alexandria villasenor

Alexandria Villaseñor is fast emerging as one of the most compelling young voices on climate change. The New York-based activist, who turns 18 in 2023, has already won various awards, addressed the World Economic Forum, and even helped to file a legal complaint against the United Nations for their failure to uphold the Paris Agreement on climate. Alongside Greta Thunberg, she became one of the leading names in the Fridays for Future school-strike movement and is also the founder of Earth Uprising, a non-profit, youth-led movement acting for meaningful action on climate change.

Villaseñor was born in California in May 2005. She became a climate activist aged 13 after inhaling smoke from the deadly 2018 Camp Fire, a wildfire that became the most destructive in Californian history. The smoke aggravated her asthma, making her very ill. Although the fire had been sparked by a faulty electrical power-line, Villaseñor realised through research that the fire’s intensity had been exacerbated by conditions caused by climate change. With her family relocating to New York, she joined a local chapter of youth climate action group Zero Hour.

Soon, she was walking out of school each Friday to protest climate change. She became friends with Greta Thunberg through social media and met her when she first made shore in the US. She has since won the Disruptor Award at the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards, a Youth Climate Award from the Earth Day Network, The Rachel Carson Environmental Justice Award, and the Common Good American Spirit Changemaker Award. She is also a Climate Advisor for the American Lung Association.