JP: Let’s talk about raising awareness. Do you see progress since you have been doing this activism, and in how people are thinking, making the connection between how we are interacting with the earth and about the destruction we have caused and are continuing to cause? Do you see people becoming more aware of this and taking responsibility?
X: I definitely feel like I have been on the front lines of this movement as long as anyone and I’m only 15. The climate movement started not long after I was born, but not too long before I got involved in it. And I think I have seen it grow, I’ve seen what works and seen what doesn’t. So I’d probably say I’m one of the experts on how a movement looks like when it grows and it falls, and what is going to work. Older people are so stuck in “this is how things work”. I have a lot of respect for Bill McKibbens, for instance, he is doing a lot of great work. But I feel that organizations like 350.org and Sierra Club are using the same tactics as the last 20 years and not enough has been done. I respect everything they do, I partner with them all the time, but I think it is going to take a fresh new perspective of looking at the world in order to achieve the things we want as far as the movement. I’ve seen the minds of the people change because in the last 10 years it has gotten worse. The crisis we are facing has gotten worse and worse and will only continue to get worse unless we take action now. So with the increase in the severity of the problem more and more people aware of it, more and more people are taking action, more and more people are engaging on the front lines, and we need more of that. It is coming slowly, but it needs to come faster. It has to happen inter-generationally more than it is.
JP: How will Earth Guardians continue to promote their message for young kids, so that they will be inspired going forward as well?
X: For me, my gateway into this was my parents and my foundation. I was given all the tools and education that I needed at a young age to do the work I do now.
Perreault Magazine - 27 -
"So instead of it being me against the world, it’s me and a team of amazing revolutionary young leaders around the planet, working to build a better planet."
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