gigirl: my name is alexaxandria villaseñor. boy: my nameme is adiglia bra. boboy: i'm cararl smith. boy: my name is david ackley. [g[girl speakiking native e lan] girl: : my name is ayakha melithafa. boy: m my name is raj tanagigi. girl: mymy name is yur kapadaea. boy: my nameme is litokne kabua. girl: : my name is greta.. wewe are auaually sang thahat yu are violatinchchildren righthts whe e you veve--you haveve rerectifd the un cononvention of the ririgh of f the chd,d, and

therefore, we are suining you. i think thatat ia vevery powerfl thing. alexandrdra: my generation wille the most vulnerable by the climate crisis. carl: mymy village is built on permafafrost, anand it's startro ththaw away. ayakakha: a lot of peoplee experience climate c change, but they don't knonow that it's climimate change. litokne: w we want a sustainable planet to live in in the future. [camerera shutter clicking] announcer: "earth focus" is made possible in part by a grant from anne ray foundation, a margaret a. cargill philanthropy; the orange county y community foundatition; and the farvue foundation. [helicopter blades whirring] [flames cracklkling] [water rushing]

[wind howling] man: every child born today will experience a fundamentally altered world, whichch will increasese their probability off deatath and serious disease or illness because e of the chahann the climate. there are e a great many efforts brought by young people around the world--cases brought domesticically againinst governs for failing to do what those governments pledged to do in the pariris agreemenent. but whahatm would allow you to talk to all of humanitity at one time? thats the ununited nations. we condudd interviews to basically put together the best diversity and array of young people from different parts of the world being affected in different

waysys by the crisis. a number f organizations, including greta thunberg, conveyed to us the desire t to formulatate, if possible, a singng legal strategy in ordeder to respopono a challelenge that affects allll nations. greta:a: i am very much h shownn the media, and therefofore it is extrtremely impoanant th we e ao highlighght the other plaintiff. we need to get better of listening to everyone, and therefore there is also one other reason to why this petition is so powerful and so importatant.

[l[litokne speaking marshallese]

[waves crashing] the waves came, and then they removed the e piece of land that used to be over here. so over here is what used to be our outside bathroom, and then it was knocked away. this was used to b be a basketbl cocourt area for small kids, but it destroyed. all this area was imimpacted, anand it was floode. 60% of the communityty here on ebeye hahas been damaged or affectcted by the rising seaeasd climate e change. [children tatalking indidistinc] woman: the world talkeked about climate changege before usus. is anan existential threat.t. for e marshallese youth, we have 3 that are signature to the petition. we are very proud that

the 3 have taken a role in that very important challenge because the lives of people in countries like t the marshalall islands in the line. it's's hard to justt close our eyes and hope that this is not gonna get worse, because we see it getting worse and worse e every year. [flames crackling] alexandria: in november of 2018, one of t the biggestst wildfiren california's history broke out. [alarm beeping] i am o originally y from davis, californrnia. and duduring my tp back homome to california,a, i s really caught in thehe smoke off the paparadise firire. [firefighter talking indistinctly] alexandria: and so i started to rereally research about t wildf, becacause i wantnted to know wht wawas going on 'cause cacalifor-

itit's on firere all year r rou. there is no wildfire season. itit's just california.. from that research, , i startedo see the link between climate change and californinia's wildfireres, and that made me et to do somemething, butut i didnt know howow until seeeeing greta thununberg speakak at cop24 4 in polaland. grgreta: this is the biggest crisis h humanity has ever faca. wewe need to get angry and hold the older genenerations accoununtable for the mess that thth have creaeated. [shouting in native languages] [rhythmic drumming] alexanandria: coululd we have te firsrst thing onon our agendndae e-e-mail that t was just s sentl of you guys? girl: can you u text me the agea because the e what'sapp hasn't been working.

alexandria: i was one of the first climate strikers here e in ththe united states. woman: she said, "i want to strikeke." and we both laueded. we didn't thinink anybody y woud pay attention.n. in a period of9 months, you know, we went from this place of just sitting on na bench with a sign to, you know, organizing globally.y. [cheerering] crowd: ♪ if you will fight for us, we're gonna fight for you will you fight f for us? ♪ alexandria: these demands are directed at those in power who are inside the united nations climate summit. and we will continueo climate options till they hear us. [cheering] kristin:n: rig nowow, r liveves are...just...overwhelming. it's difficult to keep up with our schedules. woman: i'd like for us to all welcome alexandria.

alexandria: people always askk how we o organize fofor a global climatate strike. . so really,yw it's all donone is it's done through social media. we use a lot of what'sapp, discord, slack. instagrgram's where a lot of, like, the youth h are, and then twitter's where you'll see the climate scientists, and then facebook--it's like, "what's on facebook?" [laughter] kristin: in the beginning, alalexandria managed her social media. it's justst she's 14, and she insiststs on allowing, you knknow, direct messages s to reh her. and with ththe huge followg that she's developed, there's just so mamany of thosose messas that are notppppropriate. i mean, she's s received everythig from death t threats to o marrie proposalals--ha!--ononline and everything in bebetween. my first job is to be her parent, which is to keepep her safe and to keep her healthy.

