Image Source: Maliha Abidi

Based in New York City, this climate activist was one of the lead organizers of the Fridays For Future youth climate strike movement. Through her work, she brings youth voices to existing grassroots and climate organizations and helps get people involved in the fight. She's also a coordinator for the Re-Earth Initiative, which helps make the accessible to everyone. Image Source: Maliha Abidi Dr. Katharine Wilkinson

Author and teacher Dr. Katharine Wilkinson has written bestselling books about climate change that have informed and educated readers about the dangers of not taking care of the planet. Her books include All We Can Save, The Drawdown Review, Drawdown, and Between God & Green. She also cohosts the podcast A Matter of Degrees with Dr. Leah Stokes, which informs those who are looking to learn more about the climate crisis. Image Source: Maliha Abidi

This 24-year-old Ugandan climate-justice activist started her work in 2018 when she noticed her country was unusually warm. Nakate was inspired by and started her own climate movement in Uganda, where she has raised attention to the issue. She strongly believes that companies, banks, and governments need to immediately stop subsidizing fossil fuels, and she is doing everything she can to fight back. Image Source: Maliha Abidi

Sharon Lavigne

Living in St. James, LA, Sharon Lavigne has been fighting for her community ever since she learned about two petrochemical companies that received permits to build chemical plants in her town. Lavigne is now going head-on with one of the world's biggest petrochemical corporations to stop it from building a plastic manufacturing complex about a mile and a half from her house. Image Source: Maliha Abidi

Ridhima Pandey

Thirteen-year-old Ridhima Pandey is one of India's youngest environmental activists. She partnered with Greta Thunberg in the protest against the neglectful attitude of governments toward climate change at the UN Climate Action Summit and has been working to bring attention to climate justice since. Image Source: Maliha Abidi

Helena Gualinga

At only 18 years old, is advocating for the rights of the Sarayaku community in the Ecuadorian Amazon to maintain custody over their land. She is working to help not only the people in the Amazon but also the plants and animals that call it home. "Giving Up Is Not an Option": Greta Thunberg on Tackling the Climate Crisis Amid a Pandemic

January 7, 2021by CHANEL VARGAS

Less than a week into the new year, Greta Thunberg is here to remind us that the environmental threats to our planet did not disappear in 2020, and there is still plenty of work to be done in the ongoing fight against climate change. "We need to make sure that right now, we don't relax and fall back asleep because we think, 'Oh, the US is back in the Paris Agreement, now things will turn out okay.' We need to continue pushing even harder now," Thunberg told People in a recent interview, citing President-elect 's campaign promise to rejoin the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit the increase of greenhouse gas emissions to 1.5°C by 2025. Thunberg was vehement about the fact that hypothetical goals like this do not equate to action in the long run. To incite real change, we must make sustainable choices based on scientific data as the climate crisis develops.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change can take secondary prominence in most people's minds, but Thunberg called on people worldwide to take what we've learned about dealing with crises amid the pandemic and apply that same urgency to saving the planet. "If there's one thing that [the pandemic] has shown us, it is that we can treat a crisis like a crisis," she said. "You can't sit and be depressed or be annoyed at how the world is because you can't do anything to change it. We have just continued like before. We just continue because we know what's at stake, we know that we can't give up. We know that giving up is not an option."

To address these issues head on, Thunberg will advocate for the fight against climate change alongside the Dalai Lama during a panel on Saturday, Jan. 9, hosted by the Mind and Life Institute. The panel, which will be livestreamed on the organization's website and on Facebook at 10:30 p.m. ET, will focus on "Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops," a series of educational films about the factors that contribute to the extremes of the climate change cycle.

On what it means to move forward in the new year, Thunberg said, "My hope for 2021 is that we see an awakening when it comes to the climate and environment, [and] that we start to treat this crisis like the crisis it is and understand what needs to be done — understand that we have failed and that we need to take real bold action right now, that we cannot afford to wait any longer." sources : https://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/maliha-abidi-and-lonely-whale-climate-change-collaboration-48213536 https://www.popsugar.com/news/greta-thunberg-plan-fight-climate-change-amid-pandemic-48094199