[dramatic orchestral music]
- 2019 began with a new surge of support
for young people who sued
the United States government
over climate inaction in 2015.
Juliana vs. United States was named
after Kelsey Juliana, along with 20 other plaintiffs
under the age of 25.
The Juliana suit had been prevented
from going to court until this February,
when more than
mostly students, signed on to support
the plaintiffs' right to be heard.
- People told us that it was hopeless.
- They said we could never win.
- And then we started winning.
[rock music]
- The push was initiated by a climate action group
called Zero Hour, led by 16-year-old Jamie Margolin,
and it worked.
A judge granted the Juliana plaintiffs
a hearing date in June.
And they aren't the only ones suing
over inaction.
There are now more than a thousand
similar lawsuits filed in the U.S.
and at least 300 more around the world.
[crowd chants]
- [Lucy] Cut to March, when a million young people
joined the movement with the very first
Global Climate Strike.
[energetic music]
It came together through pockets
of young activists who had been staging
their own weekly strikes
around the world.
The strikes were called Fridays for Future
because kids would skip school on Fridays
to protest.
It [was] all started in August 2018
by 15-year-old Greta Thunberg in Sweden.
A picture of her protesting
spread across the internet, and eventually,
so did her movement.
March 15 brought together approximately
in thousands of cities across the world.
And the second event in May
was also a success and coincided
with the 2019 European Parliament election.
Another global climate strike
came in September, but we'll get back to that soon.
- [chants] Climate justice!
- This year also saw
two viral hashtags
amplifying the climate movement.
First came
where people posted pictures
to show how much different spots
around the Earth have changed
in a decade.
[guitar music]
with people
showing before and after photos
of community cleanups around the world.
[guitar music]
Student protesters made their voices heard
to speak out against fires
burning in the Amazon,
shedding light on the shocking effects
deforestation can have on global air quality.
And most recently,
three Pakistani teens say they were inspired
by the Juliana plaintiffs
to sue their government over
dangerous levels of air pollution.
To end the summer,
we saw a huge push in the U.S.
to get the 2020 presidential candidates
to discuss climate change
on the debate stage.
The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led group
advocating for climate policies, even slept outside
the Democratic National Committee's headquarters,
That didn't happen, but we did get
two town halls where the Democratic hopefuls
shared their plans for climate action
and took some of the best questions from,
you guessed it, students.
- [student] So how can we trust you
to put us, the future, over the wants
of large corporations and wealthy individuals?
- And in August, in one of the biggest
climate statements of the year,
Greta Thunberg chose to sail
on an emissions-free yacht across the Atlantic
to get to the first-ever Youth Climate Summit
at the UN.
There, she met scores of other young people
who spoke directly to
world leaders at the summit in New York.
And they did not hold back.
- Everyone needs to get involved,
particularly to honor
the Indigenous sisters, mothers,
grandmothers, aunties, and daughters
who have been taken from us
as part of the genocide
that climate change is propagating.
- The climate crisis is really happening,
and if we don't act now,
we will be affected on the future,
and we, the kids, will be the one
that will pay the consequences.
- [Greta] I have a dream that people in power,
as well as the media,
start treating
this crisis
like the existential emergency it is.
- The first-ever Youth Climate Summit
was a three-day lead-up to
the United Nations Climate Summit
and was book-ended by
where an estimated
The crowds were overwhelmingly
young people, all imploring adults
in power to make a change before it's too late.
That's been the theme of the youth climate movement
this year:
When the adults have failed,
for themselves.
This movement is still, well, young,
so it remains to be seen
how much change
these movements can drive.
But you can't deny, we are
And this video featured
just some of the groups
who are pushing for action
nationally and globally.
If you want to learn more, there are links
to their sites
and handles below.
Also, let us know in the comments
how you're getting involved in the climate movement.
Thanks for watching!
[crowd cheers] [crowd yells] When do we want it? Now!
[crowd yells] What do we want?
[crowd yells] Climate justice!
[crowd yells] When do we want it?
[crowd yells] Now!
[crowd yells] You had a future! So should we!