Greta Thunberg guest edits Assembly’s climate issue

(Courtesy of Anders Hellberg)

A lot more people know my name now than when I first started school striking for the climate, and the Fridays for Future movement was born. But I’m far from the only young climate activist they should know. In every community in every country, girls like me are fighting for climate justice.

While leaders keep making the same old speeches and the same empty promises, girls and young women are taking action. We are the ones treating the climate and ecological crisis as a crisis.

This issue of Assembly is dedicated to all the young women on the front lines of the climate movement. I’m proud to be fighting alongside you.

Although we are in a global climate emergency, not everyone is suffering its consequences equally. In today’s newsletter, you will hear from young women experiencing some of the greatest effects of the climate crisis. Ugandan activist Evelyn Acham shares how her country has one of the fastest changing climates in the world — and why adding climate education to the national curriculum would help address these issues. Pakistani filmmaker Sarah Jehaan Khan tells us about creating films to raise awareness about deforestation, pesticides and water conservation in her home country. And Samoan student activist Brianna Fruean describes leading grassroots campaigns to save her island’s natural wonders.

This issue also highlights the need to build a more equitable and inclusive environmental movement. 19-year-old Bahamian student activist Lauren Ritchie writes about founding the educational platform The Eco Gal after realizing there aren’t enough Black, Indigenous and people of color in climate conversations. My good friend Tokata Iron Eyes also explains the importance of having Indigenous youth leaders at the center of the climate justice movement. And eco-communicator Leah Thomas tells us about creating the term “intersectional environmentalism” to describe the ways in which racial justice and climate justice overlap.

Also in this newsletter, Assembly readers in Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and more share the climate actions they are taking. And we highlight the links between climate change and girls’ education, explaining how educating girls is one of the best (and most cost effective) solutions to save the planet.

Around the world, young women are fighting for our future. Our activism takes different forms but we are working together towards the same goal: changing political and economic systems to prioritize people and our planet.