14-Year-Old Climate Activist Alexandria Villaseñor Knows Inaction Is Not An Option

By Lauren Rearick


For 38 back-to-back Fridays, 14-year-old Alexandria Villaseñor has contained the same ritual at a bench outdoors of the United Country Headquarters in New York City. Because the world keeps it up and continues to burn, literally, Alexandria has one thing on her mind: She wants politicians to do their part to stop climate change.


She was first inspired by personalized statistics into the climate crisis soon after two events altered her life view: she experienced an asthma attack as a result of wildfire throughout a family member camping trip, and she saw fellow student climate change activist Greta Thunberg’s protest in her residence nation of Sweden. On December 14, 2018, soon after founding Earth Uprising and joining Zero Hour, she sat outdoor the UN for the opening time. Right now, Alexandria is one of several young people participating in youth-led climate change movements. And as she told MTV News, inaction isn't an option.


“It’s really key that my generation is involved in making sure that our voices are heard because will be impacted the most,” she mentioned. “We’ll be the ones who will have to run from the next [climate change] mess to the point that school won’t matter anymore.”


Based on a October 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we are inching closer to the mess that students like Alexandria desire to prevent — despite what some politicians, including President Donald Trump, would like people to believe. According to the IPCC, we have up until 2030 to perfectly address climate change before droughts, rising sea levels, and dangerous weather conditions hit a irreversible point of no return.


Greta first skipped school to protest outdoor Parliament in Stockholm on August 20, 2018; that first step led to the founding of Fridays for Future, an international coalition of young, like-minded students from around the world. Greta’s work and her continued comments directed at world leaders have gained international recognition, and on August 14, 2019, she sailed from the U.K. To America for the United Nations Climate Change Summit on August 30, Reuters reported.


Alexandria told MTV News that Greta’s arrival helped the two meet for the initial time. And while Greta has previously recommended Alexandria some virtual suggestions on striking, pair proposed to discuss even more IRL. “I aspire to be able to see how I can amplify the global messaging in her message, especially to create ensure that youth are having the same collective necessitates towards our leaders,” Alexandria said.


And while Alexandria has joined and led strikes in the past, she finds it “maddening” that students even have be the ones to ask world leaders to care. “We have to demand our voices be heard by people in power, and we have this climate crisis and it’s put on my generation's shoulders to fight, and it also shouldn’t be that way,” she said.


because the 2020 presidential election draws closer, Alexandria has been watching the potential candidates closely. While she’s noted some political action, particularly right after a successful New York City-based protest resulted in the declaration of a climate emergency, she stressed that politicians still need to do so much more. “Any person who is going to be a potential world leader needs to take the climate crisis seriously,” she mentioned. “Politicians symbolize us, we elect them, we are the people who pick them to symbolize us. We have to continuously ensure that they are making the decisions that we because the people want them to make.”


And Alexandria is still doing her part starting with a September 20 climate strike organized by Earth Uprising, the business Alexandria founded earlier this year that aims to unite youth activists in demanding climate change solutions. She told MTV News that the strike is recommended to coincide with the begin of the UN Climate Change Summit — and anyone can join the strikes recommended throughout the world.


“If people get out onto the streets then we plan to make our world leaders act on the climate crisis,” she mentioned, adding that the only way to be able to see change in this fight is to demand it.