BY: EDITORS
When talking about the environment, oftentimes we tend to focus on the bitterness of men rather than the people playing to win, despite the poor hand they were dealt.
“I’m a 14-year-old kid going up against a multi-million dollar industry that will do everything they can to silence my voice.”
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is a 14-year-old on the front-lines of the youth-led climate movement, doing lengths to pop the fossil fuel bubble at an age when most people were simply focusing on popping pimples.
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is an environmental eco- hip-hop artist heading a platoon of young change makers called the Earth Guardians. It would be easy to dismiss him as just another kid with eyes wider than his influence, but Martinez has already spoken at the UN, had his own TED talk, and hung out with National Geographic. Actually, President Obama awarded him with a 2013 United States Community Service Award.
Martinez reminds us that saving the environment is really just about taking responsibility and understanding that if we choose to ignore the problem, the consequence will be all our own.
As he puts it, “The biggest challenge is shifting human consciousness, not saving the planet, because the planet doesn’t need saving, we do.”