environmental activism and community activism stemed from my personal problems. i was going through an identity crisis. an economic crisis left me and my family unemployed and we were about to lose our home. just a really bad relationships and friendships. i basically hit rock bottom and it made me question my future. as i asked personal questions, that led to me asking community questions. it was one question in particular that really led me to ask broader questions. i accepted that i didn't do very well in high school and i wasn't doing really well in life. i didn't have a job and wasn't doing well at contra costa. i asked myself, why is it that so many people in my community are facing the same problems? that led me to ask more questions.

i started seeking for answers and i started watching the news and documentaries. i learned more and more about the injustices happening in my community. i started with the richmond refinery and that led me to do environmental work and i'm doing urban agriculture, community urban agriculture. >> you started watching which documentary? any one in particular that kind of awakened you? >> i started watching documentaries about oil. that really awakened me because it was personal to my life. attending richmond high, our mascot is an oil funnel. >> we should clarify that they have a large oil refinery. >> the single largest green house emitter in california. it refines about 250,000 barrels of oil a day. i didn't really know very specific information.

all i knew is that my fas cot was an oil funnel and at the age of 18, i was going to receive money due to an explosion that i was super excited about, but i didn't realize the magnitude and the influence had in my community and state-wide and globally. i started watching documentaries about oil and learning more about the chevron refinery which then i connected to a lost other movements and issues that were happening as well. >> let's turn to your story. a tough act to follow, yeah? when did you get involved in environmental issues and how did that get you where you are today? >> my story is definitely not as cool. sorry to disappoint everyone. i guess i started when i was really young. i think when i was like 8 or 9.

i just read and i had a very, very -- like an 8 or 9-year-old perspective. it may seem similar to adults, but these were enormous revelations. what happened is when i was a kid, i read cnn and the news. that's really weird now that i say that, but i read them and very quickly developed a sense that since humanity is part of the biosphere, we need to take care of that. we are connected whether we want to be or not to it. therefore we heard the biosphere, it will hurt us in the long run and short run. i felt like even from a young age, we have a vested age in protecting the either and nature. i didn't know at the time what it meant. this manifesting later on when i started an international nonprofit when i was 13, it wasn't originally a nonprofit. i started the nonprofit and what

we did was we planted a biofuel shrub in rural south india. we tried to use that as a source of sustainable biofuel in the area that to not only be a source of biofuel, but lift rural farmers out of poverty. what we are currently doing is focusing on environmental education and in haiti and india and in the oakland and hayward area here. that has led me to a lot of places included here right now. that's my story in a condensed nut shell. >> you joined a suit against the state of california. how did you get involved in suing the largest most powerful state in the country? >> the largest and most powerful. i like that. california. i still love my state. i think we are the best state. california for those of you who don't know, water is considered

to be a public trust. the basic -- there is a lost legal terms associated, but the basic principal is companies can't dump toxic waste in the water because the water is used by everybody on some level. it would harm everybody, therefore everyone actually owns it. in a sense everyone owns the water and no one owns the water. you can't dump stuff into it. the atmosphere would be classified as a public trust as well. there strict limits on what you can and cannot dump. one of the things is carbon dioxide emissions. just methane, for example. what we were trying to do basically is the legal part is california would have to crack down on a lot of pumping and dumping and other toxic guesses like sulfur dioxide like other

ramifications on the atmosphere. this was a very, very big legal endeavor and very similar activities such as other environmental groups and other states were lobbying to have the atmosphere considered as a public trust. we were doing this not just on the state level, but the federal level as well. we dropped it for the time being, but it was a landmark endeavor. we were trying to get the atmosphere lobbied, but for the first time in well, really, the youth was a massive driving factor behind us. normally we have like old people, not old people, but older people doing this kind of thing. i realize i am a comparative youngin, but the youth was really, really a motivating factor and we were trying to lobby that as a factor. we are the ones that are impacked by climate change and

environmental degradation as a whole. we should be speaking out and pushing. now i think the government even on the state level, kind of surprised. yeah, these are also going to be the main voting constituents. they have to start noticing this. to vote them out of office, it's a landmark endeavor in a lot of ways. that nut shell got a lot bigger, but okay. >> we had former congressman pete mccloud ski who is here who is part of that. he said it's going to be the young people who will force the people in power to make changes. abigail, let's talk about your story. you grew up on a dare farm and ended up in durbin. connect the dots for us. >> when i was growing up, every summer i spend on a farm outside of poughkeepsie, new york, milking cows and feeding chickens and gardening.

