enough of you are scared together,
that fear turns into determination.
Say, "I shouldn't have to feel like this."
And so that's what community organizing
and activism is all about.
- Thank you for letting me talk to you,
and thank you for making such an impact.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- Thank, you.
Do you hug?
I hug, do you hug?
(awww)
- Bye bye.
- Bye.
- Hi, it's Jamie, co-founder of the organization Zero Hour.
Check out my upcoming book,
Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It.
Which will serve as the ultimate guide
to being a young activist.
If you wanna find out more,
check the link in the description.
I'd love to have you all get involved with the movement.
Follow Zero Hour and myself on social media and,
let's make some change.