and i worry there's real dangnger involveved in being an activivist. and soso you just he to take e precautions. you haveo be careful.. [engine chugging] carl: see, these are rabbits right there. rabbit snares. we e set 'em as g as a man's hand, like this. usually it will geget colder thn this. right now, it's like 20 degrees, 15 degrees, but it should be, like, 0 to below 10. ththe main effffects of clclimae change aroround here a are less snow, and it's just icy out on the river. and during the

summer, it sometimes gets so hot that fish start floating i in te river dead 'cause there's no oxygen in the river. [engine chugging] [man speaking] carl: the permafrost is defrosting, and it's not hard enouough for thehe waves to o hd ususually when the waves h hit,t just bouncnces off andnd it doet erode. nowadays, i it's just too soft andnd it's justst breakingn the dirt o on our landnd.

[clifton speaking] [c[corn kernelels rattlingng] [clucking tongue] [chickens clucking] ayakha: in the easastern cape,ee majority of pepeople here are farmerers. this hohow we earn nr living. this is how we sustataid ourselves. but the weather has been so ununpredictable that wee haven't really had a chance to plant anything now. you can even see the clouds across. it's not that green or anything like that b because of the droughght. it's hard. it realally is hardro live like this. womaman: the clilimate issueue a

serious issue because it's affecting everyone, especially women, especialllly those single womemen that a trying toto make ends meet and d they try to go maybe for farming, and they cacan't do because now t that there's stones and everything. so she's s standing fofor the voiceless, if i can put it that way. her father died when she was 6. you've got those fear that how i'm gonna m manage. thn when y you see them becomingng t theyey are becomoming, you feelo proud. ayakha: whenen you see somethihg getttting destroyed that you loe and value,e, you can't just sit around and do nothing. so o i wt to the schchool internrnet and googleled in what t is causing e drdrought, and thehen there's la lot that c came up--the clclimae change, global warming. so it's just like shock. like, wow, this is a a lot of informrmation abot this, atat it is a b bigger movement going on beyond the small fraction of drought that we are facing here in cape town. [chihildren talklking indiststi] ayakha: as a school student, i decide, "ok, my school is my

community. let me start from within."." and we started schoo, anand i tried d to organizize assemblies for me to, like,, educate peopople, but even that was tough, 'cause school kids are meanan. when i was trying to, "guys, come look here, come look here," "ah, rich white people stuffff. this is fofor people t that have money anand rich." a and i'm li, "guys, we the ones that aree getting affected first here because,e, like, we the e vulnee ones." i c can't really say, "oh well, we're doomed, knowing that there's something we can still do." alexandriaia: 30 years ago, the world signed a contract between generations that the present world would leave a world worth inheriting to the future. you arare defafaulting othatat contract, , and we're e he to collecect. myself, , along with 15 otother

chilildren from all around the world, filed a complaint to the commmmittee onon the rights of e child, stating that our rights are being g violated b by argen, brazil, geanany, turkey, and frfrance. titicle vi on ththe convention of the rights of the child say it's that we have an inherent right to life. but the climate crisis witith more flol, wildfires, hurricanes--it's directly threatening that. greta: they promised to protect ouour rightsts, and they have nt done that. carl: we used d to be ablele too hunt geese on...y y kind of hunt, berry picking. a and now they're just d disappearing. ayakha: : you can start by thehe small, d daily activivities to t raise awareness in your community 'cause eventually, it will spreaead like a wildfire. woman:n: one of them is a 17-y-year-old whwho joined g gra thunbergrg and 14 other glglobal actitivists s in signing a legal compmplaint for the e united nas

conventionon on the righghts ofe chchild. ayakhaha: it's a almost likeke e childrdren of the world taking e world to court, for not upholding the united nationsns rights of the chchild. i was very glad to be part of it 'cause it will mean that i was able to shed light on what's happening to my community, to my country. they look at co2 e emissions... nokulunga: s she was gonna do te plastic surgeon and stuff, s soi said, "my hand is up. i hope i'm the first one." it's been long since i wanted to be young again. she said, "oh, i'll make you young." but now we're not talking about that anymore. now she's talking about the climate issue. she want to be a lawyer. shshe wants to fight foror the climate, foror the world, actually. greta: is very importanthahat we use everyossisible chanannel that we have, and the law especicially powererful. michael: the petition is seeking

to demonstrate that it's not just climate in the abstraract r the earth in a a bell jar. it's every child born today t that wl face the effects, you knknow, of inincreased glglobal heating throughout their entire lives, generation after generation. greta: we're using our rights as citizens of the world and as children, and you need to actually step upup when things o totoo far, a thahat's whatat wee doing. boy: ha ha! [boy speaking marshallese] [litokne speaking marshallese]