when i decided to figure out where i was going to college, i fell in love with vermont and ended up at middle bury. the semester leading up to the conference and figure out how to deal with the climate change issue. my friends came back disillusioned by the conference. i knew i had to continue that energy and youth involvement. i spend a fair amount of time that year working on vermont energy politics and i was in mexico and then in south africa working with the international youth delegations. >> we will show a brief video of abigail bora in the global united nations conference and the scene is the lead u.s. negotiator todd stern talking. let's roll that.

>> you have three minutes. thank you. >> what are you doing to me? we need fair conditions and legally binding treaty. you must take responsibility to act now or you will threaten the lives of the youth and the world's most vulnerable. you must set aside partisan politics and make politics dictate and not expectations. 2020 is too late to wait. >> what was your name? >> abigail bora. >> from which group? >> the united states youth. >> why did you interrupt this forum. >> the united states government does not speak on my behalf. >> abigail bora.

>> give us the back story and how that came about. what prompted you to disrupt? >> this is the second to last day of the negotiations. about 20 young people from the u.s. had been at the negotiations. for the two weeks that we were there, we kept on having to answer for our country and we were talking to young people from across the world saying why isn't the u.s. taking more of a position of leadership on this issue. we were frustrated in watching the country not have the necessary urgency or ambition. and that being said, there wasn't that much pressure being put on the u.s. from the media and civil society and other governments. they were sitting like the elephant in the room. as young people, we felt that we had to call our country out and make sure people knew that we

didn't think the government was speaking on our behalf and we tried to push for more urgency and ambition. >> what are has been the response since that time? what has been the response after that event? >> it's interesting you saw in the video. the moderator said no one is listening to you. i didn't hear him when i said that and i kept on speaking. i think the response that is that people were listening. when young people speak up, people do listen. we don't have to be told that we need to wait until we are older to have an influence and shouldn't speak now. we have to get degrees and we have to see the world and then we will understand. i think it shows as we can all probably attest is that when we do speak up and act, people are watching. it makes an influence. >> your point about the u.s. not being a leadership this weekend,

"the washington post" wrote an editorial saying the u.s. was delinquent in leading the world on energy. that is a sentiment that resonates in the establishment and "the washington post" editorial page. this last weekend. let's talk about food. food is an issue you have all been involved in and something everyone can relate to and youth can connect with. tanya, let's talk with you about how you grabbed on to food as a way to connect to the environment with your own personal life and those around you. >> yeah. when i started community activism, i started with the refinery and i was doing advocacy and i soon found out that not many people were interested in that issue because there were other pressing issues in their lives such as poverty isy and drug abuse and violence. i then realized i had to find something that everyone had in

common and regardless of the race, economic status, we can all come together in this issue and work together. that was one of the ways i got involved with food. on the greenway which is where i work, we have garden biz. what makes it unique is there no fences. people can come and join whenever they want. that's what i was aiming for. i wanted to create a common space where people can join regardless of whatever they were dealing with or their economic status. that's where really i started getting more involved with food. >> this is a garden with no fences. can people steal the food? >> they are more than welcome to steal the food. that's the purpose. >> you also got involved in food in your school where youth get connected. the food in your school was not so good.

