Youth

The 20 contributors to "Our Climate, Our Stories" speak of loss and hope as young Black and Indigenous people and other people of colour dealing with the climate emergency.

In the Second World War, young Canadians deferred their studies and delayed careers to enlist. Today, a new generation of young people needs a way to meet the climate emergency, writes columnist Seth Klein.

Patricia Lane introduces us to Samantha Lin, who works with the David Suzuki Foundation supporting young climate activists pressuring cities to lower their carbon footprint.

The focus for group members was to pick up and photograph at least one piece of trash, but it turned into a larger educational movement.

Through The Basket Project, Jack Tomé, Alex Mastromarini and Nathan Lee created bundles that they handed out to the city’s homeless population.

Social justice class inspired Mireta Strandberg-Salmon's campaign to ban bottled water sales in school vending machines.

Serisha Iyar, 25, launched Leading in Colour in July 2019, an organization aimed at giving racialized youth a voice and, more importantly, the ability and tools needed to mobilize to create real change.

“The climate issue is so intersectional. It hits housing, it hits social justice, the pandemic — we want to explore all of that,” says Abby Neufeld, co-founder of The New Twenties, a writers’ collective and magazine aiming to shape discourse around climate issues.

The country’s national statistics agency has pulled together a one-stop shop of data collected about young people’s lives since the COVID-19 pandemic began, showing how the most vulnerable have been hit hardest.

Abhayjeet Singh Sachal co-founded Break The Divide, a group that connects young people to form friendships and embark on climate projects.

Meet Siobhan Takala, co-founder of Let’s Sprout, a group that mentors young climate leaders. She says it is all about showing up as you are, learning about hard topics, and demanding action.

The working arts space SKETCH, near Trinity Bellwoods in Toronto’s inner west, provides a stage for a diverse cast of young people on the city’s margins to create and facilitate. It’s tantalizingly close to securing its space permanently.

On Wednesday, Amanda Gorman became the youngest poet ever to perform at a presidential inauguration, calling for "unity and togetherness" in her poem, The Hill We Climb.

In 2019, Sebastien Molgat, now 23, created the Arctic Youth Network with an international team of young people. And he has bigger plans for the future.