[ukelele playing] [boy singing in n marshallese] litokne: my family is one of the most important families in the community. we are the ones who take the responsibilities of our traditional ways of living. [p[people singnging]

man: here in the marshall islands, we still observe the social caste system. or within the caste system, you have 3 categories--the royals, the chiefs; you have the landownere, and d the commoners. the royal family is the kings. these are our advocate. they teach us manners, they teach us the culture, and they provide our needs. litokne comes from the royal fafamily. knowowing hs background means he knows where he's coming from, and litokne's future herere will be e ve important.t. litokne: my closest familyly membmb to me is s my mother. my mother is the female traditional leader. [speaking marshahallese] litokne: i g go around the schos here and encouragege them to be

youth activists, too. [lititokne speaking marshallese] alexandriaia: you realally wanto protect those arouound you andnd make sure that your family is safe and your friends are safe, but the climate crisis is

directly threatening your friends and your family. it's threatening everyone on this planet. [door squeaks] man: we lolost 85 and probably sosome more that we don'n't reay know aboutut 'cause there was aa homeless p population up here. we've got 40,000 p people who oe it off this ridge driving through tunnels of fire. and some of the most powerful moments for me is when we heard about some of our youth group said thehey called t their pares and said good-bye. [v[voice breaking] sorry. that gets meme every timime i tk ababout it. so many y people thought, realay believed that they were going to die as they drove through the fires. the mental anguish and the stress is still gonna be going on for a long time.

we just had a load of food come in on friday, but you can see it's already pretty much gone. when you think about the fire, you think so often, "ok, it burns, y you clear it, and you o backck." but this devastatations so complplete that people haveve gogone from this area to almost all 50 states and into other countries. everyone's lost their friends, their community, the things they know. everything is gone. [electronic tone] carlrl: what's up, rasiene? rasiene: hey. we no longer h have 4 seseasonse only have 2 seasons, w which are

summer andininter. so, simplply, either w we're facing an extxtre heheat, or we e are havingng, l, heavy rains which goes floodings. carl: that's kind ofof scary.. rasiene: yeaeah. we alsoso have heavy snowfall, but i don't think that it is as much a as yu guysys have-- carl: yeah. we don't-- rasiene: because y you livive i- cacarl: you guys are probably having more snsnow than us. i'll talk to you maybe todaday or tomorrow. ok, lalater, b bro. rasiene: take e care. baby: boo. carl: i don't like mornings. always sleepy. so i drop one of my sisters off to my aunties, and then i drop one off at the preschchool, then i go straiaigo schoolol. boy: did you have fun in new yorkrk? carl: : yeah. boy: did youou get to meet gret? carl: yeah, becaususe she was pt of m my group. before wewe wentn the presess conference, she hehd me, likeke, get readady and

whatever, , like, 'cauause i was nervrvous. and t then--'cause ss used to it. . i met lots o of people from m all arouound the world. my friend, he lives at the marshahall islandsds. he lot his home from risingng sea leve. wewe just haveve to keep talkin. mimichael: the committeeee wille a recommmmendation a as to whetr or n not there w was a fundamenl right agrereed to by these nations, w which they y have not lilived up to o or honoreded. te enigma then comes in what thosee nationons will do in the facacef that finding and that recommendation. greta: what i i would hohope tho result i in is that itctuaually changeges thwaway weee t the climate e isis and theheay we see this, becaususe it's s so

symbmbolic andnd that it will st of change e the mindsets off ople. [litokne speaking marshallese] ayakha: in south africa, the 1976 soweto uprising made kids from all a ages are rising up to fight the apartheid system of learningng afrikaansns. so thers a popowerful movovement, and it keeps on encouragingng and showg me that youth can mamake a differenence. we canan make a mr difference if we just put our heartsts and our m minds to iti. alexandria: i hope that from the children versus climate crisis complaints that argentina,a, brazil, gegermany, turkey, and france that they respond to what wewe have filed against them. i also want t to see that this

compmplaint it r raises awarareo what's happeningng to childrdrel around the w world. today,y, we are at city hall in san francisco. girl: what do we want? girls: climate justice! girl: when do we want it? girls: now! anannouncer: " "earth focucus" e popossible in n part by a a gram anne r ray foundation, a marargt a. cargigill philantnthropy; the orange county commununity fofoundation; and the fafarvue id

afternoon if we get started here my name is hector sanchez flores and i represent the national composite is network. i'm humbled to be here to introduce your next speaker. a man that i've known for nearlrly twenty five years but whose work is a protein- over forty years of dedication to community. maestro jury today on- if you don't if you've never met him i'll share with you a few items that i think that. rarely get highlighted. about his work- he's connected to and what drives his passion and his mission as i've observed over twenty five years. it's connected to a wonderful partner s a