is that something you got involved with as well. >> that's something i want to. >> you want contra costa college to have organic food. >> all public schools i believe should have a local farm that they are getting the food from. especially because educational institutions basically show students the principals and the philosophy of and how we should be. i think public schools should lead by example. the fact that schools, a lof lo public school lunches serve pizza or hamburgers is unacceptable. that needs to be changed. that's an issue i want to work on in the future. >> let's hear your connection with food. you worked on the obesity issue. talk about food as a connecting point for the youth. >> i didn't have much of a background with food at all, but one of the organizations i work with is the youth venture. what they doo is a social

entrepreneurial work. one is food justice. i had no idea. i guess i got from the name that it had to do something with food and justice, but beyond that, i learned quickly that food is really a uniting factor. when people say oh, well, what's an issue that connect it is people regardless of race or gender or economic status. food is the connecting factor. by giving people access to healthy affordable food and regardless of where they live or what their economic status is, you solve a lost other problems at the same time. you can solve poverty and drug issues in the area. also foster a sense of community. that is critical to making their lives better. that's what it's all about. we are trying to make people's lives better. food is not one of the easiest, but one of the best ways to go about doing so.

it's something that the youth can get involved in. you don't need to have a degree to do these things. you need to want to have healthy food accessible that is something that a lot of people share. thus i got really involved with the groups that are currently pursuing food justice in the oakland area. it is encouraging to see so many youth what have gone through so many personal hardships that i can't even describe. we are still committed to you that you have food justice and having food accessible to everyone. that resonates as an example that this is something i think everyone should focus on. >> the idea that somehow organic food is only for those people and shouldn't be for those to go to a full paycheck and that sort of thing. let's get your connection on the food as an issue. >> i grew up working on a dairy farm and think for me, that helped launch me into working on

the youth climate movement because it instilled a lost values. i was responsible for the task of collecting eggs or i was responsible for a certain part of the garden. those ideas of responsibility and ownership are important for young people. a lot of things we don't feel ownership over. the idea that i can participate in something and see tangible changes and if i didn't water or weed, it would affect the success of the crop and bringing the values into something like being a part of the political process when we are engaged in making food and growing food, we show how those connect to being engaged in other decisions. >> there is another aspect and what people eat may be a bigger contributor to their carbon footprint than what they drive. there is fossil fuels that go

into the production and the personal carbon footprint. another is green jobs and the idea that they are related to jobs and these new technologies and something they can't be exporting. that is something that is a concern in richmond. >> we have a high unemployment rate. one of our sayings is we just don't grow food, we grow people we are seeing urban agriculture as a tool to educate people on bigger issues. we need to change a culture that creates violent sakelcycles and abusive cycles. we are trying to change it as a hub where people can coming to and talk about the larger issues and share this intimate experience of eating food together. >> you get to vote with your fork three times a day. people can have an impact and you don't have to be 18 to do

that. let's talk about voting. is that a meaningful expression? do you think that voting matters or some people think well, voting doesn't matter. they don't bother to vote. do you vote every election? >> yeah. >> i just turned 18. >> you are about to vote for the first time. >> yep. >> do you think your vote will have an impact? >> yeah. to be perfectly honest. okay, i guess my individual vote probably doesn't count, but the idea is that if 100,000 or a million people say my vote doesn't matter, i don't need to explain why that statement is wrong. how many young people don't vote? if everyone has the individual that my vote doesn't matter, nothing happens. the people -- we can explain about the people that we don't want are in power or the laws are getting passed.

if all the people who genuinely didn't like the laws actually went and voted for the people or laws they wanted, i'm pretty sure we could get that changed, that change would happen. our politicians despite the fact a lot of them are bought out by corporation and the like, they are still accountable to us in a lot of ways. they will still want to be re-elected. people say one vote doesn't make a difference or our vote doesn't make a difference, that's a pretty big lie. anyone that says that, i completely disagree with them. if everyone voted and you think your vote matters, it does. you can get that change across. it's the only way that a lot of us have that power. a lot of us aren't rich enough to buy out politicians. a lot of us don't have the desire or the ability to go and run for office or run for a really important position and things like that. we can vote with our vote.

