00:00You have to use the seats that you have now because by the time I get there it's going
00:27to be way too late.
00:57I was working as a climate justice activist in my community, but it wasn't until 2017
01:21when there were these hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, hurricane, and then massive
01:26wildfires in California and in Canada, and the smoke blew over my city of Seattle and
01:31coated us in this thick layer of smog, and that kind of thing had never happened before.
01:35Those kind of events all happening at the same time really made me understand the severity
01:40of the climate crisis and how it was closer to home than I thought.
02:08I posted on my social media, we need a massive climate march, and we need to have kids marching
02:15for climate action.
02:28A few other kids replied and said, we're with you, let's do this, and so then it just kind
02:33of grew from there.
03:33You're here spending a few moments with me, but that is nothing compared to the hours
03:56that members of Congress have spent with lobbyists from corporations that make billions of dollars
04:01off of the destruction of my generation's future.
04:04It's physically impossible for us to just keep consuming on an exponential level on
04:10the earth to be able to sustain that, and so we have to break that cycle.
04:14There does need to be some level of growth and comfort and having people live normally,
04:23but that normal doesn't have to be constantly striving to just have the big mansions and
04:29the jets and all of the things that we're taught to value.
04:31I feel like my generation is ready to say that way of life is toxic and unnecessary
04:35and the people who live that way aren't even actually happy.
04:59It's a just and equitable way to get down to the current carbon limit that we need to
05:06get down to in order to save a life on earth, but doing that in a way that doesn't leave
05:10communities that are feeling the worst impacts of the climate crisis behind.
05:14All leaders have two choices.
05:16One, join us, adopt a Green New Deal in your community or your constituency, and take action
05:22to save your children's futures, or you have a second option.
05:28Check it out.
05:58By 2030, we will have known if we have created a political climate that will have allowed
06:22us to salvage life on earth.
06:23To give you an idea of how soon 2030 is, by then I still won't be old enough to run
06:29for the American presidency.
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