that's kind of redundant. that's what i believe. i'd like to get abigail to talk about your vote. >> in vermont, we had a decision by the vermont house to close down our nuclear plant which was providing about a third of our energy. some of my friends and i were thinking wouldn't it be great if we could replace that energy with clean and renewable technologies. during the governor's election we spent about the entire year trying to get young people mobilized around the voting and have a governor that would come in and say i want to replace the nuclear plant with wind, solar, with biomass.

we registered thousands of young people to vote. we had to do it in different ways. it was the summer and students weren't in school and voting in a mid-term election is really not that exciting. we went to the highest peak in vermont and registered voters hiking up the mountain. we started riding around the state registering young people to vote that way. we have to do, we have to employ creative means to get people engaged. i think voting matters and other results showed that young people did come out and started voicing their opinions. >> was there a shift away from nuclear to clean energy or is that still in progress? >> it's still in progress. we had a governor come in and said he was committing to shutting down vermont yankee.

>> do people think the system can work for them if they engage that way? >> there are people that believe their vote doesn't matter. i have worked with a group of people who do see how their vote matters and locally, we have created a lot of change through policy which proved to me my vote does matter. for a while i was skeptical about voting. i was like it's not going to count. after being in the process i realized how powerful that is when people unite and vote. >> you made a video, an award-winning video that was can he be theed with proposition 23 in california which was initiative to suspend california's main climate change law back bided by a couple of o companies. was that impactful? >> definitely.

i got a crew of people. most of them were younger than me. we went around and let people know about it and asked them if we can videotape their response. most of the people who we inter viewed were high school students. it was interesting even the personal connection. us talking to them about it because sochl them got frustrate and mad because they didn't know. it was a learning experience for us and the people who we interviewed. >> a lot of talk about young people don't read newspapers. i'd like to know where you get your news and information and what sources do you trust? >> i usually watch democracy now.org. i look at different sites just to see what they have like new york times, cnn, cspan.

i just browse around the see different perspectives. >> abigail where do you get your news? >> as a college student we get all this information from our teachers and friends and as soon as you go on the internet, facebook and twitter, everything is almost overwhelming. i found i learn best through conversation. i can read articles and op-eds but i formulate my ideas best when talking to people. >> the website i go to, i think it's critical to get a broad spectrum of websites because every sight no matter how perfect has its biases. i read cnn, fox news. i read bbc. al jazeer news. take everything.

even you you really like a particular site, with a hefty size grain of salt and try to get the story beyond the story. try to see a path and what they try to stir up in you. this is what happened. you can decide how you feel about it. don't let the media tell you how you're supposed to feel. i think that's the biggest issue with the media today. it's all about you determining whether or not the bias. >> are you more likely to trust something that a friend post on facebook or someone stumbled upon or floats upon these sorts of things? does that -- >> i think i'm more like ly to.

we have to be weary. >> that's something. >> let's talk about social media and the work and information you're doing internationally and your community. is that a big part of what you do? >> not as much. i'm still active. i did videos for a while on social justice issues and journalism. i still do journalism for richmond post. i cover stories from art to social issues and i really enjoy, it challenges me to go

out. >> a big thing connecting. you've been working internationally. that's a big deal. >> i think it's done great especially for the climate. we're able to connect with each other pretty quickly and on a huge scale, which is amazing. i think something that's a challenge is how we connect with people who aren't already plugged in. >> doesn't reach beyond the choir? >> exact lly. people can like our page or vote online. it can't just be this virtual world we created. i think it needs to engage people on a more personal level.

>> any you have own car? >> i do. >> do you aspire to own a car like most teenage guys? >> that's a different thing. i drive my mom's car. i guess ultimately i want to get car, but at the same time i'm not in major rush mainly because i'm in college and stanford is not very car friendly. >> deliberately so. is there car shares you can use? >> yeah. if i get car, i want it to be not a gas guzzler. i think a lot of our generation is more inclined to lean towards the more environment tally fr